For sure it doesn’t have the latest 30- or 32-inch front wheel and that’s okay. Sometimes smaller is better. The profile chosen by Zane Culleton, owner of Southern Cycle in Buford, Georgia, along with his brother Sean, for this bagger called Freak-Show stays a little more true to factory even though anything and everything’s been changed up quite a bit to say the least. There’s not a lick of bodywork that hasn’t been modified or just replaced in Culleton’s shop so maybe it looks a little more OEM Touring Bike profile, but if you put a stock 100^th Anniversary bike and this one together, the differences would be staggering. And, that’s just the bodywork.

    There was still a ton of work to do under the bodywork first that’s become the calling card of anybody building a custom bagger to compete at shows. Oh, you know, like framework to accommodate the bigger front wheel, front and rear air suspension and all the wiring and tubing that goes along with it, a neat MRI electric center stand that shows the paint off like it was intended, or refurbishing and refinishing the Twin Cam. Speaking of the Twin Cam, isn’t that 2-into-1 wrapped exhaust something? It’s pretty tough-guy stuff the way it cuts into the saddlebag and dumps out a load of V-twin sound. I don’t think high performance from gasoline was the primary goal of this build, but another way of high performance was.

    That would be the crazy, crazy audio system Zane installed that has more speakers than my house and my truck has. Right away, I should again admit I know nothing about sound systems on motorcycles, but I can say this Focal speaker one is enough to drown out that loud mouth of a 2-into-1 exhaust mounted between the walls of sound. Yes, walls, as one look at the back of the bat wing fairing with its complete lack of available instrumentation says something about what’s important in this landscape and speakers win! By the way, if you’re checking out the fairing speakers, be sure to check out the zany-cool handlebar action going on. The amount of time that had to go into building these 20-piece stepped bars is incredible.

    If you’re sitting on the bike, the sound from the speakers mounted aft hopefully balances things out so you don’t get thrown off the back in a decibel storm. Zane fabricated that tour pak just to hold more audio equipment along with all the other audio stuff I know and care nothing about. Just because it’s not my thing doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the time and work that went into designing a system like this. Miles of wire and lots of electric box things I know nothing about all beautifully placed or hidden and wired. This bike does not look like I got into the wiring and that’s good. What’s also really good is that Zane flat-out won the Sound-Off Competition at the recent Ray Price Motorsports Expo and that’s gotta be good for business.

     All that speaker stuff is encased in bodywork that has some unusual tweaks to it. Take the saddlebags with their faired-out square bottoms for instance or the rear fender that’s pretty squared-out too. An unusual look that fits this bike well and somehow makes the tour pak part of the deal instead of an add-on. The frame covers are part of the bags for a smoother look and better line flow. I do love the heat shield Zane built into the right bag to keep the hot exhaust from ruining the paint work. I’m still not sure where the taillights really are, but I know they have to be somewhere. If you find ‘em let me know please. More time was spent on the fairing lowers getting speakers nicely molded in while the front fender is a Heritage-style unit that looks peachy as is.

    As always with custom baggers, though, it’s still all about the wow-factor of the paint and Zane doesn’t disappoint here one bit. That is, as long as you aren’t one of those freaks like me who’s still terrified of clowns (and rightly so). Zane enlisted artist Robert “Bobby” Rivera Jr. of Kustom Mindz Airbrushing in Pensacola, Florida, to come up with those panels of clown hell that are frighteningly realistic as well as strangely uncomfortable. I love his signature on the tank as it just takes this to a different artistic level and his use of color backs that up. The clown subjects almost makes me forget the oodles of realistic skulls flowing over the whole bike. Zane took care of the rest of the gold flake paintjob as he’s an extremely talented painter himself. All in all, this bike sports one of those nightmare paintjobs that might even scare the bejezzus out of the lads at Kendall Johnson Customs while looking cool as a custom cucumber from 20-feet away. Get up close, well, you’re on your own.

   For more info on Zane Culleton and Southern Cycle, visit http://southerncycle.com/ or check ‘em out on Facebook, Instagram and BeBop.