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  There’s a bit more to this tale besides the obvious Mexican non-sanctioned Catholic Santa Muerte-influenced graphics and that this bagger wasn’t always a bagger, but then custom bagger freaks probably don’t care anyway. It’s a radical custom bagger now with a tip of the hat to Saint Death and a look of its own. Built by Jason Burnham at his shop called humorously, but appropriately, Freakshow Choppers, the bike named Santa de Muerte (Holy Death) an interesting take on the continuing build of a custom bike. Actually it’s not a radical makeover of the original build, just a few changes and modifications and shazam, on target with what’s happening.
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  Originally built as a somewhat strange, but interesting amalgamation of ideas on a one-off Freakshow frame that not only has not-your-average touches like a single, curved-chromed downtube that connects to an engine cradle comprised of separate, but connected multi-curved black frame pieces that end in sharp pointed chromed caps. But wait, there’s even more out back than you could begin to expect since that’s an area that nobody seems to care about once the air-ride’s installed. The giant ground-hugging fender and equally-long bags are usually all that’s visible. Unfortunately that’s the case here too as there’s a lovely twin-tube single-sided swingarm setup holding a fat custom wheel that nobody but a mechanic will ever see again. In case you were wondering why this bagger had a transbrake, all I can say is that the now-hidden rear wheel was once a major style point and the transbrake is all that’s left to tell the tale. Where’s the plexi when you need it?
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 What is intriguing about the original build to me was the incorporation of the twin-headlight fairing reminiscent of a very, very distant Road Glide heritage. I guess two round headlights is branded as Road Glide in my synapse. That’s all well and good, but this kinda put it in the half chopper/half bagger even though it should have and probably was taken for what it is. The way the frame-mounted fairing directly flows into the arched twin tanks with the raised top tube jauntily separating them and then strangely stylishly drops and curves forward to accommodate the necessary cut-out fork paths underneath is definitely thinking outside the box a Road Glide fairing would come in. Keep looking as it grows on you and then grows on you some more. I should ad I’m still not sure what the scoops are for on the sides, but the look cool.
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 Instead of the usual custom bagger inside of the fairing being chock full of whatever gauge, audio system, multi-speakers, GPS, MP3, Bluetooth, intercom, etc. thingie, there’s just a small screen for something or other and a couple of small teardrop shaped speaker housings. That’s it, nothing else. It’s almost barren up there, but in a good way as long as you like barren and I know a lot of you do (Right Mr. Cofano?). It definitely is clean as that proverbial whistle.
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   It’s also unusual that an air cleaner becomes an important part of the bodywork like the one on Santa de Muerte. Swoopy, long, while complimenting the line of the frame and tanks, everything is one pile of smooth S-curves. The black paint with bright lime green panels can be a bit of an acquired taste. I was a bit taken back by the colors at first, but Jack’s close-ups of the graphics made it a bit less shocking to my extremely tender tastes towards using green on a bike. It was not considered a good luck color for racers and after that got ingrained in y head, I’ve stuck with it since simply because why not? The issue is settled as far as I’m concerned as I hate to even begin to over-think anything that can be explained simply as a rule of life. In this case, it’s probably a perfect mate to the black with all the Santa Muerte overtones.
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  Apparently Jason Burnham is a bit of a hooligan as the engine he chose is not some Main Street idler. Nope, it’s a beefy old standby of an S&S 124 wearing semi-Panhead-style rocker covers and T-Man Performance Stage 4 heads (although they look like S&S Super Stock to me, but what do I know?). A stock S&S 124 has plenty of horsepower and torque really doesn’t need much of anything done to it performance wise, but Jason just put a cherry on top anyway. With matching lime green pistons, cylinders, engine covers, and tranny case that also ties in to the splashes on the front wheel’s spokes. This is one black bike you can’t say you missed coming with the vibrant green shining in every direction.
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 I wouldn’t be surprised to see some big philosophical discussion surely start soon about what makes a custom bagger. Is it only if it’s from a motorcycle-built factory form like a Harley-Davidson’s tourer or can it be a somewhat repurposed radical custom that never saw an assembly line? Will be fun to see where this bagger thing goes before it gets totally out of hand in some way I couldn’t begin to think of if my life depended on it.
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  In the meantime, if you fell like making that choice yourself by voting with your wallet, contact Jason Burnham at Freakshow Choppers (http://www.freakshowchoppers.com/) and I’m sure he can help you with your decision.