SUSANO DOMINOS

2007 ROAD GLIDE CUSTOM

I remember it was the latter half of March 2007, and the cherry trees that I could see from the second floor window of the shop were in full bloom, and I was looking at the cherry blossoms when I received a call from a customer in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture, asking me to customize his new Road Glide. It was a time when the whirlwind of bagger customization was already sweeping across the U.S., and the trend was beginning to sweep into Japan, so I was feeling that the big wave was finally coming to our company. However... personally, I have never been attracted to the "bagger" type of customization, and I am of the generation that was gripped by the FL-type stripped shovels that dominated the domestic customization scene in the early 1990s. So, it was the right thing to remove the big front cowl and parallelogram shaped saddlebags, etc. from the stock bike, and why should we add the more deformed big front cowl, saddlebags, or the long extended rear fender, etc. to the bagger type custom that was becoming recognized as a new custom genre? Even now, in 2025, we still do not understand why it is necessary to add a new front cowl, saddlebags, and rear fenders, etc.

So, we were very backward when it came to customization of baggers, and we told the customer about it when he called us, and it was true that we were going to refuse him once and for all, but he enthusiastically said, "You can do whatever you want..." and we were very happy. I was about to refuse the project once and for all, but the customer enthusiastically said, "You can do whatever you want..." So, I decided to give it my all! So, we started with this process and completed this 2007 ROAD GLIDE CUSTOM.

I was told, "You can do whatever you want..."

. I have a bad habit of doing as much as I want, and the result is... front cowl, inner panel of the cowl, left and right leg guards, left and right frame covers, and the left and right side of the frame. Front cowl, inner panels of cowl, left and right leg guards, left and right frame covers, front fender, rear fender, saddle bags, etc. were all made from scratch by FRP. The gas tank was modified from a stock one. The steering wheel, headlight grille, drilled exhaust system, etc. were all made from scratch. It was a series of hard work that was beyond the common expression of hard work, and the process leading up to the completion is now a traumatic experience for me.

As I renewed our website, I looked at the photos of this vehicle for the first time in more than 10 years, and the memories of when I was covered in FRP powder in the middle of summer came back to me vividly, and I felt as if I would have difficulty breathing. I was almost having a hard time breathing, but I was also very concerned about the overall cut line of the front cowl when viewed from the side, the positional relationship with the gas tank, the overall appearance and volume of the inner panel when viewed from the side, the most difficult leg guard design, and above all, the hellish work process to create a symmetrical design, I can recall the days of struggle and pain of being tormented by the whispers of the devil from our customers, and I can reconfirm the reason why our company has become even more stubborn and refuses to accept requests for the production of custom baggers.

However, after time has passed, when I look at this custom with a calm mind while remembering the time of production, I can glimpse the intention of making the silhouette look as low as possible, even though it is a bagger type custom, in the molding of each part, etc. For example, the delicate setting of the attachment position of the front cowl For example, the subtle positioning of the front cowl, the rear fender, the gas tank, the seat, and the top of the rear fender are all designed to be as low as possible, and the gas tank flows backward from the meter dash to the top of the rear fender, and finally falls to the road surface. The parallel line between the line behind the leg guards and the line in front of the saddlebags was set up to further direct the flow of the entire vehicle downward. I also recall that since the start of the work, I had been putting all of my energy into the construction work, never giving up on anything, and as a result, through the production of this custom, I was thoroughly trained in the mindset of a custom shop specializing in one-make Harleys, which is what I was aiming to achieve.

It was completed in the latter half of March 2008, the following year. On the way back from the test drive, we stopped by the Hiratsuka service area on the Odawara-Atsugi Road uphill lane, where there was a large cherry tree in full bloom, and I still remember taking pictures of this ROAD GLIDE with the cherry tree in the background. I wanted to post that photo on this page, so I searched for it in storage, but unfortunately, I could not find it at last.