A Tourer? You’ve
gotta be kidding! There’s looking good, there’s going fast and there’s being comfortable, but not very often – no wait, make that almost bloody never – do you find those three attributes combined in one bike. Sure the first two often team up, looking good and going fast; but as for being cushioned in armchair comfort while you’re belting down the road at a fast clip and looking so good that the cool-o-meter is off the scale, well, that’s as rare as a pork chop barbeque at a synagogue. Yet I venture to say that Chopperworks’ head honcho, Jeff, has pulled it off with this bagger-with-a-difference. The first thing that hits your eye – well mine anyway – is the Trask Turbo hanging off the right side of this go-fast machine. Turbos are about as subtle as a brick in the face, hanging out there with all their mechanicalness and raw nakedness fully exposed. If a turbo could speak it’d be shouting, “C’mon then, have a go. C’mon, I’m ready”. And the Trask Performance unit we see here is a proven
product in the horsepower stakes and over the ten or so
years of the company’s history, their products continue to
get better. Like Bert Munro and John Britten, Nick Trask
hails from the Land of the Long White Cloud but has transplanted
himself to the US for sound business reasons. Trask products are carried in Australia by Parts-Pro
who you can find on the web at www.parts-pro.com.au. Now believe it or not, this bike started life as a 2007 Hamburger-with-the-lot, or, in Harley-speak a FLHTCU Ultra Classic. But as you might guess by looking at the low, sleek jigger you see on these pages, the list of modifications to this bike is impressive indeed and a virtual Who’s Who of the aftermarket elite. Let’s start at the back where we find that Chopperworks have installed a Fat Baggers 200mm Tyre Kit to flesh out the rear end, to make it tough and to get right away from that pizza cutting-wheel look that has let down the look of H-D baggers for so long. And at 200mm you still get excellent handling but with immensely improved looks. The rear guard, which is a Fat Baggers unit, was stretched and modified by Jeff who also frenched in the Russ Weirmont taillight unit. The bike rolls on Ride Wright, Legend Air Suspension does the job of softening the bumps, though not the ones on the alligator hide leather seat cover I’d guess; a Pingel race shifter makes changing cogs quick and easy and a Thundermax makes sure that, like a new young bride, the spark is both hot and ready. CFR mufflers do their stuff in the scheme of things, sitting underneath the extended panniers but with their tips poking out to make a bold statement. The rider’s feet rest comfortably on Performance
Machine floorboards; data is fed to the rider via Dakota Digital gauges with their bold LED readouts readily
visible both night and day and the view behind is courtesy
of Ness mirrors. Then there’s the Tod Cycle grips
which provide something to hang on to when, thanks to
the Trask Turbo, those arm-stretching G-forces kick in. For kicking back during a lazy cruise when the mood strikes a Sony stereo with Hog Wired amplifier and speakers does entertainment duty, ably assisted by an IPod which works through the stock controls for ease of use. Cool billet aluminium mini spotlights show the way on a dark night and if it gets a bit cool, well the WindVest windscreen is there to protect the rider from the full blast. There are lots of neat little touches on this bike, special little touches where Jeff has chosen just the right part to suit the bike. Some of these I have already mentioned, but we can add to the list the Magnum Black Pearl cables, the Trask pannier latches and the mini spots mounted down low. There’s also an electric centre stand that makes cleaning as well as small maintenance jobs a stroll in the park. Paint can make or break a bike, as Jeff is well aware, and therefore he always seeks to use the best in the business, in this case Queensland Motorcycle Panel and Paint who need no introduction to our readers as their brilliant motorcycle paint jobs have been displayed on many bikes in the pages of HEAVY DUTY over the years. As you can see, Mark Walker has once again excelled
here, laying on a variety of House of Kolor paints to
produce a distinctive design that has turned out as
sweet as you’d ever want to see, both in terms of visual
impact and in finish.
I had a chat with Mark and got some insight into the approach he took in prepping and painting this very special paint job for Jeff. Despite being aware of just how much behind the scenes work goes into spray painting a custom bike, nevertheless I was taken aback when Mark told me he had over 150 hours of work in this job. Hey gang, that equates to 3, 6-day working weeks! That’s a whole lotta effort but goes a long way to explain how this paint job achieved it’s very high standard and brilliant looks. The blue, which is almost identical in colour to HOK Cobalt Blue, was made up by Mark to a special formula to prevent any bleeding. The HOK Orion Silver Shimrin metallic Mark chose certainly contrasts nicely with the blue, while adding to the mix is HOK Coarse Platinum Metajuls and HOK Charcoal Pearl. Mark is a very approachable sort of bloke, ever ready
to discuss customer requirements, and regardless of
where you live in the country, it’s well worth making
a call to him at 07 5547 0635 if you are thinking of a
top shelf custom paint job for your bike, whether it is a
stock Harley or a wild custom. Speaking of finish the first task Jeff approached on this bike was to tidy up the frame, smoothing out ugly welds, welding up holes that have no purpose and molding it to a mirror smooth finish. A considerable number of hours go into this process but the care and effort taken are plainly visible when eyeballing it close up. Obviously Jeff can take great pride in the finished product, one which he put together as a personal ride. He can also take pride in the fact that no less than three blokes in the motorcycle industry, and leading blokes in their respective fields at that, individually approached and complimented him for building what they each thought was the top custom bike at Gold Coast Bike Week this year. Way to go Jeff. Now if you lust after this bike and just might have
the readies, I suggest you click on over to www.chopperworks.
com.au where you’ll find this bike for sale
at a very reasonable price considering the extreme
makeover it has undergone. I’ll tell you this without
a doubt; there’s no way you or I could get this bike
built at anywhere near the price at which Jeff has it
listed. Once again, HEAVY DUTY is proud to feature a
Chopperworks built bike and looks forward to many
more.
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Diamond Cut Fat 50
Spoked Wheels with a 20 x 5.5 inch down the back and
a 23 x 3.5 inch unit up front. The front rotor is a 13 inch
Renegade floating unit while down the back is a Ride
Wright unit, also a floater, with both ready to be gripped
by Performance Machine brakes when the need arises.
The front wheel shelters under a Chopperworks custom
front guard bolted to Mean Street fork lowers and along
with the Matt Risley Innovation Smooth Top fuel tank,
alters the bike’s looks considerably. 
