I’m not trying to denigrate Curly who usually builds first-class radical custom baggers or any other bagger builders, but it’s just nice to see something different. Matter of fact, if you’d like to see a Barnett’s Magazine Online article we did on a Curly-built bagger, well punch up this link and enjoy. But, if you like your bikes custom with a nod to road as the main use, you can’t say anything bad about this Harley Softail unless you’re just too narrowly focused to see all the custom work that went into this build.
For instance, on a quick glance you might think this is just a regular old softie with a set of tall apes and a wicked paintjob. But, there’s so much more than this going on here. Curly’s bodywork is fairly extensive from the shapely stretched tank to the tail dragger-style rear fender and especially to the usefully-custom front fender which everybody just eliminates. Sure, fenderless bikes have a tough guy look, but that seems to me like an easy way out of dealing with making one look good. And, it does in this case. If you got stuck in rain like all riders do sooner or later, rain would just be an annoyance and not a ride into what seems like a fire hose at the time.
The wheels are more than attractive with their contrast cut five-spoke style and are sensibly sized for actually getting out there and hauling the mail. If you like four-wheelers from the muscle car era, you’re sue to like the machined look of these and they also tastefully blend in with the similar appearance foot controls. Just a simple touch that goes a long way to bringing harmony to the design while not fighting for attention to the detriment of the simple white paintjob with apocalypse/zombie graphics. Whether or not you or I like the graphics is not important as someone does and that’s all that counts in my book. Paint is a personal thing and probably the most important thing to most custom owners as so many builds start from someone’s dream paint job.
There are some other nice areas like the dark engine sporting just a whiff of chrome while looking butch as hell with the header-wrapped pipes that practically hide the right side of the Twin Cam. An open belt primary may not have been necessary in harsh reality, but, again, it looks correctly tough-guy like a good Softail should. Or take in the black apes and the black forks and it makes me think tough guy again even if it’s not owned by one. If I found out a woman owned this bike I’d really think this was cool as pinkie rides are none of my business under any conditions.
All in all, Curly’s Custom Cycles hit me where I live with this baby. I love Softails and I especially like totally rideable ones and this bike strikes all the right notes for me anyway. Hey, if it’s not your cup of tea, I’m sure there will be plenty of custom big wheel baggers coming up on this site ASAP. In the meantime, I’m going out to the garage and re-think my old Night Train. It’s due for something other than more hard miles and this fine machine from Curly’s Custom Cycles may have just lit my fire to get off my ass and change it up a bit.
For more information on Lance “Curly” Waugaman and Curly’s Custom Cycles, just click on http://www.curlyscycles.com/.