Who says you need a ground-up custom to look good? The 2009 Road Glide, seen here, is a prime example of a bike that the average Joe can put together with a very limited set of tools.
This Road Glide is a bit of a departure from the feature bikes you are used to seeing on these pages. Those bikes might range from an over-the-top, handmade, heart-stopping custom to a garage-build that takes some serious ingenuity and a lot of talent to put back together into a daily rider.
In the words of the owner of this bike, “other than it looks amazing, it is really nothin’ special.” A bike like this can be a daily rider or a showstopper, or anything in between. The reason the owner calls his bike Nothin’ Special is because the whole thing, other than paint of course, was put together with regular, over the counter, bolt-on parts. There isn’t a single handmade custom piece on this bike. It’s a prime example of what can be done by simply swapping stock parts for catalogue parts.
After borrowing friends’ Road Glides for research and development for his line of Hogtunes stereo equipment, owner Mike “Pez” Pesdirz realized that he needed to have his own test mule. He also realized that when he went to Drag Specialties events in the United States, every other company had a show bike, but “the guys from Canada had nothing.” He knew it was time to have a showpiece of his own in order to demonstrate his product; somewhere along the line, word of his idea got out, and before he knew it, a few product quotes started coming in.
“RC Components sent me a quote for wheels, belt pulley and rotors that I just couldn’t refuse,” said Pez, “and that got the ball rolling.” Calling in a few favours and being liberal with his credit card resulted in a skid-load of parts showing up at his door, most of them from Klock Werks.
Pez sent the bike to Brian Olsen of Brian Olsen Racing in southern Ontario to remove the bodywork for paint, and in the meantime, parts were unpackaged and bolted on – it was that simple. “The Klock Werks parts were exactly as advertised. No modifications were needed, they just bolted right on,” Pez claimed.
“Roger Pouw at Extreme Measures did the paint. I told him not to go too nuts with it, and it has to be Cobalt Blue and Silver. Other than that, he had full creative freedom to do whatever he thought best.” Pez chuckled. “The colour actually revolved around a prototype Drag Specialties seat I had scrounged up that had blue stitching in it.”
“It would have been easy for us to have gone wild and created a full-blown custom for a showpiece, but that’s not who I am and it’s not who our customers are. We’re just everyday regular guys.” Pez continued, “Everybody buys handlebars, grips, exhaust, seat and mirrors. Not to belittle the makers of the bike’s major parts, but take away the fenders and wheels and the bike is nothin’ special. The paint makes the bike and that is a real testament to Roger’s creativity.”
Of course, because this is the Hogtunes demo bike, Pez had to outfit it with his top-of-the-line, 160-watt amp and a six-speaker system. In order to add the Ultra-style lowers for the glove box speakers, he had to source out the 2010 fairing mounting brackets so the lowers would fit on his bike without modifications. At 6 feet 4 inches, Pez towers over Klock Werks’ shortest windshield, and during a Drag-hosted event in the Adirondacks, Pez didn’t have a problem hearing the stereo at speeds well above the posted limit.
Even with this gorgeous bike, Pez is most proud of the deals he found scouring the bargain bins. He picked up the floorboards, brake pedal pad, shifter pegs and more for rock-bottom prices from the clearance wall.
Because, at the end of the day, the sum of all those parts combined make Nothin’ Special.
