How does a guy named Houston who is from South Carolina hook up with a guy from Phoenix to paint his bike? It's a long story that dates back a few years when Houston was looking for a painter to shoot some wild stuff on a few of his world-record-holding Yamaha Banshee race quads. After searching the Internet, looking at other paintjobs for a clue as to just what he wanted, he stumbled upon Airea5150.com and become enamored with what he saw. Looking for hours through page upon page of skulls, demons and nekkid women, he knew he had found what he was looking for. Fast-forward a few years as well as a few quads later, and Houston was hot to get his legs wrapped around a bagger. After looking at just which model he wanted, his mind was made up, and he decided to throw down some cash on a 2008 Street Glide. After riding it a few miles, he was happy with most of the stock items on the bike but wanted to make it look different than all the others at the cruise nights as well as put a few more horses into it.
Being a guy who has made a name for himself as a two-stoke engine builder, Houston decided to tear down the stock motor and add on a Screamin' Eagle 103 kit. While he was doing the teardown on the motor, he sent all the sheetmetal to Scott and Karen at Airea 5150 to do what they do best. Houston pretty much told them to do what they wanted on it, and as most of us know, this is how you get the best paintjobs, by letting the painter go crazy in the creativity department with no constraints. After six weeks, the freshly painted tin was shipped back safe and sound to Houston, and he was floored at what he saw. A deep, two-toned lime green and gold base with tons of airbrushed demons and purple flaked tribal giblets with pinstriping now adorned his ride.
After seeing the painted parts bolted back onto the bike, Houston knew that the stock wheels were not going back on, so he gave Roland Sands Design a call and ordered up some Contrast Cut Diesel wheels in a 21-inch/18-inch combo wrapped in Metzeler rubber. Knowing that the '08s come with Brembo brake calipers, he bypassed getting aftermarket billet calipers but opted for the matching RSD Contrast Cut rotors and Lyndall Racing pads. From there he did a fair bit of sprucing up on the Street Glide by getting some chrome gauge surrounds and ditching the stock steel floorboards for a set of Performance Machine's polished units with matching shifter and brake pedals. A smoked Kryakyn Panacea LED taillamp with internal inserts cleans up the backside of the bike very well.
With the motor being punched out, the need for an upgraded exhaust hit a fever pitch, and a Bassani two-into-one was bolted onto the right side of the bike. A K&N air filter was also slipped into the otherwise stock air cleaner cover, and it was all tuned with a Fuelpak. The fork was taken apart, amassed with the other pile of parts, including the front engine guard, and sent over to Affordable Powder Coating in Phoenix, Arizona, for the gloss black treatment.
This bike is the case in point that you don't really have to do too much to make your bagger stand out in the crowd. Just do what Houston did and supply yourself with a winning combination of new wheels, a splash of paint and a few more horsepower, and you too can have one killer roadworthy custom bagger. B