Thunder Roads Magazine of Oklahoma/Arkansas May 2016 | Page 22

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The Phat Snowballed
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by Douglas Henderson

Sometimes, a good idea just...
snowballs. You know, where you
start out with something good, that
just gets better, and bigger and ends
up being way more than you ever first
suspected it to be.
I’m a professional photographer,
an artist...and a biker. A client wanted
a poster for their event with a real
“Americana” sort of feel, and, to me,
nothing says America more than the
classic Harleys of the 1940’s and
50s. After a little digging, I located
this bike; a 1948 Harley. That’s the
first year of the panhead, and that’s
about as American as it gets.
Now the guy that owns this pan,

wishes to remain anonymous, so we’ll
respect that. But he was very helpful,
really going the extra mile so I could
get good photos of his bike.
The bike is not a “concurs”
restored show bike; it’s a rider that
gets rode! It’s got a little wear and a
few not quite period correct pieces
on it. A little dirt, a little oil. Seat’s
faded and frayed, exhaust pipes are
a little blue... it’s PERFECT!
And, it made a great poster. But
then... the snowball started rolling....
A person saw the poster and
asked me to submit a design to a
contest. Tulsa Transit Authority, the
city bus service, has a contest where

artists compete for a bus design; the
winning design is printed as a vehicle
wrap that completely covers a city
bus. It’s a rolling billboard for the
artist and give the bus service some
attention.
From somewhere, I got the bright
idea of covering the ENTIRE 40foot long bus with one image of a
motorcycle; THIS motorcycle. The
right side of the bus would be the
right side of the bike, and the left the
left. I mocked this up in Photoshop
and, well... I thought it was cool. But
I didn’t really expect the corporate
suites at the bus service to “get it”.