Blue Thunder | 2009 Harley Davidson Street Glide

2009 Ness H-D Street Glide
When I showed up to photograph this bike on a beautiful winter morning at an urban convention center, I wasn't sure how or where I was going to get it done. Without a hitch, the Ness team threw me the keys and had the doors opened for me. I didn't ask any questions, I just fired her up and rode out. For the sake of getting good shots, I rode the bike around for two hours until I came upon the chosen spot in Long Beach, California. This bike created a ton of attention, snarling traffic as people rolled down their windows to ask questions. Kids, young, old, and tourists were mesmerized by this ride. It was a great day and the 23-inch front wheel and raked frontend handled very well. The slight motor mods made a surprising difference; thankfully the local police were more interested in asking about the bike than writing me a ticket. -Toph

Contrary to the title above, this story doesn't involve a drunken incident with a milking machine and a tube of hand lotion. It might if we looked into my blacked-out past, but that's a road best left untraveled. Maybe that's because when life hands me lemons, I make margaritas. When life pulls the same trick with Cory Ness, he apparently makes a clean custom bike like this one. It's an '09 Street Glide-one of those great baggers with the all-new (at the time) chassis. Unfortunately, the same model year that made the Harley faithful grin ear-to-ear threw the aftermarket into a collective conniption fit. Manufacturers literally reinvented the wheel (among other parts) to fit the new frames. Arlen and Cory Ness were no exception.

That didn't seem to faze Cory too much, though. He was his usual cool, calm self when I asked him about this flame-clad street prowler. "We try to buy at least one new Harley-Davidson a year to check over for R&D," he informed me. "That's why we bought this bike-to check out the new frame changes as soon as possible."

The steeds weren't the only ones that had changed, however. More and more riders veered away from commissioning ground-up customs. Between the nation's economic nosedive and the do-it-yourself mentality that's seeping back into the forefront of the American consciousness, would-be custom bike owners would rather morph a cool ride from a stock Harley. Cory figured that trend into this Street Glide: "Guys are hacking up their bikes rather than building from scratch these days. We wanted to reflect that."

Eyeball the frame neck to see what he means. Ness research and development (R&D) re-raked the frame to really kick out the 23-inch front wheel. Cory elaborated: "You have the option with the new fork legs to unbolt the caliper on the right-hand side. We made that interchangeable so you don't have to do any cutting. It really shows off our new Hot Legs." Raking the frame took less than a day. Paul Yaffe made a set of raked triple trees that were exactly what Cory wanted to keep proper trail. What's more, the longer profile of the frontend looks great and the Street Glide still has plenty of ground clearance. That's not always a guarantee with a 23-inch front wheel. It wasn't just some hack job on a stock frontend to make the larger front wheel fit and the suspension travel took the bigger hoop into account for a safe ride.

Cory didn't limit the new innovations to the Hot Legs, though. The R&D team conjured up these new Over the Top headers to boot. Not only do they jazz up the motor's looks, the head pipes also fit stock or custom mufflers. Overall, the power upgrades were kept pretty straightforward-a set of Vance & Hines mufflers, a Retro Derby air cleaner, and a Big Shot EFI tuner.

That air cleaner is just the tip of a designer's iceberg Arlen Ness started years ago with its Retro fork boots. Matching accessories from side covers to floorboards and grips have joined the line since then. What unifies them is the grooved horizontal line motif found on all of the parts. In most cases it's all form, but with the floorboards, those grooves have a pretty cool function-hiding rubber inserts. Oftentimes chromed out boards have no traction for your feet. Ness used the Retro's lines to semi-conceal the rubber without sacrificing the all-chrome look a lot of riders like. All of the new pieces are pretty straightforward and bolt-on, which is good because that's what Ness R&D worked to accomplish. The last headache anyone wants from catalog jewels like these is a contest of wills to make them fit right.

So what can you expect from Ness in 2011? Try a Ness Road Glide with new extended bags and rear fender kit that uses the stock Harley lids. It'll stretch the bike half a foot rearward. Between it, the new Ness raked triple tree kit that's in the works, and a Hot Legs fork set, you'll see a bagger that's a foot longer than stock but still handles perfectly. Any day you add that much length without hacking a frame, surgery, or pills is a good day to me.

Spec Sheet