Alright already, I know I could get my ass kicked for referring to an extremely cool custom FXR like this delectable little beauty from Gilliland Customs in Jackson, Ohio, as Easy On The Eyes, but it is. Maybe it’s the PPG Celery Stalk paint color or the smooth flowing lines or both, I don’t know. That’s just the first thing that came to mind when I saw Gentleman Jack’s photos. Now if I said the bike was “attractive” or some other non-committal middle-of-the-road thing like that, yeah, I should get flogged. Somehow this bike just looks comfortable with itself and not trying to be something it isn’t like a badly worn do-rag and that’s peachy with me. Robert Gilliland owner of similarly named Gilliland Customs knocked one out of the ball park, then found where it landed and threw it even further for owner Cory Edwards. Yup, this bike is easy on the eyes in the same way as Scarlett Johansson was in Lost in Translation or a young Salma Hayek in Desperado.

Apparently Pat Briggs, owner of County Line Choppers (www.countylinechoppers.com) in lovely Phoenix, New York, is not a fan of Frank Zappa or maybe he’s just never heard Frank’s Motherly Love song. In case you’ve forgotten or weren’t a fan either, Frank extolled you to “Forget about the brotherly and other-ly love, Motherly love is just the thing for you” and that’s a nice thing, but Pat’s not going there. Case in point, the featured gorgeous pro street build that Pat did a complete throw-down on for his brother Tim Briggs. “Tim is an awesome guy and brother,” said Pat. He helps out at the shop all the time and seeing him happy and riding his bike made it all worthwhile.”

Sometimes checking out the story behind the story leads to a lot more interesting story and for me, this is one of those stories. Checking out Barnett’s photo site for new online fodder, I saw some photos the lovely Jack Cofano had taken at Biketoberfest or something and saw a kinda over-the-top dragon-themed bike. What was initially interesting was the use of sculptured metal instead of paint for a finish. Extremely well done, I wanted to find out more about the builder whom I really didn’t know anything about, so off to the virtual world of Google I went. And that’s where I’ve been for the past hour or so checking out Kim Brandell’s rarified world of sculpture and design that is a hell of a lot more than just motorcycles. A hell of a lot more. Yo, you gotta check out his company’s web site (www.brandellstudios.com).

Once again this unworthy personage gets a backstage pass to the largest event in Lost Wages, even larger than the SEMA show we covered awhile back. Along with three upscale motorcycle auctions it was a busy week. The Consumers Electronic Show was again massive taking up the 1.8 million square-feet at the convention center plus the Venetian convention space and the former Hilton franchise next to the convention center. More mobile information gadgets were introduced to entice the mobile public even though I think using a mobile device while driving a will soon be illegal nationwide. That’s a good thing as far a motorcycle safety is concerned.

One of the unwritten rules of building a custom bike is that there are no rules. Yeah, there are show classes and different styles of customs, but that rule is easily bent if a builder feels like combining Old and New School or whatever combo they might want to. But what if you had fairly strict rules on how you can approach building a bike, could you abide by those rules and still make something that would hit a custom lover where they live? Functional beauty within limited parameters sure sets the bar high for success and it takes a builder who can think outside the box to pull it off. Enter — stage left, Belgian builder Fred “Krugger” Bertrand of Krugger Motorcycles who has repeatedly drawn bikes from his own imagination that have a history of racing embedded in their design. From his beautiful past renditions of board track racers, hill climbers, and ‘40s salt flat-style racers comes this current day custom that’s geared to try and get Fred into the Bonneville record books while looking good doing so. There is a “run watcha brung” class at Bonneville, but that’s not what this bike was built for. He’s paid strict attention to the rule book and made a dead serious contender for the 1000cc APS/PP class, which deciphered means A Partially streamlined Special construction motorcycle with a Pushrod Production engine having one liter of displacement. The Krugger Goodwood, named after the famous race circuit in England, is the final result which was created to not only be pleasing to the eye, but to attack Bonneville’s long black line.