The Blade Runner Python Motorcycle

I WAS preparing this bike for a major bike show in Sydney, however, the morning of the show, I was in my snake-room cleaning out some cages when I was bitten by a Death Adder. I was raced to Ryde Hospital, and from there they threw me in an ambulance and took me to Royal North Shore Hospital because they’re better set up, and that’s where I spent the day. So the bike show didn’t happen for me that year.

This isn’t my first bike build. I build them from home and this is my fifth. It’s just a hobby so I have no time-frame, but each one I try and push the parameter a bit harder. Every bike I build, I register and ride, but predominantly take them on the show circuit so people can appreciate the work in them.

The last bike I built was The Viper (Ozbike Issue #320). A lot of people knew it as the Snake Trike. With this one I tried to go for a bit more of a stylish cut. I didn’t want to go for a wild paint job either. I predominantly worked with stainless steel; and the bike has a lot of one-off, hand-made pieces on it so I wanted to highlight them instead of a fancy, leery paint job.

I did a suicide shift on this one; with an in-built brake in the gearbox to keep the back clean. That way you don’t have a rear brake caliper on the rear wheel; it’s a Baker. 

I’ve always loved the springer front-end theme. It’s hard to put together—you paint the down-tubes then you’ve got to try and assemble it with out scratching them—the end result is very effective. The brake lines are hidden up inside the tubes of the Mean Street Springer front-end; it’s a really nice clean affect. 

Next I’ll do another two wheeler, with a single-sided swingarm rear-end, but the rest of it I’m going to keep quiet and surprise you.

Tech Specs

• Frame: Redneck Engineering (Simon’s design).
• Front End: Mean Street; Dragon.
• Engine: Total Performance 110.
• Wheels: Colorado custom.
• Belt Drive: High Tech.
• Gear Box: Primo Rivera with transmission brake.
• Forward Controls: Accutronic.
• Simon’s hand-made parts: guards, suicide shift, tank, seat and any small stainless spikes.

Woma Python

PEOPLE KNOW me as the snake man. No matter how much I try and get away from that, people always say, “Oh, you’re the guy with the snakes.” So I thought I’d bring along another snake and keep the theme going. It’s called a Woma Python and it’s from the desert in Australia. It’s one of my many pets. I’ve got about 45 snakes, most of them venomous, but this is one of the friendly ones. I thought I’d better bring one of the friendly ones for the photoshoot.

The model was initially very scared of the snake but she finally realised that he wasn’t going to eat her and she relaxed. She comes from England where they don’t have many snakes at all so, yeah, Kelly was a great sport.

Make sure you check the feature on Kelly modelling on the Snake bike.

Simon wants to thank Anthony & Alex for the paint; Joe at FRG Bagnall for the metal bending; Paul from Brightweld; Sam and Karl for all their help; and of course, his lovely wife Karen for letting him go MIG (Missing In Garage) all those cold nights.

Photos by Wall-to-Wall; words by Simon