NICKEL ‘N' BRASS

Over the years I have been constantly impressed and often amazed at the variety of people that custom motorcycles attract. Perhaps this shouldn’t be as surprising to me as it is, because I fully believe that building a custom bike is one of the broadest forms of art that there is

- BLUE

After all, it encompasses both aesthetics and engineering, one of the few artforms in which these two disciplines intertwine so completely. A modified motorcycle has to work, but it also has to look good and, as many of you will have found, those two things are not always mutually compatible! Perhaps it’s because of the fact that custom motorcycles cross these boundaries that they attract an equally wide variety of people. There is genuinely no such thing as a typical custom bike owner and many of the most interesting folk I have met in this life have been through two wheels. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t still be blown away by a seemingly random meeting.

And so it was in this case. Some months ago, I had an email from Dom Fairbanks with pictures of his Harley Sportster. It was a bike I recognised and had admired in show reports, although I hadn’t realised that it lived just an hour down the road from Casa 100%. I soon found out that the bike looked even better in the flesh than in photos, but I also discovered that this build has been a far from easy process for Dom.

While he has had various motorcycles, this was a very special project for Dom and he had always wanted one that was built from the ground up to his specifications. However, it was only with the passing of Dom’s mother in 2016 that the idea became reality. His mother— who knew that her son loved motorcycles and had owned many—left him an inheritance and I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew exactly what Dom would do with that money! He says; “I was able to design my ‘always wanted dream bike’ and have it built. It means more than words to me and it’s the best gift that my mother could have given me.”