Roadtest Bagger Blues - Zodiac

PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS FOR HARLEY-DAVIDSON ® 

Road Test 

ZODIAC’S ‘BAGGER BLUES’ 

Bagger Blues by Zodiac 

The people from parts company Zodiac have 

radically customized a Bagger. We are talking 

about a 2004 Electra Glide Standard that has been 

given a complete new look. Dutch Freelancer and 

Chopper-freak Grizzly was given the honors to 

test it. 

It is a new trend; customizing so-called ‘Baggers’. 

What is a Bagger exactly? Well, its plain and 

simple, a bagger is a bike with hard cases. An old 

man’s bike in my eyes. I am riding homebuilt 

choppers for more than thirty years and hope to 

keep doing that forever. Back in the days the 

Chopper was the favorite form of transportation 

for the rebellious youth, while Baggers were 

ridden by Joe citizen. But that, my dear readers is 

not any longer the case. Eighty percent of all 

bikers do not ride choppers anymore and a lot 

prefer the Bagger above the hand built Chopper. 

Why? We are getting old! Lets face it, we don’t 

have to beat around the bush, most bikers are 

greybeards. We are all just a bunch of old farts! 

Period! Now, I understand that people want to 

ride a more comfortable bike because of old age, 

health problems or just for convenience sake. But 

I have a hard time understanding people who 

have dedicated their life to building and riding 

one of a kind choppers, bikes that totally differ 

from the Harley the neighbor-guy is riding, 

suddenly make the decision to buy a bone stock 

factory Bagger? The urge to turn a stock bike into 

something of your own can never be totally wiped 

out from your system? Right? Well, for those 

people who have bought a stock Bagger but still 

have a bit of that customizing 

spirit left, one has now invented 

the Custom(!) Bagger. 

In America, but also in countries 

like Germany, it is already 

happening on a large scale. 

Baggers are being totally rebuilt 

without losing the touring 

characteristics and without 

sacrificing the comfort. Big 

names of companies that used to 

build only choppers have now 

discovered the potential to start 

customizing Baggers. Companies 

like Paul Yaffe, Covington, Arlen 

Ness and many others. Zodiac has 

also noticed this development 

and they see this new trend as a big challenge to 

develop a new breed of parts. For this purpose 

they bought a 2004 FLHTi Electra Glide Standard 

and gave it a complete makeover and now I have 

the doubtful honor to test it. It is nice and sunny 

weather when I pull my bike out of the shed. In 

less than one hour I arrive in Mijdrecht where 

Vincent Pels from Zodiac welcomes me. After 

coffee -in Holland we drink that stuff all the timehe 

proudly explains what they have exactly done 

to give this particular Bagger its brand new 

custom look. Every year Zodiac builds or rebuilds 

bikes to show its customers what the possibilities 

are with the use of the company’s catalogue. 

These projects are used to develop new parts as 

well, because Zodiac is not only getting parts from 

other fabricators, they also produce their own. 

Vincent tells me it is on this bike that they have 

developed their 200 Wide Tire Kit. This kit comes 

PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS FOR HARLEY-DAVIDSON ®


Road Test 


with a wider rear fender, an offset for the primary, 

saddlebag support kits and much more. They had 

already put a technically better front fork on the 

market with the same length as the front end of 

a Softail: a beautiful state-of-the-art Öhlins 

upside-down. To mount this front end it was 

necessary to change the weird stock neck of the 

Electra. Their solution to this problem was to rake 

the chassis themselves. Rather radical for the 

company from The Netherlands, especially if you 

realize that most other parts of this company are 

bolt-on parts. And because not all of their 

customers are frame builders they quickly added 

the ‘Get Raked’ kit in their product range. With 

this kit you get a template that shows you how to 

cut the stock neck. When you have done that, the 

new neck with more rake can be welded onto the 

frame. It is possible to do all this without a framejig 

and without having to dismount the motor. It 

is not much work and the result is stunning. 

Vincent shows me that they came up with the idea 

of a bolt-on forward control set that replaces the 

stock floorboards which normally scrape the 

tarmac every time one turns a tide corner. He also 

tells me what other parts were used to make this 

Bagger a real Custom. Vincent knows what he is 

talking about and the list of parts is long and 

impressive! I let it all sink in, hop on the Bagger 

and start with the actual test-ride. The first thing 

I notice when I hit the road is how light it handles 

in the corners. We are talking about a neck with 

34 degrees rake now and zero degrees in the 

trees. Steering appears to be effortless, they 

turned this bagger into a real sports bike. Stability 

on a straight road has even improved. What I do 

notice is the fact that the Bob Dron custom fairing 

catches wind from the sides, It makes the bikes 

wobble a little bit when behind a truck for 

instance. It is not unsafe to ride with that fairing, 

the bike feels like it is glued to the road, but it 

just feels strange and awkward. So I would throw 

that one in a corner or mount it differently. I take 

the small roads home to have some lunch with the 

wife. After finishing my scrambled eggs I ask my 



Road Test 


fifteen year old daughter to go for a ride with me. 

She is a real adolescent with a will of her own and 

does not want to ride pillion on my chopper 

anymore because she catches to much 

wind…….can you believe that? On the bagger 

however -‘dad, won’t they laugh at us?’, ‘No 

honey this is a good looking bagger’- there is less 

height difference thanks to the Zodiac/Mustang 

seat and she can hide behind my back. She loves 

that particular fact, she tells me later. We are 

heading for Den Helder following the sand-dunes. 

We stop at the beach at the east side of the city. 

I remember this place because I have successfully 

been searching for wild Japanese(!) Oysters here, 

which I ate at the spot. It is a great location for 

photos. 

Time to study the Zodiac Bagger more closely. I 

must admit that I like the looks of it. The bright 

gold colored Öhlins front end sticks out and the 

builders at Zodiac have returned the color stylishly 

into the grips, pegs and risers. The handlebars 

have a wider diameter which fits in with the 

massive appearance of the bike. The hard bags are 

extended giving the bagger the looks of a led sled. 

Because of the Wide Tire Kit the bike looks bigger 

from the rear, almost like that of a classic car. The 

gaps between the cases and the frame are filled 

with good looking panels from Küryakyn. The gas 

tank looks better thanks to the tidy dash panel 

from Paul Yaffe. Exhausts are Supertrapps with 

edged end caps again from Yaffe’s Bagger Nation 

and thanks to the bag extensions, it looks like the 

Supertrapps run through the bags. The motor is 

cosmetically upgraded thanks to Roland Sands 

Design valve covers and I also notice they have 

used the ribbed ‘timing’ cover from RSD. This 

ribbed design subtly returns in other parts, like the 

handlebar controls and latch covers from Arlen 

Ness. As a primary drive, a Primo two inch belt 

drive lit has been used with not too obvious 

covers. The pulleys and clutch cover are neatly 

chromed. The Super Steve front wheel from Ricks 

is a small one. A nineteen incher given more body 

using a beautiful custom full fender. In this case I 



Road Test 


would have preferred a twenty-three or twentysix 

wheel. Zodiac has decided not to use a bigger 

wheel for practical reasons. And then I think the 

Zodiac Bagger still has too much ground clearance 

to achieve that real led sled look most bagger 

customizers are after. Knowing less clearance 

negatively influences the riding style, the men 

from The Netherlands have decided to keep the 

bike high off the ground. Maybe an adjustable airride 

system can solve this issue. Altogether, this 

bike looks fresh and Sporty. I love the paintjob by 

Sam’s from Purmerend, especially the fact that the 

silvergrey panels flow from the hard cases into the 

Ness side covers. This bagger definitely looks much 

better than a stock one if you ask me. 

After the photo-shoot we ride from Den Helder 

through small towns like Stroe and Oosterland to 

Den Oever. We make a loop across the old Island 

of Wieringen that once was occupied by Vikings. 

It is no island anymore but still a small and 

interesting piece of Holland with flowing hills and 

narrow overgrown country roads. I take the 

polder-roads and enter Historic Kolhorn which 

used to be a harbour town before the Dutch 

turned the sea into land. The Bagger runs great 

and does everything a good bike needs to do. The 

two front discs with Beringer callipers combined 

with the round Arlen Ness brake handles work 

perfectly. The front fork easily soaks up the 

pothole ridden polder roads and I can not think 

of anything negative about the hydraulic clutch 

either. The seating position is okay although the 

handlebars could have been a little bit higher 

from me personally. Other things are similar to 

what we are used to from an Electra. Despite the 

totally different look, most of the geometry and 

technique stayed the same. After a nice ride, the 

sun is gone but the temps are still close to twentyfive 

degrees, I park the bike at home. My daughter 

has enjoyed the ride, bet she wants a boyfriend 

with a bagger now. Shit! Some time later some 

club brothers of mine come to have a peek at the 

bike. The Chopper purists amongst them, fanatic 

as they are, do not like it but the ones with a 

milder idea about bikes admit it is a good looking 

machine. It is a warm night and we stay outside 

drinking wine till three o’clock. Next day I wake 

up feeling surprisingly good. I look outside from 

my bedroom window. Guess what? It is raining! 

What else is new in Holland… Still I decide to 

bring the bike back to Mijdrecht. I am taking the 

highway this time. The Twin Cam, supported by a 

Zodiac Top Fuel injection tuner, goes like hell and 

with an average speed of hundred-forty I pass 

most of the cars. Sometimes I see a thumbs up 

appearing from behind the cars steering wheel, 

one time even from a hot looking chick in a red 

sports car. Thanks to the fairing, the full rear 

fender and the front fender I hardly get wet from 

the rain. What a big difference with my Chopper. 

In Purmerend I do a pit stop at the Kentucky Fried 

Chicken. A three piece box for lunch, yummy, so 

good! In the mean time it has stopped raining and 

passing Utrecht the road is dry. I take exit 

Vinkeveen and arrive at Zodiac’s headquarters 

with a big smile on my face. ‘And? Convinced?’ 

Vincent Pels asks. ‘Are you going to customize a 

bagger now?’ ‘What do you think?’ I ask laughing. 

‘No, Vincent, a Bagger is not for me, I will 

desperately try to be a young god forever. 

Choppers for Life! I even have it tattooed on my 

arm! It is a fact however, that many other bikers 

will embrace this new trend with open arms. Using 

the Zodiac Bagger as a source of inspiration, we 

might as well welcome a whole new generation 

of Custom bikes in Europe. 

Words and pics: Grizzly 



Road Test 


TECHLIST ZODIAC’S “BAGGER BLUES” 

This Twin Cam Touring model is completely 

customized with parts from the Zodiac catalog. 

Luggage 

A03569 Arlen Ness “Retro” saddlebag latch 

covers 

A06396 Arlen Ness Saddlebag extensions 

K1193 Saddlebag filler panels Küryakyn 

Seat 

776350 Zodiac/Mustang Tripper Solo Seat 

776351 Zodiac/Mustang Tripper Rear Seat 

Exhaust System 

733047 SuperTrapp SE Slip-ons 

733094 SuperTrapp Yaffe Afterburner End Cap 

733174 SuperTrapp True Dual headers 

Electrical & Lighting 

160004 Headlight Hydra Glide 7” 

731414 Iron Cross Wave Cut head lamp unit 

160525 Clear lens chrome LED taillight 

723342 Chrome Cross turn signal lenses 

741360 Brainbox electronic control box 

Engine & Intake 

722094 MW SuperLight motormount 

710412 MW Ignition switch Housing 

740643 RSD Nostalgia Rocker Covers 

740671 RSD Nostalgia Timing Cover 

741690 Zodiac TOP Fuel Injection Tuner 

A18488 Arlen Ness 90º Air Filter kit 

Primary, clutch & transmission 

302182 Ball milled hydraulic clutch cover 

722955 Primo Brute IV belt drive kit 

239436 Shift linkage Rod End 

A19900 Arlen Ness V-Style Shifter Rod 



Road Test 


Wheels, Tires, Brakes 

743033 EBC 5-Star “Narrow band” full floating 

front disc brake rotors 

144605 5-Point Star rear disc brake rotor 

236188 AVON Venom X 100/90-H19 front tire 

293518 AVON Cobra 200/55R17 rear tire 

701335 Beringer Chrome 6-piston caliper, front 

right 

701338 Beringer Chrome 6-piston caliper, front 

left 

Rick’s “Super Steve” 17x5.50 rear wheel 

Rick’s “Super Steve” 19x3.00 front wheel 

Foot Controls 

055109 Chrome forward control kit 

743398 Chops76 Classic brass foot pegs 

743423 Chops76 Ribbed brass shifter peg 

K7527 Küryakyn adjustable passenger peg 

mounts 

Frame & Swing Arm 

396101 Radium 200mm wide swing arm with 

axle, complete primary drive offset kit, 

final drive pulleys for 20mm belt (belt 

not included), stock style rear fender, 

fender bumper and saddle bag support 

kit. 

A03623 Arlen Ness frame side covers 

Gas Tank & Instruments 

236377 Dakota Digital Speedo/Tacho 

745027 Paul Yaffe Dresser dash 

741231 MW clamp for 48 mm gauges 

710436 MW Meter cup 

Paint job: Sam’s Custom, Purmerend, The 

Netherlands 

Handlebars & Controls 

096038 Fat Bubba 1.25” Knuckle style 

handlebar 

162411 Sport mirrors with LED signal lights 

743364 Chops76 Classic line brass risers 2” 

A08723 Arlen Ness “Retro” handlebar controls 

A08704 Arlen Ness “Retro” switch block 

A20276 Arlen Ness “Radius” false throttle 

housing (left) 

A20285 Arlen Ness “Radius” throttle housing 

Front End 

090624 Ball milled front fender spacers 

744615 Öhlins front forks with Zodiac triple tree 

kit 

744607 Front wheel axle for Öhlins fork 

744608 Bracket for Öhlins fork with OEM style 

calipers, right 

744609 Bracket for Öhlins fork with OEM style 

calipers, left 

950120 Cruise Speed Smooth Liberator front 

fender 

A06950 Arlen Ness/Bob Dron handlebar fairing 



Road Test 




Road Test

Roadtest Bagger Blues - Zodiac

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