2005 H-D Road King
Just over three years ago Derek Rankin was a Harley-Davidson V-Rod owner and was very happy being one, until the day Derek saw what he called "the king of all bikes," a fully tricked out Road King. This bike was done up with all the bling that could be bolted on a bike. He knew right then that was the kind of bike he wanted and had to have. As Derek was riding home on his V-Rod, all he could think about was how fast could he sell the V-Rod and get a new Road King.
Derek put the bike up for sale the next day, but after a few weeks and no real buyers he was starting to get impatient so he took the bike to the local Harley dealer and started wheeling and dealing to trading in the V-Rod for a used '05 Road King they had on the showroom floor. After a long day of haggling, a deal was struck and Derek was the new owner of a Road King. As Derek was riding home on his new (to him) Road King all kinds of ideas were flying around his head starting with the motor. The thing was he had just got off a relatively fast bike, the V-Rod, so as Derek was twisting the throttle, he was thinking it needed more power and speed.
Once the bike was home, over the next few weeks Derek made a few phone calls to some friends to get advice on what to do and where to go. Derek's good friend Larry told him about a shop he used and had full trust in and swore by the quality. The shop was called Leon's Performance in Swansea, Massachusetts. Larry told Derek they would turn his bike into what he was looking for. After some time on the phone with Leon the shop owner, Derek loaded the Road King up and headed to Swansea.
Once the bike was in Leon's shop the two went over the game plan starting with the motor. The plan was to rework the heads, bore out the cylinders to 95ci, and add a set of Andrews cams. Then a Zippers Thunder Max EFI controller was installed along with a D&D 2-into-1 Fat Cat exhaust pipe. As the motor work was going on a few mods to the frame were done, with Leon raking the neck out 7 degrees, and also swapping out the stock triple trees for a set of HHI 7-degree trees. Leon told Derek this will give the bike the appearance of movement even when it is parked. The next thing was wheels. This had to be done before any of the sheetmetal was ordered to make sure everything would fit. A set of Tahoe wheels and rotors from Renegade were shipped to the shop. For the front Derek wanted a tall and thin 23x3.5-incher and a 16x5.5 for the rear. Once the wheels were in place all new PM calipers were installed along with hand and foot controls for maximum stopping power.
For the sheetmetal Leon started by stretching the gas tank to fill in the space between the custom alligator seat and the custom dash fitted with a new speedo from Dakota Digital. Then a stretched headlight nacelle was also added along with turn signals molded into the inside of the nacelle for a complete hidden look. Bad Dad bags and rear fender along with Trask front fender were installed on the bike for fitment before being sent off for paint.
Once it was time for paint, all the sheetmetal and side tins were sent to Amarals Auto Body where Johnny and Doug covered everything in a rich black base coat with red realistic flames on top. Then Derek was introduced to Keith Hanson to do the graphics. He told Keith he wanted a sick flame job on the bike; something to offset the base colors. The graphics were shot in orange to bring out the realistic flame glow. Once the paint was done everything was sent back to Leon's shop for assembly. Leon spent countless hours with this installation, way more then Derek expected, he wanted to make sure everything was done right. When the day came to pick up the bike Derek could see that it was worth the wait, and he was so happy with the way the bike turned out. Everyone around Derek was saying that the Road King was a better bike for him, it lets him be the king of the road, big King D.