Designer Harley-Davidson Breakout

MY FIRST bike was trail bike, a PeeWee 50, when I was four-years-old. I fucking loved the thing; I couldn’t get off it down at the park; and it just from there. My dad had bikes from when he was 16, 17; I think he had his first Harley at 20; a Shovelhead. I would’ve been five, six years old. Growing up, that was my world—his mates coming around on their motorbikes; open up the garage and there was this amazing Softail my dad had done up. 

Since then I saved up the money, working two jobs—as you know, it’s an expensive habit—to buy this Harley-Davidson Breakout. I bought it just before COVID. I was 21. But the original purchase was the just down payment—we rebuilt the thing from the ground up.

My dad helped out with the rebuild, along with Charlie Spiteri. We cut the struts back, shortened them, and powder-coated them. In fact, anything we could powder-coat was taken off and de-chromed.

Next was the Ridewright rear wheel, Performance Machine (PM) rear brakes,  and back-pegs, and a tail-tidy kit. We wanted the finish the back-end first and move to the front.

The front-end was a big drama because I wanted to use six-piston, dual PM calipers but no-one had done it before on a Breakout and on-one wanted to take it on. I’d spoken to about four fabricators but all said it was pretty much impossible. Finally, Ivan Hans gave me a hand and he did an awesome job.

We ordered Black Diamond fork tubes and had the triple-trees powder-coated black; fitted a Ghost Rider headlight and a 50-spoke Big Daddy Ridewright front wheel.

And then we started on the engine. Charlie Spiteri has been around for a long time; he knows his stuff more than anyone so I listen to him. I wanted to put a supercharger on it but Charlie talked me out of it. Instead we went for the Screamin’ Eagle 110 tyre-shredder kit.

The whole motor was fitted with the Harley-Davidson black kit as well; except for the PM Scallop and gearbox covers.

The whole build was done during COVID so that’s why it took 18 months. Every part was a fucking drama. They sent my front wheel from the States that took fucking eight months and it came all chipped and one of the spokes was warped as well. Paid a lot of money, man… so I was a bit disheartened with that. The forward-controls only took 16 months to come and they sent the wrong ones.

Paul Aqualini has done an awesome job with the seat trim. The actual material, an actual designer brand, didn’t come three times in a row.

I took the paint work to Juds Kustom Paint in Wollongong. I sat with Jud for hours, trying to get something out of my head onto paper for him. Eventually, I just left it with him and said, “I trust you mate; go with it”. And he’s done an awesome job. People stop me, left, right and centre, to take photos and videos  of it.

Overall, I’m more than stoked with the build. A massive shout-out my dad for his inspiration; to Paul Aqualina for the unique trim work on the seat; Juds Kustom Paint for doing one of the most unique paint jobs on a Harley; also thanks to Ivan Hans for the fab work on the bike and taking on the front, dual brake disc work that everyone told me was impossible; and lastly, the build wouldn’t have happened without Charlie Spiteri who worked countless hours getting every little bit perfect on the bike, and his motor work proves he’s one of the best there is—if he had been a doctor instead of a mechanic he would have cured COVID in a week.

words by Jarryd Ellul