Black Mamba Hot Rod Chopper

THIS BIKE WAS originally started by a shop in Queensland called Down Under Choppers which turned into Gone Under Choppers. When it came down to me it was just a frame, a couple of wheels and a gearbox. It had some bodywork on it but nothing fitted, nothing lined up, so we had to go through and redo the whole thing. We re-did the rear guard, all the bodywork, made a new swingarm, got an engine, and did all that kind of stuff. The bike has about 300 man hours in it. Just about everything is handmade, all the tin work was done by hand, nothing is off-the-shelf.

It’s got a 124 inch S&S motor; six speed gearbox; BDL belt drive; PM wheels, brakes and controls.

The tank was hand-fabricated by a guy in Queensland. It was one of the few things on the bike that had already been done that we left because it was really nice; the rest of it wasn’t so good.

A friend of mine, Chad from Mustangs R Us, did all the metal work on the rear. He normally restores Mustangs and he is one of the best sheet-metal guys around. He did the back guard, the sides and all the rest of it. We did spend a lot of time trying to get that look and flow. It’s probably got a bit of a drag-race theme with the big rear tyre and the covered-in guard like the fuel bikes.

Todd at Eastside Kustom Trim in Beresfield did the seat which worked out well because I normally use guys in Sydney. One of the local shops put me onto this guy. I went to see him and had a bit of a chat but I only spent a couple of minutes with him and, actually, I felt a bit anxious because I thought, ‘Geez, I hope he got what it was all about.’ Three days later he emailed me some photos and that’s what he came up with. I think it turned out great and it fits perfect.

The paint was done my Mark at Sydney Custom Spraypainting. It’s actually that flat black they use on the V-Rods. We did it the other way around—we laid the flat black down first then did the gloss graphics on top.

It’s got about 38 degrees of rake in the frame and about seven degrees rake in the triple trees. The front forks are Mean Street from Texas. We made the risers the same shape as the forks; it keeps that line all the way through. Each riser is four pieces and the bars are four pieces, and then I had to make a special jig to assemble and weld it all together. We’ve got the wires to run down through them, and rather than have the wires come out of the risers on top of the triple trees like most of them do, we’ve actually got them coming out at the bottom near the bolts so they’re hidden. There are a lot of little things like that to keep everything hidden away.

The swingarm is a little different to the normal swingarms; I think I’m the only person in Australia who makes a swingarm like this for the Softail type bikes.

It’s been a three or a four year project from start to finish but it’s come out great. The owner has seen it in a semi-finished stage but hasn’t seen it finished; it’s getting delivered to Queensland in two weeks. He’s really been holding himself off.

The bike is designed to be ridden on the road everyday. It’s got ground clearance and all the suspension geometry is set up so the bike is easy to ride. It’s light and easy to handle; and it’s got all the legal blinkers, lights, muffler, and all that sort of thing so when it gets delivered to its new owner, when it’s registered, he can ride it around and it’s all legal. It’s basically just like a brand new Harley.

Photos by Wall-2-Wall; words by Steve Stanley.