When Roger first brought H-D’s legendary Softail to Dave, he told him he wanted a custom paintjob, chrome wheels, and lots of other chrome goodies. “That was the first customizing,” Dave says. “I told him, `I know you’re gonna be happy with it, but you’re not gonna be happy with it. I know what you want but this isn’t it.’ ”

But a smart businessman doesn’t argue (too much) with his client, so Dave filled Roger’s wish list and watched him ride off into the sunset, happily squinting from the last of the sun’s rays bouncing off his chrome. Roger returned a year later and saw what might have been. “He saw another bike we’d done with a lot of sheetmetal work on it and said, ‘Can we do that?’ So then we ended up tearing up this bike we’d spent all this money on and the paint job and everything, and re-did it to what it is now,” says Dave.

With all its radical modifications, Roger’s Phatboy Conversion is plenty wicked but still an H-D through and through as far as the DMV is concerned, like a school-boy who raised hell but technically never left the boarding school property. Dave started with a 35-degree rake (with an additional 3-degrees in the trees) and stretched the backbone a decent 3”, which automatically gives the bike its tough, long profile without losing any of its original rideability. Sleek bodywork is where Dave shines, and his sheetmetal fabrication skills are evident in the modified Independent gas tank and tire-hugging FatKatz fenders, each with sculpted points that give the bike its distinctive look. He also fabbed a front air dam, which tightens the overall look.

Eagle Motor Company out of Cincinnati, Ohio, took the stock 88” Twin Cam B engine and super-sized it, ending up with a polished 140” motor. H-D’s largest carb, a 51mm CV, does the trick breathing life into the monster and gets its air through a forward facing D&M air cleaner. Dave knew Roger wanted to go top shelf all the way, so it was a no brainer to choose a Vance & Hines Big Radius exhaust. A 6-speed Baker LSD tranny gets its power from a BDL TF2000 primary, for which Dave fabbed a custom belt cover. Dave called on his friend Joey Perse, of Perse Performance, for this set of his stunning S-Series forks. “As far as front ends go, Joey’s is one of the more precision machined front ends, and we were going for the best.” The single-sided Monotrack swingarm gives the bike it’s mean, clean look, opening up the right to give us a clear view of that chrome Warlock wheel from RC Components holding a 240 Metzeler, and that’s all Dave. “It’s one of my trademarks, something I’ve been doing,” he says. “I’ve been building bikes for quite a few years and it seems like once you start doing something that catches on, you never get to do anything different. The majority of bikes I’ve built over the years have all been single-sided swingarms. It’s what everybody likes . . . It’s just a look. We go for a really clean look on the bike, and the cleanest look you can get is with a single-sided swingarm. I think it initially started back when billet wheels were just starting to get big and the prices were going up and we were trying to figure out a way to showcase them. If you’re paying all that money for a wheel, you wanna be able to see it and the single-sided swingarm fits the bill.”

The tan ostrich seat by Danny Gray was chosen by Roger, and Roger also relayed his wishes for a candied orange paintjob to Mark Sporka, who used House of Kolor Tangelo over Orion Silver. CCC in-house airbrush guy, Texano, did the graphics and the pin-up girl art, which met with Roger’s full approval.

Dave says his favorite thing about Roger’s Phatboy Conversion is the whole thing. “It’s just clean from front to back,” Dave says. “Everything fell together really nice on the bike. The sheetmetal flows really well, the engine polish job is immaculate. It’s what you can do with a bike and an open checkbook, when you don’t have to scrimp on anything. With Roger, he likes the best. He liked the bike so much, he’s now actually my business partner.”