The Real Deal Old School Harley-Davidson Shovelhead
Here’s a blast from the past that retains all of its old world charm.
THESE days the expression ‘old school’ gets thrown around when folks try to describe what they perceive as a custom bike that has been customised the old fashioned way. As a seasoned biker/bike mechanic once said to me, “Cut down guards, heat-wrap on the exhausts and a black rattle-can paint-job do not a chopper or bobber maketh.” Wise words from a wise man.
But the bike you see on the pages before you is the real deal. Built using what was available at the time with a few later-day upgrades, this is the style and vintage of bike that I was accustom to seeing parked in the carparks of pubs and around the traps when I was a young fella. To me, this bike has captured the raw minimalist theme that so many new kids on the block try to emulate in recent times.
The history of the bike is a little sketchy. The owner, Beau, dropped it off at Angrys Motorcycle Worx some time ago to get a few things fixed up. Turns out, the poor old girl needed a good thorough going over from top to bottom. The frame and wheels were badly out of alignment, many of the components were either seized or about to fall off, and the whole package was well overdue for a major freshening up. Beau is only 25-years-of-age and is one of the many young blokes who are going down the retro road and opting for an older styled and more classic H-D.
Starting its life as a 1960 FLH, the bike has seen its fair share of modifications. An 88-cubic-inch Shovel, twin-plug top-end sits atop the original Pan cases and runs the original four-speed box. What looks like an early Santee frame holds the package together nicely and gives the bike that unmistakable low stance that was so common back in the good old days. The motor breathes through an S&S carb and the spent gases exit via a set of slash cut ‘straight throughs’ that can trigger car alarms three suburbs away. The bobbed rear guard is kept in place by that sexy sissy-bar, and of course, the ape-hangers are almost compulsory on a machine such as this.
Angry and Dan basically rewired the entire bike, fixed up about 30 years worth of abuse and neglect, fitted the forward controls, and a local engineering business turned up that awesome looking jockey shift that now adorns the right-hand side of the beast.
Bloody good work for his first attempt. All up, one very tidy chop with the unmistakable lines that bike builders these days find so hard to copy.
Emma, our fiery French maid, was keen to pose with the bike and did a great job with her little feather duster to make sure everything was spic and span for the pics. Thanks to Angry and Dan for bringing the bike to my attention and for the record breaking final assembly and polishing before the shoot. That’s another box of Jimmy and coke that I owe ya’s.
Pics by Jo; words by Chuck U Farley
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