My work in progress....Bella Morte

by **Dragon** Fri May 14, 2010 8:16 pm

Bella Morte is Italian for "Beautiful Death." And although I had no plans to upgrade from my current ride, a 1997 HSTC chromed to the max, I fell in love/lust at first sight of her on that showroom floor at the Harley Dealership in Louisiana. She was pure stock save for the factory limited edition paint of a graveyard ( number 16 of 50 ).
My work in progress....Bella Morte NB14

My work in progress....Bella Morte NB04Resize

My work in progress....Bella Morte NB05Resize

My work in progress....Bella Morte NB06Resize

My work in progress....Bella Morte NB07Resize

The deal was made and home she came. Being the fabricator junkie that I am of 35 yrs, it wasn't 24 hrs before she had her first addition this being a lovely present from my beloved edera, a set of highway bars that she had bought me for the previous bike. But something told me to just hold on to them...
My work in progress....Bella Morte NB12

And then so it began....thoughts of graveyards and what they needed...SKULLS of course....*Wicked Smile*
My work in progress....Bella Morte AirFilter

The upper plate style was covering the fender artwork with the license plate, so that got gone quickly and need to cover the holes left:
My work in progress....Bella Morte RearView

My work in progress....Bella Morte RearView

In favor of this:
My work in progress....Bella Morte MyPlateHolder

Then one step further:
My work in progress....Bella Morte Taillight

Grips and tank and "Zombie Levers" followed:
My work in progress....Bella Morte GripEnd

My work in progress....Bella Morte Grip-1

My work in progress....Bella Morte FuelCap

The FUGLY dull aluminum side cover had to go, too....
My work in progress....Bella Morte SideCoverSkull

I'm Olde Skool, so a fork bag got strapped on, complete with added Ghost Rider Conchos:
My work in progress....Bella Morte ForkBag

Came across an airbrushed horn cover on ebay I just had to have. Piv does not do it justice. In daylight it looks like the skull is floating in there...
My work in progress....Bella Morte Horn

Then I added 96 Blacklight UV LED lights:
My work in progress....Bella Morte BellaLights

And two flashing red eyes for the big skull:
My work in progress....Bella Morte BellaLights2

Then I went to the performance. First a Power Commander V with autotune module, K&N intake and Rush slip on mufflers all done by me. But I have a Harley GURU in Denham Springs Louisiana who races Nitro Harleys. Told him to scare the Hades out of me and left it for 3 months. It came back with completely reworked 110 Screaming Eagle heads, custom forged pistons and cams and still more stuff...I never ask what all he did, I don't need to, it DOES make me twitchy, but I am slowly getting over that...*Evil Grin* On his advice I got rid of the slipons and installed a set of Bassani Pro Street "stepped" pipes. Stepping means that they start at 1 7/8" then go to 2", then finally 2 1/2 inches at the rear, which makes it sound unlike any Harley I have ever heard before.

Finally but still a work in progress, I decided I hated the plain aluminum allen bolts that it came stock with, so instead of ordering a chrome set, I capped every bolt with a chrome skull cap. Current total of skulls on this bike is 107 (and counting ) Cool

I still have some more ideas to work on, such as black powdercoating all but the engine itself, new mirrors and perhaps a new headlight. But she whispers ideas to me daily...she's a bit of a Prima Donna.... tongue