Like Two Motorcycles In One
A body kit fits a Harley-Davidson touring model without have to drill or modify the original frame.
Tampa Tribune photo by KENNETH KNIGHT
Henry T. Chriss, 43, who lives in the Sanctuary on Livingston, sits on the 2005 Harley-Davidson Road King custom classic that he designed and built mainly using fiberglass. He created a company Henry Thomas Designs to market and sell the custom body kit.
Published: October 24, 2008
LUTZ - After 20 years in corporate America, Henry Chriss stopped working 9-to-5 to feed his passion for motorcycles.
The business consultant now spends most of his time tinkering on motorcycles and other machinery in his home garage in the Sanctuary on Livingston, a gated community on Livingston Avenue.
Three years ago he decided to try his hand at designing and building a custom bike. He set out to create an easy to install, do-if-yourself body kit that would fit a Harley-Davidson touring model without have to drill or modify the original frame.
"I believe I have an eye for design," said Chriss, 43. "I'm pretty in touch with motorcycles and old cars."
He bought a new Harley-Davidson Road King cruising bike in January 2005. Two months later he had disassembled it. The seat, saddlebags, taillights, side covers, license plate brackets, and chrome parts and fenders were scattered like jigsaw puzzle pieces on his garage floor.
"It didn't look like a bike," Chriss said.
Without a sketch, Chriss made a template using sheets of fiberglass, fleece and a wood framing. He applied modeling clay to the surface to give it shape and crafted a mold.
Using lightweight fiberglass, he developed a custom body kit that weighed 2 pounds less than the pieces he removed from the bike. In six months, Chriss had transformed his 2005 Road King touring bike into a custom classic.
He coined his new fiberglass product "The Phatback." "It's a play off words." Chriss said. "In the 1950s people would describe something "cool" as phat. We brought it [the term] back in the '90s."
The $2,499 custom motorcycle kit will fit all 2000 to 2007 Harley-Davidson touring model bikes, the inventor said.
Chriss launched his new company, Henry Thomas Designs, this year to sell motorcycle accessories.
He touts the company's growth potential.
"There are 179,000 of the Harley-Davidson bikes manufactured on average every year," Chriss said. "I am just going after one tenth of 1 percent, which is something like 3,700 parts I have to sell, which [translate to] about $4 million" a year.
"Every time we ride together people stare at it," said Michelle Yalkin, a motorcycle riding buddy of Chriss. "People will find him in the crowd to ask him how they can get one."
Ian Peabody, the co-owner of Peabody's Billiard & Games on Amberly Drive in Tampa Palms, is another avid supporter. He was instrumental in getting American Iron, a magazine read by motorcycle enthusiasts, to feature Chriss's custom design in its February 2008 edition.
"I told him the bike was beautiful," Peabody said. "He thought I was saying it as a friend to be nice. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought so."
Chriss is thrilled by the support of family and friends.
"Most of the stuff that has happened is because of my associates and friends," Chriss said.
They have accompanied him to competitive bike shows and rallies throughout Florida and across the country, where his custom motorcycle has won first place in "Best of Show" competitions at the Harley-Davidson 105th Anniversary Celebration in Milwaukee on Aug. 30, the Plant City Bike Fest on Sept. 6 and overall best of show at the Quaker Steak & Lube Bike Fest in St. Petersburg on Sept. 3.
Chriss's custom body kit without saddlebags was designed to resemble hot rods and classic muscle cars from the 1940s and 1950s. He was inspired by the 1949 Mercury and 1955 Cadillac. He modeled his design on running boards and long, low fender skirts he saw on cars in mobster-themed movies he watched as a child.
"The objective is to create some sentimental value or memory that a lot of people who ride bikes have for their first vehicles," he said.
Although he hasn't sold a body kit, Chriss said he is negotiating a deal with a motorcycle accessories catalog and updating the company Web site, www.oldskoolcycle
werks.com to get more exposure.
"If you do it based on money, you are doing it for the wrong reason," Chriss said. "I did this as a labor of love."
He is working on designs for hard- and soft-covered, hidden saddlebag compartments called "PhatBags," Chriss said. They will cost $1,499.
Chriss said he hopes to expand the custom concept to fit Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki motorcycle cruising models by spring 2009.
"We have already had requests for those metric bikes," Chriss said, "so I will be spending a lot of late nights in the garage, watching TV and working on bikes."
Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813) 865- 4842.
