2007 H-D Street Glide
A broken back and neck had curtailed Donn Shanteau's riding for more than a few years. The nature of Donn's business (selling custom paint/airbrushing work) put him in and out of custom bike shops and Harley-Davidson dealers on a daily basis. Consulting with clients was almost painful sometimes as looking at customized bikes all day really made Donn want to burn up some highway, like in the good old days.
After a couple of tough years of getting pinned back together Donn's wife Pamela did what any good woman would do to ease her man's pain: she bought Donn a new '07 Street Glide. It didn't take long to get a stage one kit installed and have it painted by Pamela who also happens to be a world class airbrush artist. It sported red dragon themed murals and had some other nice paint and chrome touches added. The bike got noticed. It won every show it entered and appeared in the 2007 BASF Custom Paint Calendar that year.
The bike got the attention of Baggers at a huge car and bike show sponsored by ASET Corp. in Salt Lake City, Utah, and we asked to shoot it for the magazine. At the time Donn respectfully declined, because he knew it would be a much different machine as time went on. We exchanged contact info and said to let us know when he and his bike were ready. Donn had mad plans for his bagger, but would wait until it was re-incarnated before springing it on any unsuspecting townsfolk.
That winter the 96-inch motor came apart and was rebuilt with Pelotas de Acero (balls of steel) and some extra chrome. The 110 cubic inches of high compression adrenalin along with the flowed heads and throttle body combined to provide some riding excitement. The diamond-cut heads and cylinders perform as well as they look, delivering 120hp and 121 lb-ft. of torque at the rear wheel. Donn also replaced the stock 16-inch wheels with a 21 front and 18-inch rear from Xtreme Machine. Stock Dunlop tires were replaced by Avon rubber. The right side front brake was shaved away to better display the medieval looking wheel. Legend Air Ride shocks completed the look. The bike rises up for performance riding or two-up fun. It lowers down to get that 40's hot rod look when at rest or during easy cruising.
Standard storage gave way to a set of sweet stretched bags courtesy of Milwaukee Baggers. A 70-watt Hawg Wired stereo amp and speaker system pumped up the tunes to match the performance of the engine. The extra bright accent lights were not planned for, but after Donn saw an old Indian that was all chromed out that had the same white lights, he had to get them.
The bike was finally done, at least for a while. Right after Donn photographed it for Baggers, before he could review and edit the shots, something bad happened. A boat trailer with no taillights and a Ford Van with a bad tailgating habit caught Donn in their sites. The trip into the ditch to keep from being mangled seemed like a good idea until the bike flipped and nunchucked Donn's head. After a helicopter ride and another hospital stay, Donn was determined to get the bike together in time to make it to the SEMA show in Las Vegas where his Dragon Stomper was to be shown with a Chip Foose Creation (the TerraCuda). Everything went together as before except the paint. Donn and Pamela took the "opportunity" to do a new paint scheme. The dragons had to stay, but now they were blue dragons instead of red. Pam unconsciously painted the new dragon on the fairing into the shape of a number two. They never noticed it until the bike was together.
If you're ever in the Ohio area be on the lookout for Donn's Dragon Stomper. He might come up and blow by so fast you might feel like you got breathed on by a real fire-breathing dragon. Check out Pamela's site too for bike, auto, and even people airbrushing.