The Pushrod Motorcycle Racer
“When I decided that I was going to build a custom motorbike, I had this idea of what I wanted — it turned out nothing like that!” said Hector.
I’VE ALWAYS liked cars and playing around with them. Once I got my licence, I started tinkering around more and got into building them. As that progressed further, I thought I’d try building a bike. I jumped straight into it without actually owning one first. I didn’t have a mechanical background or anything either, just learnt as I went along.
When I decided that I was going to build a custom motorbike, I had this idea of what I wanted — it turned out nothing like that! Three years ago when I started, the whole sculptured, blended, heaps of sheet metal and heaps of graphics was in, so I suppose I was going more towards that style. It sort of evolved into this look instead.
My mate Blake and I started by buying an Ultima frame then had a crack at modifying it ourselves. I didn’t really like the way it was going so I decided to take it to Darryl at Farnon Fabrications. Darryl did the rear-end on it, and once it came back, I started putting everything together.
I made the petrol tank, and because we had dropped the seat down with the little shock under it, there was no room for the oil tank, so I had to make one of those too. I made the front guard and the engine mounts. I basically made heaps of stuff, got rid of heaps of stuff, and ended up with what’s there now.
The handlebars are Roland Sands clip-ons which you can buy straight out, but you can’t buy a set that would fit that front-end, so I had to get them machined by a friend of mine. Originally, I made another set of bars, but when I saw the clip-ons, I just thought, I’ve got to do that because no-one else had.
The rake is standard 38 degrees which came with the frame. The front-end is eight-inch-over. The wheels are Dragway; the rear is 260. The controls are ISR Radial.
The motor is a 110 cube RevTech; with a BDL, three-inch, open-belt-drive primary.
The original idea of what I wanted paint-wise was graphics with everything blended in, but then everything went more towards the hotrod style of bike and had more of a raw look. The paint is actually a cool story because Blake and I painted the base colours, the green and the white. I wanted to have the bike pinstriped and there aren’t many people who do it, but I found this guy, Des from Signs Lines and Scrolls, who used to paint my father’s trucks 27 years ago. It was good because I took my old man along with me and it turned out to be a bit of a reunion.
The number doesn’t have any significance to anything.
My mate Blake helped out a lot on this project. A friend of mine, Craig, is a tool worker and he had access to a lot of laths and machining equipment, so whenever I needed that little nick-knack thing that I couldn’t buy off the shelf, I’d do a little drawing and he’d get onto making it for me which was a big help.
The family are cool with the bike; they’re the ones who leave me alone to get it done in the shed. There’s no seat on the back for the missus; I’d have to build her own bike instead, I think.
This build was going for about three years in the back garage. I had the idea to build the bike and bought the frame, but at the time, my wife, who was pregnant, decided that the house wasn’t going to be big enough so we renovated, and by the time the renovations were complete, the baby was born. After that it was just whenever I got a chance to work on it. There were times where I just didn’t touch it for months and months; it was only the last few months that I really got stuck into it. I’m happy with it and it’s a good ride.
As soon as I finished, the Silverwater Motor Festival was on so I took it along and it won Best Engineered which I was really pleased with.
Photos by Wall 2 Wall; words by Hector
