Tricky Air Chopper and Claire the Jillaroo

THIS amazing chopper features Tricky Air air suspension, front and rear. It’s just air, no springs. You can raise and lower it whenever you like. It’s probably sitting down as low as it goes now. With the Tricky Air front suspension, you don’t get the rebound like with the traditional springer. It rides more like a normal telescopic fork.

The bike has a keyless ignition. A card, similar to a credit card, is used. You have it in your wallet in your back pocket, and as soon as you sit on the bike, it reads the card and lights everything up.

Another interesting feature is the 360 brakes. It’s actually a 5.5-inch rotor front and back. The calipers and pads are a full donut circle so it’s a smaller rotor with a larger contact area. We put that through the ADR brake tests and they’re performing to the ADR certifications.

The speedo and tacho are in the mirror on one side; the idiot lights are in the other side which is a neat set-up.

A lot of stuff is tucked away like the coils which are in behind the primary drive.

The transmission is from Jim’s. You don’t see too many six-speed, right-side-drive, 300’s. The motor is a 124 cube S&S. It’s loud with the short pipes.

The Metalsport Custom Motorcycle Wheels are bloody expensive, like $8500—$9000 a set.

A lot of the metal fabrication was done by Shifter at Anderson’s Custom Cycles. The tank was hand-built; and all the fabrication down, around and underneath the seat area was hand-beaten and rolled on an English wheel.

Paint work was done by Nathan of Livin Loco Garage. It’s all House of Kolor paint, and there’s a little strip with marbleize in it which gives it a nice effect.

Although it’s a fairly trick looking thing, it rides beautifully. The trick to getting it to ride right is all in the neck geometry. I think the rake is something like 46 degrees, but it’s bang on four inches in the trail. Even just moving it around, it’s really well balanced; and to ride, it’s just unbelievable. 

Everyone adores this chopper. It’s a cool ride.

Photos by Wall 2 Wall; words by Paul from Johnny Chop.

Claire the Jillaroo

I’VE BEEN photographed before a little bit. It started off for my own self-confidence but since then people have found me off the internet for work. I recently did a photoshoot for the Fiery Night lingerie calendar. I have my own beauty salon in Clayfield that takes up most of my time. I’m around motorbikes a lot. I ride dirt bikes now but next year I’m getting a Harley-Davidson. I’ll pimp it out — black with pink sparkles and I’ll get my salon’s name on it. Park it outside the beauty salon.

I’ve got a few horses which I use for ‘cutting’ and ‘camp drafting’. Cutting is when you cut a beast out of 15 head of cattle and try to keep it out. Camp drafting is when you put it through a bit of a maze and have to do it in a certain amount of time. So I’m a jillaroo/beauty therapist/model.