HUCKLEBERRY

This thing’s got so many bloody fins I’m gonna call it Huckleberry!

- Doc

This neat as a pin and highly innovative bobber was an absolute labour of love for Forbes resident Harley fanatic, Neil Merchant. Sure, it took three years from start to finish, but in that time he renovated premises in which to start up an aftermarket bike shop specializing in Harley-Davidsons (thriving), set the shop up with all the machinery and equipment he would need (impressive), married the lovely Lynette (lucky) and travelled to the US to refine his engraving skills (already high) under the tutelage of master engraver, CJ Allan.

Keen-eyed readers will spot many of the unique aspects of this build but let me point out a few of them…

Neil handmade the pushrod tubes and collars, the oil lines, fuel lines, distributor cover, footpegs and controls, exhaust, twin rear axle adjusters, the front legs of the springer and hand-laced the wheels. Police model Harley-Davidsons ran a fan-cooled generator back in the day and for this build Neil took an old fan housing and modified it to house the regulator on the end of the generator. Neat.

LET’S LOOK A BIT CLOSER…

A set of Truett & Osborne 3.5 in stroker flywheels slot into the ’48 Panhead fully polished cases, adding S&S Cycle barrels and heads, the latter also fully polished. An Andrews ‘B’ cam followed then – in somewhat of a piece de resistance – Neil fitted twin 30mm Mikuni carburettors to feed in the air-fuel mixture. What goes in must come out of course and there are few custom exhausts that can match these stainless steel beauties that are also Neil’s handiwork.

Other eye-catching features of this engine are the mega-cool rocker boxes and these finned Shovelhead units were sourced from Northern California’s Throwback Motorcycle Parts.