Got My Mojo Workin’ Motorcycle
It took him longer than expected, but with the help of some very good friends, Doug finally got his Mojo workin’ motorcycle.
I’VE BEEN riding bikes since I was 19, started off with a ’74 Bonneville custom chopper that had plenty of oil leaks. Started from the ground up, found bits and pieces all over the place and just began to modify things. I’ve got a problem with modifying anything that comes into my hands, I suppose it’s just something that I’ve done from a young age.
I’ve always hung around bikes as I’ve always had a passion for them. I ride my bikes too, whatever I build, whether it’s a car or bike, I make the most of it by riding or driving ’em whenever I can.
This started off as a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy that I bought for the right price. It only needed back brakes but we ended up pulling every nut and bolt apart. I called in a few favours from a few friends and that’s what we ended up with; I also owe a few people a lot of favours now.
The engine and all the running gear was built by Steve Stanley (Bullets) at Hot Rod Choppers; I basically designed the bike and Bullets screwed it all together.
The paint work was done by Michael Dascoli from The Hot Rod Company. All the powder-coating and ceramic-coating was done by Ian Baker at High Octane Performance Coating.
I wanted an old school look in the sense of not having blinkers hanging out all over the place, but I wanted to mix a bit of new school with it as well, like the LEDs.
Darryl Farnham did all the tin work for it. The seat and front pouch was done by Dave at Bad Arse Trim Co.
A huge thanks goes out to all those guys; I really owe them. Bullets is a personal friend of mine — he has built a lot of great bikes so I had no problems with him doing the bike — as is the painter in Melbourne. I’ve been around for a while which is how I know all these people; I’ve built a few bikes and a few hot-rods over the years.
The wheels are DNA; gearbox is standard but re-built; BDL drive belt; Pro-One front-end; PM controls and brakes; completely rewired; Dakota digital dash and LEDs.
The handlebars are custom, and along with the tank, were modified by Darryl. The headlight is a custom with the blinkers inside. It’s got an 88-cube S&S motor and we had the casings powder-coated in silver metal-flake.
The pipes are custom build by Bullets and then we ran a SuperTrapp muffler at the end of it. This is having a bit of a dig at Bullets, but we had a running joke that it took longer to build the pipes than it did the whole bike. A big thanks to him, though, he was a big drive behind the build.
I gave a brief for the paint, but I had no idea how the colours would turn out. I had said that I wanted these basic colours, prominent pin-striping and metal-fleck, and that’s all I said. So for six months I was ringing up every few weeks to ask how it was going, but he wouldn’t tell me. I had no idea what it was going to turn out like until it finally turned up on my door step. When I did see it, though, it was like whoa. It’s got silver leafing in it, which is like the gold leafing process except they use pure silver. There isn’t many people in the country who can do that, but we did have to do it twice to get it right. The paint work took a long time because there are just so many different layers and detail in it, not to mention it was nearly all done free-hand.
I wanted a bit of a blues theme too because I play the blues harmonica; that’s a blues harmonica on the front. I don’t play in a band but I do jump up with a lot of guys I know and have a jam. I’ve done the House of Blues in Orlando which is probably my highlight.
You’ll see me everywhere on this bike, I’ll ride it as much as I can. It took about 18 months to build which was a bit longer than I thought, but I finally got my mojo workin’.
Words by Doug; photos by Wall-2-Wall
Esther: Podium Dancer by Night
I’VE just moved down from Brisbane to Sydney because I wanted to study journalism, so now I’m at Uni doing Communications. It’s a very different lifestyle here in Sydney; a lot busier. I work as a podium dancer for a major nightclub, which I love doing. It’s my time because I am also a mum of a four-year-old daughter, who is blonde, blue eyed and very veracious. I also have a Shit Tzuh cross Maltese terrier.
I’ve done quite a bit of modelling, some stuff with Penthouse, Zoo and Ralph magazines, and I’m pretty comfortable in front of the camera.
I’ve never worked with a motorbike before but it was really fun. I was a little bit nervous to begin with but there was a great crew and Walter, the photographer, made us laugh a lot. I’d like to do more of this kind of thing now I’ve tried it.
I love tattoos but I can only get ones that can be covered now because I’m looking to get into news-reporting, in front of a camera, so you have to be pretty conservative for that.
Esther, podium dancer by night, uni student by day, was photographed for our cover by Wall-2-Wall on Doug’s purple Mojo modified Softail.
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