We even assign them names like they might respond to it like they say plants do to music. I haven’t sat around for extremely long periods of time watching plants grow or not, but I have had intimate conversations with my bike. No, not every time I see it, usually it has a lot to do with a miss starting or a low fuel reading. I politely beg for it to get me through the circumstance and pledge that I will do better in the future if it does. So far, after enough decades of riding to completely fill one hand’s worth of fingers and then some, along with many different bikes over the years, they’ve always gotten me to where I was going. Sometimes it’s taken more than just a prayer to the bike gods, but cracking into my tools that I always carry is par for the course especially for Old School bikes that were cutting-edge New School when I first rode them.

    Yeah, some bikes just have it and some don’t. The Harley-Davidson Shovelhead bobber you’re looking it has the “it” factor by my Old School standards of life and soul. At first glance, it could be vintage or it could be retro-mod. I’m going with vintage even though it’s a fairly fresh build by the looks of things. Someone has spent a good amount of time not only doing a nice build job on this bike, but thoughtfully keeping things in a style where it doesn’t look like a hodge-podge of parts trying to look vintage.

   From the twin downtube rigid frame that you almost have to look for to find any tubing to the Indian-style leaf spring fork that’s not afraid to take a walk on the wild side of modern, it’s got the right stuff straight outta the gate to build a bad ass bobber that makes you want to wring its neck one minute and putt along the next. No ridiculous rake for the sake of it, but geometry that makes a hot rod like this a bike you’d think about whenever it was just sitting in your garage. Same goes for the riding position that looks like it was made for riding. How unusual, huh? Not for the owner as he decked this out with rigidly useful mid-controls, a decent sprung saddle and fabricated handlebars that look more inviting than intimidating.

    The Shovelhead looks to be late ‘70s and has had quite a few serious alterations externally, but no info on what’s going on inside other than a distinct lack of drips and drabs of oil and fuel underneath. I have a feeling this engine runs as good as it looks and if it does, it should be a peach of a Shovelhead. All the castings and covers are surgically clean and the brass bits backed by the black hole of a Shovel is enough bling for me anyway. The split rocker box set up is a lot harder to cleanly accomplish than the looks of it here. The Shovel now looks like it originally came this way, but anybody who’s done this mod can tell you there’s some serious work involved to pull it off.

    From Jack Cofano’s photos, I’m not quite sure what the 2-into1 header-wrapped actually looks like, but I’ve no doubt about two things. One is that it sounds damn Shovelhead good and two, it must look damn good too. Everything else on this bike does, so why not that? Somehow you also know that the guy who rebuilt this did a good job with a little, but very important addition of a spin-on oil filter cleverly and conveniently mounted on the downtubes. I would love to quantitatively know what the difference of running one versus stock does for engine life. The additional oil being cooled out in the breeze while filtering unwanted particles from the engine’s blood stream has got to be a quantum leap of engine service especially if there’s been a bit of hopping up going on too.

    The three main pieces of what might constitute bodywork, the fuel tank, oil tank and rear fender break no boundaries or reach new heights, but as my brain says, “They sure look good.” There’s just enough of a shape to the tank to make you think Old School Harley chopper than one more good-looking, but expected Sportster tank. It just flows around low and long enough to look old Wall of Death (or maybe that’s the forks), but it does what it does and hopefully holds enough gas for a good day’s ride. Sort of like what you’d need on a chopped ’32 Ford Highboy with a Corvette 283 sticking out from under the hood panel. Not too much, but enough not to have to think about it until the next time you ride/drive it.

     The cylindrical oil tank with its concave end caps looks familiar to say the least and that’s a good thing. It fits the build without fighting with the build and maybe I’m just not looking for something radical in my Old School bikes, but something familiar. The raised center ridge rear fender has just enough acreage and the strut-less look is always an eye catcher even before you realize why. It’s just so round, simple and clean what’s not to like about it?

     You know, in some ways I’m not even exactly sure what color this bike really is although it looks kinda coppery between the large metal flakes. No crazy-ass graphics, no excess of chrome, just a subtle paint scheme over all with fine gloss black everywhere else but the chromed laced wheels. Dumb as this may sound, I appreciate the owner’s good taste and sense of humor in his grip choice of all things. The Lowbrow Customs Cole Foster marble grips are the balls on this bike. Oh man, the guy that owns or built this bike would probably want to at least slap my face if he heard that, but Mr. Mystery Guy, like everything else on this bike, you made the exact right choice right down to the grips.

    So what do you think? Does this bike have soul and if not, does any? Or does just a particular style hit your potential soul button? I’ve asked a lot of questions and I’d love a  few answers.