2008 H-D Road KingWhen we first get our new Harleys, most of us sit and stare at it dreaming of what it could be with a few changes. Some of us just dream of swapping pipes and maybe a seat change. Some of us dream of going a bit more advanced and swapping wheels and adding different bars, cables, and hoses fit the bill. It takes a special kind of guy to buy a brand new H-D motorcycle and rebuild it completely to suit his liking, but that is what Junior Rodriquez from Camarillo, California did when he purchased this '08 Road King. Looking like nothing like the bike that rolled off the assembly line, this bike seems to have the perfect combination of black and chrome mixed with tons of attitude.
Junior started the build by pulling off all of the sheetmetal and stock bags, replacing the front and rear fenders and nacelle with some swanky offerings from Bad Dad. The hard bags were replaced with a pair of GB-102-BB long saddlebags from Gator Boxes. All of the added items were then mudded, sanded smooth and shot in House of Kolor's gloss black to a mirror finish by Steve Karr. While the bike was up on the stand and shucked of its sheetmetal, Junior wanted to give the bike an altitude adjustment, so a Hi-Lo Rider air ride system from Bike Buddy Pro was installed out back and a Progressive Suspension 2-inch lowering kit and chrome lowers were installed in the front.
Junior also scored himself a set of 100-spoke wheels in the 21/18-inch variety from HD Wheels. They are a killer combination of gloss black powdercoated aluminum rims with polished stainless steel spokes. The HDW wheels ride on a set of all-black 120/70/21 front and 160/60/18 Metzeler tires. With the addition of some sweet wheels with some nice skins, Junior couldn't just throw the stock H-D rotors and calipers back on. A set of chrome plated Wilwood GP 310 calipers coupled with polished stainless HDW floating rotors and Russell stainless brake lines were added to where the OE units once did. The engine is basically the stock '08 96ci unit that the Road King came from the factory with, but Junior added a ton of chrome, an oil cooler, and a Wimmer Machine Dual Runner intake with twin Super Sucker velocity stacks to the EFI unit. To expend the gasses sucked in by the Wimmer Intake, a set of BUB "7" True Dual pipes were employed. The BUB pipes also added a bit more power and some seriously mean sounds when running through the gears.
In the control sector, a set of Harley-Davidson Knuckler handlebars were first bolted on, then a set of Performance Machine hand controls were added. To top off the PM hand controls, a set of Arlen Ness mirrors finish off the menagerie of chrome. A set of big and beautiful Kryakyn ISO-Board footboards with Girder shift levers and an extended brake pedal carry out the lower control duties. When all was said and done the Road King was all put back together like you see it, only the last piece of the puzzle was to find the right seat that offered both comfort and good looks. Junior looked for what seemed like forever to find a seat that would fit the bill and was close to spending a ton of money on a custom job, when by chance he stopped into his local Harley dealer and saw an H-D Brawler seat on a bike and decided it would be look good on the bike. With the Brawler topping the bike, Junior's vision and subsequent 10 months of work was complete.
Don't let the ber-clean look of this bike fool you. Since the day that the "Black Diamond" was reassembled, Junior and this black and chrome beauty have been racking up the miles, and not on the back of a trailer either. We all know that no matter what kind of custom work may be done to baggers, they are still made to ride... and muy rapido we may add.