I wanted to build a chopper that was an homage the styles that came from the 70’s. The stretched hard-tails with amazing paint, long sissy bars and regal seats.
The bike was based on an 883 Sportster and stripped into component parts and most of it was sold or thrown away, I kept the engine, front wheel hub, fork lowers and rear mudguard. The rest of the parts required would be new or made;
Frame; I didn’t want to compromise on ride quality but wanted that hard-tailed look. If you’ve ever seen a hard-tail chopper take corners at speed, you’ll understand. The frame I found combines looks and performance. It uses a single, vertical gas shock and linkage, unlike the double underslung Harley types, this makes it lighter and more responsive. It’s made by and old geezer called Briz somewhere in Middle England, you can find him at ccd-briz.com.
Engine; The 883 engine was toast and would need a proper rebuild, it was stripped into parts, and blasted and polished and painted. The usual Andrews Camshafts and Wiseco pistons went in but the real winner for me, was having the crankshaft dynamically balanced, this was the first Sportster crank the engineers had done. The result was an eye-wateringly expensive engine that looked as good as it went and rides as smooth as butter in that solid mount frame.
Electrics and Controls; Full custom loom with internal wiring and fancy Motone switches. Motogadget supplied the speedo and bar end indicators and triple billet tail-lights by Biltwell. I struggled to find a headlight that looked right, something that wasn’t the usual Bates or triangle one. In the end I used a headlight from a Lotus Super Seven. Foot controls are some nice aluminium ones by Drag Specialties and the clutch and brake taken care of by the beautiful and dangerous Kustomtech parts
Seat; Full, real leather King and Queen seat by Vikingseats , it couldn’t really be anything else.
Paint; Tank and mudguards by Pegleg painter Some of his best work in my opinion 😊 the blue, pinks and purples in the tank are fantastic and usually the next thing to be commented on, after the noise the bike makes.
Exhaust and Sissy-bar; You hear this bike coming long before you see it with those long straight pipes with the truck flaps playing their tune. On the over-run the bike sounds like it’s taking great big gulps of air through the pipes, it really is magical mechanical music. The sissy-bar is a killer touch with the subtle-but-not-subtle devil tail looping around at the top. Both exhaust and sissy-bar were made by my friends at P&D Bikes to whom I’m grateful to for putting up with all my micromanagement!
The end result is a pretty awesome bike. If you see the happy new owner on his new chopper around London, give him a wave, I’m sure he’s going to love all the attention!
