Custom Harley Blackline By Shaw Speed & Custom

drey1Drey2Drey3Drey4Drey5You already know through my features that South Of England based Shaw Speed & Custom is not your average official Harley-Davidson dealer. Now in its 11th year, the dealership has won the prestigious Bar and Shield 6 times with the Shaw Speed Custom division collecting gold in many important European bike shows and even a 1st place in the AMD World Championship Of Bike Building, something that no other Harley dealer has ever accomplished…

Drey6Drey7Named “Drey”, this new creation was built for a client with too many passions. All passions he would have liked Shaw Speed & Custom to express on his new custom motorcycle. The challenge, as any good custom builder will tell you, is to integrate a client’s DNA without patching together ideas and parts not relating to each other. Expressing the owner’s personality, yes of course. Showing all faces of his personality on one machine, impossible except to produce a monster on 2 wheels full of incoherence, of conflicting lines and of mismatched parts. The first essential quality of a great custom builder is to understand a client, not to build only what he wants but to create what he dreams of, very often without him being able to precisely describe it.

Drey8Drey9On this project, the Shaw & Speed Custom team was able to mirror several of his client’s passions – cars, watches, vintage fashion – without falling in the trap of the gaudy theme bike. A Harley Blackline model, the most “bare to the bone” Softail in the lineup, was chosen because of its Bobber genes. After full tear down of the factory bike, the engine received first an upgrade to 1690cc from the original 1584cc, then a full cosmetic makeover with the Roland Sands Clarity line – letting you see the engine work like the mechanism of a Swiss watch – and new black contrast cut covers. A Boss design theme by Performance Machine was extended from front to rear with  Contrast Cut wheels, 21” in the front and 18” in the rear on which is wrapped a massive 240 mm tire. The Boss theme runs also on both bike sides with the PM belt sprocket and brake rotors.

Drey10Drey11Regarding bodywork, special mention goes to the beautiful in-house fabricated gas tank by Dave Rollison whose lines are inspired by the side vents and scoops of many race cars. To accommodate the fat 240 mm tire, the shop used a Performance Phatail kit which includes the wide swingarm, the steel fender and aluminum struts and all driveline spacers, gaskets and extended mains shaft. Roland Sands provided the seat pan & seat combo, upholstered in leather embossed with the lucky 7 number. The factory split drag bars were replaced by a new one-piece set using the full PM handlebar controls package of brake, clutch and master cylinders. A small digital speedo and a “flat” V-Rod headlight keep the top front section ultra clean. Vance and Hines Competition pipes in black and a Performance Machine Air breather/Screamin’ Eagle help push the extra horses. The silver color theme mixed to green on badges, brake calipers and parts of the primary is inspired by the Porsche 918 that the owner loves so much. ” Drey” will be displayed for the 1st time at the EICMA show in Milano starting tomorrow November 5 to 10. Shaw Speed & Custom. (photography @ Lee Brett for Cyril Huze )

Tech Sheet:

Motorcycle Harley-Davidson Softail Blackline
Engine Capacity 1690cc
Transmission 6 speed factory
Wheels Performance Machine Boss Contrast Cut
Front 21 inch
Rear 18 240mm
Rear Sprocket Boss Contrast Cut
Brake Rotors Boss Contrast Cut
Rear Fender RSD
Gas Tank RSD fabricated in house “Shaw Speed & Custom”
Side plate licence plate “Shaw Speed & Custom”
Oil tank extended “Shaw Speed & Custom”
Open Primary Performance Machine
Calipers Performance Machine
Brake lines Goodridge
Oil lines Goodridge
Forward Controls Performance Machine
Rear Swingarm Performance Machine Phatail kit
Engine Rocker covers Roland Sands Design contrast cut clarity
Transmission cover top Roland Sands Design contrast cut
Transmission cover side Roland Sands Design
Seat and seat pan Roland Sands Design
Headlight Harley-Davidson VROD
Exhaust System Vance & Hines Competition pipe
Fueller Screamin Eagle
Air Breather Performance Machine
Mirror Performance Machine
Gas cap Roland Sands Design
Handgrips Roland Sands Design
Speedo Moto gadget
Rear indicators relocated to swingarm LED
Custom paint by Image Design Custom

13 Responses to “Custom Harley Blackline By Shaw Speed & Custom”


  1. 1 Terence Tory Nov 4th, 2013 at 9:25 am

    A reasonable effort.A bike without a front fender in the U.K. is a bit useless with all their damp slimy roads though.

  2. 2 pokergolf420 Nov 4th, 2013 at 9:36 am

    Other than relocating the front turn indicators I wouldn’t change a thing.

  3. 3 David Nov 4th, 2013 at 9:48 am

    Amazing bike!
    The guys at SS&C have really gone to another level on this one.
    I’m sure the owner of the DREY is just dying to get his hands on this classic.

  4. 4 James just another crazy Kiwi Nov 4th, 2013 at 12:47 pm

    It Rains pretty much everywhere humans dwell,

    No front guard is a risk always, but the look is great.

    Slimy roads, surley someone would be sued for that.

    Bit of moss maybe.

    It is a nice looking bike and is progressive but still holds classic lines

    Maybe The “Factory” should ask them to fix what they have done to the Fat Bob.

    The ”Factory” get it wrong too often with all their available facilities, it seems strange.

    Look how many models that get deleted or they ruin.

    Every model will have a life, but many have died young….mis spent youth ???

    So if we have two lights facing forward we should have two facing backwards.?

    Looks like a Nissan Skyline tail light.

    Quoted $1350.00 to change back guard back to something original. that ruined the sale for me

  5. 5 PHD Nov 4th, 2013 at 1:01 pm

    All that work and they don’t even bother to shave the front fender mounts off the legs

  6. 6 Terence Tory Nov 4th, 2013 at 1:19 pm

    PHD.Thats because when the bike actually gets ridden the fender will get bolted back on.

  7. 7 PAUL Nov 4th, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    YAWN Another ponce magnet poser Harley

  8. 8 Steve Dubb Nov 4th, 2013 at 1:35 pm

    I think you will see that the bike runs a Roland Sands
    fork brace on the front therefore the fender mounts are left on for
    This reason

  9. 9 Roadking Nov 4th, 2013 at 7:07 pm

    Shaw’s HD does a great job on their bike builds, they customize new HD’s for their customers and there not afraid to sell aftermarket parts like so many HD Dealers. US Dealers should study their business model and get with the program!

  10. 10 BC in SoCal Nov 4th, 2013 at 7:58 pm

    Nice clean bike, great lines, takes nothing to mount a front fender, rode a Knucklehead chopper to Sturgis two years ago, of course caught pouring rain in southern AZ and Colo, had a front fender on the next year. Sure looked cool fender less, but……..

  11. 11 Steven Nov 5th, 2013 at 12:14 pm

    More PM, more RSD, more Snickers, more Coke. The OCC of the UK

  12. 12 Drew Nov 6th, 2013 at 11:00 am

    I was lucky enough to get shown around shaw speed shop earlier this year when I was in the uk. Hats off to these guys. They build bikes for people the way they want them rather than trying to build what the latest fad is and it seems that’s all that matters to them. They use bolt on parts combined with precision fabrication and imagination. But the most impressive thing by far is the detail which no photo can show. If you are ever in their neighbourhood go see them, you won’t be disappointed. Absolutely stunning bikes guys. Keep up the good work

  13. 13 LOC Nov 9th, 2013 at 6:12 pm

    Should have used a Heartland kit. The Heartland fender and struts are designed much better.

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Cyril Huze