I ordered the bike new in July 2005 and received it September 2005, it was a bone-stock Cobalt Blue and White Pearl Softail Deluxe. I thought I liked the color until I picked it up and they rolled it out into the sun and then I wasn’t really feeling it any more. I rode it for a few months until the weather got a little too nasty to ride and decided to change the White Pearl to Harley-Davidson Black Pearl. Over the next few years I added many new parts and accessories. I started out with beach bars then 12-1/2inch apes, then switched to16-inch apes. I added the saddlebags with a Cycle Visions Bagger Tail Kit as well as a bunch of other things. I liked the way the bike looked but never loved it, the bags were too short and it only looked good when the Hi-Lo Air Ride I installed was all the way down, and of course you can’t ride like that.

As everyone knows, the past few years our economy has really sucked. Business was really slow at the audio shop I was working at and I was barely able to make ends meet. I ended up quitting that shop and decided to rent some space from my friends at R&R; Auto Repair and do my own thing. With more than 25 years experience with car audio fabrication, I figured I could expand my skills and work on systems for Harleys, hot rods, and boats. I did a few bikes for some friends, then during down time I worked on my own bike and thought of all the crazy things I wanted to do to it. I wanted that look, you know, where no matter which angle you view the bike from, it just looks good. So that’s how it all started, and eight months month later this is the result!

I completely stripped the bike down and started from scratch. I didn’t like the look of the stock fender with the 21×2.15-inch, 100-spoke Black Bike rim I had, so I cut a 2-inch section out of the middle, then TIG welded it back together, which eliminated the ugly gaps between the tire and the fender. I also added 2 inches to the rear of the fender. Next I took some 1/2-inch solid round stock steel, drilled a 5/16-inch hole through the middle, and cut out four 1-inch pieces and TIG-welded them to the fender mounting tabs. In my opinion it just looked much cleaner than fender spacers or some aftermarket fender mounts.

I stretched the stock gas tank 6 inches and made a custom dash for the speedo and Alpine Marine audio controller. For the electrics, I made a stainless steel switch housing for the air ride and mounted it to the left PM switch housing on the 1-1/4inch beach bars.

The rear fender started as two separate rear fenders I purchased off eBayI guess you can call my bike the eBay bike since about 90 percent of the stuff I purchased for this build came off of eBay. I cut 2 inches of the tail section off the main fender then took the second fender and cut out an 8-inch section of the tail, this piece was then welded to the main fender to give the overall fender a longer look. I also built a steel frame for the license plate and frenched it into the fender. Now the fender flows smooth with the new bags!

Speaking of bags, I bought factory Harley bags off eBay. They were all mismatched parts but it didn’t matter because I was going to cut them up anyway. I started by fitting four Pioneer 6x9s into the bags and once I got them to fit, I stretched and widened the bags to help narrow the gaps between them and the fender. I also made the lids wider to close in the gaps at the top. Next, I fit Cadillac taillights into the rear of the bags. This was tricky because I didn’t want the bags to be too long. I just extended the area where the taillight was then feathered it into each side. Back up front I modified a set of H-D fairing lowers off an Ultra Classic. They didn’t fit my Softail crash bar so I had to do some re-fitting to the bottom section with some Dyna-glass. Once that was done I made custom speaker pods using fiberglass, wood, and body filler for the Pioneer 6-1/2inch speakers. Next I flushed in some Radiantz flexible LED strips into the front of the fairing lowers for a super-clean look.

The 88ci motor went to Randy Martinez who ported the heads and bumped up the displacement to 95 ci. For the exhaust I used a set of Samson true duals with slash-cut tips. I didn’t like the slash cut so my friend Virgil Perini cut the slash part off then took a piece of 3-inch round pipe and welded on new ends to make them turn-down tips.

The bike is loaded with details and audio. For example I changed 90 percent of the bolts to 12-point chrome or stainless fasteners from Gardner-Westcott and Alloyboltz. For audio, I added an Alpine MD_1 wireless marine controller into the custom dash, two tweeters into the custom-molded top clamp cover, and a Pioneer 6-1/2inch speaker flushed into the fairing lowers. In the saddlebags I installed an Alpine IDA-X100M iPod Digital Media Receiver head unit, Kenwood XS-4S 600-watt four-channel amplifier, and two pairs of Pioneer 6×9 two-way speakers (two flushed into the front of the bags and two flushed in to the side of the bag facing the wheel).

When people see my bike, some of the funniest things they ask me are, Whose saddlebags are those, Arlen Ness?, Whose fender is that?, and What brand is that gas tank? I just tell them to look at my license plate; it says it all. Most people don’t realize that this is a custom-made bike and you can’t buy most of these parts off the shelf. Everything on this Harley has been modified, painted, polished, or had something done to it, you just have to really look! HB