Here at Hot Bike, we get a lot of rides-Harleys, hogs, whatever you want to call them-submitted by our readers. "Pick of the Pen" is an opportunity to dedicate a few pages to our favorite reader-submitted bike each month. This month's bike is from owner Mark Walter of Harrisburg, NC. Here's the story of "Wyrd Up," in his own words.
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Cheer up, mark, you made the cover of the best mag in the world.
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I was the second owner of this original 95th Anniversary edition Harley, purchased in 2002. The bike was already in immaculate condition with mostly new chrome parts. One of the reasons it grabbed my attention was how clean the owner kept it, and that did not require me to purchase many more accessories. So I traded in my Suzuki GSXR 750 for a Harley-Davidson.
When I brought the Harley home, my wife Stephanie was totally surprised, considering that I didn't tell her I was trading bikes. Actually, I would say she freaked out instead of being surprised. I'll never forget that day. I rode up on it and she asked, "Whose is that?" And I said, "It's ours, honey." While her face showed surprise, I knew she was steaming because the other bike was paid off and I had just created another bill. Oh well. I used the "But honey, I told you I wanted a Harley and you said you did too one day..." excuse. I guess "one day" was here sooner rather than later.
I kept thinking to myself, I can't wait to put Stephanie on the back of this and drive her down the road. She had never ridden a Harley before, either. I knew once she got her first ride on a Hog she would never want to ride another bike. She loved it and she even apologized for getting aggravated about the purchase. Ever since then, she's loved to hear the roar of the pipes. She has told me that she'll never ride anything else other than a Harley. She gets pissed when I take a ride without her.
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Nearly every inch of this bike has been customized, from the raked front to the widened re
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Over the last couple of years we began to notice more custom bikes and that the popularity of them had grown; however, we did not see too many custom Dynas. For all those Harley fans out there, don't get the wrong idea...we really enjoyed the Anniversary 98 H-D, but we wanted something a little different.
At first, we started thinking about just adding a fat 240 rear tire and raking the frontend. But we really hated to chop up a Harley...especially an Anniversary bike. But after several long discussions about it, my wife and I decided to go for it.