"Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such." Henry M
One man's trashed bike is another man's treasure
When some people see a lump of clay, they see just that. There are others who see what could become of that lump of clay with a little hard work. Darrel Bugno is one of the latter. With just one look at a wrecked 2003 Road Glide, he knew he could build one of the coolest baggers around that would show off his bike-building talents.
As owner of Rage Custom Cycles in Ormond Beach, Florida, he knows it's really hard to stand out above the rest of the bikes in town, but he's always up for the challenge. Mind you, Darrel has been doing fiberglass work for over 25 years and has made a name for himself by way of building tons of Pro Street bikes and other custom motorcycles. So he decided to try his hand at building a bike that he and his wife could go two-up on all day with plenty of storage, so a tricked-out bagger fit the bill perfectly.
After snatching up the road-rashed Road Glide, he wasted no time in figuring out just how he wanted to rebuild it. Since the crashed bike's frame was unusable, Darrel picked one up from Chopper Guys that allowed a 200 tire to be used in the rear. Believe it or not, the saddlebags of all things were the main concept for the entire bike. Yes, the bike was built around the one-off bags. The custom sidecovers were then built, and it evolved from there. Being a true hands-on guy and definitely not afraid to slice and dice metal as well as fiberglass, he widened the rear fender, stretched the tank and custom-made a dash. He also did some custom molding to the front fender, fairing and the frame. To get the right look for the '50s-style frenched taillights and turn signals, many truck stops and junkyards were visited including some trips to see Darrel's buddy Kevin Turner of Hobo Cycle, who seemed to have all the other parts needed to get this bike back on the road in a short period of time.
Not content with being able to do all the fiberglass and metalwork on his own, Mr. Bugno went one step farther and also painted the bike. Starting with a base of Hot Hues True Blue, he then sprayed the intricate graphics in various shades of blue on the bike as well.
To get the bike sitting right, he dropped it 1.5 inches in the front and 1 inch in the rear while swapping out the stocker wheels with 18-inch rear and 21-inch front Performance Machine wheels mated to Metzeler skins. Polished Harley-Davidson calipers both front and rear do the stopping duties.
The motor is pretty much a stock Harley-Davidson fuel-injected 2003 88-inch with a few bells and whistles such as a Terry Components Terminal Velocity II fuel-injection management system, Forcewinder air cleaner and a set of Sampson's True Dual exhausts in chrome.
The one thing that Darrel didn't do on the bike was the covering and stitching of the seat. This was handled by the ever-capable hands of his good buddy Eddy at Daytona Upholstery, who used a combination of ostrich skin and bull leather in black for the booty duty.
After the relatively short build time of four months, this lump of clay has turned into a killer bike that Mr. and Mrs. Bugno cruise the Florida beaches on regularly, and their blue shark-nosed Harley makes all the other bagger riders in sight green with envy.