Sumner’s Softail

BY Dave Roe
June 25, 2018

Words: Robert Sumner

Photos: Jeff G. Holt

I purchased this bike January 7, 2018 from Ty at San Diego Harley. The idea behind this started a few years ago when I moved to Southern California from Nashville on January 1st 2016. I owned a 2009 H-D Sportster Nightster and a 2011 Street Glide, which I rode for quite some time.

I wasn’t really a fan of the “So Cal club bikes” (or the Jax Teller bikes as I used to call them ?, and still do). I was definitely a hater for sure. Haha. I sold my Nightster shortly after moving here and kept the Street Glide. I found out real quick that a Street Glide is a hell of a lot of bike for lane splitting around Southern California. Later that year I had Slim’s Fab build me a chopper as I missed having a smaller bike to really get down on. At the time my friend Kenny Leath bought a Dyna, and we road together a lot. On these rides I started to take note of the advantages of the club style Dynas, how fast and quick they really were. The light and versatility they had like being able to have bags or a fairing or not. That shit really grew on me and in the fall of 2017 I started eyeing up the Dynas as a valid choice for my daily rider. I had about a $10-13k budget and was going buy something a few years old.

My pal Mark of Rusty butcher linked me with Ty from San Diego H-D and for only a couple more grand I realized I could get the brand new 2018 Softail Street Bob and it has that badass 107 Milwaukee Eight. Well hell, I’ll take a warranty and some brand new shit over some old pre-thrashed Dyna. Sure I head the backlash and the hate, but it only took me a few miles to figure out that these new Softails are so well-balanced and that shit whips so hard. I’m no pro and I sure as fuck don’t do wheelies, so for me this was Tits!!! I didn’t care about everyone bad mouthing them, I just do what I like and don’t pay mind to others opinions. After a Sporty and a Bagger ya boy had his very own Jax Teller bike. I fucking love this thing and honestly my 103 Screaming Eagle stage IV Street Glide just sits in my garage now due to the fact that it doesn’t even compare to my 107 Softail.

Spec Sheet

General

Owner- Robert Sumner

Shop- Super 72

Year/Make/Model- 2018/H-D/Street Bob

Build Time- 3 months

ENGINE

Year- 2018

Type- M8

Size- 107

Builder- HD

Air Cleaner- Screamin’ Eagle