Not Guilty Harley-Davidson V-Rod
Nick used to ride the more conventional style of Harley-Davidson but fell for the undeniable allure of the V-Rod. Once he got past the radically different approach to styling, there’s a hell of a lot to impress.
NICK tells us, “I was thinking, ‘Should I change, should I change,’ and I thought ‘Nah,’ but once you ride a V-Rod you don’t go back to the old bikes. I had an Anniversary Fat Boy model before, but you can’t go back to them after you ride these. The power is exactly what I wanted: the power and the comfort. You’ve got everything and you just can’t beat the ride; the handling’s unbelievable. I can hit the throttle and it’s instant power — you just don’t get that on the older bikes.”
Comfort on those long journeys is aided by the riding position and suspension, as Nick says, “The suspension’s magnificent — the more power you’ve got, it just digs into the road, you’ve got no problem, it just sinks in. To improve the riding position, Nick also made a few telling modifications to the bars, forward controls, and the seat.
“The guards were all custom built by Pega Custom Cycles,” said Nick. “The old tank’s gone and been replaced by these fibreglass ones, and the fairing’s all been changed and modified. The number plate’s recessed and there’s a backrest for my kids; it makes life a lot easier, you just have to put them on.
“The pipes are one of Pega’s ideas; he comes up with so many, he’s very talented; he just makes them to suit the bike. It depends on what theme you’ve got on the bike. It took about four months to build, but he was probably working on about two dozen others at the time. If you noticed, on the side of the heads, they’re diamond cut — it takes a very long time.”
Pega’s son, Daniel, did the airbrushing; he’s another one who’s talented.
“For those planning on getting some work done on their V-Rods — get an extra pocket ’cause you’re gonna have holes in them. Money talks. If you’ve got the money, you can do anything, but where do you start? Probably with the bars because the bars on a V-Rod are nothing special. The bars and the tank will change a V-Rod completely, so that’s probably where you start from.”
We all know people whose bikes are never complete, it seems there’s always one more item to be polished, plated or updated. Nick’s just about reached that final point, but whether he takes that one last step or leaves his bike as it is, he’s a happy man.
“There’s nothing to be done. It’s got a bigger tyre on the back but if anything, one day I might put a 300 tyre on and different rims but there’s no need to do anything on this bike. There’s nothing I’d do differently, nothing at all.”
Words & pics by Chris Randells
