About this build.
Named “Drey”, this new creation was built for a client with many passions. All passions he would have liked Shaw Speed & Custom to express on his new custom motorcycle. The challenge, as any good custom builder will tell you, is to integrate a client’s DNA without patching together ideas and parts not relating to each other. Expressing the owner’s personality, yes of course. Showing all faces of his personality on one machine, impossible except to produce a monster on 2 wheels full of incoherence, of conflicting lines and of mismatched parts. The first essential quality of a great custom builder is to understand a client, not to build only what he wants but to create what he dreams of, very often without him being able to precisely describe it.
On this project, the Shaw & Speed Custom team was able to mirror several of his client’s passions – cars, watches, vintage fashion – without falling in the trap of the gaudy theme bike. A Harley Blackline model, the most “bare to the bone” Softail in the lineup, was chosen because of its Bobber genes. After full tear down of the factory bike, the engine received first an upgrade to 1690cc from the original 1584cc, then a full cosmetic makeover with the Roland Sands Clarity line – letting you see the engine work like the mechanism of a Swiss watch – and new black contrast cut covers. A Boss design theme by Performance Machine was extended from front to rear with Contrast Cut wheels, 21” in the front and 18” in the rear on which is wrapped a massive 240 mm tire. The Boss theme runs also on both bike sides with the PM belt sprocket and brake rotors.
Regarding bodywork, special mention goes to the beautiful in-house fabricated gas tank by Dave Rollison whose lines are inspired by the side vents and scoops of many race cars. To accommodate the fat 240 mm tire, the shop used a Performance Phatail kit which includes the wide swingarm, the steel fender and aluminum struts and all driveline spacers, gaskets and extended mains shaft. Roland Sands provided the seat pan & seat combo, upholstered in leather embossed with the lucky 7 number. The factory split drag bars were replaced by a new one-piece set using the full PM handlebar controls package of brake, clutch and master cylinders. A small digital speedo and a “flat” V-Rod headlight keep the top front section ultra clean. Vance and Hines Competition pipes in black and a Performance Machine Air breather/Screamin’ Eagle help push the extra horses. The silver color theme mixed to green on badges, brake calipers and parts of the primary is inspired by the Porsche 918 that the owner loves so much.
