So, yes, it’s not an actual York-made Road King, more like a Dr. Frankenstein moment that turned out well. You see, this Road King started life back in 1999 as Harley’s tweener touring bike, the Electra Glide Ultra Classic. Taking a quick look, one would never suspect and after taking a long look, you still wouldn’t. The bat wing fairing and all its electrics are history along with anything else smacking of FLHTC. Not a totally impossible thing to do wither as both models share the same platform. Maybe there was a good reason like accident damage that brought this turn of events or maybe somebody hates fairings, who knows? The end result is pretty captivating especially for a Road King fanatic like me.

   If you remember, the model year before the dreaded Y2K hit us all Harley had just announced the new 88-inch Twin Cam engine and the Evo engine was on its way out. Damn that thing seemed so modern it shook up the Harley world and had a run of what, 17-years before the Milwaukee-Eight began its reign? Here’s hoping things happen just a smite quicker in the next 17-years while still keeping that 45-degree goodness we all know and love. That same inaugural Twin Cam still is present, but it’s had a complete cosmetic and mechanical surgery by Jay “Hollywood” Greenfield of Hollywood’s Cycles in McAdenville, North Carolina. Upgraded and hot rodded, the Twin Cam speaks much more forcefully than it ever did providing serious power on the open road. The only visible outtakes from that transformation are the forced induction air cleaner and the lovely 2-into1 exhaust shooting back under the saddlebags.

    Hey, wait a minute, did I just say “under the saddlebags?” Yep, I did as owner Jim Kelley of Harley Haulers in Charlotte, North Carolina, skipped the extended bag thing that every custom bagger build seems to have glommed onto. Looks fine to me and shows off the exhaust nicely without having to have it dump out under you. Now you have a nice trailing exhaust sound rather than one you have to live with. The rest of the bodywork is OEM sheet metal that’s been reworked just to clean things up a bit. Nothing radical, just something like an average Harley owner might do to theirs or wish they could. 

    The Road King front fender sits between a set of heavily chromed fork legs and over a 21-inch custom 12-spoke front wheel that sure makes the stock 16-incher look a little dowdy in comparison. Strange how a wheel-size that was once a shocker is now considered tame these days. So, it may not be a shock-and-awe moment for show-goers looking for crazy, but it’s a treat on the street. A single disc brake setup allows for full wheel exposure and, hopefully, many admiring glances from the non-jaded among us. Out back, another custom 12-spoker in a fashionable 18-inch size does its share to bring on the miles and smiles.

    As always, custom paint brings its own bit of theatrics to what might be considered a mild custom build. Jim called on Mitch Omar of O’s Custom Paints in Bartlett, Tennessee, to come up with something special for the nosed and decked Road King. And, that Mitch did with a flame paintjob with a flame paintjob. No, you’re reading that correctly. After laying down a candy apple red metal flake base, Mitch airbrushed some intense true flame-style graphics over them. But wait, there’s more. Then, he took a different twist by skillfully painting traditional flames over them. Paraphrasing the classic Certs breath mint jingle, it’s got two, two, two flames in one. Staring into the side of that tank is like staring into the sun, there’s a hell of a lot going on here that takes a second to digest. My guess is some sort of fission experiment.

    So maybe Jim Kelley’s bagger is not the wildest or the loudest or whatever floats people’s boat when it comes to radical baggers. It’s something more like the rest of us would love to do to our rides or have done. You’re looking at an everyman-style custom bagger made from a bike built before Y2K. That’s so long ago in realistic terms that most people don’t even remember or know what it means. All this exercise in customization shows is that you really don’t need a million to make a Road King, but you can a build one out of an old model that still looks good today. Hey, and the best part Jim already proved too. With a Harley, you don’t even need a Road King to build a custom Road King.

    The only question I have about this build is do you correct somebody who says, “Nice Road King!” or tell them it’s really an Electra Glide Ultra Classic? Maybe not, they’d probably think you were crazy and walk away quickly. I know I would.