Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Baggers Magazine

The Smoky Mountains in North Carolina must have been dreamed up by the gods of motorcycling. The twisty roads, the beautiful scenery, and the friendly folks sounded good enough for the crews of Hot Bike and Baggers magazines to host the fourth annual Hot Bike Tour in the two-wheeled Shangri-La, September 7–11, 2016, right? Day One Asheville, North Carolina We had heard that Asheville is one of those burgeoning towns mixed with plenty of culture and picturesque scenery and, of course, a huge footprint of some of the best microbreweries that the good old US of A has to offer. It made sense to kick off the 2016 Hot Bike Tour here. Like years past, Asheville was buzzing with positive energy for the LongRiders, Build-Off builders, and Hot Bike Tour…

“I really enjoy performance-based V-twin motorcycles.” Although a relative newcomer to the world of building V-twin iron, Carey Hart is one of the most experienced riders you’ll find anywhere. His motocross résumé is awesome, and he’s brought that sensibility to this 2016 Road Glide he created for the Invitational. Carey focused on the performance aspect, giving this bagger a motocross feel to it to boot. Even the paint was a head nod to the early days of racing. Starting with a new, base-model Road Glide, he shed weight with a mixture of carbon fiber and aluminum. The front end and gauges were the most difficult parts, however. “I committed early on to 7/8-inch motocross bars and an inverted front end,” Carey says. “Kraus Motor Co.’s parts are great, and it…

“I wanted to combine a 26-inch front wheel with performance, which was something I hadn’t seen before.” This definitely is not your normal 26-inch wheel setup on a bagger. It’s also not what I’m used to in a Road King Classic. This 2010 Road King from Josh Rundlett looks a little chopper-esque in the rake department, doesn’t have any extras on it, and just seems like it’d be cool to ride. Having worked in the industry for years before opening Rundlett Performance Machine (RPM) in 2016, Josh brought plenty of experience to his simply stated concept for a bigwheeled bagger geared toward performance. He had plenty of confidence and skill to draw upon in transmuting this King from stocker to hot rod. Before that could happen, though, he needed the…

All I can say about my experience on this year’s Hot Bike Tour is… Wow! Okay, wait. I guess I should back it up. When I accepted the invite, I was completely over-the-moon excited! And I was also scared to death. I couldn’t help but think of it as a bit of a boys’ club. Most of the builders on the Hot Bike Tour have been on it before, and I wasn’t sure how they were going to respond to me being there. I spent five months building my bike and was pretty happy with how it came out. I had no expectations of winning but just wanted to hold my head high when people saw my bike I remember when I was putting the boring break-in miles on my…

“One of the challenges was to find the right equilibrium between both styles and be able to show them without overwhelming the overall design. The bike had to be aggressive but seductive at the same time.” I’ve written more than 800 custom-bike features, and this one’s a personal first for me. A really cool first. Oscar Peralta gave a 2016 Road King the café racer treatment for this year’s Baggers Invitational. Peralta and his shop, Aftercycles, sought to bring something fresh and innovative to this year’s Build-Off. Dubbed “Double Espresso,” this Road King, much like its name, is café on steroids. I think of it as a coffee break from the traditional custom bagger. Peralta is truly passionate about motorcycles. He’s been around motors and gasoline his entire life. A…

“I am Shane Phillips, owner of Camtech, and without my team behind me all this wouldn’t be possible.” This sleek, sexy beast is the work of Shane Phillips of Camtech fame. For the past seven years, he and his crew have been in the business of transforming stock baggers into rolling works of art. As he puts it, “We strive to build the best and baddest baggers along with close attention to detail.” They’ll build anything across the whole mild-towild spectrum. Obviously, the 2010 Road Glide they created for the 2016 Baggers Invitational Build-Off is pretty far away from the mild end of the customization pool. That’s no shocker. Each year Camtech strives to outdo itself from the previous Invitational. Phillips really believes they accomplished that with this build. “I…

To see your bike here in an upcoming issue of Baggers, please provide a highresolution photo—the bigger the better. Please leave out the neighbor’s minivan, trash cans, etc. Send in the year, make, and model of bike, detailed information about it, your name, city, and a description of you. To really get our attention, include a brief touring adventure or an epic ride story. Keep the pics and info coming to us at baggersmag@bonniercorp.com. Mike Ross was in the March 2016 issue of the Baggers Readers’ Rides section. He got a little scratch on the fairing of his 2012 Victory Cross Country, so he decided to do some changes. It used to be red and silver, so he took it apart and had it painted all red. He’s also done…

HI BAGGERS! My name is Darrell Marlow, (SNIPER), and I live in Vail, Arizona. I am a Vietnam vet and was in Nam from 1969 to ’71. That’s how I got my nickname; that’s what I did. After being wounded, I came back to the greatest country in the world, America. I am 65 years young and have been married to my wife for 38 years. I have two daughters and three grandchildren. My bike is called the “The Blue Phoenix.” Six months ago I was hit by a truck on a two-lane highway while I was coming home from a great ride to Bisbee, Arizona. The bike was totaled, so I bought it back from the insurance company. I then turned the bike over to Big Sky Motorcycles of…

“Even though the Road King is a full air layframe bike, it handles the Tail of the Dragon no problem.” Nick Trask and Baggers go all the way back to our first issue. That’s how long his Trask Performance company has been making turbo kits in-house for dressers. We’ve grown over the years and so has Nick’s company. “We also build a unique line of Assault Series bikes featuring our turbo systems and other performance parts,” Nick says. “Good friend Ron Cornell loved our Assault line of bikes and wanted us to build him one.” Welcome to the bonus plan, Ron. Your bike made it to our Invitational Build-Off. Nick started by purchasing a latemodel, low-mileage Road King as the platform for launching his Assault vehicle. A used bike with…

“You know me—almost 20 years of building trendsetting motorcycles.” A man would have to be pretty confident to make that bold statement with a straight face. Yet that’s exactly how Jesse Rooke sums up his bike-building career in his own words. So how did a man with that kind of experience approach his project for the 2016 Baggers Invitational Build-Off? “It was a bolt-together project like most of the Build-Off bikes,” Rooke says. The genius of that. Why go to the trouble of fabricating even a single one-off part for an invite-only custom competition in a national magazine when you can just grab bolt-on aftermarket goodies from the catalog instead? It’s a real time saver. “I used everything from the H-D dealership as much as possible,” Rooke continues. “Then some…