Making the Cruiser Motorcycle That Touched Your Soul, Your Own

You buy a bike and you ride it for a while. You come to love it. You put it in the wind and you love it. It fills your soul with something that you've never found, anywhere else. It's only a machine, but, it's a machine that touches your soul.

Then one day, you walk out, and it strikes you... that it looks just like everyone else's. Somehow, to you, the machine, the Motorcycle has a personality of it's own, but, it LOOKS like every other Motorcycle of that make and model that was ever built... and... THAT, ain't right!

Thoughts of how to put you, into the bike start rattling through your head. Thoughts of how to bring out that inner personality of the machine that you believe exists.

Now, you know as well as I do, that folks that don't ride, think when a guy starts talkin' like this; Why, he's gone 'round the bend and has fell down so many times that he's, by God bent something bad. and he is now... whooooee! Tee Total WhAcko! :)

Yeah well... Ok. :)

Well, WhAcko or not, this past summer, sitting up in the Montana high country, those thoughts of making my Raider my own started rattling in my head... and I started doing some doodling.

Not sure when the dinero is going to happen, to make this happen... but I've got a pretty clear idea of what my Raider should look like.

The first thing I did was envision a paint scheme... at first I was just thinking pretty conservative, solid color... but... it just didn't ring the bell... Like they say; "It wasn't happening."

Finally, one day when I wasn't even thinkin' on it, the idea struck me, ding! ding! ding! That bell started ringin'... and I went to work sketching it out...

Now, this ain't THE correct and proper orange. I didn't have the right colored pen for that ;) but... picture it with a deeper, bronzier or browner, metalic orange on my Raiders tank...

It's gonna be a hard time to have the bike down for the time it'll take to get this air brushing done... when that time does come.

Then... my current, traditional, Leather Saddlebags would be changed out to Tsyukayu Coner hard bags... of course, painted to match the tank color...

*Tsukayu Coner Hard bags on a Raider*

Even though I like the Factory Star Pipes... so that the bags will fit... I'll have to change out the factory pipes, to get 'em lower.  Not sure what brand the 2 into 1 style is in the Coner bag pic... but... I'm kinda Partial to the 2 in it 2 Vance and Hines pipes...

*Vance and Hines 2 into 2 exhaust pipes*

There are a couple other pieces and parts I'd like to change... but these are the big ticket, and major design ideas that have been collecting in those moments when I've got time between getting my next book finished and repairing broken parts on the fifth wheel, so we can get back on the road. :)

I can't wait to give my Raider the custom look the machine deserves... and put her in the wind touring on a long wide circle. The fact is simple and true. Machine or not. It touches my soul in a way nothing else does.

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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