“Usually, I build bikes that are full customs from the ground up,” says Cooney. “But although I changed quite a few things on this bike, I kept the stock frame, engine and gas tank.” His desire to make the bike a regular rider motivated him to keep the engine almost entirely stock, and the Night Train’s 34-degree steering-head angle permitted him to retain the original frame.

The only significant changes to the frame were made in the rear section so that Cooney could hang a set of Ness saddlebags on the Softail’s rear quarters. “I had to build an en­tire new subframe off the rear frame horns,” he says, “to carry the rear fender as­sembly and the saddlebags.” He’s also particularly proud of the clever quick-detach method he devised for removing and reinstalling bags. “You can take them off in 10 seconds,” he says.

As custom as a stock Night Train looks, though, it still sits relatively high compared to most customs. So, to give his bagger the requisite ground-hugging profile, Cooney used a White Bros. lowering kit to drop the front 2 inches; he had to fabricate his own 2-inch lowering pieces for the rear, however, because there wasn’t any kind of kit yet available in the aftermarket.

To further enhance the bagger theme, Cooney wanted floorboards instead of footpegs, so he fabricated some mounting brackets for a set of Ness billet boards, retaining the stock forward controls. He then mounted a Ness fairing and front fender, both of which were pretty easy to install.