Photo Finish | 2009 Harley-Davidson Street Glide

Black Is Beautiful Before I dive into this, whoever the hell thought pina-colada-flavored panties would be a good idea is a genius; the same kind of mad scientist that brought us peanut butter and chocolate, or salted margaritas. I never would've mixed those things together and a year ago I'd be damned if I would've tossed metalflake and flat black together on the same bagger, but well, here we are. Tony Puricelli's '09 Street Glide is a study in those two contrasts and proof positive that breaking the rules is the only real way to stand out from the pack.

It was all Mike Dusold's doing, though. He's a self-taught painter and fabricator who first picked up a sprayer at age 11 while hanging out at his dad's body shop in Chicago. Mike D is Tony's builder-of-choice. For years, Dusold Designs was the go-to shop whenever Puricelli wanted a new rigid chop job. Like an accountant trapped serving a life sentence though, Tony's back bothered him after years and years of hard riding. He's a diehard motorcyclist who finally wanted something with a little more rear suspension than a sprung seat, so he got the Glide and turned it over to Mike so he could cool it up.

"The great thing about Tony is, I've worked with him so much, he just gives me an idea of what he wants and lets me go for it," Mike tells us. "To me, it's a cool-looking bike that's comfortable versus a cool looking bike you just want to get off of afterward."

In this case, the idea was evil, evil, and more evil. Apparently, sinister really does it for Tony. Flat black amps up the nasty factor anywhere it goes; throwing it into the mix on this dresser made sense. However, flat black's also the current fad du jour. Mike was tired of it. Doing it his own way was an absolute must. The question was how?

The answer was contrast. Offsetting the flat with strategic sprinkling of gloss really breaks this machine out of the flat-and-satin mold that's become such a hallmark in custom bike finishes over the last few years. One problem you run into in doing that is balancing out both finishes without one overpowering the other. Mike's approach? Match the tones. Light black is called "gray." There is no such thing. Any color he chose also had to be dark if he wanted the whole bike to look as one unified badass piece of rolling artwork. He went with a deep, dark candy green but he also kicked himself in the nuts with the added creative challenge of metalflake. Or did he? With its hundreds of tiny little reflective surfaces, flake is a schizo that changes personalities based on whatever light happens to be hitting it at the time. It also tends to diffuse glare, compared to straight-up gloss paint. Think of it as a happy medium between the matte and gloss blacks that finish the rest of Tony's Glide.

Mike tells us, "It all came together as one piece. It all looks like everything belongs. That's a good sign you've got everything right-it blends, flows, and comes together. Just looks right on its own. I like the way the candy flake contrasts the black. In some light it's subtle, others loud. I think that's cool about it too." As you might imagine, the paintjob ate more time than any other part of this project.

Most of the other alterations either made this bike angrier or cleaned it up in some way. Mike fired the rear fender and lighting team, replacing them with a cleaner set from Klock Werks. While he was back there, he stretched the bags to smooth out the profile, and trimmed the Corbin seat for the same reason. "There are a lot of details on this one you wouldn't notice unless the bike was next to one that didn't have them," Mike observes.

Anger came courtesy of the bars and wheels. With their spiky bends, the Yaffe apes definitely sport some attitude up top. Mike matched that 'tude on the down-low with a set of Gasser wheels from Performance Machine, the front being a 21-inch and the rear measuring in at 18x5.5 inches to beef up the back. Tony had no problem with the front forks but liked the adjustability that comes with a Legend Air Ride at the back, so on that went. Now he can raise up or slam down at will.

When it came to the motor, Tony didn't go whole hog with upgrades. He erred on the side of reliability by confining them to some bigger slugs and barrels, Screamin' Eagle heads, cams setup, an EFI controller, and a D&D Fat Cat 2-into-1.

With its unorthodox mix of shiny and flat, Tony's Street Glide isn't something you see every day. That just falls in line with Mike's philosophy as an artist. "You can't teach somebody art, in my opinion. I try not to look at other people's art so I can stay original. I try to get my ideas from other influences. But man, so much has been done that it's getting trickier and trickier to do that." We can't wait to see how he does that next time.