Yes sir, life must be unbelievably good for Rick, but he doesn’t just sit back on his laurels and think about peanuts or something like I would if I were in his position. Nope, he’s at it again with a tastily customized version of the back-in-the-line-up-one-more-time 2015 Harley-Davidson Road Glide. Yeah, you got that right ─ 2015. Rick must have rolled it out of the crate directly into the custom shop and let the boys or whomever does the grunt work have at it until this exquisite custom bagger finally rolled back out into the sunlight for its break-in miles. Ah, the good life!

 

   Even though this build went to the mild side of wild as far as baggers go, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a ton of work involved like all radical baggers. Instead of a 30-inch or even a 32-inch front wheel that is de rigueur in the custom bagger world, Rick went for a 26-inch wheel that surprisingly keeps things from going all cartoonish on my totally personal aesthetics scale. The 26 sits almost half-way between a 23 and a 30, but it looks way closer to a more reasonably-sized (strictly my personal opinion) 23. Could it be that once you hit 26, everything past that is way, way over the top? Seems like that to me anyway, but enough about me.

 

   All the standard bagger mods to accommodate the large wheel took place in the shop including a set of Rick’s nine-degree trees. No big surprise that this was all to showcase Rick’s 26-inch Gimmi 5 wheel along with a set of wheel-matching rotors in conjunction with stock H-D calipers for state of the art rotor clamping as needed. I’m with you on that one Rick, too much braking power (so to speak) is much, much easier to modulate than too little braking power. Plus I think it looks right for this rideable custom Road Glide.

 

   The Road Glide’s 103 Twin Cam received a bit of a pumping up starting with a Rick’s Good Guys air cleaner. Obviously it’s important to breathe easy if you’re a stock DOT strangled factory engine, but it’s also important to look good too. Coming up with a different design than everybody else gets tougher and tougher to do, but you gotta admit that Rick’s Good Guys design has a look of its own.  Getting that air in is important, but so isn’t getting it out and that’s where a lovely set of wickedly-easy-electronically-adjustable-sound Kess Tech ESM 2 exhaust system  comes into play. Set ‘em quiet or crank ‘em up to suit your mood. If you’re in a bad mood, you won’t be for long as you get lost in the wall of sound. Harley’s Screamin’ Eagle tuner kit keeps the intake’s yin and the exhaust’s yang in total harmony while producing more useable power and a lot more listenable sound.   

 

    As far as bodywork went, the factory silhouette is basically preserved, but swoopily- stretched and tastefully mucked-with until it came time for the all important custom bagger paintjob. Paint ─ it’s a make it or break it thing that can wipe out hours and hours of hard work if it doesn’t look right when it’s done. In this case, Rick took a totally different approach using a restrained, but classy Mercedes AMG GLA Edition One paint scheme for inspiration. The three-tone gray, more gray, and black paint with orange and white graphics by Marcel Sinnwell of Sinnwell Design is not going to grab your eye from across a parking lot, but is one of those subtle stunners that gets richer and richer looking the closer you get. Especially so when it comes to the almost hidden Harley-Davidson graphic on the sides of the fuel tank that you need to be almost on top of to see, no need to shout out what the body lines already say. The complete lack of chrome (other than the trim rings on the gauges, the ignition switch, and the flush mount gas cap ─ that’s it) is probably a shocker to some people along with the subtle colors, but I think it looks stealthily superb. But then I’m not a flashy guy.

   Yeah, I’m going to skip over all the delicious little bits and pieces of Rick’s parts strewn throughout the bike. Suffice to say, if you’re looking at something, it’s a Rick’s Motorcycles part. Okay, the Harley Daymaker LED auxiliary lights that Rick neatly mounted between the downtubes and the floorboards is not a Rick’s part, but that’s it unless you find some more. Okay, okay, there’s a pair of Harley Tribal mirrors mounted beneath the grips, but that’s it. I will own up to any Harley part in a second, but it’s up to you to find them.

 

  You have your assignment and I’m going back to dreaming about what it’s like to be Patrick “Rick” Knoerzer. My first change is that I’d like to be referred to as Mr. Knoerzer instead of Rick and I’d like this bike sitting outside of my house warmed up and full of gas. Man, unlike likeable and smart-as-hell Rick, I’d lose both businesses in a month. And that’s why Rick’s Rick and I’m just a dreamer.

 

  For more information on why it’s good to be Rick, just click on this English version of his website. https://www.ricks-motorcycles.de/english/Ricks-Motorcycles.htm