Hard Arse Motorcycle for Art’s Sake 

YOU’D think that after riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles for more than 20 years a bloke would want to build his new scoot with a bit of comfort in mind — not Craig Anderson! When he went looking for a new frame to kick off his latest build around two years ago, it was all about the look! “I just love how low the rigids are; that old-school look,” said Craig.

Starting from scratch, a Kraftec hardtail frame was ordered and Craig took the next 12 months to swing the spanners and build himself something that looked old and low, and could handle the shiny new 107 TP Pro-Series engine he had waiting in the wings.

A set of one-inch drag bars hold the Dakota Digital MCV-7000 gauge pod front and centre along with standard Softail hand controls and Arlen Ness forward foot controls. A set of HHI brakes pull the whole show up when needed.

To compliment the polished donk, Craig, “had a mate paint this one hotrod black after seeing one in a magazine. I was over the metallics.”

The very potent TP 107 pulls the whole shebang along at a cracking pace fed by an S&S Super-G carb and air-filter while taking orders from a Crane single-fire ignition. Alerting all souls within ear-shot to Craig’s imminent arrival are a pair of Bassani Pro-Street pipes complete with turn-outs. A Wire Plus (www.wire-plus.com) full wiring harness keeps the wires and frame tidy as well as all lights and fires lit.

Once the frame and engine were sorted, Craig hooked up the Ultima five-speed gearbox via a Zodiac primary drive and clutch, but as Craig lamented after a few test runs, “The Zodiac (clutch) couldn’t handle the bigger cube engine and I kept frying it, so I put a Baker high performance clutch in and now it goes awesome. It’s really quick off the mark and only weighs about 190 kilos with a full tank of juice so it’s pretty light.”

Holding the bike off the ground is an Attitude Inc. Springer fork and fat spoke wheels all-round wrapped in 110 and 180 width tyres. “The springer front isn’t the best handling, but for around town, they’re awesome. For long rides they’re a bit of a rough ride being totally different to the conventional style of forks.”

Being his main town scoot doesn’t see Craig taking on any passengers though so he went with the sprung solo seat only. It was then off to the engineers for a pass before handing over more folding stuff for licensing.

“From here I might put it into a few shows, but if not, I’ll just riding it into the ground.”

Craig would like to thank Jeff from Auto Sports Engineering for his help with the build, Rob from American Cycles in Victoria Park, and Ian from VPW.

Words & Pics by Brad Miskiewicz