Iron Horse Shovelhead Motorcycle with Attitude
“There's no front guard which is a bit of a shunt in the rain, but I'd rather be riding it than working out how to fit a front guard,” said Bryce.
SOME custom bikes just don’t look right: they’ve had the dollars spent and the time put in but there’s no sense of an overall vision in the first place. Conversely, one of the reasons factory bikes tend to look so good is because they’ve benefitted from big-budget design teams; but there’s always going to be the problem that these bikes look identical — big production runs make that inevitable.
As soon as Harley-Davidson ceased production of the Panhead in 1966, replacing it with the Shovelhead, it became an instantly desirable classic and remains so today. The Shovel, which was replaced by the Evo in 1984, struggled for a while to get that kind of status. This is strange really, because the same people who overlook the age-related shortcomings of the Panhead often won’t extend that same courtesy to the Shovelhead.
Shovels got themselves a bit of a reputation for oil leaks, often from head gaskets and oil pumps, as well as vibrating motors that caused all sorts of bolts to inconveniently loosen up. Decent maintenance would usually sort this out, but of course that doesn’t always happen. On the other hand, they could be worked on, to some extent, at least, by anybody with sufficient knowledge and a good set of fairly standard tools. Unlike the Evo, that typically needed highly specialised knowledge and even more specialised tools.
And with Shovel cylinders being made of iron, they distorted less than their Evo counterparts made of aluminium, although you’d probably need to be a pretty brutal rider for this to be a major consideration.
These days people now appreciate Shovelheads for a variety of reasons beyond nostalgia. As far as you can say such a thing, with time and tenacity, they’re relatively straightforward to work on and can be modified without huge expense, and all the big aftermarket names regard them highly enough to manufacture reliable and durable high-performance replacement parts. An 18-year production-run means most original parts can generally be found without too much hassle, and the sheer variety of models means there’s something available for most tastes. The Shovel’s an infinitely versatile motorcycle that’s been rediscovered by people who grew up on its descendants.
If you push Bryce for a description of his bike, he’ll reluctantly tell you: “It’s some sort of Shovelhead with components from different years and different models, all melded together into a cohesive and very effective motorcycle.”
There was no big-budget design team behind its execution, but this is still a bike that looks both complete and unique.
When he first took possession of the bike, it was “a 1969 chopper but things kept breaking. Harley-Davidsons aren’t quite built tough.”
Backing this statement up, Bryce can point to a frame that broke on two separate occasions, necessitating some serious work on his part to strengthen it. “I copied the Attitude frame because I like the strength; they’re a company that builds a good strong frame.”
“There’s no front guard which is a bit of a shunt in the rain, but I’d rather be riding it than working out how to fit a front guard. It’s got a Springer front-end because the other forks bent.
The front brake is Harley-Davidson; the rear Performance Machine.
“There’s a 4 ¾ stroker kit with S&S heads, oil pump, 560 cam, and flywheels. The S&S goes faster and it’s for horsepower. People say I ride slowly, cruising (having tried to follow Bryce through Bendigo for a few minutes, I can attest this is not true) but the throttle is a strong point really: when you put it on, it’s on.
“The tank’s off a Softail that crashed. I don’t have much money so I just filled it and painted it. That’s cheaper than buying an original Shovel tank so you have to make it fit.
“All the work on the bike was done by BCC, a motorcycle shop in Bendigo, and me. The guy who painted the bike works at BCC. Another bloke came in bragging how he could airbrush when I happened to be standing in the showroom, so I told him to do the tank and don’t fuck it up. And it came up like that — I’m very happy with it.
Building a bike that looks right and goes well is something to be admired for its own sake. But when you think about the fact that this is a bike that keeps up with the worked Harley-Davidsons ridden by members of a club known for its uncompromisingly full-on approach to motorcycle riding… well that’s pretty impressive.
Words and pics by Chris Randells
More amazing Ozbike features to check out:
