May The PEZ Be With You | 2005 Harley Davidson Ultra Classic

In late 2004, Diane and Terry Conroy were living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and ordered an ’05 H-D Ultra Classic dressed in Black Cherry Pearl/Black Pearl. No sooner did the bike arrive and before Terry could even break it in, that his job moved the couple to Wichita, Kansas. Once in Wichita, Terry’s friend Herb had a WWII pin-up girl airbrushed on the tank of his Road King and it got Terry interested in some custom work for his new Ultra. Terry was introduced to Jason Jewett the artist and owner of Redhouse Custom Paint in Derby.

As a hobby, Diane and Terry have been collecting PEZ dispensers for 20 years. Liking what Jason did to Herb’s bike, the couple thought, wouldn’t it be cool to combine our love of PEZ and H-D into a theme bike? It should be pointed out that this was way before OCC did its PEZ themed bike so the Conroy’s like to think OCC did a poor imitation of their bike. Currently the two have over 500 different PEZ dispensers in their collection. This is not the largest collection around, but probably the largest by an individual with a PEZ Harley in his garage and his PEZ gas tank tattooed on his arm.

In the winter of ’06 the Conroys went to Jason with their idea. As Terry recalls, We had the girl and eagle already drawn out but Jason took both to a new level with his imagination and attention to detail as seen in the feathering of the eagle and 3-D effect in the tumbling candy PEZ bricks off the bike. Jason added the bricks, flames, pinstriping and ghosted Bar & Shield on the Tour-Pak lid to Diane and Terry’s ideas thus giving a complete theme. All of this was clear coated with SRC-1 a scratch resistant, self-healing product made by Sherwin-Williams. All was done and back together for the 2006 riding season.

With one trip to Sturgis in 2006 behind the pair it was time for them to hit the road again for the 2007 rally. After a two-day ride the Conroys made it to their friend Pete’s house on Lazelle Street. It was time to relax and take in the rally and ride the countryside around the Black Hills. They already had their Toby Keith tickets for that night’s concert so after a day ride to Devil’s Tower they were chilling at the house with their feet dangling in the wading pool Pete had setup out front. The day before one of the girls staying with them put up a banner next to the pool inviting Toby to come bylike that was going to happen. As Diane and Terry were sitting there enjoying a beverage two bikes rolled into the drivewayone black Ultra and a Street Glide. They didn’t think anything of it because bikes were coming and going all day until one of their friends yelled, hey, it’s Toby Keith. Yep, it really was Toby and Brian O’Connell, the president of Live Nation-Nashville that rolled up on the two baggers.

After all the intros, Toby and Brian sat with the group for about 45 minutes. Brian said that while out riding the day before, one of Toby’s people saw the banner and told Toby about it and he made the trip to surprise Diane and Terry. During the visit Brian and Toby looked at all of the bikes and Brian pointed out Terry’s bike to Toby. Terry asked Toby if he’d mind taking a picture on the PEZ bike and he was more than gracious to do so.

After saying goodbye, Terry stopped traffic on Lazelle so the two bikers could join the long line of bikes heading out to the campgrounds and the concert. The very unassuming Toby and Brian fit right in with no problems at all.

When Terry got back home he sent an e-mail to Toby’s record company with copies of the pictures for him to have. Not thinking anything of it, one day Terry got a phone call from someone at Show Dog (Toby’s record label) saying that Toby was in the office and they were printing copies of the pics Terry sent in for Toby to sign and send back. Terry went on to say, How cool is that? Toby’s the best! Great concert that night so it was a Sturgis trip that’s hard to beat

In 2008 work moved the Conroys to North Carolina. A short time later Terry found out about Bad Dad Customs out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Terry thought the Bad Dad parts were second to none and he told Jacob of Bad Dad that he’d just gone full circle because of his Ultra being bought in Fort Wayne three years prior. It was time for a Bad Dad project. So Terry ordered the bag extensions, rear fender, and Tour-Pak relocation kit from Bad Dad and had it all shipped back to Jason for bodywork and paint. Over the phone Jason and Terry again agreed on the design. Everything came back from paint and during the wait Terry sent the Tour-Pak mount to Roger at Final Touch Powder Coating where Roger matched the Black Cherry Pearl exactly, so the hoops and mount were ready for re-assembly when the Bad Dad parts were done being painted. While the bike was down Terry ordered a set of 12-inch Arnott/Bilstein Air Ride shocks. Terry had good things to say about the install, the system went in flawlessly and when I did have a question, the tech support at Arnott had all the answers. On went a new exhaust system; off with the old and on with the new Tailgunner Torpedoes mufflers.

Everything went on without a hitchthe parts were awesome, the paint and powdercoating came out perfect, the sound is deep with the rumble Terry was looking for, and the travel of the air ride is a real trip. Finally, Terry added the Peter PEZ head to the Tour-Pak rack. Peter PEZ is the PEZ mascot so to speak. He’s wired with LED’s in his eyes so that when the brakes are applied his eyes light up.

Next stop, North Carolina countryside, here comes the PEZHD! B

Spec Sheet