The rear taillight is a weird story. It actually showed up in the top of my toolbox from an unknown source. I'm not sure who actually put it up there; I have some ideas, but am not certain as of this writing! The taillight looked like a cool piece, so I decided to use it regardless of the origin. It turned out to be a Frohoff trailer light from maybe the 1930s; Sam Memmolo, my co-host on Two Guys Garage (a TV show we do) was able to identify it. Sam's quite a knowledgeable dude-even trailers aren't out of his realm!
Rear blinkers were mounted into custom tubes that were added to the original frame horns just inside the bags. All the PM controls were left on and used as they came on the old bike. Speaking of the controls, it's hard to miss the Moon gas pedal footboards. These really reminded me of drag racing, and were a natural fit with the automotive racing parts already incorporated into this bike. The foot controls were modified stock units to match with the boards.
Exhaust is always one of my favorite things to build. Our original idea was to take the exhaust out as duals, with the exit being two pipes next to each other under the rear fender-mimicking the way hot rods have been doing it for years. Sometimes, things just sound better than they actually look though so we decided to make a change. Running two pipes out on one side just looked more aggressive and fit the look of this beast better. We used 3/8-inch stainless steel flanges and stepped the tubes up to the 2.5-inch finished diameter. We had the inside of the tubes coated with ceramic to keep the heat and tarnish down.
When it came to the seat we wanted to do a diamond stitch, tuck-n-roll seat with the '60s dragster theme. Gordon liked the comfort of the seat already on the Road King, so why not just have it covered? The foam and pan were sent to Jerry Price Upholstery in Alabama to re-cover in black leather. Jerry has been upholstering longer than I've been alive, and the work on this seat shows it. Beautiful and puffy, stylish and comfortable...good job, Jerry!
Once we had all of the parts mocked up, primed, and painted, Brian Pappa of Pappa Studios here in Atlanta took over for the striping and gold leaf. The overall idea was to use the mix of flat and gloss black to blend all of these random components together into a cohesive package. Gold was used as the "pop" color since we already had it on the inverted fork. Brian matched the gold and started laying down some cool scallops and stripes. Instantly, the bike took on a whole new amount of class and texture!
Now, onto the good part. This bike is an absolute pleasure to ride. We say it's like a couch with gobs of torque! The frontend handles beautifully; the old unit was heavy and clunky under full open conditions. This one is light and nimble. The center of gravity is better due to the 2-inch drop to even out the already lowered rear. A 150-pound diet really changed the complexity of how this thing feels. Before, if you were stopped and got a little off-balance, keeping the bike from falling over was a real workout. Now, it is much more manageable. The power on this bike is up too of course, thanks to the extra fat coming off the bike. The 1-inch solid steel passenger pegs alone probably weighed 10 pounds.
All I can say is it was a sad day when the test riding was over and it was time to turn over the Road Warrior to Mr. Erickson. What a great bike!
The high performance/racing...
The high performance/racing elements of this bike were nailed all the way down to the minor details like safety wiring the ARP fasteners.