Photo: Gaz Custom
By their nature, Harley-Davidson V-Rods have always been impressive, borderline scary machines. Introduced to play the game against Japanese bike makers in the muscle segment, the American two-wheelers have had such an impact they are still around in our lives today, six years after Milwaukee stopped making them.
When it came into this world, the V-twin racing street custom family had no idea it would become one of the pillars of the custom motorcycle scene. And by that I don't mean the American one, which seems to be ignoring the model completely, but the important shops overseas, from places as far away as Japan or Russia.
I mentioned Russia because that's where the build we're looking at now was born, at the hands of a Krasnodar-based crew called Gaz Custom. It's a relatively new name in the pantheon of Harley customizers we routinely cover, but apparently just as talented as all others.
The custom we're admiring here started life as a Night Rod, that variety of VRSC Harley put together in simple form between 2006 and 2008, and between 2007 and 2017 in Special guise.
We have no info on what model year this particular bike is part of, but that matters little now because, as you can clearly see, the telltale shape of the Night Rod is long gone, replaced by an aggressive apparition so dark it's like someone captured darkness and slapped a couple of wheels onto it.
And just like darkness, the build is a bit of a mystery as well, fueled into existence by the almost complete lack of official details about what was done to it, what was changed, and what was improved. So we have to stick with what we can see.
Where bike meets the ground, the biggest change made was the replacing of the stock, wire wheels with 8-spoke bits made by an undisclosed garage. The stance of the Night Rod has changed significantly because of the wheels, especially thanks to the very wide rear one. The bike also seems to have been dropped closer to the ground, potentially through an air suspension system.
The most high-profile change made to the V-Rod, at least as far as Gaz is concerned, is the use of a carbon body kit to dress the front end, fuel tank, and rear of the machine.
The frame of the Harley retains the stock engine, which is the Revolution one put together by Harley together with Porsche Engineering. There is a new exhaust system that snakes its way to the left side of the bike instead of the stock one, but we are not told who made this part either.
The last mystery surrounding the Harley-Davidson Night Rod Carbon is its price, but that's something it shares with most custom bikes that come out of garages across the world.
I mentioned Russia because that's where the build we're looking at now was born, at the hands of a Krasnodar-based crew called Gaz Custom. It's a relatively new name in the pantheon of Harley customizers we routinely cover, but apparently just as talented as all others.
The custom we're admiring here started life as a Night Rod, that variety of VRSC Harley put together in simple form between 2006 and 2008, and between 2007 and 2017 in Special guise.
We have no info on what model year this particular bike is part of, but that matters little now because, as you can clearly see, the telltale shape of the Night Rod is long gone, replaced by an aggressive apparition so dark it's like someone captured darkness and slapped a couple of wheels onto it.
And just like darkness, the build is a bit of a mystery as well, fueled into existence by the almost complete lack of official details about what was done to it, what was changed, and what was improved. So we have to stick with what we can see.
Where bike meets the ground, the biggest change made was the replacing of the stock, wire wheels with 8-spoke bits made by an undisclosed garage. The stance of the Night Rod has changed significantly because of the wheels, especially thanks to the very wide rear one. The bike also seems to have been dropped closer to the ground, potentially through an air suspension system.
The most high-profile change made to the V-Rod, at least as far as Gaz is concerned, is the use of a carbon body kit to dress the front end, fuel tank, and rear of the machine.
The frame of the Harley retains the stock engine, which is the Revolution one put together by Harley together with Porsche Engineering. There is a new exhaust system that snakes its way to the left side of the bike instead of the stock one, but we are not told who made this part either.
The last mystery surrounding the Harley-Davidson Night Rod Carbon is its price, but that's something it shares with most custom bikes that come out of garages across the world.
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