Modern-Style Bitumen Burner Chopper
On the streets of Geelong, this motorcycle didn't just turn heads — it commanded silence. It’s a modern-styled chopper built with old-fashioned grit.
THE smell of grinding metal and spent WD-40 is a scent as old as the roads themselves. They say the ‘garage scene’ has been around since Moses was found floating in the reeds, but lately, the hum of the angle grinder has become the unofficial anthem of the Australian suburbs. In a world where the financial pinch has turned from a squeeze to a crush, the DIY spirit has seen a massive resurgence. You see it in the crowded aisles of the home hardware outlets — men and women looking to be their own architects. But while some are building decks, others are in their sheds, conjuring spirits out of chrome and discarded Harley-Davidson steel.
Shane was one of those guys. He understood the old cliché better than most: Improvise, overcome and adapt.
Shane wasn’t just a dreamer; he was a man of high-octane consistency. In his garage sat a beast of a machine — an injected 351 Cleveland-powered altered dragster that chewed up the quarter-mile in a blistering nine-and-a-half seconds. It was draped in a striking scheme of straight white and red, separated by thick, defiant gold pinstripes. Shane had a vision: he wanted a street custom chopper that looked like it had been born from the same DNA as the dragster.
Shane didn’t start with a blank check; he started with a road-going ride and a fair bit of street smarts — that intangible currency that the internet can’t sell you and money can’t buy.
To bridge the gap between ‘garage-built’ and ‘show-stopper’, he headed down to Geelong to see Luke at Gauge Works Custom Cycles. The two of them spoke the same language — a dialect of rake, trail, and torque. The transformation began with the skeleton. They took a Softail frame, stretching and kicking the down-tube and backbone until it had the aggressive, predatory stance Shane was looking for.
Then came the ‘long legs’. Fitted with an American Suspension front-end, a staggering 16-inch-over-stock, it gave the bike that timeless, soaring chopper silhouette that looks like it’s reaching for the horizon before the engine even turns over. To keep all that forward momentum in check, they installed an American Suspension single-spotter caliper up front, backed by a four-spotter chrome billet USA caliper at the rear.
The details began to pile up, each one a testament to Aussie ingenuity. Custom Gauge Works internal cabled bars were fitted with a sleek integrated speedo, Pro-One grips and levers. The wheels were a study in contrast: a 21-inch, Pro-One, chrome billet rim wrapped in Metzeler rubber up front; and a much wider 18-inch rear shod in a 250 Dunlop Elite, hunkered down under a strutless custom guard from Natli Enterprises.
But a chopper is only as good as its heartbeat.
They dropped in a 96-cube, S&S Evo engine. It wasn’t just a stock mill — the heads were ported and polished to a mirror finish, fed by an S&S shorty E-series carb hidden behind a classic chrome teardrop air-cleaner. When it fired up, the spent fuel barked through a custom shotgun exhaust that let the neighbours know exactly where Shane’s budget had gone.
A stock H-D five-speed gearbox was married to a BDL open primary, its three-inch belt spinning with a mechanical honesty that only a chain-and-sprocket final drive can match.
Then came the crowning glory — the soul of the machine — as Shane took the spray gun into his own hands. He laid down the white and red paint, his fingers steady as he traced the gold pinstriping that tied the chopper to the dragster.
He added the final touches: Attitude forward controls, a custom white leather seat that looked like a throne, and a slim-line headlight that cut through the Victorian coastal fog.
As Shane rolled the bike out of the garage, it was more than just a collection of S&S parts and American Suspension steel. It was a middle finger to the second mortgage. It was proof that you don’t need a fat wallet if you have a clear vision and a bit of grease under your fingernails.
Words & pics by Knackers
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