What makes this bagger particularly interesting is that it’s a rolling catalogue of Dirty Bird parts and pieces that anyone can order for their own bike. Even though John’s bolting on a lot of parts on this 2014 Harley-Davidson Street Glide, that’s totally okay with me as the guy fabricates and manufactures those same parts. Matter of fact, you could build a complete custom bagger with just parts right from the Dirty Bird Concepts web site other than possibly a few pieces just for the heck of it. Add a bit of your own customization and you’d have a big wheel bagger that any big wheel bagger freak would be glad to call their own.

  When this FLHX now called Tagtastic first rolled into John’s shop, it was a regular old Harley tourer like all the innocent baggers before Dirty Bird gets to work. Every time I think of how much is stripped off a stock bagger before it starts it way back to being basically a whole new motorcycle kinda blows my mind. I liken it to the 1965 TV western Branded starring Chuck Connors as U.S. Army Cavalry Captain Jason McCord who was unjustly accused of cowardice. Young Chuck got ceremoniously stripped in every opening of the show by a smarmy major who ripped Chuck’s hat off and threw in on the ground, tore the epaulets from his uniform and tossed those too, pulled off all his coat buttons and broke his saber in two and threw it outside the gates of the wooden fort. As a minor aside, I never understood the button thing as that was just mean. At least the major left the buttons on Chuck’s cavalry pants. That I feel is what a bagger facing radical customization goes through before redeeming itself in the future.

   After the mods to the frame to fit the big-ass front wheel were done, it was on to fitting all the Dirty Bird custom body parts which is rather extensive. The front fender sitting between those show chrome fork legs appears to be a modified version of Dirty Bird’s El Chingon fender which stylistically apes a Heritage fender. If you gotta ape something, a Heritage fender is not a bad way to go. Just above it, another DB piece, the raked fairing replaces the iconic bat wing with a sleek bit of kit and just like a Tootsie pop, there’s a surprise inside. On the inside of the fairing that is as John’s upped the dash factor with his Dirty Dash gauge insert that brings a completely different look to the stock gauges without having to replace everything. Actually the whole dashboard view from the saddle is now completely different with those giant speaker openings. Oh you know you’re on a custom bike just sitting there and looking forward.

   No surprise that the stretched tank is another DB piece called the Cutting Edge Tank Kit that includes the pop-up cap and dash. For what it’s worth, this is not a fiberglass piece but made out of injection-molded NYB Polymer tank shell that John feels is superior to glass in this application. Again no surprise that he used a DB seat pan that fits the contour of the tank perfectly especially in the always beautiful diamond stitch seat pattern leather cover. Just south of the tank and hanging off the downtubes is another DB piece, the Max Flo chin spoiler that fills in the void of bodywork and ties the rest together in a harmonious relationship that just looks right for a custom bagger.

  Out back, things get a bit wild with DB’s take on how a custom bagger should look with their Top Shelf Ass End kit featuring eight-inches down, ten-inches back saddlebags with matching rear fender. Topping off the bags are the heavily sculpted Elite 6.5-inch speaker lids while another DB product, the Gnarly Series saddlebag latches do what they do best and looking good doing it. Capping off the back end is a pair of DB’s vintagely-stylish Bullet LED taillights that add a bit of bling to an otherwise simple and clean design. There’s just enough of everything and not too much at the same time.

   Okay, okay, I can’t skip over the monster of a motor sitting in plain sight in a sea of bodywork. The High Output Twin Cam 103 has been delightfully treated to a bit of a bolt-on itself. In this case, a Trask Performance intercooled turbo kit, unleashing its fury through that bastard of a handsome exhaust that looks like it could challenge the high performance audio system, makes a standard Twin Cam into a devil on wheels. Personally, I know nothing of the long term affects of turbo’d Twin Cam, but I do know the short term affects and they’re mind blowing. They just pull and pull and pull some more. I don’t know about you, but I like that. Can’t say I’ve tried it on a big wheel bagger, but hey, I’d give it a shot. Probably why this bagger wears serious brakes front and rear whereas most show bikes run only one up front to show off the big-a$$ front wheel. As those revs rush to redline and you’re barely hanging on, it’s nice to know you got a lotta brakes.

   Making this heavily renovated Street Glide pop has a lot to do with its Tagtastic name. Looking like it was left parked in an inner city, any inner city, and artistically tagged by a

Writer as the most artistic taggers are known as. There’s so much going on that you could spend a lot of time walking around this bike and looking and still miss something. What to me is a surprising choice of colors, base white with shades of gray and toxic green graffiti, comes across surprisingly well. At first it seemed so random, but that’s unfair to think that as someone put in a lot of time and thought to get this where it is. The more I looked, the more I liked and appreciated the fine work that went into it. Actually, that’s exactly the way I feel about all of John Shope’s work and I look forward to another dalliance with anything coming out of Dirty Bird Concepts. Just keep those elves busy.

  For more info on Dirty Bird Concepts, visit https://dirtybirdconcepts.com or do the social media thing.