One of the best things about owning a Harley, besides riding it of course, is the process of turning it into a bike that you are proud to show off. For some people, it may be as simple as just adding a custom paintjob and a few bits of chrome, while others may go to the full extreme of chopping the frame and stretching the sheetmetal. No matter where you fall in the customization spectrum, the only thing that matters is that you’re happy with the final outcome.

Jerad Hermann had purchased a 2006 Dyna Street Bob right off the showroom floor. With the bike being a brand-new model for that year, Jerad was pretty happy that his sightings of other Street Bobs on the road were few and far between. However, the fresh look of the Street Bob began appealing to more and more people, and the next thing Jerad knew, Street Bobs were becoming as common as, well, the name Bob.

To counteract the frustration of losing his bike amongst a pack of other Street Bobs, Jerad decided he wanted a bike that nobody else had, or at least that he had never seen. Wanting to be different, but not wanting to spend a ton of dough, Jerad got together with his buddy, Pete Nowaskey, and the crew over at Pistol Pete’s Custom Cycles in Menomonie, Wisconsin, to discuss his options. They decided to go with mostly bolt-on components with a mix between a new-school and old-school look.

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Not quite bobbed enough for Jerad’s liking, a chopped rear fender was installed so that it would expose more of the rear tire.

They figured one of the easiest things that could be done to help the bike stand apart was black-out some of the components. The next thing Jerad knew, his bike was up on one of Pete’s lifts and parts were being peeled off. The drivetrain was torn down and all the covers were sent out to get a dose of textured black powdercoat. The wheels were stripped and the rims and hubs were baked with some gloss black powdercoat. While the parts were “cooking” in the oven, Pete was busy working on what would be the most unique part of the transformation, fitting an American Suspension Springer frontend to the Dyna. “The most challenging part of the build was getting the frontend to fit right,” Pete told us. “We had to custom-machine a neck post to make it fit on a Dyna frame, then we had to get all the other frontend components the right length so that everything looked right. I usually spend a lot of time on the details; sometimes too much time.”

Once he had the frontend squared away, the mini apes were ditched in favor of a set of much taller and radically different Nash Motorcycle Company Gimp Hangers. Atop the Gimps a set of Pro One levers were used along with Magnum Shielding cables. Rather than use the stock turn signals, a pair of Badlands turn signals were mounted to the front of the bike. When the covers and wheels came back from powdercoat, the engine and wheels were reassembled. The engine was outfitted with one of RSD’s new (at the time) Speed 5 Contrast Cut air cleaner assemblies and then finished off with Vance & Hines’ Side Shots exhaust. The wheels received chrome spokes and stainless steel floating rotors.

At the time, the Street Bob came with a longer rear fender. Not quite bobbed enough for Jerad’s liking, a chopped rear fender was installed so that it would expose more of the rear tire. And in a nod to the original bobber era, the front fender was left off the bike. When it came time for paint, Jerad hauled the tank and rear fender over to his buddy, Frank Reusch, to cover them with Superman Blue paint set off with some real fire airbrush work.

Final additions included a set of blacked-out and lowered Burly Slammer shocks in the rear, a NYC Choppers Model A Ford-style taillight/license mount bolted to the left side of the rear axle, and a set of Maltese Cross mirrors. After several months of suffering through the brisk Wisconsin winter, Jerad’s Dyna project was finally complete. While the number of Street Bobs on the roadways has significantly increased over the years, Jerad is proud of the fact that he has yet to come across one that looks like his. HB

Specifications

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