Folklore said (as folklore often does when a fall guy is needed) that albatross supposedly were the souls of lost sailors who just happened to be flying around to eat fish in their new life (I added that last part.). Supposedly some hungry sailor on one of those many-years-long trips killed and ate one probably because he was tired of the same old gruel or maybe they just ran out. Either way, he got caught. I’m sure the smell of cooked albatross with a nice sauce is intoxicating, but funnily enough, it also turned out to be his last meal. They hung him for eating it so that’s supposedly/possibly/maybe how the albatross around his neck bad luck thing came to be such a hep saying.

 

   But enough about the bird-eating version of albatross as it probably isn’t all that delicious unless you’re starving. Kinda like Brussels sprouts. There’s another version/definition taken Merriam-Webster that fits the name of this bike, Albatross, strewn across the top of the fuel tank much better ─ A continuing problem that makes it difficult or impossible to do or achieve something. Yeah, I think that’s the Albatross definition our mystery owner/builder thought of when naming his bike. Actually, I got a feeling the bike named itself.

 

   Before I offend anybody even more than usual, I’m gonna declare this to be a home-built/garage-built bastard of a bike (all in a good way) that was one guy’s someday dream built around a strict budget. Nothing wrong with that as you gotta respect somebody who is putting their hard earned bucks into something as practical as a custom motorcycle and also has to make it a runner, a real street runner good for whatever he wants to throw at it, on a tight budget. This bike might get a lot of stuff said about it, but it’ll never be called a (fill-in) queen. It’s way more street-saurus than queen.

 

   Somewhere along the way, some old, probably barely running Harley-Davidson Sportster semi-basketcase was commandeered for the sole purpose of being the heart of this pretty involved build. That Sporty heart and soul (engine and tranny) after a complete re-build sits in a radical drop seat rigid frame with quite a bit of rear stretch to make the front/rear proportions a bit more pleasing to the eye. Who built this or who did the work is obviously a mystery, but you can tell the long, low and rowdy bastard look he was going for. And you know what? I think he got it.

 

  Up front a wonderfully cleaned up narrow telescopic fork with a wee bit of leg extension cradles a laced wheel stopped by an OEM Harley disc brake setup while out back a beefy, but not too beefy 180mmx18 modern style tire is mounted on a laced wheel with another MotorCo’s disc brake setup doing its thing as the kids used to say. The width of the tire and rim really adds a bit of steroidal seriousness without going over the edge and there’s even a good bit of comfortable sidewall left for flexing and absorbing a bit of shock over hardtail bumps. Yes, there are bumps on a suspended bike, but the there are hardtail bumps which is in a whole other league. Hardtail bumps ─ probably why the guy built a decently padded kinda king and queen brown seat. Why brown? I always ask myself that too.

 

   That question pops up again when it comes to paint and the question remains the same, but obviously this builder is an individual who doesn’t give a crap what I say or don’t say. It’s his bike and he built it the way he wanted to. As far as the elaborately designed tank under the brown coating, I have absolutely no idea if it was fabbed, bought, or a highly modified version of something else. I’m going with fabbed as this builder never took the easy way out when he had a choice. The tank fits the frame too well for it to be happenstance and there’re lots of individual pointed ends that had to be made to fit the curve and length of the frame. Maybe it was some part of a package that was modified, but either way it fits the build just peachy and that’s all that really counts.

 

   It’s easy to be a keyboard critic and maybe pick on a few choices the builder made like the frame-color matching white header wrap as being a bit too much or the longest neon green drive chain I’ve ever seen. Hey, I’m sure there were good reasons for some of this and it might have been he had stuff lying around or it was too cheap to pass up or maybe he just didn’t care (although I doubt it). Whatever the reason, someone ended up with a hard-core runner the way they wanted and there’s always the future for future mods and changes. I’m sure this is an ongoing project that will have the crap ridden out of it every chance the owner gets.

 

   I’m sure it seemed like an albatross around the builder’s neck, so to speak, the whole time he was building it from a time and money perspective and that’s how it got its name initially. Enough so that he painted Albatross perpendicularly the top of the tank so he could always be reminded of it even when riding.  I’ve got a feeling this is a long term love affair/keeper with those previously mentioned future mods hanging over the owner’s head. The dream surely goes on and that’s like having an albatross around your neck, but this time that’s a good thing with absolutely no hanging involved.