Baggers
Unfortunately, Meade won’t be building many more head-turners, unless they’re his own. He got an offer on his shop he couldn’t refuse; shortly thereafter Motorcycle Mechanics Institute made him a lucrative deal to go back to the classroom. Some guys have all the luck. But it gets better.
When a holiday rolls around, say Christmas, it’s reasonable to expect a nice, thoughtful present from your significant other, right? Maybe a new leather jacket, maybe a 20-year-old single malt, perhaps a nice watch? If you want to have a good time, you need a good watch. How about a new bike? How about a brand damn new Street Glide? Thanks, Brother Santa.
“Yeah, it was pretty funny. There was a bike parked outside my shop, without plates, and someone walked in who wanted to buy it. I told him the bike wasn’t mine. But he kept on harping on it, making me nuts. It was around Christmas and I joked maybe Santa brought it. Finally, it was revealed that Santa did bring it—for me! It was my Christmas present from my wife, Kim! She put the guy up to the whole charade,” said Meade.
So what do you do with a new Christmas present fresh out of the box? That’s right, you paint it liquid metal orange. But first, Meade stretched the tank and later the saddlebags, installed the fire-pipe system, added a 300-watt amp and two speakers (for a total of four) in the fairing lowers, and additional “miles” of wiring for things like remote starting, saddlebag opening, and flame throwing. A GPS was installed, and the cigarette lighter plug, which has a variety of applications, was hard wired to the accessory switch, rather than have it come on with the ignition key.
One of the more interesting features is the flaming exhaust pipes. Spark plugs in the pipe ignite a gas spray, which is keyed from the fuel-injection system using a nitrous solenoid, two small coils, an electrical relay, a spark box, a pair of fogger nozzles, and a single-switch off the dash to start the fireworks. “The system is perfectly safe, with no risk of blowback to the motor,” said Meade. He does recommend not hitting the switch on the road, however, because you never know where wind will throw the fire.
There are other tricky modifications to Meade’s Street Glide. The stock rear fender is overlaid with a thin fiberglass fender. It gives the appearance that the bike is lower and wider, filling up the gaps between the fender and the saddlebags. And to the rear fender, Meade mounted a flush LED taillight. He put a decal over the lens, painted the fender, and then peeled back the decal to create the desired taillight look. For Meade, that was the Bar & Shield.
The owner/builder popped off the stock 16-inch front wheel, replacing it with a 21-incher. Meade had to modify the mounting holes on the front fender to accommodate the taller tire, drilling them out, so he could rock the fender up to keep it from hitting the tire. “It will fit on a bagger, and it’s just something more to look at,” said Meade. “I lowered the bike two-inches so the 21-inch wheel would work. People may not know the 16-inch tire is very tall. The wheel and tire are only two-inches shorter than the 21-inch setup. In the end, front suspension travel is reduced from six-inches to four, but it’s enough, and you don’t notice any difference in handling.”
When Meade wasn’t riding the hell out of his gift, he parked it in his showroom. It was tempting eye candy, a taste of what his customers could do to sweeten a bagger. “People went from the wild choppers to factory baggers because they were more affordable, reliable and easier to ride, a lot easier,” Meade said. “For a while, the market was going through a mid-life crisis, but now riders are more practical, they like their creature comforts. They still want something unique, but now they want it with all the bells and whistles, something comfortable that can be ridden anywhere, but still turns heads. We sold a lot of custom parts without having to say a word. I sold the wheels off that bike four times.”
Up Close
“My favorite part of this Street Glide is really not a part,” said John Meade. “It is the dependability of the bike. I have absolutely no worry in my mind whatsoever, that it will make any trip to anywhere, in comfort and style.”
“It has very mild-mannered, 95-cubic-inch motor,” said Meade, which began, of course, as a stock 2006 Harley 88” Twin Cam. He installed a big-bore kit, boosting the cylinder size from 3 3/4” to 3 7/8” to bring the total displacement to 95”, an inch under the 2007 stock engine. It has low- compression pistons, so it can run off any grade of gas.
Meade has owned almost nothing but racing, hot rod, or all-out custom bikes his whole riding life. Some certainly were more reliable than others, and most were not the most comfortable machines to ride. Many riders forget that if a bike is not comfortable, you’re not going to really want to ride it much no matter how tough you tell yourself you are. And even worse, it can fatigue you, which can lead to loss of concentration and all sorts of potential calamities.
One day, Meade had an epiphany. “I had this bike, a 117-inch Twin Cam. It rode extremely well, and was quite dependable,” he said. “But on one long-haul trip where the odometer clicked over some 1,500 miles, it just took its toll on my body. I finally had to stop and buy a stuffed animal to sit on.” Kind of manly, I think, that he admitted that.
Meade suddenly had had enough of sacrificing comfort for cool and decided to join the bagger world for the practicality and creature comforts it offered. He never looked back.
Builder: John Meade
John Meade, 43, was born built for speed. As soon as he could get his throttle hand on a motorcycle license, he was running drag bikes down the track. Through the mid-1990s, he raced his Pro Stock Kawasaki and other metrics on the AMA Prostar circuit. Years later, he bought the track-only V-Rod Destroyer, which Harley made for only the 2006 model year. Meade raced it on the NHRA circuit.
The self-taught Meade moved on to spend about five years working for a Harley dealer in parts and service. Bike work came naturally; so much so that he left the dealership in 2003 to accept a teaching position at MMI in Phoenix, then later was asked to transfer to Orlando to teach the school’s Screamin’ Eagle performance program.
But going from the dry heat and scenic desert of the “Valley of the Sun” to the drenching humidity and buggy flatlands of Florida didn’t agree with the moto-professor. Meade was gone in just a couple of months, leaving for the cooler climes and rolling hills of Richmond, Virginia, where he opened his own shop in 2004. “It was pretty much a service center for anybody and everybody who built an American V-twin,” he said. “We did an enormous amount of warranty work for Big Dog, as well as other V-twin makers.”
Meade and his crew did more than fix other people’s problems. “We did a huge amount of bike building, too,” he said. “We jumped on the bagger bandwagon about three years ago. There is just something different about them beyond the obvious.”
These days, the master wrench focuses full-time on his MMI teachings. But he always likes to help someone who needs advice, or has questions regarding the how and what of his favorite ride. Contact John Meade at quickharley@aol.com.
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