MILWAUKEE - Harley-Davidson launched Hard Candy Custom, a styling movement that spans generations, cultures and markets. Rooted in themes first seen in the chopper era of the late 1960s, Hard Candy Custom embraces a trend that’s reemerged from garages around the globe; metal flake paint, brilliant chrome, and styling details in accessories, gear and apparel that are simultaneously current and nostalgic.

Hard Candy Custom elements include 16 new “big flake” paint finishes, three of which will be selectively offered as a solid-color option on five Harley-Davidson production motorcycles for 2013. Now the sparkle of a traditional metal flake finish can be ordered as Original Equipment paint and serve as the foundation for personal customization that embraces the bright, bold and expressive style of So Cal in the Sixties. Hard Candy Big Red Flake made its debut in 2012 on the Seventy-Two model, and for 2013 that color is joined by Hard Candy Lucky Green Flake and Hard Candy Coloma Gold Flake. At least one Hard Candy Custom color will be offered on these Harley-Davidson motorcycle models: Seventy-Two, Street Bob, Blackline, Softail Deluxe, and Forty-Eight.

The Hard Candy Custom colors are created by applying tinted flakes, each more than seven times the size of metal flake used in typical production paint, over a black base coat. The flake is then covered with multiple layers of clear coat, which combined with hand sanding produces a finished surface with extraordinary depth. Each Hard Candy Custom paint set will be finished with graphics specific to the motorcycle model, and features a special Hard Candy Custom logo.

In addition, there are twelve more-intricate, two-tone Hard Candy Custom Flake Core Series paint sets and fuel tanks from the Harley-Davidson Genuine Motor Accessories Color Shop, available for many Sportster, Dyna, Softail and Touring model motorcycles. One paint set offered on the 2013 CVO™ Breakout, Hard Candy Gold Dust and Liquid Sun with Pagan Gold, is also a Hard Candy Custom selection.