Pro Street Custom Motorcycle

WHEN I ARRIVED to take the photos, the bike had done a shade over 3000 km. Bill had just ridden it from Adelaide to Mildura and back through the Grampians as soon as it was registered. His idea when building it was to have a street rideable chopper, a real custom. While allowing some creative licence, he was very specific in what he wanted as far as the shape and the flowing style, which is why you see the slash look in a lot of the components.

The motor’s a 124 cube S&S, with Jim’s five-speed gearbox, while other vitals include Arlen Ness billet primary (inner and outer), OMP controls and forward controls, OMP mirrors, Headwinds headlight, and 8-inch-over Arlen Ness front-end. The dash is a Dakota digital. Other niceties include Vance & Hines exhaust, Arlen Ness brakes and brake calipers, and Performance Machine disc rotors matching the wheels.

Bushranger did the custom seat, and both guards and the oil tank were custom made by Pro Street. A lot of the little bits and pieces you don’t see like the coil cover have also been made by Nick and Joe at Pro Street in between the mechanical work, sourcing and ordering components, and the thousand and one other jobs to be done around building a bike.

The rear light is an aftermarket one that Pro Street recessed into the guard, with LED indicators built discreetly into the number plate. Normally these lights are the other way around and have the number plate come off them, so they cut that tag off and repositioned the light upside down. Looks like it’s meant to be that way, and looks good.

According to Nick, who’s done most of the test riding, “It’s a beautiful bike to ride. You can take your hands off the bars and it goes in a straight line; a real feel-good bike that rides really well. And the chunky 240 rear tyre complements the bike’s presence without being over dramatic and killing the handling.

 “You’ve got to have patience. All the bits you don’t see, like shaping the oil tank and having all the gaps just right, take hours and hours, and they add up to make the end result. There were hours spent in just hand-shaping around the oil tank and contouring the guards around the wheels, and generally making it flow.”

Anyone with the slightest interest in custom bikes will agree that one of the hardest parts of the whole process is making the bike flow and keeping everything looking in proportion to everything else. Without that vision, the end result can look like somebody just went credit card crazy at the accessory counter: “One of them, and two of them, and one of them in red…”

The tank is one-piece alloy from Scotty’s Choppers, with an 18 litre capacity. It was sent to GLH and they pretty much made the frame around it.

The handlebars are one-off custom made specifically for this bike. Pro Street drew up the design and measurements and Burleigh Bars in Queensland made them.

Chromemasters took care of all the chrome work.

Bill came up with the paint design himself, including the ghost flame in the white. He wanted something eye-catching but without being overstated or too loud. The beautiful paintwork was done by Troy from Nightmare Designs.

Business must be good; he’s had three Ferraris up until now but they didn’t excite him anymore so he got Pro Street to build him a bike that would!

words & pics by Chris Randells