It wasn’t the fanciest Harley-Davidson on the lot when the 95th anniversary Dyna Wide Glide edition motorcycle caught the eye of retired Torrington lawman Randy Giles.
“It was just something that I thought a person my size would enjoy, so I bought it,” he said. “Nothing special attracted me to it. It was just a good, suitable bike for me, for my size and my riding capabilities.”
The used bike was also priced just right. Not too expensive — even if the dealer still got his fair share.
Giles didn’t do anything special to the bike, at least not at first. He bought some leather saddlebags for weekend rides with his friends. It was just a good, solid practical ride.
Then one day he rear-ended a police car in Cheyenne, totaling the bike.
Bent handlebars, damaged exhaust, smashed forward controls — the motorcycle was done for. Or so the insurance company said.
But Giles was a former auto body repair man before he was a lawman. He knew his way around metal and paint. So that was the beginning of a new journey for him and his Harley.
“I decided to buy it back from the insurance company and built it the way that I wanted to,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
From Totaled To Wanted
Now the motorcycle is more than just a ride. It’s an iron horse that an Old West lawman might ride today, all duded up with air-brushed posters of famous outlaws like Butch Cassidy and Billy the Kid with a leather saddle ringed by bullets.
There’s also a picture of a lawman who has just pulled two pistols, one of them smoking, with Devils Tower in the background.
It’s a rolling gallery of Western outlaw history now, turning heads and starting conversations everywhere he goes. It’s also won awards in various motorcycle shows, beating out some of the big names on the circuit.
“I was in a show at Deadwood Mountain Grand, and I took People’s Choice,” Giles said. “And there were people like Paul Yaffe, Corry Ness, and Donnie Smith in that show, so I feel like I got a little bragging rights there.”
Giles’ outlaw bike, which he calls "Wanted Dead Or Alive," has been through several transformations since it was wrecked in 2006. First came bright yellow with purple flames, then orange, and then a deep blue show-bike look that was starting to win awards every now and then.
“I’d win some and I’d lose some,” he said with a chuckle. “Well, nobody likes to lose, so I just had to do better.”
Harley As A Canvas
Better, he ultimately decided, would be to lean into what has meaning to him.
He had a 30-year career in law enforcement, including time spent as the chief of police in Lingle, where he learned some Wyoming towns still have an old city code that referred to his position as the town marshal.
“I thought that was just Old West,” he said. “I am interested in the Old West lawmen, Native Americans, cowboys, and all that kind of stuff. Lawmen and outlaws, so that’s where I got my idea.”
Growing up in Wyoming helped deepen that fascination. He was surrounded most of his life by landscapes tied to real frontier legends — Powder River country, the old territorial prison where Butch Cassidy once famously stayed, and areas where Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were said to have robbed a few trains.
Giles had been diving into books and television documentaries about the West since his 40s. So that became his theme and his Harley became a canvas.
Of Bullet Belts And Devils Tower
Giles started his concept with a cherry-maroon paint color, which he did himself. Then he hired an artist to layer intricate airbrushed “Wanted” posters of iconic outlaws such as Jesse James and Butch Cassidy on the bike.
The portraits look aged and weathered, as if peeled from an 1800s-era sheriff’s office wall. Chains and iron handcuffs are painted draped across the tank in the “trompe-l’oeil,” fool-the-eye tradition that is a hallmark of so many Renaissance painters.
On the rear fender, a lone gunfighter stands with two pistols drawn, one of them smoking, with Devils Tower rising in the background.
“Devils Tower ties it into Wyoming,” Giles said. “That and the gunfighter are the two features I like the most.”
But he also cherishes the custom-tooled brown leather saddle seat with its crossed revolvers and vintage “Wyoming US Marshal” star badge. And it’s not long before he’s named it as his favorite feature as well. The saddle has a sharp, braided leather edging around it as well as a shiny bullet belt that completes the look.
Frisco Chopper Channels Harley History
The bike that has emerged is part Western shrine, but it also harkens to Harley history as a part vintage “Frisco chopper,” a minimalist, tall and narrow custom Harley-Davidson meant for aggressive side-street riding and lane-splitting. The style emerged in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1960s.
Giles also swapped out the bike’s front end for a vintage Springer front, which has exposed chrome springs, rather than modern, telescopic fork shocks. And he used tall, ape-hanger handlebars, giving the bike a sleek silhouette with a commanding, arms-up riding stance.
The engine is the classic Harley V-twin with straight pipes, loaded with aftermarket chrome covers and paired with the long, unbaffled chrome straight-pipe exhausts.
All of which to say, this is a motorcycle that definitely makes an entrance when the engine starts. It’s meant not just to be seen but to be heard, and talked about.
Harley Lifestyle Wyoming Style
Giles doesn’t just plop this bike in the parking lot when he takes it to a show. He builds a miniature frontier world around it.
“I put ropes around it and a display that I made with some pilings, some ropes, and some Wanted posters and lamps,” he said. “It just went well with the theme that I had.”
Giles has other bikes he’s duded up for shows as well, but this is the one that starts the most conversations.
“They’ll stand there and just look it over really good for a long time and take pictures,” he said. “And that’s what makes me happy, to see somebody enjoying something that I’ve done.”
Giles is living firmly inside what people call the “Harley lifestyle,” but he’s doing it in Wyoming style.
He’s been taking bikes to Sturgis every year since 1990, trailering up multiple bikes, some to ride and some to show. Then he spends the week doing what Harley culture is famous for — people-watching, checking out vendors, and soaking in all the craziness.
It’s the latter, he’ll admit with a laugh, that he likes about Sturgis. But there’s also camaraderie, meeting new people, and looking at all the vendors, scoping out new ideas for the next Harley project.
No bike is ever truly finished, Giles said.
“I’ll accessorize this bike if I see something I like,” he said. “But I’ve got two other bikes now that I’m working on, so I’ve got to make financial room for those.”
Next Up: A Gold Digger
One is a 1998 Softail he’s rebuilding from the frame up around a $4,000 Evolution engine he won as a prize at Sturgis.
He’s sandblasted the frame and covered it and the swingarm in gold leaf. Its theme will be another Western archetype. He’s going to call it Gold Digger.
“Not so much the girl who tries to take money from a rich guy,” he said. “But the guy who goes out and pans for gold.”
Right now this project is living in his half of the family garage — much to his wife’s occasional frustration.
“I try and squeeze her out, and then she gets mad,” he admits with a laugh.
Recently he’s been imagining clever peace offerings. Like when his green bike “Slow Poke” won a trophy, he sent her up to collect it in his stead.
“She thought that was neat,” he said. “So maybe I’ve got her in my corner now.”
When he’s finished with “Gold Digger,” he’s thinking that bike might become hers.
“She’s been mad at me ever since I bought that one,” he said. “So if I give her that one, maybe she won’t be so mad at me anymore.”
Gold Digger has a good chance, he believes, of beating his outlaw Harley, and winning more awards.
But regardless, he plans to keep the old outlaw that started the Harley hobby he enjoys so much. It’s the perfect iron horse for a former town marshal with its vintage badge on a custom leather seat and its Wanted posters of the West’s most famous outlaws on the tank.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
