And, it’s kind of fun too and fun is what this whole motorcycle thing is supposed to be. Even if you gotta be dead serious about it like Jimmy Holstein Jr. who not only does this for fun, but to win awards like Paul Yaffe’s Bagger Nation Best of Show and Editor’s Choice at the Columbus Easyriders Show this year.

 

   Jimmy is the owner, designer, metal sculptor, and chief bottle washer at Holstein Designs LLC in Galloway, Ohio, where he’s turned out a steady flock of these show birds to the delight of bagger lovers. I don’t know what came first, the gun theme or the clear wheel, but there’s something for everybody in this bagger in a matte brown wrapper. The startlingly real skeletons with guns paintjob by Paintz by Sam in Plain City, Ohio, is a contender for grabbing your attention away from the Doug McGoon/Mad Wheels Inc. thirty-incher especially since it’s the asymmetrical graphics are sure to catch you off guard. Walk around the right side of the bike and be amazed at the intricate skeletons and guns graphics and as you walk around the left side, all you’ve got is matte brown with nary a tiny pinstripe in sight. Make you kinda wonder if what you just saw on the other side was really there and anything that makes you think is not a bad thing.

 

  There is a lot of design elements required by current custom bagger customers that Jimmy didn’t short like the wild flowing bodywork and slammed to the ground at rest stance, but the ‘70s-feeling brown earth tone hue is as dramatic as it is subtle. Flop around to the other side and the gun toting skeletons give the bike its name with a “Bury me with my guns on” message painted on the front rim. All I know is that if I was a soccer mom in a minivan I’d surely be the polite one in traffic for a change if I saw skeletons with Gatling guns, Glocks, and carbines looking a smite upset plastered all over somebody’s motorcycle. After you sir!

 

   A nice little touch I still can’t get over is the use of sportbike lights in revised fairings. In this case, that’s a set of lights ripped off of a Kawasaki 636 along with the 636’s induction scoop for even more visual pleasure. The potential number of sportbike head lights that could be adapted to fairings certainly makes for something new and different in the Harley world and I love it just because it’s so different. It’s like Jimmy successfully performed a face change transplant without any of the resulting weirdness that happens to when it’s done to humans. Good for you Dr. Holstein and I look forward to more of your experiments in baggerdom.

 

   So you like what you see and want to know more? Unfortunately Jimmy doesn’t have a web page, but you can contact Jimmy Holstein Jr. or Holstein Designs LLC through his Facebook page. Hey, it’s all I got, but it’s better than nothing.