Harley Low Bob
A Street Bob Worthy of the name
ABOVE: Doesn't she look pretty! | ||
 | If the truth be told the Harley-Davidson Street Bob is neither street nor bob, although if you dig deep enough, lurking below is a beautiful bike bursting to get out. We received this 2006 edition in pretty bad shape. The chrome was gone, pitted & corroded, the rust had already set about consuming this bike despite the fact it had been stored in a dry warehouse. The dreaded 'white fuzz' was also overtaking the matt black factory engine finish while the tank had as many pockmarks as a pubescent teenagers chin. All in, she was a pretty poor advert for Milwaukee iron. The design brief was simple, don’t spend too much and make it look mean, like a real street bob should.. Barry, our seasoned classic bike man gave his obligatory shake of the head as I rolled out the grinder & set about demolishing the rear of the bike. A nip & tuck to tidy the rear sub-frame & already it looked better. The stock shocks, fender and lights were dumped and she was slammed on the deck with a set of 10 inch Burlys... Not for the faint hearted! |
To get the tight street look at the rear we needed to make a fender that hovered over the rear tyre without actually touching it under load. We made a bespoke fender and used rubber mounts to give a bit of boogie should it actually touch the tyre under test. After the first test the rear fender rubbed like a fat-lad's thighs so we made a small tweak and the gap was perfect, even a run down the bounciest road in Ireland, we couldn’t buff the paint...result. The wheels were stripped, rims powder-coated in satin black and re-spoked with stainless laces. The tendency in this kind of project is to fit an uber fat rear wheel/tyre combo but that costs a fortune so we had a trick up our sleeve. |
Ever been to the gym and spotted that guy wearing the t-shirt 3 sizes too small. We borrowed that concept. Mostly because this was a budget build and a custom fat back-end was out of the question, we made the rear fender so it would hug the tyre, keeping it close on the sides, that makes the tyre look wider than it really is. The engine was dressed with a combination of powder coating, polishing and painting to give it a much cleaner look and hopefully last a bit longer than the original Harley finish. Up front we took the standard fender, cut a huge chunk out of the middle, battered it all together and welded it shut... Short and sweet. Front forks were dropped through the yokes a few mill to level the stance and a set of hand made vintage Tomahawk style bars adapted to take harley hand controls were fitted to the standard clamps. All standard cables and wiring were unchanged which saved a packet on build costs... Good planning rather than good luck! |  The Back end is starting to take shape |
| A mini-cateye rear light, side mount plate, short stem classic black mini indicators and a simple gloss black paint job finished off a pretty simple build, but the final result is nothing short of stunning.This is a brilliant example of what can be achieved on a budget when you have a decent donor bike to begin with. Special thanks must go to the owner, Peter who was super cool throughout the build. we usually don’t let customers see the bike until it's ready, but one of the guys let Peter in for a peek a few weeks before completion. Although he never said, I'm sure his heart sank as the thing was torn asunder! Thankfully Peter stuck with us and was delighted with the final outcome. I’m sure you would agree, this Harley is now street, low, bob and a pretty mean piece of kit which rides superbly ML |
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|  Manky wheels really were at the end of their useful existence |
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