Tin-Man Harley-Davidson Sportster Project
“…we’ve made it completely legal. As we are approved engineers, it’s a full ICV build, ready to register,” said Jesse from A to Z Imports.
OUR company, A to Z Imports, does a lot of ICV’s and custom work, vehicle imports, compliance and vehicle engineering, but recently we’ve been stepping a lot more into the custom side of things like engine swaps, drift cars, bagged trucks, old lowrider Mercs and bike builds.
This bike was built for a fairly small fella. We didn’t give it a name; it’s just a one-off bike. I was originally building it for myself in my spare time, but as I have a lot of personal projects on the go, I didn’t get much done with this one. Anyway, this bike was sitting on the rack with a few bits mocked up and this guy comes in and wants a bike. My brother points at the basket-case and says, “How about we build ya one!”
He says, “Yeah, why not!”
We can build it to his size and preference so he drops off a deposit the next day and we get started.
There was an original idea based off a photo he had and a bit of WLA styling, but we didn’t want to completely copy something else. The amount of times we (the owner and us) changed ideas is why it took a while to build.
I made the tank and rear guard by hand, raised the inside of the tank a bit so it sits right down around the motor.
Nobody could decide on a colour so we kept everything black and just left the tins bare with a bit of clear coat.
The oil tank was built to fit the ignition switch on the side; I mounted the seat up on the tank to look a bit like a pogo seat.
It’s only an 883 Sportster really, but in a hardtail frame with some big tyres, and with the seating position, it feels a bit like a pit bike. It now has an S&S shorty carby on it, and with the custom-made pipes, it sounds tough and hauls arse.
The good thing is we’ve made it completely legal. As we are approved engineers, it’s a full ICV build, ready to register, and he can ride around happily! No saying he still won’t get hassled by some dickhead know-it-all expert though.
We are currently in the middle of some other builds: a wide-rear bagged Heritage that should lay flat on the frame, another Mexican Heritage Lowrider, a Sportster SOA style wheelie bike. Keep tuned to Ozbike for more details…
words by Jesse from A to Z Imports; photos by Rod Cole
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