No.5
This project began in October 2010. For
about a year Stéphane Langlois (aka The
Lawyer) happily rolled on his beautiful 2009
Harley-Davidson Screaming Eagle Roadglide
but like many other bikers he wanted
to make his bike different from the others for
the following riding season. He was ready
to customize it, make it something out of
the ordinary. That’s when he contacted me,
Goone at Goone Cycles in Alfred, Ontario.
The Lawyer was undecided. He hesitated
between swapping his
bike for a brand new Screaming Eagle FLHX or
completely rebuilding the Roadglide. I explained
to him that he could very well buy
a new bike but the end result would be the
same – he would no doubt see other bikes
identical to his. I suggested that the best
thing he could do was to sell his Roadglide
and modify a slightly accidented Harley. Yet
to no avail, The Lawyer decided to keep his
bike and modify it.
Cobwebbed
Most people wouldn’t think to take a 900 km round trip as their
first initial shake down ride on a freshly built rigid chopper, but
that’s exactly how life began with this little number. Well… sort
of. Life really began when it rolled off the assembly line as a stock
‘91 883 Sportster. When it arrived on our doorstep this past
winter, it had been desecrated with over a decade and a half’s
worth of lame bolt-on accessories, and a sorry attempt to make
it something it wasn’t. We had the task of making things right.
Contradiction
The dream
of owning a nice bike started
when I saw The Fonz on Happy Days. I was
about seven years old. I thought he was the coolest because
he got all the girls and the guys wanted to be friends with
him. However my parents were always against bikes and even though
I’m the youngest of six, a bike was one of the things I couldn’t get away
with! Mom said no bikes ! Dad agreed. So cars it was !
My big brother Serge always had a “toy” of some sort and his enthusiasm
spilled off on me. Besides I was always helping him as much as I could
(or as much as he’d let me !). He took me to my first drag race when
I was about 6. As you can see I’ve been “exposed” to cars at
a very young age to say the least, not to mention that
sometimes my sisters dated guys with
cool cars.
Devilution
Well it was definitely one of our longer
builds from start to finish, but she’s finally
done. We spec’d out and ordered Bryce’s
frame from Maximum Metalworks about
three years ago based on some of the
ideas he had for his bobber’s profile. We
kicked around the idea of making her a
rigid but the shitbird roads on the flatlands
around here kinda’ forced the decision to
go softail. This wasn’t going to be a bar
hopper or a trailer queen so we opted for
some comfort over sore kidneys and the
pissing of blood that a rigid would bring.
