2005 Harley Davidson Road King Classic - Lo-Rye-Duh

"He who loses welath loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all." - Miguel De Cervantes

"He who loses welath loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his c

The term "bling" was invented and made famous by a hip-hop crew dubbed the Cash Money Millionaires in the mid-'90s. It since has been overtaken by the masses and actually got its pop-culture just desert by being added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2002. A description once only intended for large chunks of precious metals adorned with hundreds of diamonds, the meaning has now spilled out to the rest of society and is the go-to term for anything flashy. This 2005 Road King Classic dubbed the "Road Bling" is definitely a case in point of the aforementioned. With its heavy flake paint, pinstripes and variegated gold leaf, it diligently screams bling! Though it didn't start out that way at all.

After buying the bike on eBay with a salvage title for a bit under $10K with only 2,600 miles on it, owner Mike Sacca from Albany, New York, immediately tore it apart and got busy. So busy in fact that the only original parts on this bike are the frame, transmission and wiring harness.

Not wanting a flashy bike with an underpowered poser motor, Mike assembled a fire-breathing 120ci JIMS Twin Cam motor with Screamin' Eagle heads, cams and air cleaner. A Horsepower Inc. 55mm throttle body and 58mm plenum do the job of getting air into the motor with a custom D&D Boarzilla two-into-one spitting out the spent gasses with a throaty authority.

A pimp ride such as this definitely needed a set of wheels, and the chromed aluminum 2 1/18-inch HD Wheels' custom "Mag" spoke lacing Apollos surrounded in Metzeler rubber do the trick just fine. Hawg Halters calipers and HD Wheels rotors also do a good job of simultaneously stopping well and looking good.

The bike's frontend is a 1 1/2-inch-lower-than-stock single-sided brake unit by Perse with Race Tech's Gold Valve eliminators and Harley triple-trees. Out back, a completely adjustable-on-the-fly Legend Air Ride system keeps the rear end dumped while cruising and the bags from getting scraped up while tearing up the switchbacks.

In the sheetmetal department, a Fat Katz fender hugs the front wheel and extended Custom Valley covers the rear. A Russ Wernimount stretched tank and dash add to the low but not slow Road Bling.

Harley-Davidson hand controls with Arlen Ness mirrors sit atop made-from-scratch apehangers that were actually made by Rich Roy at Masterkraft. Adding to the list of hands-on items, Mr. Sacca also chopped up and stretched out the Corbin seat all by his lonesome.

Wanting the look of a West Coast lowrider or "Vato" bike, he knew he needed flake and lots of it. Not being a guy to do things half-assed, Mike had his pals at Neal's Auto get busy with the flake gun using SEM's Color Horizons Blue Flake on the frame and two-toned it with Toyota white on the tank, saddlebags and front fender. To split up the two vastly different shades, major amounts of gold leaf and pinstripes were applied by Mr. Sacca's homeboy Speedy. To keep up with the shininess of the paint, boxes and boxes of parts were taken to Meclec Metal Finishing to get the triple-plate show chrome that this bike deserved.

With a lot of dedication and just short of a year to get it done before his 50th birthday and subsequent trip to Sturgis, Mike Sacca took a totaled '05 bike and fused it with the looks of a '70s lowrider, making a bike that every transplanted cholo in the state of New York could be proud of.