2003 CVO Road King
Derk bought this bike as a salvaged bike for a customer who already had a Road King customized by Bad Dad. The owner had a desire for another bike with a bigger motor and this one filled the bill since Derk was planning to replace the damaged items with his custom parts anyways. Derk brought it into the shop and used it to test parts and mock things up on while the new owner made payments on the bike. When the bike was paid for and the build was getting serious, the guy lost his job. He was in a bit of a spot, so Derk refunded the money and put the bike together the way he saw it. Derk generally builds bikes to the customer's specs so this was an opportunity to build a bike the way he wanted.
The bike is an '03 CVO Screamin' Eagle Road King and it came in the standard gold color that Harley used that year. When Derk was discussing the plans for the bike with his crew, they had a big discussion regarding color. The OEM gold color had grown on them somewhat, and since they already built orange, green, red, blue, and black bikes, they decided to keep the bike gold. Because the OEM gold was a little weak, Derk mixed up his own batch of gold with more flake and a much warmer tone, and then used that gold color after body working the frame and swingarm, and also for all the other body panels including the handlebars. With the decision to paint the bike gold, they also decided to name the bike King Midas. The name King Midas is a Greek mythology reference to the king whose touch turned everything to gold. They were also able to make a play between "King" Midas and Road "King," so it helps carry the king reference throughout the bike.
The royalty aspect of King Midas started with the brass crown Derk bought on eBay and decided to turn it into a gas cap. He was aware of crown gas caps available on the market but Derk wanted his crown "super-sized," so this worked perfectly. He then flush-mounted a set of crowns for turn signals in the back of the Bad Dad Stretched Saddlebags, and also flush-mounted three crowns down each side of the bags. The three crowns on the bags actually flash sequentially when the turn signals are activated. To finish the crown and highlight the Screamin' Eagle aspect of the bike, Derk had Scal of Scal Graphix hand-paint an eagle head wearing a crown on the side of the gas tank.
For the other bolt-on components of the bike, the previous owner had selected a 23-inch front wheel from Wicked Image prior to Derk buying the bike back. That wheel was the mock-up wheel Derk used for creating the 23-inch wrap fender that is featured on this bike. He also ordered a matching rotor and a six-piston caliper, knocked the caliper lugs from the right-side leg, and plated it. He also lowered the frontend 2 inches with a drop-in Progressive Suspension kit. For the rear end, Derk used an Arnott air setup. To lower the back even further, a set of Bad Dad Slammed Lowering Blocks got the back another 2 inches closer to the ground.
This bike also features Bad Dad's entire catalog of custom bagger parts, including the Stretched Headlight Nacelle and Stretched Spear, Stretched Tank Shroud, Low Profile Dash, Stretched Saddlebags with flush signals, and Stretched Rear Fender with flush brake and flush plate. The flush mount lights are completely customizable to any shape or design. The bike also features a set of Bad Dad's custom slip-ons that are designed to slightly extend beyond the length of the saddlebags and are slash-cut to match the sloping angle of the back of the Stretched Saddlebags.
The handlebars were also handmade for this bike. Bad Dad's friends Ronnie Cooley and Bill Edler made the rider and passenger floorboards, toe shifter, and brake pad. Finally, Derk added a few other custom features to this bike, such as relocating the ignition switch to the right sidecover to help clean up the dash, and the speedometer moved to the left-side rocker box. The speedometer belonged to Derk's father-in-law, Ron Robinson, who passed away last fall. Ron is also the father of Bad Dad's engineer Adam Robinson. After Ron's passing, the speedometer was found in Ron's huge garage full of hot rod and muscle car parts. As a further connection, Ron also undertook the responsibility of transporting this Road King from the salvage yard to the Bad Dad shop. Ron was known for saying, "It only costs a little more to go first class."