Heritage Softail Springers have to be one of the coolest showroom bikes Harley-Davidson has ever made. If any modern (relatively speaking) deserved the term Heritage applied to it, this first year, 1997 Heritage Springer does reaching back to Harley’s grand past and presenting it to a waiting future. I was flabbergasted when I saw my first one in a Harley dealership back in 1997. I somehow missed all of the factory PR and just stumbled onto a gorgeous Birch White with red stripes FLSTS looking for all the world like an ancient Harley that somebody either restored or found new in a crate. It looked familiar in a Softail way, but that huge chrome springer and fat whitewall tire mounted on a chromed wire wheel gave it a fresh look, yet dated it in a way I wasn’t sure what it was at first. All I knew about it was that I liked it.

 

   Obviously Manolis does too and he has his lovely wife, Tina, to thank for that. The story goes that Tina was actually the one to pick it out for him. Man, what a good wife you got there. But as the old Harley story always seems to go, a stock Harley is something that begs for an owner’s input into how he feels Harley should have built the bike or at least his bike. Since things such as factory one-offs don’t exist for regular people (I’m sure Harley’s turned up the screws a bit for very, very special customers), Manolis decided to make his own.

 

   There’s actually a lot of work that’s gone into this even though at first glance it might seem factory correct to the less Harley knowledgeable. It seems like everything’s there, but it’s not. Removing the stock windshield, fringed leather saddlebags, big stock seat, and crash bars was the first order of business. Next to go was the stock tank, so to speak, where a stretched version with a different, slimmed-down dash housing a digital speedo now resides. The rear fender has a frenched license plate mount and a flush version of the iconic tombstone taillight that cleans things up considerably. Up front, the trim except for the fender tip was removed along with the running lights mounted on either side of the headlight and the fork-mounted horn. I’d venture to guess that Manolis envisioned a simpler, trimmer version of Harley’s Heritage Springer, but nothing that would impede him from riding it coast to coast if he felt like it.

 

   Remember, it was 1997 and Harley’s Evo engine still ruled the planet with the Twin Cam still a couple of years away. Nothing wrong with an Evo, though, that a bit of hopping up wouldn’t just make even better. Enter Ray Price Harley-Davidson in Raleigh, North Carolina, into this Softail mix with a freshening up including a pair of Screamin’ Eagle heads to go with the Hooker Step Tuned Softail exhaust. Adding a bit of engine bling where he could along with the chromed curved dual exhaust definitely makes wearing shades mandatory on a sunny North Carolina day if you’re peering into the engine compartment. There’s some swinging bling going on there so don’t blinding yourself if you ever run into this machine at noon.

 

   The OEM Softail shocks have their limits especially when it comes to showy bikes and they got canned on this ride for a set of air shocks that allow Manolis to do the old dropdown when parked. “If it ain’t low, . . .” well, you finish that as I’ve got nothing that’s relevant and rhymes, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some old cool phrase I’m not aware of. No big surprise here that the stock black paint swinger has been replaced by a flashy chrome unit. I’d have been disappointed if it hadn’t and so far, Manolis has done nothing to disappoint me.

 

  For paint, Manolis stepped outside the stock box just enough to make it his and any onlookers probably would try and remember if this now white with vibrant blue flames was a factory version they didn’t know existed. The paint was masterfully laid down by Wild Side Customs in Elon, North Carolina. Completing the new look is a solo seat in blue animal hide by S and S Auto Trim in Burlington, North Carolina. I don’t know what kind of hide it is as I don’t know of any blue animals so I’ll safely assume it was a dye job of sorts. A passel of blue LED lights under the fuel tank adds to the blueness.

 

   What Manolis ended up with is something pretty close to where he started, but with a different twist everywhere you look. There’s nothing that takes away from the riding experience of the stocker, but there’s a lot that enhances what he already had. Sounds to me like this could be classified as a successful experiment in customizing a Harley without screwing it up. Nice job all around Manolis and I hope you thank your wife Tina every day.