I’d surmise that’s exactly what’s happened here as sticker shock on a dead stock Tri Glide Ultra faded into history and the mystery owner decided enough was enough. Like Civil War Admiral David Farragut supposedly said, “Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!” the owner fired all tubes so there’s little if any chance of ever having their trike mistaken for somebody else’s. In this case it involves taking the pages out of a custom big wheel bagger’s playbook and rewriting it until you have what we’re looking at here. A big-ass front wheel custom bagger that happens to have two rear wheels instead of one and a hell of a lot of presence on the road or at a show. No more worrying about people saying, “I saw one just like this yesterday” or “That’s nice” and walking away.
Strangely, this trike doesn’t look extremely rad even though it is when you consider what’s gone into it. And, I’m not just talking the wads of money involved in its construction, but a hell of a lot of work too. It’s one thing stripping down a regular old bagger for a big wheel conversion, but stripping a trike requires a lot of space. There’s more stuff and more acreage taken up in shop or garage just to get this thing on its custom track. Fitting a big front wheel to a bagger usually involves frame mods and it’s no different here although there’s a possibility that the raked-out front end might just work even better on a trike.
Hey, I’m just guessing a bit, but stubby front ends do not seem to be the best way to go on a trike leading to wobbles and harder steering. It must be all about leverage or something, but as you can guess by my mechanical dissertation, it’s probably best left to the engineers to decide what’s good. I’m sure you’ve noticed the stock Tri Glide’s raked out a bit so maybe there’s something to it. One thing’s for certain and that is the big front wheel doesn’t look quite so outlandish on a trike. Maybe it’s just my eyes playing tricks on me or maybe it’s all the stuff sitting high and mighty out back that reins in the size of the wheel. Either way, it doesn’t look bad at all.
Even though there’s a distinct Harley Tri Glide profile, there’s a lot that’s not so OEM like the stretched tank that sits so nicely or the reworked for smoothness rear fenders sitting over Renegade Tahoe trike wheels replacing the stockers. Renegade also supplied that big front hoop too. The only thing that looks a bit out of proportion is the front brakes that are completely and perfectly adequate, but seem a bit small for the rim size. But, hey, that could be just me and what do I know? It’s a very clean setup all around, though, so I can’t fault the choice of wheel design in any way. They just look good as is. Oh, by the way, that 180 front fender looks tight and right too hugging the tire to within a quarter-inch of its round life.
The view from the driver’s seat looks pretty familiar with the bat wing fairing still showing factory gauges and that’s okay by me. Nothing wrong with good stock stuff and Harley’s got some good stock stuff that often gets changed out just for the sake of changing it out. Personally, I’d rather have needles with easy-to-read faces than digital stuff staring back at me. Same goes for the audio setup although I was there was a factory-delete option for that bric-a-brac. Although I’ve tried it, I’ve never felt the need for audio equipment on a bike.
Chrome bits have replaced factory black on the bars and there’s other chromey stuff scattered around the bike too. Not too much, just enough to go along with the pretty tasteful custom program like the additional Tour Pak rack or the rear bumper adding a bit of blingy sass. By the way, do you think that bumper really works? At first I thought it was a bit strange to have engine guards (or crash bars as they once called) on a trike as that’s one accessory that would be completely useless and superfluous on something that can stand up by itself. Looking closer, I should have known, there’s additional lighting and foot placement going on and that makes perfect sense. Without those two bits . . .
What really makes this trike stand out more than anything, even more than the big wheel conversion, is the paint. Someone somewhere really hit it on the head here with the silver gray and orange panel paintjob that features some mild, but effective graphic work. The choice of the hues used could not have been better as far as getting a nicely subtle eye ball attractor. The orange panels just jump off the body kinda blurring the lines in a good way. I like how they flip-flopped the colors on the Tour Pak to lessen its presence and give a lower flow and stance to the overall package. I gotta give the paint job two-thumbs up for a custom paintjob you could live with every day while still wowing those that haven’t seen it before. Nicely done all around.
All in all, this was a really successful trike build that had to hit every point the owner wanted to make. It looks damn good, it still appears completely useful, and it looks like nobody else’s. Our collective hats here at Barnett’s Magazine Online are off to you, but you’ll probably never know as you’re off riding somewhere looking for a good time on a custom trike of your own design. If you’re a trike freak, it probably doesn’t get much better than that.