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The Shov-UL When we visited the US for the
first time in '88 we went
having heard many tales of making good money bringing Harleys back to
the UK, so
when we got to California, we kept our eyes open for deals only to
learn that
much better deals were to be found in other states. We didn't see much,
but in
San Francisco, we visited a shop called ' Hole in the Wall' run by
Spade George.
There he had an old 'canyon racer' which he would let go for $2000. It
was a
flathead 80 motor with shovelhead heads & barrels measuring 86
inches in a panhead rigid frame which had been modified for more ground
clearance. It
had hand change and suicide clutch and was very dilapidated. We bought
it and
shipped it home paying rather more for the shipping than was the proper
going
rate.
By the time it was here I was in the process of winding up
Megacycles so the rebuild had to be done in 'reduced circumstances' I dumped the
whole front end which was off an early superglide and used a GS1000 one with a
21" wheel. A sporty tank replaced the ugly thing that was on it. Other than
that it was chrome & paint (done by Loco). Took a chance on the engine being
OK, which surprisingly, it was. Riding it was a learning experience; they don't
call them 'suicide' clutches for nothing! Rode it for a while and sold it on.
The bloke who bought it also had to learn the clutch quickly - nearly drove it
thru a wall first time out!
Oh yeah, 'good money'? we just about broke even... |
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Loco's Z1100 Here's quite a radical frame we did during the final days at Mega
for a Z1100 shaftie. Incorporating the same monoshock setup as on my Blackbird (below). Old friend Loco (an airbrush genius) made a fine job of this
outrageous chop. When Loco moved to LA in the early nineties he took
this with him. It proved way too much for the surprisingly conservative
Americans; the cops pulled him all the time, and fellow bikers treated it
with suspicion.
Loco died in 2013. RIP mate. The bike is still in LA. Hoping to get some sort of tribute feature done.
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| The Blackbird Originally built in 1985 (top pic) when we were
'Megacycles'
as a bit of a 'state of our art' kind of thing. We rode fast in those
days, so starting with a Z1100 shaft Kawasaki bottom end and a GPZ1100
head, we
used a Wiseco 1393cc cylinder block & pistons, smoothbore carbs,
special
cams etc. we built the frame from chrome moly and devised our own
rising rate
monoshock suspension using a GPZ shock. This was all cutting edge
technology
back then. we made the fork tubes out of chrome moly too and machined
up our own
fork sliders from solid ally (remember, this was before the word
'billet' was in
common use) At the rear is our very first solid wheel anodised black
with a 'massive' 150
tyre- as big as you could get then. The front wheel is not a Kawasaki
one, its a Hagon magnesium wheel originally made for sidecar motocross
outfits.
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| The finished bike was massively, unbelievably fast; at least
back then, it was. These days, of course, you can go and buy a whole range of
stock bikes that will easily see it off, including the bike that Honda nicked
our name for! (Grrrrr!)
The Blackbird was featured in 'Superbike' magazine in 1986.
Second pic shows it as rebuilt in 2000. Now has a 200 rear
wheel, we dumped the sissy bar and the ugly plastic front fender, and
bright-chromed the pipes. Sold it to Carl in 2007 |
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Garys Green Z1100
One of the last frames done at Megacycles was this swingarm
stretched chop for old mate Gary. A shorter than usual shaft stretch, (1.5"
as I remember) and more stretch in the front downtubes than was usual then,
gives the bike a nice stance. Still on the road today; now painted purple
and with a GPZ motor. Ran a 12 at the Pod.
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| Porkys XSessive Another
example of the swingarm XS1100 frames I was doing in the mid 80s. Old
mate Porky went the extra mile and turbocharged the engine. Was
featured in BSH at some stage I think. Porky is a born salesman and
set about sourcing used XS1100s for fellow NCC members to chop. I ended
up doing the frames for most of them! |
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Blue Panhead
Our first Harley. Bought as an abandoned project in 1985. It
needed everything doing to it. A bit of a learning experience. Like; just
because a
part is in a major catalog doesn't mean its going to work! And 6 volt electrics
suck! Eventually sold on to a bloke who was going to buy a Suzuki. Which perhaps wasn't the wisest decision. |
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Stewarts XS650 Trike
Never ventured into the trike thing much, not really my bag, but have done a few; Stewarts XS being one of them. A modified standard frame here. I just did the framework. Later on, we modified it to take a XJ shaftie lump. |
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XS1100
During the Megacycles years, I probably did more XS1100s than
any other bike. This was a very typical Mega bike built for Bernard Sheil, who's just rebuilt it (2018) |
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Another XS1100
Another typical Mega bike of the period. Big Jap
stretched-shaft hardtails were bread and butter at Megacycles. |
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Dave Diamonds XS1100 This time with spoke wheels which was accomplished by using GS850 shaft drive parts & some jiggery pokery. Dave's in the Bracknell Chopper Club. This was a complete frame build rather than a modified stocker. |
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Another XS1100
I built this one for a bloke in the west country. It was a budget job. More so than I realised as I never got fully paid for it! |
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Yet another XS1100 This was Kevs bike. Done whilst still in Bournemouth. |
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Pink XS750 Cant
remember exactly how I ended up doing a pink bike. I think it was
supposed to have been more lilac or purple. Didn't really take much
notice when I picked up the parts from the painters. Suffice to say, it
got resprayed black |
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XJ650
A very 'stereotypical chopper' built for a customer who asked
for just that. Even insisted on it being a 650cc engine, but as he wasn't
exactly a mechanic, opted for a Japanese engine. |
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Pre unit Triumph I built this one for a guy from Germany. Ended up slightly more radical than he had in mind. Hope he got it registered OK. |
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Royal Enfield Bullet Chop
I built this at the same time as the above XJ650. The bloke
brought us an engine & most of a frame, if I remember right. The amazing
thing was that when finished, it started first kick - we never touched the
engine- whereas the XJ above took about a week to get running properly. |
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Jims B33 BSA
These days you'd call it a bobber. In 1986 I'm not sure what
we'd have called it. Jims B33, probably. Jim had it kicking about for ages.
Unfinished wasn't the word, more like just started. He didn't have time, so gave
it to us to finish, Unfortunately, in the years since Jim had started the
project, he had -ahem- 'grown' a bit! and the B33 was a bit too small for him.
Sold it on after a few months. Wonder where it is now? |
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650 Triumph bobber
Another in a similar style, although the seat is all wrong.
Built it in 1987 for a German customer. Had to make it look plausibly 'original'
in terms of its major parts. Frame was made from the castings and sections of 2
or 3 old brit bike frames. Not sure how plausible the Yam forks were though. |
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The Sorcerer
Another 'milestone' bike for me. And yes that is me sitting
there with hair and fledgling beard! My second custom build shown here out the
back of Alf Hagon's old premises where I worked for a few years. Quite a lot of
the parts for this bike were made here when Alf wasn't looking, or when he was
away on holiday! Based on a plunger BSA A10 engine with many mods, it was a
light and quick bike.
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The T45 frame was my first full frame build, with
help from the other Hagon guys, and Alf himself who loaned me an oxy-acetylene welding set.
Forks
were a combination of Betor yokes & legs with CB500 sliders.
Headlight came off an Indian. Pretty much everything else was one-off.
This must have been 1978. Bike was my only
transport for 3 years, and took me to the south of France twice. Seen here
before the sidepanels came back from chroming. |
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In
the winter of '79 the timing side main bearing seized solid. So a
conversion to end-feed oiling became a complete rebuild. Motor was taken
out to 750
via a Norton crank and a bigger-than-is-wise overbore. Made a one
off cast timing cover. This is the only shot of this incarnation. Much longer front-end made from scratch, frame is a couple
inches longer, bigger sissy bar. AP front brakes (which were TOO good; locked up easily!) This
version of the bike was a bit of a disapointment. I'd used W&S
valve springs which shagged the cam out in short order. An attempt to
improve oil tightness in the feed lines ended up cracking the case
slightly which meant much worse leaks. Duh! Tank was a modified
Bantam one and Loco did a brilliant paint job with a pic of a monstrous
dragion. Bike now renamed the 'Wurm' Unfortunately after leaving it
parked under a tree, sap got to the paintwork & ruined it. Tank
ended up on the CB500 chop below. After I got the GS850 on the road in '81 it sat in bits until '85.... |
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This is the same bike in 1986
Now with a 21" on the front and shorter Marzocchi forks. Original tank back in place. And stock valve springs! Featured in BSH in 1986 sometime, it made the
front cover along with Jims (see above) Missus, Di. Sold it twice after that,
kept coming home!
DVLA website shows it to be currently registered still. Click the pic for more detailed images. |
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GPZ1100 Kawasaki
Built this one in early 1985 using up a stockpile of odd parts
and a GPZ motor from a crashed bike. Shaft drive parts interchange on Kwaks so
Z1000ST drive parts went on. The first bike I'd owned with a flame job, It
caught fire from a fuel leak at Santa Pod. Fortunately there are a lot of folks
with fire extinguishers at the Pod, so damage was minimal. Swore that I'd never
have another flame paint job! The sale of this bike helped finance the startup
of Megacycles. |
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Gerry's GS1000 shaft.
Another swingarm shaftie in the same vein as the Z1100 below. Done whilst still in Bournemouth, I seem to remember doing Gerry's frame in
exchange for his doing some house painting that I was keen to get out of!
Gerry, a good friend, passed away in 1994. RIP ol' buddy. |
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Z1100 Kawasaki
My first suspension chop. Built from yet another crashed bike
in 1984 as a 'tryout' of some of the ideas for the Blackbird (above). The bike
was a revelation. A real fun ride; the torquey Z1100 motor made for an
effortless ride and the suspension did what it was supposed to. |
| White GS850. The Enterprise.
OK so I ain't David Bailey. I've no idea why I thought It'd be
a good idea to photograph the bike at night. I bought a crashed GS850 from a
friend in Cheltenham in 1983 and built this bike out of it. Hardtailed and stretched
stock frame, stretched shaft drive, 4
over frontend, pearl white paint. I gotta admit, I liked this bike. Featured in
BSH no. 4. Steve Myatt himself came down to do the feature, and because he used
a dictaphone to take the details, succeeded in spelling EVERYONE'S name wrong in
the feature! The week before I was gonna sell it, I took a wrong turn on a foggy
road and ended up driving across a building site and hit a sewage fitment which
destroyed the rear wheel and did other minor damage. I fitted another wheel and
straightened things up and offered Colin from the local Chopper club £200 off.
He happily bought it and turned it into a trike. |
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Ramptons Yam
Rampton, (AKA Loco) was keen to get a big yam shaftie on the
road and bought a damaged one as the basis for this chop. We did the frame mods
in his garage as I was 'between' facilities at the time (about 1982) I also
modded the CX500 Custom tank & did the side panels. Grundle- who pretty much pioneered the whole
stretch shaft thing- did the shaft, the fork tubes and the yokes. Loco did the rest. Still on the road today after a couple of changes of owner and is now black. |
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Blue GS850 Lousy pic. My first
Jap chop built in 1981 as a black rat. Seen here prettied up in 1983 just before
I sold it. The first bike built post - Hagons. I really missed proper
facilities. My first short-lived attempt at a custom bike business was around
this time; Custom Fabrications in Dagenham. Don't remember it? No surprise, only
lasted 3 months- until we had to pay the second quarters rent! No money, no
vehicle, except this bike! When I needed to re-fill the portapack oxy-acetylene
cylinders, I would strap the cylinder to the sissy bar and ride down to the BOC
depot.
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Garys GS chop Started out as a GS750; Gary & I did the framework on this in about 1980 and it was soon on the road. It still is today albeit a bit changed. It now has an 1100cc motor and a different tank & pipes. Still recognisable as the same bike though. |
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CB500 Honda
Between Hagons and the above mentioned Custom Fabrications I
did a spot of despatch riding on a stock CB500. After 6 months or so the Honda
was shagged, effectively worthless. The only thing to do with it was to chop it.
The engine was still sound, I hardtailed and top-tubed the stock frame. Turned
out quite a neat bike.
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'Starchaser' - ground zero!
It doesn't go back any further than this folks; my first chop-
finished in 1975. 15" over springers and more filler on the frame than on a
20 year old Ford. Must have been chuffed with my efforts, if the silly
grin is any indication. It got me to the '75 IOM TT, but not quite back again!
After a bit of a re-do It took me to Germany with the NCC in '76, AND got me
home! Then a couple months later the crank broke. Ho Hum. |