Our feature bike built by the talented lads at The Bike Exchange in Gastonia, North Carolina, is a perfect example of a spare-no-dollars-until-it’s-over-the-top custom bagger. I say over-the-top for the simple reason that anytime you put a 30-inch Renegade Racine hoop covered in Vee Rubber up front, you’ve got to go OTT to just begin to match the audaciousness of a front wheel that large. Hey, if you don’t think that a 30-inch wheel is quite large, check out this video and see how it compares to human sizing. Renegade, as usual, did a great job on the design and finish and you just can’t bolt on “Live to Ride” stuff after installing one of these. Don’t believe me? Well just look at what The Bike Exchange has done then, Mama Mia, that’s a spicy meatball of a Street Glide.

This is no the first custom bike rodeo that The Bike Exchange’s owner, Steve Hardy, has been to. His custom take on a 2011 Harley-Davidson Street Glide not only won Best of Show at this year’s Charlotte Easyriders event with this bike, but just took third in radical bagger at the Easyriders Nationals in Columbus just a few days ago. Remember, that’s a third at a national show, not a regional. No surprise, though, as The Bike Exchange has an unbelievably long list of bagger builds on their web site along with other styles of custom bikes. They’re not a one-trick pony, but they do make killer baggers.

It’s now gotten to the point where there seems to be some required items to check off on any competitive bagger build and obviously, the bigger the front wheel the better apparently. You’ve gotta have air suspension front and rear and a geek-worthy audio system along with heavily-modified or totally-replaced bodywork all tied together with a paintjob that probably costs as much as painting three choppers just because of the square footage.

Nothing should be recognizable as stock although it can be reminiscent of stock, but in a totally custom way. You know, a fairing might look like a bat wing fairing, but it could be an aftermarket, modified aftermarket, or much modified stocker. In BX’s case, they chose a Cam Tech Custom Baggers one-piece complete body kit that kinda mimics the lines of a stocker, but has absolutely nothing to do with it. With a dashing, but subtle paintjob that would look just fine if Daniel Craig hopped on sporting his everyday James Bond tuxedo, BX let the bikes graceful lines speak for themselves. There’s also a bit of Bond kit in the on-board navigation system which compliments the Kicker Audio system with a Rockford Fosgate amp. Get a little crazy with the volume on this system and any potential passenger might just lose what hearing they have left.

Even though there are passenger footpegs on there, the seating area is a bit small you might say. Whacking the throttle on the BX-built 110” Harley motor could exacerbate a hearing loss into a passenger loss in the blink of a high-horsepower eye. All of this engine work was done in-house and that’s no surprise as BX does a lot of hop-up and regular maintenance work on everyday Harleys at their shop. They try and keep whatever they absolutely can in-house and under their control. I think they can be safely accused of having a lot of pride in what they do. Yeah, by the looks of this bike alone I think it’s a safe thing to declare.

Be sure to check out all their other builds at www.thebikeexchange.net and see for yourself.