I definitely don’t mind being wrong when it benefits me and the Thug-built bagger Jack Cofano shot in Daytona this year puts Tom’s twist on custom baggers up there with the absolute best in the world. I know this may sound kinda stupid, but I just assumed that all of the wild and whacky custom baggers are all late model bikes. At least any I’ve written or read about have been so far, but Tom took a different and extremely smart approach to making a radical bagger. Although you’d never know it, he started with a 16-year-old Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic and never looked back. Frankly, it just makes too much sense if you’re going to be hacking and whacking and welding everything anyway. Plus it allowed him to use an Evo-style 113” S&S motor (check out those gorgeous dual carbs and manifolds!) which not only packs a lot of punch as is, but can be bought at a good price. All of a sudden, this opens up a lot of possibilities besides starting with a $20K+ bike that you’re going to use very little from anyway. Tom’s not only a good designer and talented builder, but a smart businessman too and that’s a trifecta worth betting on.

  Getting down to the nitty-gritty here, Tom went with a 30” wheel up front which is becoming a requirement if you want to be taken seriously in the custom bagger world. When you’re changing a bike so radically with just this one change alone, you better know what you’re doing when you start cutting up a perfectly good frame. For Tom, the only obstacle he had was making it work on the road. “Doing a 30” front wheel to make it ride right and be safe, I cut the neck off twice because I wasn’t happy with the first cut. Now you can truly ride this bike with no hands down the highway,” he said. “That was the only thing that was difficult because at the time not many people had done the big wheel and none had done it in Florida. We are proud to say that we are the first.”

   That was yesterday and today there are 30” wheels seemingly more than ever, but nobody’s got a frame that looks like this one. Tom’s curved double-down tubes give this bike a look like no other with a radius that frames and compliments the big 30” wheel. It’s absolutely different and stunning, but it doesn’t look like it’s trying to shock and awe. It’s just the way Tom does things, “We like our bikes to stand out, be unique and stand alone in a show. We are not known to make cookie cutters.”  

   I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll mention it again that I do love the integration of sportbike headlights into touring-style fairings like the custom Thug fairing using Yamaha R-1 headlights. One of The Motor Company’s designers should just admit the Road Glides are being discontinued until they can get a fairing with dual sportbike-style headlights up and running. It just looks totally natural and beautiful without looking metric in any way. “Yes, we have proven time and time again to make our handmade stuff and then later to see other builders copying or doing a spin off of stuff that we have built,” said Tom. “That makes me proud to know that my builds stick in people’s minds.”

Other bespoke Thug pieces include the one-piece bags with speakers into the sides, a stretched gas tank with lift and dash cover, and the rear fender to name just a few. You’ll have to traipse around Thug’s web site to figure out all the pieces and parts they offer. With all the bodywork done, getting a paintjob to compliment and not fight for attention was courtesy of Rick Corgan at Be-Unique.com. This is not his forst rodeo with Thug as he also did the award-winning paintjob on Thug’s 2010 Rat’s Hole champion. This time around, his work was a little more low key and I think really let the lines of the bike flow even more. And, it really showcases how the mechanically beautiful Thug engine just kinda sits there out in the open.

  Not that it’s a surprise, but as stated, Thug builds their bikes to ride as well as show. As far as this one goes, Tom says, “It has a very smooth ride with a lot of power.” One thing I’ve gotta mention is that the audio system has been hopped up too. There’s power oozing out everywhere on this ride and that’s okay with the La Vida Loca (crazy life) moniker I’ve tagged this bike with. No, I’m not a big Ricky Martin fan and I doubt Tom is either, but since he always seems to take the road nobody else takes, he could listen to this Korean band Clover doing Mexican rap (now that’s crazy) through all 1800 watts of stereo while he waits for a buyer for this ride. Maybe that buyer is you and if so, you can contact Tom at www.thugcustomcycles.com and start your own La Vida Loca on two wheels.