Bikers go out in style with the Harley hearse

HOLBROOK, N.Y. — Peter Moloney sits astride his 2006 Harley-Davidson Road King and lets its engine rip to a full roar.

On this day, he's just giving a demonstration, but on any other working day, he'd be clad in his helmet and leather — appropriately hued, like his Harley, in classic black.

For Moloney, this ride marks the ultimate convergence of his two licenses: motorcycle driver and funeral director.

The Harley, a modified trike that can haul as much as 900 pounds, is the $80,000-plus custom creation of Tombstone Hearse of Alum Bank, Pa.

With little more than 700 miles on its odometer, this is a road-worthy machine that, Moloney acknowledges, brings much-needed smiles to an otherwise somber processional between funeral home and final resting place.

"We wanted the opportunity to offer something unique," says Moloney, 42, who, with his uncle and two older brothers, runs five funeral homes.

"And this is a very unique specialty item," he says. "When we use it, people are overwhelmed with it."

The motorcycle hearse had its rollout in March at the St. Patrick's Day parade in St. James — sans rear passenger — and by April had completed its first formal funeral run, concluding services for a high-school youth who'd been an ardent fan of motorcycles.