A nice example of what’s happening in trendy baggers is this exquisite little gem of a custom 2012 Street Glide built by Robert Snipes and the crew at Snipes Machine LLC in Kershaw, South Carolina. Taking everybody’s current favorite Harley-Davidson tourer, a Street Glide, and making it into a custom version of itself is a no-brainer. This is the bike of choice for people switching over to baggers and that makes for the largest ready-made audience you could ever hope for to begin with. Keeping the FLHX profile and instant recognizability was a smart move as anybody and everybody who owns a Street Glide can see their bike in this custom called Trina.

 

  That’s not saying that Snipes Machine didn’t do much to a stock Street Glide ─ far from it. Robert has generally mucked about with anything and everything that came on the stocker except maybe for the 103 Twin Cam. Well maybe other than intake and exhaust mods, but, needless to say, the slightly-tweaked 103 provides ample power for this situation with plenty of room to grow power wise if need be. Same goes for the tranny and the rest of the drive train, what’s not to like? So, it’s not being lazy or anything leaving a late model Harley drive train internally stock with mods all external.

 

   Bodywork is where it’s at on baggers and Robert doesn’t disappoint. Every piece has been replaced or heavily massaged at the very least. I like what he’s done except maybe for the vertical thickness of the tank/dash. Hey, I’m not bitching, just nitpicking a bit. Maybe it’s just the dash height I’m not especially crazy about, but it could be the angle of Jack’s photos that makes it stand out to me. In person, it’s probably something you don’t even notice. Robert gets kudos for the slim tour pack that gives this show/street bagger a bit more legitimacy to me anyway. Plus it’s a bit daring to do as most builders would be too afraid to mount something up high. It could’ve been a style wart, but it really fits the look and flow of this bike well. Robert’s fairing mods also stand the test with just enough dash and flair to stand out, but not lose the FLHX DNA.

 

   The make-it-or-break-it custom bagger paintjob is an eye grabber that I’ve been told was the work of Trey Steele of Trey Steele’s Paint Shack in Lexington, South Carolina. There’s a bit of early-2000 retro graphics influence with a modern crisp interpretation. Tri-color striping/flash panels add to the illusion of movement at rest while giving me a retro taste of the look of long bike choppers of yesterday. It’s flashy, catchy, familiar, yet distinctively sharp to this particular bike. Just like when the custom chopper builders of the early 21^st century had to figure out another way to make their exhaust special after seemingly everything had been already done, they had to find another way to pull it off even if it wasn’t a revolutionary change. Same goes for this paint job which does what it’s supposed to and grab your eyeballs from across a show floor or a street.

 

  It’s getting so tough lately to knock just about any custom bagger as builders have gotten good, really good, at what they’re doing. The quality of workmanship on bikes like Snipes Machine’s Trina is amazingly good and that’s nothing to take lightly even after seeing heavily-modified big wheel baggers. I’m leaving out a lot of big-ass stuff like serious big-wheel frame mods, air suspension, killer audio systems, massaging acres of bodywork until ready for paint, and a whole lot more. Sometimes we just take these things for granted, but don’t tell that to builders like Robert Snipes who work their ass off until they finally have a finished ride as nice as Trina.

 

  For more information on Snipes Machine, visit http://www.snipesmachine.com/ or visit their Facebook page,