Sublime Harley-Davidson Blackline

HAVING a new bike and wanting to make it stand out from the pack, Ross found himself heading over to his local custom bike shop for advice on new cams and a set of wheels. After a little small talk with Jamie (Loaf) Newling from Bagger Tricks Custom Cycles (BTCC) in Port Kennedy, they walked over to Jamie’s own bike and he kicked its Stage 6 S&S engine into life. After the aural excitement abated, Ross was reaching for his notepad and adding pages to the mod-list to be left with BTCC.

Over the course of the build I dropped in to check on its progress several times and the Harley-Davidson Blackline always resembled something you’d see in a Biker Build-Off episode with carefully placed blue masking tape applied to almost the whole bike including the wheels keeping expensive new parts from any kind of damage. Once the tape wrapping came off though, it was evident the quality of the work was higher than a hippie with a pilot’s licence, and the only thing left rapt was Ross!

Kicking off the build, the bike was stripped down to its frame and engine before the aforementioned S&S upgrade was put together and installed by head spanner-man Shaun McGarry. This took the Big Twin to 107 cubes, which although not dyno’d, it regularly produces power in the vicinity of the 120—125 hp range and torque of around 125 ft/lbs so Ross took the smart option of upgrading his clutch with an Energy One unit along with an extra plate and heavy duty springs.

The Vance & Hines Side Shots were added after having their heat shields painted gloss black, and also adding wrap beneath the new ebony shine.

Those wheels Ross originally had gone into BTCC to enquire about are a pair of contrast-cut Stilettos with a 23 x 3.75 inch steamroller up front and an 18 x 5.5 inch out back. Choosing a wider-than-normal tyre on both ends required the modding of the guards to fit with about as much room between tyre and guard as a Killer Whale at Sea World. Shaun modded a Russ Wernimont Designs all-steel front guard to clear the 130/60/23 tyre; and for a cleaner look, the rear fender struts were welded to the guard which now houses a beefier 200/55/18 tyre.

Helping Ross to keep the whole shebang in a straight line is a custom-made Burleigh Bar fab’d to suit Ross and held in place by a pair of Knuckle Risers that are connected to the Genuine Harley-Davidson inverted forks also covered in more of that high-gloss back coating.

Keeping an eye on irrelevant things like speed and revs is a very cool Dakota Digital unit which was duly mounted to the bars and wired up by Rory Smith from RS Installations along with the Custom Dynamics wrap-around front indicators and number-plate surround

Lighting the way is a billet 9-inch bucket with a 5.75-inch Hoglight LED insert.

Hue-wise, Ross avoided putting colour on his ride like a leper does vigorous handshakes, hence the tins were all covered in a mono-tone coat of deep gloss black. Sitting down with Travis from Pin Head Kustoms had the pair nutting out the spade and filigree based design which, due to time constraints, was handed over to Joe Veevers from Dirtbag Designz who picked up his airbrush and expertly transferred the mental to the metal in short time.

Again Loaf made the call to the Sultan of Stitch, Brett Radford at 2Tone Motor Trimming, to design a one-off seat specifically shaped for Ross’s height and riding position.

Thanks goes to all already mentioned as well as Off Da Hook Powder Coating, Adam from Burleigh Bars, James from Proshine for the detailing, Nate at HogLights Australia, and of course the beautiful Lauren for killing it on her very first ever photoshoot.

Stay tuned. Make sure you check out the feature on Lauren with the Sublime Harley Blackline.

Words & pics by Brad Miskiewicz