WELL, IT AIN'T NO 'CUSTOM' BUT I BOUGHT IT TO RIDE ON A DAILY, WORK RELATED BASIS AND I'M PRETTY BLOODY STOKED WITH HOW THE THING HAS TURNED OUT NEARLY FOURTEEN MONTHS DOWN THE TRACK . . . . 30,000+ KILOFLOGS AND THE SUCKER HASN'T MISSED A BEAT !!!
As soon as I got the critter home off came about a ton of bullshit, non essential plastic shit like reflectors, mud flaps, cheap, shitty airbox badging, belt guard etc . . . I've always run that style of 'bars and they were part of the pre purchase 'vision' along with losing the excessive black theme and the pipes without going the fad proportion Vance + Hines option . . .
The list of non stock additions/alterations/modifications are as follows - 'bars, custom 1200 tank painted and pinstriped by Von Pato, rear shocks, uprated front springs, cheap shit straight through slip on's, Power Commander chip thingy, reworked and hand welded cheapo Zodiac raw finish air filter cover by Kiwi Steve [another one!!], fantastically functional finned derby cover [keeps the clutch zone much cooler] courtesy of Denver Dan et al at The Speed Merchant, stripped and polished fork sliders and brace and the obvious Metzy whitewalls . . . it was about form following function while not fucking with the basic concept of the bike . . .
Like I said, after hunting for a brand new ride for the best part of four years and after a two decade plus history of riding wonderful old Trumpy's, the last bike I thought I'd be getting was a Hardly Rideable . . . . not a fucking chance I would've thunked. I'd been checking out Thruxtons, retro Dukes, retro Guzzis even the chance of a fully fettled and rebuilt U.S spec '70 t120R . . . but the whole point was to avoid the drama and frustration that all old bikes and cars ultimately give you . . . ending up stuck on the side of the road trying to cobble together a stop gap "Gunnedah" bracket or whatever, or, worse still, wating for your mate to come and get you and the expired scoot, I'm gonna be able to enjoy that shit all over again with the '74 FXE "Project Shoveller".
I wanted a modern, reliable ride that I could use in my 'straight' job, [first real straight gig I've ever had], and then just get on and flog the shit out of it every weekend . . . I'd always really dug Skirtsters, 'specially as they handle pretty well when sorted and set up properly. Around July of 2010 I accidentally came across some blurbage for the soon to be released '48, even though I'd never been enamoured of 16" steer tyres, 19" is about perfect in my book, I took one look at it, had my epiphany of what I would change, went to bed, woke up, walked into my mate at the local Harley dealer, put a deposit down, waited four months and the rest is history . . .
Here I am, having spent twenty five years proclaiming proudly I would never own a H-D and now I'm a totally smitten and addicted owner of two of the fucking things . . . and . . . loving it !!!! Can't wait to get the Shoveller up and running but until then I'll be only too happy enjoying the thrills of the road on my own little Sportility . . . . giddy up motherfucker !!!
**** Got a couple of shots I stole from The Speed Merchants you can look at if you like by clicking on either the link below or on the post title . . . knees in the breeze !!!
WHITE LINE PSYCHOS The Speed Merchant Blog
As soon as I got the critter home off came about a ton of bullshit, non essential plastic shit like reflectors, mud flaps, cheap, shitty airbox badging, belt guard etc . . . I've always run that style of 'bars and they were part of the pre purchase 'vision' along with losing the excessive black theme and the pipes without going the fad proportion Vance + Hines option . . .
The list of non stock additions/alterations/modifications are as follows - 'bars, custom 1200 tank painted and pinstriped by Von Pato, rear shocks, uprated front springs, cheap shit straight through slip on's, Power Commander chip thingy, reworked and hand welded cheapo Zodiac raw finish air filter cover by Kiwi Steve [another one!!], fantastically functional finned derby cover [keeps the clutch zone much cooler] courtesy of Denver Dan et al at The Speed Merchant, stripped and polished fork sliders and brace and the obvious Metzy whitewalls . . . it was about form following function while not fucking with the basic concept of the bike . . .
Like I said, after hunting for a brand new ride for the best part of four years and after a two decade plus history of riding wonderful old Trumpy's, the last bike I thought I'd be getting was a Hardly Rideable . . . . not a fucking chance I would've thunked. I'd been checking out Thruxtons, retro Dukes, retro Guzzis even the chance of a fully fettled and rebuilt U.S spec '70 t120R . . . but the whole point was to avoid the drama and frustration that all old bikes and cars ultimately give you . . . ending up stuck on the side of the road trying to cobble together a stop gap "Gunnedah" bracket or whatever, or, worse still, wating for your mate to come and get you and the expired scoot, I'm gonna be able to enjoy that shit all over again with the '74 FXE "Project Shoveller".
I wanted a modern, reliable ride that I could use in my 'straight' job, [first real straight gig I've ever had], and then just get on and flog the shit out of it every weekend . . . I'd always really dug Skirtsters, 'specially as they handle pretty well when sorted and set up properly. Around July of 2010 I accidentally came across some blurbage for the soon to be released '48, even though I'd never been enamoured of 16" steer tyres, 19" is about perfect in my book, I took one look at it, had my epiphany of what I would change, went to bed, woke up, walked into my mate at the local Harley dealer, put a deposit down, waited four months and the rest is history . . .
Here I am, having spent twenty five years proclaiming proudly I would never own a H-D and now I'm a totally smitten and addicted owner of two of the fucking things . . . and . . . loving it !!!! Can't wait to get the Shoveller up and running but until then I'll be only too happy enjoying the thrills of the road on my own little Sportility . . . . giddy up motherfucker !!!
**** Got a couple of shots I stole from The Speed Merchants you can look at if you like by clicking on either the link below or on the post title . . . knees in the breeze !!!
WHITE LINE PSYCHOS The Speed Merchant Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment