Hugger Orange Harley-Davidson Shovelhead
Attention to detail is evident throughout this motorcycle. It takes skill and expertise to get the job done properly…
JOHN would probably be the first to acknowledge that his plan, although sound, wasn’t a new one: go to the States, pick up a few boxes of goodies at USA bargain prices, then graft them on to a Harley in need of a bit of tidying up. The main difference with this plan as opposed to most we hear about, was that John actually had the patience and commitment to see it through.
“I went to the States with a mate and got most of the parts then,” he says, “PM brakes, forward controls, leads, mirrors and a box full of little goodies. It was worth a lot of money here but pretty cheap over there. I’m too scared to think what it would cost now.”
The 80-cube 1981 FXWG had been advertised in a Victorian paper, so John and a mate went over from Adelaide to pick it up, despite a quick once-over finding it not to be in the ‘excellent condition’ the previous owner had claimed. Not that there was anything dramatically wrong with it, it was just ‘run down’.
Five years of riding ended when the bike was temporarily retired to the shed and John’s mum’s rumpus room, although the back wheel somehow found its way into a wardrobe for safe keeping.
Ten years passed with the Shovel unregistered and unridden before John got the custom ball rolling with a trip to Chrome Masters in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. This turned out to be a wise choice. As many an owner will testify, Shovel castings can be a bit rough at times, so it takes skill and expertise to get the job done well.
“I had all the chrome done by Steve at Chrome Masters except the PM stuff I’d already had done: the swingarm and the fender struts, the exhaust, got the disc polished; everything in that motor has been re-chromed by Chrome Masters.
“Steve asked me if I had a builder. I said not really so he gave me a card, and I went straight around to Rob’s Motorcycle Repairs. I went to a few others too, but they had a bit of attitude.”
Over the coming months, John stripped the motor and took the heads off before Rob took over with the specialised and creative side of the custom building operation. He wet-blasted the alloy, put in an Evo crank, forged pistons and an Andrews cam. Despite being fully functional, it turned out the four-speed gearbox had been cracked and welded at some time, so that needed to be refinished as well.
An unleaded conversion on the cylinder heads hardened the valve seats to cope with the rigours of modern fuel, and Rob also installed a Mikuni 42 mm carby, an ultra reliable Dyna single-fire ignition and a sturdy Barnett clutch. This rebuild was the first time the bottom-end had ever been opened up; the original Harley seal was still proudly in place.
Attention to detail is evident throughout this motorcycle, with Rob’s knowledge and vision providing subtle finishing touches to set it off. Have a look at the neatly mounted oil cooler at the front, the headlight and the dash, and the fender struts.
“Usually the fender struts have bolts sticking out but Rob got some custom ones and polished them up, that was all they needed, then he threw mine out because he was pissed off with them.”
The vibrant paint replacing the once stylish, but by now somewhat tired, dark blue with white inserts is Hugger Orange, more commonly seen on GM Camaros.
The Skinner seat, while an obvious improvement on the original, came with a bonus in that John and Jason Skinner were old friends who’d lost touch years ago so it was a happy occasion when they caught up once again.
Of course, you don’t want to go to this effort and expense if all you end up with is a slick looking motorcycle that still rides like, well, a 1981 Shovel. All those modifications mean there’s no danger of that, and John reports with great satisfaction, “It’s easy to handle and fast off the line. I’ve scraped the exhaust tons of times going around corners; you just have to go slow…”
“But there’s nothing else I want to do to this bike. Rob put a lot of good ideas into it; I’ve been around bikes for ages but he knows bikes off by heart.”
Words & pics by Chris Randells
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