Ultra Harley, Ultra Price

ULTRA HARLEY, ULTRA PRICE

ROUNDUP

IF WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING for is the ultimate Harley, and if you're the happy and satisfied owner of the ultimate bank account, Bob Dron Harley-Davidson in Oakland, California, has an item that may grab your interest.

It's called the Heritage

Royale, and it’s for sale. Bring money. A bale of it. About $80,000 ought to be sufficient, Dron says.

The bike, based on a Harley Heritage Softail, is meant to evoke the 1930s styling of the famed Bugatti Royale automobile-thought by many car col-

lectors to be the most desirable collectible car in the world.

Dron says he and his craftsmen invested about 900 hours in the creation of the bike’s allaluminum bodywork. The chromed bits also took a great deal of time-each is handmade from brass.

Dron built the bike as a concept vehicle. “We wanted to come up with something new, and yet be old. It’s kind of a way for Harley-Davidson to test the waters without having their name officially on the project,” he says.

Public response to the Heritage Royale has been overwhelmingly positive. “At Daytona this year, people were parking right in traffic to take a picture of it,” Dron says. “We got run off the street three times for jamming up traffic.”

Dron says he plans to build additional copies, but only at the rate of one or two per year.

Jon F. Thompson