Working in the custom motorcycle industry has a lot of advantages when it comes time to build a bike of your own. You’ve got connections for all sorts of services and advice (whether you want it or not) and you probably know the inside skivvy on who to go to. There’s even the pretty good chance you’ve got the line on getting parts at a reasonable cost to help keep things in line. Most importantly, if you’ve got skills you’ve perfected in this line of work, you could save yourself a wad of dough. With all these so-called advantages, you just might make a small killing when it comes time to sell your beloved project that you planned to keep for life. “It’s my personal bike. It’s a keeper” is something every builder says until somebody waves a stack of bills at you that you just can’t refuse. That’s life in the fast lane.

    You might not recognize the name of the owner, Daniel Robledo, but you might recognize his extreme air brush art that’s adorned many feature bikes on Barnett’s Magazine Online. Daniel works for BKP Art in Easley, South Carolina, along with owner, Brian Morgan and fellow worker, Michael “Scooter” Powell, and together they’ve knocked out some of the most outrageous and unforgettable motorcycle paintjobs you’ll ever see. The attention to detail and the flawlessness of a complicated paintjob makes these guys someone to keep an eye out for. But like so many other shop employees, they work so hard there’s not enough time to build something for themselves. Somehow Daniel found the time and here’s what he built for himself ─ with the help of others, of course.

  This custom began life at Harley’s York plant as a 1999 Ultra Classic and probably saw a lot of miles as well as years roll under the tires before Daniel decided it was time to take this tourer to another level. In case you don’t remember, this was the first year of Harley’s Twin Cam A 88-incher being installed on touring models with the same basic architecture that lives on today albeit in ever increasing sizes. Everybody knows what’s right and wrong and how to hop up one of these Twin Cam 88s up, so it’s a great platform to build from.

 

    In Daniel’s case, the real-world aspect of a rideable show custom was important and his talent with an airbrush was the point of this build more than making the wildest bagger ever built. So, no latest-greatest 32-inch wheel, but a thoughtful reversal of that number to a more rider (and builder) friendly 23-incher replacing the stock 16-inch wheel up front. Man, that cuts out a lot of extra work and still looks damn good to me. Besides there were plenty of other stuff to do like extend the fuel tank, extend the bags, custom frame covers, new front fender along with all the custom tricks a bagger has to have to be a custom and not just “modified.”

   Unlike a lot of custom baggers today, Daniel skipped the memo about having to have air ride suspension front and rear so he could drop it on the deck. Nope, he just went with rear air and I’m totally fine with that as it looks good sitting there as is. Matter of fact, after seeing just about every custom bagger’s fairing sitting on the front fender at rest, I like this image much better. It looks like a motorcycle you could still ride wherever you felt like regardless of the destination and hasn’t lost the goodness of Harley’s touring platform. He’s still got the chance to wow any locals when he pulls up, drops the rear end and casually walks off to a mystified audience wondering what they’ve just seen.

     If you’re an audiophile of extreme measure, this might not be the ride for you, but he did change out the bag lids for speaker tops for a bit more volume. In my garage I’m a music freak, but on a bike, eh, not so much so this all seems fine to me. Or if you’re traveling heavy, this might not be the ride for you as he ditched the ugly top box and the bike just looks so much better for it. More stripping went on at the front where the Ultra lost its cavalcade of running lights and turn signals with only the headlight remaining as a beacon to others. Out back, I see nothing so I’d guess there’s a strip or two of LEDs hiding in plain sight. Plus there’s no hand-tolled leather seat, but there is a nicely patinated, stylish and comfy Corbin saddle replacing the pillowy, tufted stock seat. I’d say the goal was to remove anything that might detract from the bodywork and you can easily see the reason why.

   It’s all about the paint baby. I have no idea how many freakin’ hours were involved in this paintjob, but I’d venture to guess, well actually I can’t. I’m not even exactly sure what the theme was although it reminds me of a few weekends back in the late ‘60s, but I’m not going to delve into that. This was an artist facing a blank canvas and letting his fertile imagination take over. Daniel looks like a really nice, probably very normal kind of guy, but what he’s airbrushed on every available square-inch of this bike might just make you think otherwise. This is like a view into another world or dimension where all hell is breaking loose for reasons unknown and it’s channeled its way through Daniel’s airbrush onto the bodywork of a bagger.

    Like a avant-garde black and white photo with a splash of color, the same eerie otherworldly feeling comes across in his work although on a much, much larger scale than a photo. The photorealism of Daniel’s work is beautiful, but somehow slightly disturbing and I think that’s exactly what he was going for. BKP Art’s Brain Morgan seemed to think the same way as he decided to call Daniel’s unnamed bike Twisted Thoughts and I don’t think he could have picked a better name. So, Twisted Thoughts it is. And remember, if you read it on the Internet it’s gotta be true.

 For more info on what the lads at BKP Art are up to, you’ll have to check them out on Facebook.