Black Beautiful Sleekness | 2011 Illusion Hell

MAIL baggersmag@sorc.com

What is it about a guy who has to have it his way? Is it always the right way or is he just so picky about the details that he can’t see any other way to do it? Some could call this a good thing and others would call this a bad thing. If you are shopping for a car, it’s easy to find what you are looking for at the right dealership, you just need to pick the make and model. However when you are talking about custom motorcycles if you want it right then you better end up in the right shop. And when it comes to custom baggers then it’s a must to find the right shop that knows how to not only make it look good, but makes it run and handle even better.

From what we hear Mike Boone is that kind of guy; he wants it to be the best and done his way, which is the only right way. He was in the market for a custom bike for a while and had been kicking around the idea of a custom Softail done up with bags and a windshield or fairing. After thinking about how much work it would take to customize a Harley Softail the way only he would find adequate to call his own was not the way to go. Mike did some more research on time to build, money to spend, and style of bikes he liked, and wanted when he decided to build a custom bagger. Once Mike made up his mind to go with a bagger, he didn’t want just any bagger though, he wanted it to be fast, functional, and look hot.

Lucky for Mike he has been a long time friend with Rusty Coones one of the owners of Illusion Cycles in Westminster, California, where some of the coolest and cleanest custom motorcycles are built. No stranger to the bagger world, Rusty was ready to take on this build. Rusty knew going in that if it was for Mike, it had to be top-notch, sparing nothing to meet Mike’s high standards. Mike’s other vehicles are all high end and this wasn’t going to be any different. It had to be as cool as the Lamborghini that would be sitting next to it in his carpeted garage. Once Mike worked out all the details about the bike with Rusty, the crew at Illusion Cycles went to work on the concepts for Mike’s kick-ass bagger.

Rusty wanted to point out that baggers are a different breed from the custom choppers and bobbers they have been building for years. Inherently, baggers are fat and stubby in appearance. He said that if you rake the frame a little and rake the triple trees, stretch the neck area a few inches, eliminate the engine guard, stretch the saddlebags, use a clean rear fender, and put a 23-inch wheel up front these bikes can really look cool. The kind of bike any age guy would want to ride. It started with a frame built for Illusion Cycles with 33-degrees in the neck, 2- ½-inches added to the downtubes and backbone and a set of 7-degree triple trees. The powerplant was also a big deal they used a de-stroked 124ci S&S built to meet Rusty’s specs. The heads are the B145s and the engine has the short 4.25 stroke with the 4.125 bore to make it run as smooth as silk. To feed fuel to this monster they used a 42mm Mikuni carburetor and a 520-lift cam. This combination still turns out around 120 hp at the rear wheel yet there is no low rpm lurching as a big cam might have. The transmission is a Baker six-speed with a 32T trans sprocket and a 70T rear pulley so the bike is only turning 3,200 rpm at 100 mph keeping it smooth. Getting the trans and motor to work together a slim 2-inch BDL primary drive belt system was installed. When it came to the sheetmetal Milwaukee Bagger handled the rear fender, saddlebags and side covers and the handlebars and front fender were from Bagger Nation. Mike wanted to be able to rack up the miles on his bike so Rusty went with a six-gallon fuel tank from RWD and added Arlen Ness foot controls, boards, and fork sliders. But where all the real style and lines of this bike start from is the H-D Road Glide Fairing with all the H-D gauges needed minus the fuel and air gauges so that it could hold tweeters for the stereo. What would a cool ass bagger be without tunes? That is where Clarion comes into play, with speakers, amp, and an interface that has everything from GPS to DVD. Hell, the only thing missing is the launch key. To get comfort on those long rides a custom made Danny Gray seat rests atop the frame.

The guys at Illusion Cycles made sure to cover every detail and not cut any corners when it came to building this bike, and you can see it. This is the bike that could be ridden hard and look great doing it. When it was time to pick a color black was the only way to go. At first Mike was thinking of adding some flames or graphics to the bike but when he saw it just black Rusty knew that is how it needed to stay, black. Mike felt the same way calling it the Black Beautiful Sleekness. You could say that the bike was a hit just having it in the shop and being seen has gotten a few chopper customers to want to trade up to a bagger. So Illusion Cycles has come up with a bagger model called the Hell Razor Touring, check them out. B

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