Just like a lot of other people who’ve seen this bike, according to Dave, at first glance I thought it was just another Road King until I noticed the telltale Softail oil tank. I guess we’re just assuming any hard bagger is a rubber-mount model, but this twist is a nice change from the norm. “Everybody thinks it’s a Road King,” said Dave laughing. “I did put bags from a Road King...

     The bike was at Corbin’s to be re-seated as a larger battery was fitted to start the big 125-inch RevTech motor. A bigger battery meant the seat had to be customized to fit over battery. But that wasn’t all that had changed. The oil tank has been relocated under the tranny. The long cylinder attached to the front lower frame is the electric fuel pump to feed the...

   I remember the good old days cruising the boulevard in my parents’ Corvair. Don’t laugh; I could smoke any one of those bad boys in the winter on snowy roads with my rear engine. Funny thing, it wasn’t one of the new muscle cars that held the title of badest of the bunch, it was a black-primed 1954 Chevy that didn’t look like anything special until you noticed the cut- out...

  Howard Kelly at S&S said their Super Stock Hot Set Up Kit would get me going in the right direction, so we placed the order and got the parts in quickly. Included in the $2,815 kit were pistons, cylinders, Super Stock heads, and .585 gear-drive cams. Lifters, push rods, and assorted gaskets were also in the box. This set up would take the stock 88” Harley motor out to a more...

  Brown Suga got its start when Pat was cruising for motorcycle magazines and a BMX mag jumped out and caught his eye. “On the cover was a real sharp-looking BMX bike with a guy doing a backflip on it,” Pat explained. He liked the chocolate colors of the bike, especially the black rims with brushed spokes. “I thought it would be a cool color scheme for a motorcycle,” he said....

A prime example of a modified Harley that gives a real touch of the owner’s personality yet still retains its roadworthy charms is the 2008 FLSTNI Deluxe called Laila J belonging to Jerome Beckham of Chicago, Illinois. Making it even a bit more interesting is that this is 30-year-old Jerome’s first Harley Like a lot of new Harley owners, Jerome’s first move was getting a copy of...

  That’s not the case anymore, as Exile’s affordable Twin Cam Softail customs pictured here definitely don’t look like something somebody put together in a garage, although they actually can put it together in a garage. Forget the torch, welder, and milling machine, these all-out-looking Exile doppelgangers consist of strictly bolt-on items. “It’s hard to even recognize that it is...

     I’m not trying to denigrate Curly who usually builds first-class radical custom baggers or any other bagger builders, but it’s just nice to see something different. Matter of fact, if you’d like to see a Barnett’s Magazine Online article we did on a Curly-built bagger, well punch up this link and enjoy. But, if you like your bikes custom with a nod to road as the main use, you...

  First, the guys involved – Sandy Poglavec and his partner known only as Erick are the principals behind the whole Belgian-based Q-Tec Engineering super high-quality front trike, rear trike, and quad conversions for Harley-Davidson’s finest. Yup, that’s right ─ there are two completely different, totally bolt-on trike conversions that allow you to put Q-tec’s independent front or...

    Take this lovely little Sporty that Barnett’s Magazine Online’s expert eye for the photo prize, Jack Cofano, shot at last year’s Smoke Out. It’s possibly one of Bill’s most conservative customs I’ve ever seen with nary a knobby tire in sight, but it’s shockingly striking in its cleanliness and simplicity. This is a perfect case of where the builder focused on the lines and...