By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
From stock to custom to turning heads and winning trophies, that has been the road traveled by Dan Patrone's 2001 Harley-Davidson.
Patrone, 34, of Poland, has been around motorcycles and muscle cars for years and finally decided it was time to get his own bike. That bike turned out to be a 2001 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy all stock -- a nice bike by mostpeople'sstandards, but one lacking pizazz to Patrone.
"It was just a brand new Fat Boy sitting in the showroom with nothing really special about it," Patrone recalls. "I like custom bikes, and the desire was always to have a chopper. One thing just led to another."
After buying the motorcycle, Patrone rode it for all of about 100 miles before he and a friend decided that it needed a little sprucing up. He enlisted the help of several friends who are local experts in the art of custom-bike building -- Dennis Troll of DZ Customs, Dan Campana of Custom Powder Coat and Mike Myhal for the machine work -- and within days the relatively new Fat Boy was stripped down to the frame and a pile of parts.
Customized
Patrone said he and his friends went to work rebuilding the bike to be more than it originally was. All the chrome work is customized. Every nut was chromed and polished. The factory engine was rebuilt and polished.
Eventually custom wheels were added and the finishing touch was a limited-production Harley-Davidson paint job. Only 150 of the paint jobs were produced. The paint on Patrone's Fat Boy is marked with the number 67 to show its authenticity.
In all, Patrone said rebuilding and customizing the bike took five months of work from all those involved. He estimates that he has about $47,000 invested in the motorcycle.
"It's a hobby, and it helps keep me out of trouble," he said. "I don't drink, and I don't do drugs; this is my away time."
Motorcycle shows
The hobby took a more serious turn for Patrone after he visited a recent motorcycle show in Las Vegas and took a look at other motorcycles in the stock-custom category. He figured the Fat Boy customized by him and his friends could win a show.
Patrone was right.
The bike was towed to the national "Rats Hole" motorcycle show in Daytona, Fla., where it won first place in its class. The custom Harley also took third place at another bike show that same weekend.
According to Patrone, the motorcycle has a good chance of representing the United States at a motorcycle show in Germany. He said one first-place winner from each class of customized motorcycles is selected to travel to Germany.
In the meantime, Patrone's Fat Boy could be seen a number of places here in the United States. He said it will be featured in Easy Riders Magazine and V-Twin magazine. The bike will also be on Speedvision television cable channel and the "Born to Ride" TV show in Florida.
According to Patrone, the ride is not quite over -- the bike will be headed for more show competition next year.
jgoodwin@vindy.com