Want to get famous without killing someone or taking off your clothes? Then send us a few pics of your bike. We really dig sifting through piles of mail seeing what y'all out there in baggerland have been building and riding. Send all snail mail to Hot Bike Baggers Readers' Rides, 2570 E. Cerritos Ave., Anaheim, California 92806, or better yet,e-mail them to baggermag@sourceinterlink.com.

2005 H-D Road Glide
There is a misnomer with some of the motorcycle public that owners of mom-and-pop custom-motorcycle shops customize their own rides all the time and ride everywhere. This is not the case with Scot, Mercedes and Randy, owners of Redhill Motorcycle Werx in Lyons, Colorado. They would love to have the time to go on all the local rides and spend hours customizing their own rides, but typically they only get to go on a few rides a year and try to squeeze out a few changes on their rides before Sturgis. Sturgis is a mere 350 miles away, so they ride up there every year. This year, co-owner Randy Hocker wanted to do some customization to his Road Glide before the ride. He bought it in 2005 and had a few ideas, but they needed to be items that he could knock out after work when all the paying customers' work was done. The first thing he did was order an FBI kit that included the fender, swingarm with bearings installed, transmission offset kit, spacers, brackets, gaskets and hardware. Randy opted for the turn signals to be mounted in the fender spacers and for the taillight and the license plate to be frenched into the rear fender, so all he would need to do is plug them in and be done with it. He also ordered up a front fender, since he was going to swap out his front wheel for a 21. This was going to be a quick and inexpensive way to make his Road Glide stand out from the pack. He decided that since he was going to have to go into the tranny to replace the mainshaft to accommodate the larger rear tire, he would throw in a Baker six-speed transmission for highway riding.

What: Victory Vision Street and Vision Tour
When: January 2008
Where: Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange County, California
Why: Riding impression, evaluation and commentary

The Crew From Hyevon Choppers Puts Together A 100th Anniversary Road King That Is Strictly BusinessA lot of people outside of the East LA bike crowd haven't heard of Hyevon Choppers. Heck, there are a lot of people who have driven past their nondescript shop on Painter Avenue for years and never even known that there was a bike shop tucked in next to the McDonald's. That is because the crew at Hyevon Choppers isn't all about the bling and flashy window dressings that other shops are known for. They are more interested in things like horsepower and making your bike look good than they are about making diamond-plate window frames. They are the kind of guys who would rather impress you with a pack of their customers passing you on the highway like you were welded to the pavement rather than impress you with a bunch of gaudy furniture filling their waiting room.

2007 H-D Road Glide
The popularity of trucker caps and mudflap girls are all indications of just how connected pop culture and America's truckers really are. In the interstate-traveling frenzy that fuels so many a gearhead's life, truckers are the ultimate expression of life on the road; this is where they work, sleep and play. They are one with the highway, in much the same way a motorcyclist is connected to the road.

Here at the Hot Bike Baggers Base of Operations, we've been getting a ton of quality Readers' Rides submissions from all over this great land of ours. We really dig seeing what the man (or woman) on the street has been doing to customize/personalize his/her bike, so keep 'em coming!

Route 66
The number 13 is considered the unlucky number. Many people even have a fear of the number, which is called triskaidekaphobia. Lots of buildings don't even have a floor numbered 13. Then we have the scary movie named after the unlucky date of Friday the 13th. Since I lucked out by not getting eaten by a toothy reptile in Missouri, I was feeling pretty lucky, until I noticed that in Kansas, there are only 13 miles of the Mother Road.

The guys from AFT Customs make it much easier to do so whether you are well endowed or not. AFT has a reputation for clean work with a well-thought-out attitude and attention to details that most would overlook. So much so that some of the big manufacturers have been know to call in for their services. Drawing influences from all forms of vehicles, their bikes have design cues from hot rods, Harleys and sportbikes. Take a look at the bikes featured here, for instance. Anybody who is into bikes would be drawn to these beauties no matter which shore they were made on.

A Painter's Personal Ride
Being the owner of a prominent custom-paint company and a motorcycle enthusiast sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it? But it can also be a lot of pressure. Just ask Jeff Theisen. As the leader of Gunslinger Custom Paint, Jeff knows there are certain standards his personal rides need to adhere to, or people will find a reason to use someone else's paint.

Bobby Nails This Road Glide With Nostalgic Flair
Baggers, as with any bike, typically reflect the rider's personality and style. Bobby's Road Glide holds true to that theme and then some. You see, Bobby has owned many bikes over the years-he claims over 80-and his first bike was a Harley-Davidson dirt bike that his stepdad gave him. He has had full-blown customs and several stock Harleys, and in the last four years, he has customized several baggers, because it was something new to him and created a challenge to make something that is typically more utilitarian into a work of art. That is what Bobby does, whether it is designing motorcycles, pinstriping, tattooing or painting; he creates art. He always looks at each project and how he can create something unique that reflects his own tastes in one way or another. The previous baggers that he built were all typical custom baggers with lots of chrome and lots of black. This one was going to be different, and he knew it from the start. He had never customized a Road Glide, and after riding his stepdad's, he decided to see if he could find one and completely tear it apart. He liked the smooth, aerodynamic lines of the fairing as well as how it handled through the curvy mountain roads of Colorado. He looked around and eventually found a Road Glide that he could work with. It was a Road Glide Classic complete with the Tour-Pak, touring seat and all the doodads. He rode up to a friend's shop, and they all just laughed, because the guy who was usually riding a killer custom was on what they deemed an "old man's bike." Bobby laughed along with them and quietly started to put together the bike he wanted in his mind.

The Art Of Jeff Decker
For those of you who don't know who Jeff Decker is, let's just say he won't be the guy with "love nuggets" stuck all over a stock bike with accompanying factory chrome bolt-ons. He'll be the guy on a bike that most will not even recognize yet in fact will be cooler than anything in that particular time zone.

Palm Desert To San Juan CapistranoI could've called this story "California State Route 74," but who'd want to read that? It's bland and a tad libelous, since this road is anything but boring. Along its paved track you'll find some of the most scenic riding in Southern California, twisting through two mountain ranges. In fact, if you're into car magazines, chances are you've seen it at some point, since auto books love to shoot features here.

Jeff Wright is a straight-up freak. In his home town of Des Moines, IA, nobody gets what he does. Even though the custom bike world encourages originality, typically there are certain boundaries to what someone can do...a 1976 Shovel with sportbike controls, suspension, and brakes is typically considered coloring outside the lines.

The Blue King
We first saw this bike while lurking around the Ride Wright Wheels booth during California Bike Week and were floored. Mind you, there were tons of nice Road Kings in attendance, but how many had the combination of a 23-inch wheel dripped in gold with a tan gator seat and sky-high apes? None that were this firm.

We get a lot of guys and gals from all over the world sending in pics of their baggers, with most of them being the normal FL-based Harley-Davidsons. This month we look at some bikes that are based on the Softail chassis and see just what the ingenious minds of our readers have come up with.

2007 H-D FLHX
Back in the '60s and '70s, a rider couldn't just open up a mega catalog to outfit and customize their bike. Motorcycling was more of a grassroots endeavor that relied upon local shops and the powers of a mechanic to bring ideas to life. Not just merely wrench-turners, these early bike gurus often knew their way around heavyduty metal-molding machines and could wield a mean torch. Perry Sands, who later went on to start Performance Machine, was a proponent of high performance, seeking out ways to not only make bikes go faster and look good doing it but also ways to improve on stopping power.

An easy trip on a TriumphTouring the country by motorcycle is one of the best forms of travel and enjoyment offered to the human race. Yes, dogs and cats and other assorted animals can tour with us; however, we are alone in the choice of direction and mount. Now we are pleased to inform you there is another choice for touring America by motorcycle: the Rocket III Touring from Triumph Motorcycles Limited. We had the privilege to ride the Rocket III Touring a few weeks ago in and around San Antonio, Texas, with a host of other journalists, and sometime before lunch we discovered that we were aboard a great bike. The rest of that afternoon in the saddle only confirmed our discoveries, prior to the full stomach of Texas barbecue.

I haven't even passed through two of the seven states, and my adventures on the road have already hit full force. While in the Land of Lincoln, I met a guy who pummels people and digs through garbage for a living and another guy who is taking a leisurely stroll across the United States (I prefer to use my Road King). My home state of Illinois wasn't bad for a start to the journey. But my Missouri experience would make even Kerouac proud. I can't get into the particulars of the events ... as my mom will end up reading this. To give you a hint, close your eyes and imagine a voluminous, unclothed, female alligator wrestler. Offensive? Mom, you better stop reading now.

2007 H-D FLHX
Baggers are typically bikes that people get around to buying; it's not a question of if but when. Nino Alagna grew up riding motorcycles and would ride on the back of his dad's bikes; he figured that if he learned how to ride, he could spend even more time with his dad. After going through a few stock bikes, Nino branched out and bought a succession of Pro Street-style bikes. There were only two problems: They were never reliable, and his friends always had to pack his gear. Nino grew tired of the same story with low, long, big-inch bikes but didn't want to have just another stock bike; it had to have some horsepower and possess the ability to turn heads. No more Pro Street race machines; he was heading into the unknown territory of the bagger.

There are few images so burned into our collective psyche as the sight of a Harley-Davidson out on the open road. We hardly notice the details, if any, when a cage passes by. Yet we can recount in vivid detail the lone rider that imprinted our retinas. This is certainly true of H-D's FLTR, the Road Glide.

Ron Simms Just Can't Seem To Keep His Personal Rides Around
Ron Simms is either the luckiest guy to ever throw his leg over a custom bike, or he is the unluckiest guy we've ever met, depending on your point of view. On one hand, he gets to build a new bike for his personal use a couple of times a year, and he gets to ride the bike so long as it doesn't sell at his very popular shop, Ron Simms Custom Cycles in Hayward, California. On the other hand, these bikes don't usually make it very long before someone comes along and has to have it, and Ron has to watch the bike he built for himself ride off into the sunset. Granted he got to put some miles on the bike, and he got to build another custom bike to his very high standards-but it has to get old watching the bike he worked so hard to customize roll right out of his life.

The story of Tim Deckard's 2005 Road Glide starts out just like so many others do-with another bike altogether. Things seemed as normal as could be with a leisurely morning ride with Tim and his wife on his Heritage Softail going to breakfast at their favorite little caf and then deciding to wander west out to the Pomona Fairgrounds to meander around for a few hours at one of the giant bike shows put on there every year.

It's been over a year that I've been riding around on our Pacific Blue FLHT Standard now, all the while modifying it out of Harley's Genuine Accessories catalog. In the end, we did some smart things, we did some ill-advised things, and it's taken its fair share of lumps in the process. Our mission with this project (code name: The Blue Whale) was to make a bike as sleek and stylish as the Street Glide yet retain more of the Standard's "tourability." The Whale went to Sturgis twice, once in 2006 in bone-stock form, fresh from the factory, then again last summer with everything you see here other than the fresh wheels, tires and rotors.

A few issues ago, we went back to the East Coast for the introduction of all of the technologically advanced touring bikes from Harley-Davidson. We got to put some miles on the new bikes, but it was kind of a sensory overload. We hopped off of one bike and right onto another. And they had us on the schedule to ride the Sportster, Softail and Dyna models, when in reality we were just there to ride the touring models. Don't get us wrong, we had a blast darting around on all of the Harley-Davidson models, but our bread 'n' butter are the baggers. Then we got wrapped up in all of the technical seminars about the new antilock brake system, the drive-by wire that eliminated the throttle cables, the 6-gallon fuel tank, the new cush drive and all of the changes like the front upper engine mount.

Harley-Davidson introduced its first Street Glide in 2006, but John Pirozzi beat them to it in 1997. It was a '96 Police FLHTP that he transformed into what is essentially a Street Glide.