New by Fred Kodlin :
BRD Bagger Republik Deutschland (Germany)

Electrifying Touring-Custom for the long trip: German top-customizer Fred Kodlin goes Bagger

Knowing Fred Kodlin and his 25+ years of motorcycle and custombike history it is quite established that Fred is a true rider. No matter if touring around his european turf at the big meetings like Faaker See and Saalbach-Hinterglemm or in the USA riding hardcore choppers – often purpose-built for the trip – along his Hamster friends from California to Sturgis – Fred enjoys the „hot seat“ as much as swinging the welding torch at his workshop. His new „BRD“ Bagger is build for this years riding season – and it has a story behind, which is worth telling...

The annual „Hamster Trek“ from California to Sturgis is a quite impressive sight: Some of the finest custombikes, build for riders who can affort the best, roll along the lonly Highways of the american west – on their way to Sturgis. Sometimes in larger, more often in small groups, the riders meet each day at pre-arranged Hotels en route and frequent the local watering holes – time to party. In the last years, the hot Choppers and Low-Riders often exchanged for more comfortable rides featuring suitcases, radio and CD equipment and fairings – keeping the hot desert wind and sand from the riders. „Baggers“ – as the fast and stylish touring bikes are named in the US – are nothing new to the american custom scene. In fact, some of the Hamster’s founding fathers like Arlen Ness, Dave Perewitz and Donnie Smith have built Baggers for years. It just went unnoticed when other styles got the headlines.

A visit at Fred Kodlin’s showroom at Borken underlines just that: Lined up like in Arlen Ness’ museum are the wildest creations of Fred’s career. Little is known that Fred too has a long heritage of building „Bagger“ type motorcycles: „Well back into the eighties we streched side cases and modified touring bikes as we saw it in american magazines“, remembers Fred, who also build several Baggers from the ground up. Nevertheless, compared with his custom-creations and Choppers, the Baggers always remained a sideline.

Now Fred created his own touring bike – and like all his other creations, it had to be something special! Starting from scratch with a 2009 „Street Glide“ as the solid base, frame and engine remained almost untouched. Harley-Davidson’s new motorcycles offer ridability and performance. The Twin Cam was hopped-up with Arlen Ness Double Barrel airfilter and Freedom exhaust system. The two-in-one exhaust leaves more luggage space, as only one sidecase had to be modified for allowing a pipe pass through. The stock primary was swapped for a narrow BDL open belt drive.

More visible is the huge 26 inch front wheel by Couture, equipped with Vee-Rubbers remarkable 120 front tire – in combination with Kodlin’s own front fairing and the high „Bonanza II“ handlebar in its wide touring version, the seating position is almost like a high-neck Chopper. Visibility to the road in front of the huge wheel is minimal, but that’s nothing new to Fred. The instrument panel was completely taken apart, new instruments by Dakota Digital offer a perfect view even in bright sunlight. Rather than the exhaust system, a Hawg 300 Watt 4-channel Sound system with subwoofer delivers the soundtrack for the ride. Better for the ears on 600+ km day trips anyway. And less boring too...

For a Fred Kodlin custombike, the „BRD“ features surprisingly few Fred Kodlin parts – especially at a time when Fred promotes several completely new part-lines for Twin Cam motocycles. Beside the fairing and the 26-Inch front fender the fork tubes and front indicator brackets are now available. So are the „Thriller“ billet grips But Fred’s workshop rolls out new custombikes every week – most of which are heavyly equipped with new „Thriller“ and „Mesh“ style parts. So why not taking some advice (and parts) from old friends like Paul Yaffee, Ted Sands and Arlen Ness. The latter has probably the widest range of Bagger parts available – in the USA, Harley-Davidson based touring bikes are a much bigger market than in europe. Deep-cut floorboards and passenger pegs offer grip and comfortable rest for the long haul, the Ness tailend is almost mandatory. Controls are Performance Machine, rear suspention Legend Air. Fred did a great job of cleaning up the bike with taillights and indicators integrated into the cases, smoothening all lines and details and scuring the artistic skills of one of germany’s „rising stars“ of airbrush art: Marcel Sinnwell. The basic paint-job is reminiscent of Fred’s new parts-designs. Marcel Sinnwell then took over for the detailed matt-grey/black „tattoo-style“ artwork and extensive pinstriping. Marcel has recently painted the 600 hour artwork on „Apocalyptica“ and also inked the art on Custom Chrome’s 2010 Custom-FXD with Kodlin-parts. The amount of detailling is stunning and there is always something new to be found on fairing, tank and tailend.

The name „BRD“ is a bit of a compliment and competition to Fred’s Hamster friend Paul Yaffee, who also helped on the project with advice: „Since he named some of his partsrange „Bagger Nation“, I decided to do name my own Bagger accordingly“, explains Fred with a grin, „so „BRD“ stands for Bagger Republic Deutschland“! The bike was finished to be presented at the Custom Chrome Europe dealershow in March 2010 but will see extensive action and miles on european and american roads: Both „Magic Bike“ Ruedesheim in the scenic Rhine valley and Harley-Butt’s at spanish Lloret de Mar will see the Bagger prowling along. Sturgis’ 70th anniversary is on the list as well as madatory European Bike Week at Lake Faak. „But the main purpose of the bike will be riding!“, says Fred. And that’s really nothing new...

 

sweet

 

+1-- Looks cool.

 

DUDE, your riding that in Germany??? I bet everyone is checking it out. Nice.

 

He went to all that trouble and then stuck in a stock Harmon-Kardon head unit???

 

cool, that wheel is to large for me. makes the rest of the bike look small.

 

Nice looking ride, but I gotta agree with stro about the head unit.

 

Yes, it is an Bagger made of Germany

 

That´s sweet bike!!!

 

Everything is cool with the exception of the front wheel. IMO