Then there’s what I think of as the traditional way of building which is really Old School without trying to be even though that was the intention. To do it right, you have to be a real scholar of the genre that exploded after Easy Rider hit the screen on July 14, 1969. Choppers were cool and people built them by the shipload. Some were crazy, but some were a product of the times where you rode what you built so you built something decent that you could live with as potentially daily transportation if need be. Or maybe you just really liked what you built and wanted to ride it everyday because it felt good.
Back then modifying something into what you wanted was about the same thing as fabricating something today. CNC machines and computers barely existed if they did at all so things were made or modified by methods that are getting rarer every day. Lots of hand work and imagination was involved and that’s something that’s still prized today by many people including me.
Our featured Harley-Davidson Shovelhead chop is about as traditional as you can get with a look that seems authentically right for a freshly built bike. Captured in a digital format at Smoke Out 17 in Rockingham, North Carolina, it could have been shot in Kodachrome and I wouldn’t have been surprised. The look is faultless right down to the ghosted AMF logos on the blue paneling of the asymmetrical patriotic color scheme made famous by the red, white and blue AMF Harley-Davidson #1 logo. That logo was probably the most successful thing AMF ever did while it ran Harley and still looks right today.
Everything from the springer front end that’s not radically raked to the tided-up Shovel to the teeny-tiny custom gas tank that looks like it’s holding on for the ride to the triumphant upsweep of the parallel Bates-style cocktail shaker megaphone exhausts looks right to me. I can hear the din of those shorty megas just looking at them. It just asks to be jumped on and ridden like a teenage hooligan of old, of course, after it’s been properly kick-started. That’s when you learned what kind of soul your Harley had and if you could figure it out. I wouldn’t be surprised if some survey came out how AMF-era Shovelhead kick starting shortened some people’s lives. Man I remember some people kicking long past when their heart should have given out, but eventually the bike and rider came to some sort of warped understanding and off they went.
The really nicely detailed Shovelhead is the star of the show, as it should be, sitting proudly out in the open. I wouldn’t be surprised, especially with its bit of added glitter, if it wasn’t a nicer finish than seen new in any dealer showroom. For some reason I’m stuck on the hard copper piping from the oil tank to the engine. I think it’s the wired-on rubber conduits between the copper tubing and the hard points that look so appropriate for this build. Whether that’s the best way or not is debatable I’m sure, but it just looks right and shows clear human involvement. Same goes for the lanyard-kept repurposed antique rubber sink stopper serving as a gas cap keeping liquids in instead of out.
Every bit of bodywork works with the others in their own completely individual way. The Wassell-style tank mounted jauntily at a lively angle works with the horseshoe oil tank and the flipped-up rear fender to provide a canvas for the paintjob that looks like it could have been done in the ‘70s, but probably actually couldn’t with the standard techniques of the day. Sure, the red bits look ‘70s real, but the ghosted AMF logos were something I don’t remember being done until much more recently. The asymmetry is very period correct and something I still like to this day. Two paint jobs in one.
Other cool bits and pieces include the almost-a-sissy-bar fender stays, the narrow medium-rise straight bars, and the always lovely chrome shrouded FL shocks that I appreciate more now than back in the day. What was once just stock OEM stuff has become hipper than hell in my view. The tiny front disc brake and the almost hidden stock rear disc are smart concessions to today’s riding that don’t look the least bit out of place. As far as I’m concerned, the guy who built this was smart, street smart. Check out that black bushing at the back of the distressed leather covered seat pan and the lever front and you can see this person wanted a bit more comfort as they planned to ride this as well as build it. O
Everything about this bike screams traditional build to me and that even includes the modern foot controls. Just like back in the day, the builder probably made do with what he had on hand and if that meant modern parts lying on a shelf that would get this bike on the road a bit easier and sooner, so be it. They could always be changed later, but I got a feeling they won’t. I think the owner/builder knew what they were doing every single step of the way and this bike is done and done. Now, it’s got the best aftermarket piece of kit you can get, a current license plate. It’s licensed to thrill and each and every turn of those classic 16- and 21-inch laced wheels is a flashback fantasy ride come true.