A Painter's Personal Ride
Being the owner of a prominent custom-paint company and a motorcycle enthusiast sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it? But it can also be a lot of pressure. Just ask Jeff Theisen. As the leader of Gunslinger Custom Paint, Jeff knows there are certain standards his personal rides need to adhere to, or people will find a reason to use someone else's paint.
So naturally, imagination, skill and clean lines are all drawn together for the boss's ride. In the case of this primary-colored machine, silver-tipped waves of blue wash up on a scarlet tie-dyed pattern on all of the upper surfaces. Digging deeper, the red half is veined with a cracked, mottled pattern that at a distance just gives depth but close up is its own universe. The same goes for the blue/black end of the bike, except in this half of the job, ghostly, smoky airbrushed skulls fill the pattern. In one spot, there even used to be a recreation of an ultrasound of Jeff's son (at seven months in the womb), but when he decided to sell the bike, it was covered with more skulls. A pair of fine pinstripes and a band of glittering metallic silver separate the two halves and finish the look. Despite all of the complexity, the subtleness of the art simply makes it look like it's got depth from a distance, while up close the flashy mastery is revealed. In a nutshell, it's exactly the sort of paintjob a painter should have on his rolling billboard.
But it takes more than just a great paintjob to make a killer custom. In this case, the mods are light but very effective. The front fender is actually a pair of stock fenders fused together and given a lower extension by the fab shop at GCP. With all the holes welded up and a smooth surface to work with, this small piece of work really helps to tie the whole look together. Out back, a 200mm tire kit from Fat Baggers covers the rear and even includes a nice frenched-in license plate with super-tight tolerances. A pair of sweet PM Hooligan wheels rounds out the bike.
The rest of the bike was left in the "factory custom" state that many a dresser enthusiast has embraced-just the clean lines of the Street Glide. Yet despite its mostly stock pedigree, it was used at the Grand National Roadster Show among others as a rolling display piece for Planet Color, which supplied the paint. It turns out that simple and accessible is sometimes the best when showing a rider what their bike can be without too much effort or a bunch of modifications that might make it less of a rider.
Like we mentioned earlier, the bike has now been sold, and Jeff is certainly already done with his next rider. A painter's work is never done, and that's a good thing.