Speed & Crafts Performance Winner: The Fangster Street Glide… 

What’s a performance bagger? To some, the phrase might seem an oxymoron, but the craze for V-twin touring models with high-performance brakes, suspension, and engine upgrades has exploded in popularity in recent years. The cutting edge of the trend is MotoAmerica’s “King of the Baggers” series, where well-known superbike racers heave and slide these 620-lb behemoths around America’s most iconic race circuits.

Outside of American Flat Track, it’s one of the few places you can see modern Harley-Davidsons and Indians racing head-to-head, just like the days of old. No less than Kevin Cameron of Cycle World authored a piece earlier this year entitled “Why King of the Baggers Racing is So Popular.”

“King of the Baggers bikes are to the traditional classes Superbike and Supersport as thundering NASCAR V-8 ‘stock cars’ are to winged formula cars.” -Kevin Cameron, CW

Kyle Wyman racing in MotoAmerica’s King of the Baggers

Of course, the bagger racing series was largely born from a trend on the street, as real owners, stunt riders, and track-day enthusiasts have been modifying their baggers not just for style, but performance unexpected from such heavyweight machines.

Now the race development is filtering back into the street and custom world, and we’re beginning to see more and more performance baggers turn up at shows and events.

Enter our friends at Fangster, a Taiwanese brand that specializes in developing performance parts for Harley-Davidsons. Jimmy, the founder, grew up in the industry, producing OEM parts for many years until he started the Fangster brand several years ago.

“As of today, Fangster is the biggest parts distributor for Harley-Davidson motorcycles in Taiwan. We believe that we are also the number one dealer of Drag Specialties in Taiwan. Fangster services multiple parts for more than 40 motorcycle shops.”

Each year, Fangster builds a custom bike to showcase their parts and push themselves into new territories of style and performance. Last year, we featured Fangster’s Sportster 1200 street tracker. This year, they’re back with the performance bagger you see here, built especially for the Speed & Crafts Taiwan Championship of Custom Bike Building, held by superstar builder Winston Yeh of Rough Crafts — the first such competition in Taiwan.

Starting with a 2017 Harley Street Glide, the Fangster team set out to build a machine that would retain the long-range comfort of a bagger with significant upgrades in performance, style, and finish.

“We believe that a motorcycle can be a work of art and a powerhouse on wheels simultaneously.”

Highlights include a set of BST carbon wheels, inverted Rebuffini Nexo forks, Rebuffini brake hardware with Lyndall floating discs, Two Brothers Racing 2:1 exhaust, a slimmer knee-cut tank for aggressive riding and a whole arsenal of Fangster’s own parts, including a custom air intake, rocker / cam / derby covers, custom footboards matched with adjustable controls, custom-made Fangster grips and tank cap, and more.

The fairing and bags come from Dirty Bird Concepts, while well-proven Baja Designs LED lighting cuts through the Taiwanese night. The paint is reminiscent of the 2022 Fangster tracker, showcasing the brand’s signature colors and style. All in all, this is one of the meanest touring bikes we’ve seen — a kindred spirit to the race baggers of the MotoAmerica series.

Not only does the Fangster Bagger look and perform much better than the original, it took home first place in the Performance division of the Speed & Crafts Championship! Congrats to the whole Fangster crew for taking home some hardware!

First Place in the Performance Division

SOURCE: BIKEBOUND.COM