Tins and plastic came off and got sent away to Razor Custom Paint Shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The remaining carcass was handed over to Bob Wright at R&D Performance, and his building-mate at their shared Watertown, Minnesota, facility, Küryakyn’s Performance Division Manager, Mike Rowland. Bob went to work on the motor, installing the Cheap Thrill Hop Up kit. This $2,840 performance overhaul includes new pistons, cams, pushrods, gaskets, air cleaner, and pipes. After Mike gave it a TTS MasterTune that allows adjustment of the air/fuel and ignition settings, the slovenly tourer had been transformed into a stoplight sleeper. Going by Harley’s specs, that engine turns out 63hp and 92.6 ft-lbs. of torque in stock trim, but after Bob and Mike’s tag-team steroid job, their dyno registered a muscular 94.7hp and 102.4 ft-lbs.  According to Mike, even if $3K is a little rich for your blood, investing in the Hi-Five Air Cleaner, Crusher Exhaust, and the TTS MasterTune will net you a 12hp gain across your entire RPM range for about $1,600. Now that’s some solid bang for your buck! 

Meanwhile, over at Razor, Aussie native Darren Wenzel was given a pirate theme to work with and free range to indulge his artistic muse within that motif. Darren laid out a galley full of skulls, swords, ships, and designed the logo on the fairing. Graphics were airbrushed freehand over a silver base and then a candy-apple red concentrate was applied, and silver tribal accents added. Wenzel’s task was made all the more challenging due to the fact that he didn’t have the whole bike to work with. This made it tricky to ensure that the graphics lined up, but after four weeks of working on the project after hours, he was satisfied with his results, and returned the components to George Munger.

Now that George had reacquired both the hopped-up Street Glide and its shiny new skin, he began decorating it with $4,270 worth of

Küryakyn bling that he selected to complement Darren’s swashbuckling artwork. The Zombie line of trim added still more skulls and a treasure chest full of chrome to the pirate party, but there were functional improvements made as well, including engine guards, a luggage rack, and HID lighting. 

Don’t be surprised if you see this fine ride out and about, as it will be gracing Küryakyn’s booth at many of this year’s shows and rallies. That is at least until some lucky ‘sumbitch’ rides it off into the Caribbean sunset with a lucky raffle number in November.

Up Close: Küryakyn Xe7R 7″ HID Headlamp

Küryakyn’s George Munger is an especially big proponent of the high-intensity discharge lighting system (aka HID or xenon) that he added to the HOHS Giveaway Street Glide. “It only draws 35- watts but puts out over 4,400-lumens, so it’s 4-times brighter than stock yet it draws barely more than half the energy, and lasts forever,” says George.

HID bulbs are filled with pressurized xenon gas that is excited by electrodes to emit an intensely bright, sharply focused white light. Unlike halogen lamps, which gradually fade at the edges of their beam, HID has a crisp circumference that helps prevent unwanted blinding of oncoming drivers. Another advantage of HID over halogen is that HID produces ultraviolet light that enhances the visibility of reflective highway signs.

By collaborating with XSighting Lighting (a division of Valeo Sylvania), Küryakyn has developed a line of HID headlamps for the H-D touring lineup that install easily and claims it vastly improves visibility in both high and low beam modes. With no filament to break, the HID system is also far more durable than stock halogen bulbs. A typical lifespan for an HID bulb would be 3,000 hours or about 90,000 miles of ride time.

Once an exotic and expensive aftermarket flourish for high- performance autos, HID lights are now dropping in price, and showing up as stock equipment on some cars and motorcycles. When riding a motorcycle at night, vision and visibility are everything. So it should come as no surprise that out of a laundry list of over 60 Küryakyn products that his team added to this bike, George Munger chose the Xsighting HID headlamp as his favorite.  You can check it out at www.kuryakyn.com or visit your local   Küryakyn dealer.

Builder: Dean and Debbie Anderson – Hogs on the High Seas Rally

The dynamic duo of Dean and Debbie had been rollin’ to rallies together for many a year, and the buzz was starting to fade. Retired from their tool franchise, they gave some thought to what they could do to kick things up a notch, and came up with the idea to start their own event. When you get right down to it, the only riding that really happens at a rally is on the way to and from. So D&D decided to just ditch the bikes and get to the good part… partyin’ down together. And thus the Hogs on the High Seas Rally was born. 

The Andersons sank pretty much their whole savings into booking a floating biker cruise of the Caribbean. No more bad weather worries, no more DUIs, no more price gouging, no more waddling through traffic jams as your air-cooled V-twin sputters in the heat. Instead, they devised a poker run of the best party spots imaginable, including Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville in Jamaica, the Hard Rock Café in Grand Cayman, Carlos’N’ Charlie’s in Cozumel, not to mention an endless stream of vendors, games and over $300K in raffles and prizes (including this pimped-out Street Glide) back on the boat.

Dean and Debbie also wanted to lend a helping hand to some folks who needed one, and last year alone they raised almost $200K towards their HOHS Dialysis Fund, which covers cabin, airfare, kidney dialysis treatments onboard the ship, and even some spending money for deserving riders, or loved ones of riders, who are suffering from kidney failure. They say that great minds think alike, so if the annual circuit of land-locked rallies is getting to be more of a duty than a pleasure, Dean and Debbie Anderson’s HOHS cruise might be just the spark you’ve been looking for. For more info, visit www.highseasrally.com or call 800-444-8795.