ROAD KING

Rough Crafts, from Taipei, Taiwan, is one of the custom-bike shops that commands respect. No matter its geographic location, owner Winston Yeh is definitely a power player when it comes to making factory Harley-Davidsons look cool. Winston’s minimal and sinister styling is representative of his meticulous attention to detail, and his signature usage of all-black aesthetic proves that a flashy paint job doesn’t always work. In fact, the subtle approach in highlighting Rough Crafts—and other aftermarket products—is a testament to properly including certain elements on a motorcycle.

Rough Crafts is by no means new to the pages of Hot Bike, but its first-ever bagger build was definitely worthy of some attention.

“Through all these years, we’ve never built a bagger. After the success of our Sportsters and Softails, somehow our customers never asked for a bagger,” Winston says. “But the long wait actually gave us a lot of time to think about what would we do if we did build a bagger, and here it is.”

It helps that Winston is good friends with the Arlen Ness family, and in Winston’s opinion, the Down-N-

Out bag/fender kit is, hands down, the cleanest and nicest-looking bag kit on the market, which helped him idealize his current creation. “Zach and I had talked about when I do build a bagger it would only be natural to make it a Rough Crafts-Arlen Ness build, as we don’t offer many parts for baggers,” Winston says. While it doesn’t stock a ton of bagger-specific products (yet), Rough Crafts does offer a wide range of rad Harleyspecific products, so Winston was excited to take on the challenge of incorporating some high-quality Arlen Ness parts with his own product line, as well as some others.

In case you’re not familiar with Rough Crafts’ type of build, the underlying theme to most of them is the color black. Not much changed with this Road King project either. For the roller, instead of going with a bigger front wheel, Winston decided to stay with a 23-inch front, which he says looks more balanced to the whole bike. Instead of running a regular Touring Model’s reverse tree, he decided to go with Arlen Ness raked trees for Softails, so it instantly stretched the bike without having a crazy rake. For the rear, Winston utilized a set of Legend Air Ride shocks for balancing out the progressively sprung front forks. As for the front brake, the Arlen Ness inboard brake kit was a natural fit for this project. The single-disc, dual-caliper setup is definitely on the cutting edge of custom, works well with stopping power, and definitely oozes cool.

GENERAL OWNER Winston Yeh

SHOP Rough Crafts

WEBSITE roughcrafts.com

YEAR/MAKE/MODEL 2012/Harley-Davidson/Road King

FABRICATION Rough Crafts

ENGINE

YEAR/TYPE/SIZE 2012/H-D/Road King

BUILDER H-D

CASES H-D

CYLINDERS H-D

HEADS H-D

ROCKER BOXES H-D/Arlen Ness 10-gauge covers

CAMS H-D

THROTTLE BODY H-D

AIR CLEANER Rough Crafts with Sprint Filter

EFI Controller flashed H-D

EXHAUST Rough Crafts

SPECIAL FEATURES Arlen Ness beveled black dipstick, Arlen Ness 10-gauge black pushrod covers, Arlen Ness 10-gauge 12-573 black lifter block cover

TRANSMISSION

YEAR/TYPE 2012/six-speed

CLUTCH Performance Machine hydraulic clutch slave

PRIMARY DRIVE H-D/Arlen Ness beveled primary cover

FRAME

YEAR/TYPE Stock, with a little bit o’ chop

SUSPENSION

FRONT END Arlen Ness Hot Legs with Progressive springs

LENGTH Stock

TRIPLE TREES Arlen Ness KO raked trees for Softail

SWINGARM Stock

REAR SHOCKS Legend Air Ride

WHEELS, TIRES, AND BRAKES

FRONT

BUILDER/SIZE Arlen Ness beveled/23 x 3.5-inch

TIRE/SIZE Pirelli Night Dragon

CALIPERS Arlen Ness inboard brake kit, single disc/dual calipers

ROTORS 15-inch rotor

REAR

BUILDER/SIZE H-D/16 x 5.5-inch (powdercoated black)

TIRE/SIZE Pirelli Night Dragon 180/70-16

CALIPER Stock

ROTOR Stock

PULLEY Stock

FINISH/PAINT

MANUFACTURER Air Runner Custom Paint Studio

COLORS Black

PAINT/GRAPHICS Air Runner/Rough Crafts

PLATING/POLISHING Rough Crafts

POWDERCOATING Rough Crafts

ACCESSORIES

FRONT FENDER Arlen Ness Wrapper modified fender

REAR FENDER Arlen Ness Down-N-Out fender

GAS TANK Rough Crafts tank with Rough Crafts gas cap

HANDLEBARS Rough Crafts

GRIPS Arlen Ness Knurled Fusion

HAND CONTROLS Performance Machine/Rough Crafts

FOOT CONTROLS Rough Crafts floorboards/Arlen Ness controls

HEADLIGHT Rough Crafts grille-type headlight

TAILLIGHT LED light stripes turn signal/taillight

SEAT Rough Crafts

SADDLEBAGS Stretched bag kit with Arlen Ness beveled black bag latch cover

“For the rear, I always think the coolest look for a bagger is to have no exhausts coming out so the bags and fender create a full ‘skirt’ look from the rear,” Winston explains.

After the key elements were decided, the rest of the process came effortlessly; Winston made a custom gas tank, custom exhaust, and a few other detail pieces for it all to flow together in a very natural way.

As far as engine work is concerned, Winston’s focus with this build was style, so not much attention was paid in the horsepower and torque departments, but the stock Twin Cam was adorned with plenty of cool Arlen Ness covers top to bottom.

If you’re a fan of all-black bikes, you’ll definitely appreciate Winston’s latest bagger build. His less-is-more approach and edgy appeal is definitely what sets Rough Crafts apart from the herd. Looking forward to the next one, Winston. Now that you’ve caught the bagger bug... HB