Pirate's Treasure

Arrrrg! It’s a pirate’s life for me! No, wait…it’s a pirate bike for me.

Well, not me….

OK, dammit--it’s a pirate bike for Mike Kelsey. And if you keep your eyes open, there’s a good chance you’ll see him running around Colorado Springs.

Actually, this head-turning 2010 Road Glide is a rolling work of art. Kelsey thought it would be cool to have a bike painted with the theme from a movie, and the “Pirates Of The Caribbean” flicks were pretty cool. One thing led to another, and he ended up talking to Josh at True Kustom about the idea.

The idea became a project, and Kelsey dropped his bike off in October 2010, and it disappeared into the creative world of airbrushing. The toughest part of getting started was finding the right pictures to work from and deciding what was going where on the bike.

“The only things I knew I wanted on the bike was the skull and ‘Dead men tell no tales’ across the front faring,” Kelsey explained. “I also wanted the Kracken on the tank somehow, and I wanted the bike to look great from behind. Everything else was up to Josh.”

Part of making the bike look great from behind was creating a bigger canvas to work with. That’s where the True Kustom Heavyweight hard bags come into the picture. They sit lower, and are considerably larger than a stock hard bag, big enough to haul considerable plunder, and provide a much larger canvas…a canvas that now shows off a whirlpool and the battling ships being sucked into it. The detail is incredible; even the part of the exhaust that juts into the scene is painted to be a part of it.

Detail is the name of the game on this bike. Every bit of art is perfectly positioned and airbrushed. Seriously. A skeleton’s pistol barrel lines up perfectly with the bag mount bar. The portrait of Captain Jack Sparrow is a dead ringer for the Johnny Depp character. As for getting the Kracken on the tank—after much thought, was positioned on the top of the tank, a perfect 3-D likeness of the beast rising up from the deep to snatch the rider and drag him to Davie Jones’ Locker.

The front of the faring warns of dead men not talking, and is reinforced with a bandanna-clad skull over crossed swords. Blackbeard adorns one side of the lower faring, and a ghost ship the other.

Even the inside of the faring features the depiction of the ship graveyard. Literally every inch of the Glide is painted, and the more you look, the more you see. Even the wheels, handlebars mirrors—everything—is painted to reflect the movie theme. By far the creepiest image is on the front fender. Look at it long enough, and you’ll swear that scary bastard is coming after you.

There is one part of the bike not painted—the custom-made seat by Bitchn’ Stitchn’ in Lakewood ensures a comfy ride.

All that was missing was a feisty pirate lass to put the Pirate Glide over the top. So, we went and got our saucy wench, Kayla. We think she does a fine job of measuring up to the artwork on the bike, and is quite a stunner in her own right.

When she’s not playing pirate, Kayla chases fun where she finds it and slings wings and things at a Colorado Springs Hooters. We’re not sure if she keeps the sword with her there, but it’s best to play it safe and mind yer manners….