2010 Harley-Davidson FLHR
It's corny enough I titled this story Avatar, but for a second I was tempted to write the tale in N'avi. I'm certainly geek enough to do that, but I didn't want Toph buried in hate mail. That would mean no more freelancing for me, and if I stop getting paid, several strippers will starve.

Flashback of the Month
Storyville Robbie Robertson Geffen

1991's Storyville was Robbie Robertson's second solo effort, coming some 15 years after The Band had decided to call it quits. Despite glowing reviews, music fans were ambivalent at the time, since after all, it was a breakout year for Mariah Carey. But sales success doesn't always equal music with staying power; otherwise we'd all be riding around listening to the Bay City Rollers.

2009 H-D Electra Glide
We all got our motorcycle start somewhere, it goes for this story as well. Some 44 years ago Roger Klock (father of Brian Klock) was hanging out in the little town of Emery, South Dakota, with his friend Sylvan Bleeker, getting ready to head to Sturgis and someone snapped a photo of the two as they were getting ready to leave. The crazy thing is that photo can be found on the cover of the Klock Werks catalog. As fate would have it, that photo was taken just one month before Brian was born, and Roger and Sylvan are still great friends to this day.

2010 Road Glide Road Tested
What is it about the FLTRX Road Glide Custom that really grabs me and puts this H-D touring model at the top of the food chain? Oh ya it's the frame mounted aerodynamic tapered fairing also know as the "Shark-Nose". With dual headlights, and a low-profile dark windshield that creates even more of a sleek shaped look up front. When it comes to Touring bikes the Road Glide has been my favorite for so many reasons. One is the way the bike handles; with the fairing mounted to the frame getting the bike to turn from side-to-side in the corners is noticeably easier. To me it just feels like the bike is lighter. The thing is that if you ask anyone about the Road Glide you will get mixed responses to the bike. I've heard as many guys say that they don't like the bike as guys who do. It all comes down to the fairing; the rest of the bike's style is the pretty much the same as the Street Glide.

This is the fourth part of a series. This is kind of like a soap opera. If you haven't been following along so far, you might be lost. I suggest that you beg your cooler friends for some back issues.

'07 Radical Road Glide
Huck Hemphill, owner of Radical Baggers, is not your typical bike builder. His passion for building bikes started out as a bit of a hobby and even today Huck still maintains his full-time job in the engineering field. His Harley story began shortly after he traversed the globe with the US Marines. Huck had been into dirt bikes and three-wheelers back then, and even had a few hotrods. He honed his painting and mechanical skills and did some minor customizing for friends. Up to that point Huck never had a street bike because, like many of us, his parents said he would be out of the will if he ever purchased one (but it was okay for Huck to ride someone else's bike on the road). Fate called Huck during one memorable Easter Sunday. While Huck's dad was cutting the ham, he informed the family that since his health was better he was going to travel extensively and spend every penny that he had, not leaving anything to anyone.

Almost a decade ago John Dodson opened up Johnny Legend Customs in Villa Park, Illinois-located west of Chicago. Johnny, like many builders, originally started out his shop out of his personal garage until the business took off and he needed bigger digs. Johnny was initially involved with the popular bikes of the time: big, fat tires, long and low chassis, and big-inch high horsepower pro street styled bikes. He strove to be unique and liked to add his special twist to each build he produced.

2007 H-D Road King
You don't ride this bike. Dewayne Lattin does. So if you're looking at it and wondering why he didn't bleed $20k into a pile of custom parts, take it up with him. Maybe he didn't feel the need. Perhaps he wanted the extra money for beer and strippers. The point is, he made the key changes he wanted to his '07 Road King, and it turned out pretty damn good. And he didn't buy a whole catalog's worth of new parts to do it. Yes, he spent a good deal on accents, but he limited the high-dollar stuff to parts he truly wanted.

When you are the owner of a small business, every penny counts from how it's saved to how it's spent. Finding ways to keep the doors open can be a full-time job on its own. You take the time to place ads in local papers, maybe offer some coupons, and the work is still not flowing in like you want and need it to. What do you do? You have to change your approach and try to see things the way your customer does. We once heard a motorcycle wheel company say that, "You could have the coolest set of wheels in the industry, but if they are not on a bike to be seen then your customer had no idea how they look on his bike."

If you're just joining us, I was the founding editor of this fine publication back in 2007, but life parked in an office (or commuting to one) just doesn't suit me, so I'm not any more. In any case, I've always thought that baggers are baggers regardless of place of origin, but acknowledge the fact that most of them are Harley-Davidsons. Still, that doesn't mean you need to ignore the ones that aren't.

War is the Answer
Five Finger Death Punch
Prospect Park

Summer's here and there's no better season for loud rock'n'roll. So we dug into our goodie bag and found this CD, War is the Answer, the second release from Five Finger Death Punch. Though the album has been out since last year, sometimes CDs just get lost at the bottom of the stack. In this case, it's a worthy find, if for nothing but the album artwork alone, which oughta be a theme on someone's bike.

ICU Grand Junction and Beyond This is the third story in a series: a story of five men riding to Sturgis, South Dakota, like so many others have done before, except now we were just four. In the last episode, we left the hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, with one man down. Chad lost his arm on CO-141 and we still had to make it to Sturgis and back. In Grand Junction we'd become a quintet again, with Andy Cherney (editor of Motorcycle Cruiser) joining us fresh from the Harley-Davidson new model launch and riding a sweet new '10 Ultra Limited 103 (if you get a chance to ride one, I highly recommend it). Andy's addition brought us back up to five, but this was supposed to be the "pounding miles and shooting photos" portion of the trip, with all the bikes and riders present...but we were all too emotionally wiped for that. Plus Chad got out of ICU in another day, and we weren't missing that for the world. Just 600 miles to Sturgis...

ST. LOUIS, July 8, 2010 – Legendary drummer Mike Mesey, a former member of both Chuck Berry’s band and Midwestern classic rockers Head East, has played everywhere from Busch Stadium in St. Louis to a Super Bowl concert in Miami to the Space Center in Pasadena, Calif. He’s toured with such bands as Sammy Hagar, ZZ Top, Boston, Styx and many more from Vegas to Atlantic City and every major biker event across the nation; yet Mesey considers his latest achievement – the construction of a gigantic, custom drum set from real chopper parts – his greatest.

Riding Shot: Sorena Lowe

Harley-Davidson's Road King (FLHR) is the company's most basic Touring motorcycle but that doesn't lessen its road eating abilities. The RK is arguably the most versatile of the Harley baggers-it's a bike for riders that like things simpler and cleaner, yet its still able to hit the open highway in lush comfort. This bike reminds us of a post-WWII Duoglide except there's a Twin Cam motor instead of a Panhead-genuine H-D DNA and heritage in a reliable 21st century package.

Hanksville, UT to ICU Grand Junction, CO
This is the second story in a series. If you didn't read the first one, you didn't miss much. I spent paragraph after paragraph complaining about intense heat, a run in with a cow, and the breaking down of the group dynamics on our motorcycle trip from Los Angeles to Sturgis, South Dakota. It's the un-glamorous parts of bike touring that no one ever tells you about. We thought things would get better, but they took a huge turn for the worse.

It's no wonder Ballistic Cycles named this Road Glide "Paradigm." The bike stands out as a clear example of the shop's design philosophy (low, sleek, and badass) while showcasing the new parts it's sending into production right now.

Last year we came across a red turbocharged bagger with the number 13 painted on the side of the saddlebag. We found the owner, Craig Kapilla, and started to ask him about the bike. The first thing he said to us was, "This baby pulled over 200hp and 200 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheel. I bet you don't normally hear that kind of power coming from a bagger?"

Soul Book | Rod Stewart
J Records

We're Not Talking In The Eco Sense
Every custom bike has a story. Some started life to repair damage, some from wear and tear, and some just because the owner had a few extra dollars lying around. This bike started as an '01 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide with fuel injection. It was a classic looking motorcycle with dark green and black exterior hues. At just more than 12 months of age, it had seen a bit of the countryside with its odometer pronouncing just more than 6,000 miles. From day one, it was a cruiser. But, this was just the beginning.

Spring signals a time for something new, a time to celebrate warmer weather, completing that winter bike project, and getting back out on the open road. For those who ride year 'round, it's time to install some new parts or polish up the chrome. For Baggers, it means it's time to blow the cobwebs out of your speakers. Spring is, after all, a debut of sorts. To celebrate, we thought it would be a good idea to reflect back on debuts of the rock 'n' roll kind, to reflect back on bands whose debut albums have stood the test of time and have become essential riding soundtracks, old friends we welcome along on any trip. Sure, one can download these songs, but they're really intended to be listened to as complete works. So at least download the entire album. Or just take along the CDs. Regardless, search out that open road and turn up the volume. And now we present, in no certain order, ten of the best debut albums ever released...