Harley-Davidson CVO Breakout Restoration

CHRIS: This bike is an original  2014 Harley-Davidson CVO Breakout; I got it at the start of 2015. I left it outside my house for about two years, three years, even — I didn’t have my licence I just wanted to stay away from it if possible — and neglected it. It wasn’t covered so before long it was just rust everywhere. It looked really bad. My brother suggested I take it to Mick’s Garage to restore it. He said he does incredible work. Now Mick’s restored it. Oh my God — it looks better than new. He’s just completely made a masterpiece out of it from what it was.

MICK: I had to strip it right down, pretty much back to nothing for the restoration; that’s how bad it was. We kept pretty much everything original, just restored it back to its original condition. At the same time, we discussed doing something different to give it a different look to everyone else, but also be a rideable bike; purpose built but functional.

CHRIS: That’s the original CVO paint job. Mick spent a lot of time trying to clean it up. I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to do it but it came out okay.

MICK: Because all the paint and the chrome were lifting off the wheels, I mentioned to Chris, “What if you just followed the line of the pinstripe and tried and bring that into the wheels, with the calipers too, and black everything else around it out to highlight it all?”

He said, “Go with it,” and we worked off those lines.

CHRIS: It took a lot of man hours to get those wheels to where they are today.

MICK: The wheels were originally black and chrome. We actually painted the wheels red in-house. They were hand-painted with a two-pac and then we put down a really good clear over them. Three coats. Brought them up like that.

Chris actually got the seat laser stitched by Extreme Customs of Queensland.

CHRIS: The exhaust is from Bassani’s and it has a Screamin’ Eagle air filter and Stage 5 kit in it. I wanted it to be rideable, and to also move when it has to go.

MICK: Because it was already a 103, we just raised the pistons. At the same time, we did our own changes to the heads for a bit more squish for more torque. Obviously, we did the valve springs to strengthen it. Pretty much we’ve got bigger cams and shaved the top off them so it’s got a bit more throat. That way we get power right across the board, for ride-ability on the streets, not just for the drag strip. It gives you a good torque range all the way through from 2000 all the way up to 7000 rpm.

We blacked out all the hardware — they were all painted in two-pac — and where there was chrome, we put chrome hardware to suit so it blends in nice and neat. 

We blacked out the whole front-end; put the billet headlight on and added the centre console. It’s tough.

I’m not a huge fan of the Harley’s Edge Cut accessories but we made it work really well on this bike. I love it on there.

CHRIS: Throughout the whole bike from one end to the other, Mick has pretty much restored everything. It’s exactly what I wanted. I’ve got my license back now and I’m riding again, every weekend, which is fantastic.

words by Chris and Mick

If you’d like to know more about the work being done at Mick’s Garage, give him call: 0449-116-566.