2003 Victory Deluxe Touring Cruiser - Kelly's Victory Glide

Before you make up your mind that this is another Electra Glide with stretched saddlebags, take a closer look at the motor. That's right it's not an H-D mill at all, rather it's a Victory motor cradled in the frame. Back in 2006 Kelly Cornwell was in Florida on his way to pick up a new Road King when he passed Distinctive Cycles, a Victory dealer in Destin. He decided to stop in and check out the bikes.

Kelly saw a bike on the floor that resembled a Road King with white walls, windshield, hard saddlebags, and a nice two-tone paint job. Kelly went on a test ride and wound up buying the Deluxe Touring Cruiser. The floor model was a slightly used bike ridden by Kyle Petty for a charity event. So out was the RK and in was the Vic.

Kelly's good friend had just bought a Road King and was teasing Kelly about how much customizing he was going to do to his new H-D and that Kelly was stuck with a bike with little aftermarket support. There was a rumor that the Touring Cruiser was getting dropped from the lineup too and Kelly would wind up just selling the Victory at a loss and buying the Road King anyway.

Kelly is a competitive guy so he bet his friend that whatever work was done on the Road King that Kelly could do to his new Victory. Kelly is pretty handy and figured it would be a fun project and a challenge. Besides it would cost him $1,000 if he couldn't pull it off.

His friend bought a fairing and so did Kelly, from Wide Open Customs. His friend extended his saddlebags so Kelly went to work and built his. Kelly started out with a set of '80s police hard bags and used wood and fiberglass to get the saddlebags just right. The contest continued for almost a year seeing who could outdo the other. Kelly customized the logos on the tank; the '61 H-D FL emblems were made to read Victory Cycles.

A chrome war ensued where most parts of the bike were treated to a new coat of shiny. The hand controls, frontend, calipers, rotors-basically everything that wasn't chrome now is. The Road King got some beach bars so Kelly went to work boring out the triple tree to accept six-inch risers and new Chubby bars. Dan at Beach Customs bent up a set of one-off exhaust pipes with fishtails exiting under the stretched bags.

After both bikes were customized the one-way bet was off. Kelly managed to do everything to his Victory that could be done to a Road King. From all out comfort and looks to a rocking stereo system, Kelly's new ride had it all. Kelly likes to talk about old-fashioned ingenuity when it comes to this bike. He likes all bikes he just wanted to see what could be done to a very good motorcycle without using catalogs to order parts.

Kelly credits shops like Beach Customs that think outside the box and take on challenging projects. Terry, Drew, and Jerry from Beach ordered a lot of what Kelly needed, fabbed some parts for him, did the wiring, and hooked Kelly up with a custom seat built in-house.

This Victory is certainly one of the finest examples of what imagination and determination can achieve. It's a very unique bike with a cool story and something that will likely stand out when given a second glance. Kelly proved that if you have a dream and a vision in your mind that it can come true.