Cyril Huze Blog – World's Number One Source For Custom Motorcycle News

After typing the headline of this bike feature, I wondered if I used the right word. Is it a Makeover – a term applied to changing appearance usually through cosmetic details? Or a Makeunder, based on the opposite principle consisting in removing enhancements to give a more ‘natural’ look? Probably both terms apply in successive procedures during this new build by UK Shaw Speed And Custom. In a style that you are now very familiar with if you read me since more than one year, the custom division of official Milwaukee dealer Shaw Harley-Davidson succeeds in turning a somewhat boring Softail into a very sexy piece to ride and show.

The building team – Neil Sefton builder/assembly and Dave Rollisons welder/fabricator – had fell in love with the Performance Machine Heathen wheel model and had ordered a set of 23” front and 18” rear in prevision of a future project. When a client showed up for a custom project without being able to make a final choice of style among all the different projects previously built by Shaw Speed, they decided to strip down a 2004 Harley FXST to bare frame, to attach to it a Springer front end and the 2 PM wheels they loved so much. They took a couple of pictures, emailed them to the client, and of course you know the end of this episode: the client fell in love with the naked bike, gave the green light and a big order deposit… Continue reading ‘Harley Standard Softail Makeover.’

I have met for the first time Warren Lane and brother Billy exactly 18 years ago. At that time, they did a job for me, widening a rigid frame to accept one of the first 200 mm rear tires wrapped on their own deep dish spoke wheel.

A few months later, both started to make a name for themselves in the custom industry and beyond. At full speed, Billy taking advantage of the media weigh of television, Warren opting by choice for the more traditional route followed by most custom builders, focusing only on his work, achieving admiration and respect one project at a time, through exceptionally beautiful and detailed custom motorcycles like El Rey, Speed Demon, A Fistful Of Dollars, FTP 43 and many others, all widely featured worldwide in magazines and coffee table books.

During all these last years, and although Warren and myself never lived and worked in South Florida more than one hour of each other, we never had many opportunities to meet, except his rare visits to very selected events he attends each year with his latest creation(s) Then, last September, on the eve of the 2014 Cannonball start in Daytona Beach (see after the jump the 1929 Harley-Davidson JD Model is just finished restoring to participate in the next edition), we had the opportunity to sit side by side to share a meal. Again, Warren is a very discreet man, never “prospecting” journalists to gain media coverage of his work. It’s me who insisted that it was time for me to pay him a visit, to see what he was up to, how his career was evolving, his professional choices, his work in progress, etc.

Warren Lane and helpers operate under the name of Atomic MetalSmith out of a very large and modern warehouse in Miami. No name on the door, only a street number, just to tell you that you are welcome in his temple but only if you are invited, really know about motorcycles and are looking for serious custom work. Not a place for tourists looking for tee-shirts if you know what I mean. As expected, the shop is filled with all the tools and equipment a true metalsmith working the old ways may desire to create his metal art. Continue reading ‘A Visit To Warren Lane. Artist, Custom Bike Builder And Metalsmith Extraordinaire.’

Only two days after receiving the first 2015 Harley Road Glide (model FLTRXS) at his Harley-Davidson Baden-Baden/Germany dealership (aka Rick’s Motorcycles), the team had the bike in pieces and the frame modified with their 2014 TÜV approved 26/30-Inch front wheel conversion. As far as I know, the result seen here is the first 2015 26” Road Glide Bagger full conversion.

The stretched tank is a modified Custom Chrome Europe part, on which Rick’s sheet metal workshop laid hand to adapt it to the new Road Glide. but the side fillers are Rick’s own. Notice the Kess Tech ESM “Sound adjustable“ exhaust system ending under the cases, tips pointing downward.

The customizing job includes Rick’s TÜV-approved frame modification, 9° Rick’s triple trees, Rick’s own 26’’ “Gimmi 5“ wheels with 13’’ discs and adapted HD calipers nicely powder-coated in red. On the front Rick’s own 26” steel fender was mounted and the rear received a complete “Rick Rod“ Bagger tail end with bags stretched 8” and 4.2” deeper than stock, with all extra space usable. Continue reading ‘First 2015 Harley Road Glide 26 Inch Conversion’