South Africa boasts the present UFC middleweight champion and the world’s top-ranked rugby staff—neither of which we’d wish to go toe-to-toe with. There should be one thing within the water, as a result of this Harley Shovelhead from Cape City’s Stoos Customs bristles with the identical ferocity.
Primarily based in one of many metropolis’s industrial areas, Stoos Customs was established 13 years in the past by Alex Stoos after an internship at Exile Cycles within the US. The workshop’s handle hasn’t modified, however the staff has grown to seven and earned a strong fame regionally and overseas.
The Shovelhead undertaking was conceived eventually 12 months’s Bike Shed Moto Present in London. There, Alex crossed paths with Joe from El Lobo Cycles in Suffolk, and a boyish sense of competitiveness took over. Earlier than lengthy, they agreed to a personal intercontinental build-off—with nothing on the road however bragging rights.
“The one guidelines have been that each bikes needed to be Shovelheads run BST carbon fiber wheels,” Alex explains. “Past that, it was left as much as every builder to implement their distinctive imaginative and prescient.”
Issues blossomed shortly. The Harley-Davidson efficiency components specialists at Velocity and Science Inc. in Canada got here on board with a beneficiant low cost on engine parts, whereas BST provided wheels of their brand-new solid carbon end.
The undertaking additionally set the stage for an sudden collaboration. “A couple of years again, on the Handbuilt Present in Austin, Texas, I met Colt Wrangler, and we talked about the potential of working collectively sometime,” Alex remembers. “All of a sudden the timing was proper—Colt had a ticket to South Africa, and Joe and I had simply confirmed the build-off.”
Stoos Customs took a 1981 Harley-Davidson Shovelhead that had seen higher days and tore it all the way down to its bones. In the long run, all that remained of the donor bike was the engine circumstances and components of the body.
The thought was to construct one thing aggressive, but rideable. The body was massaged into street tracker proportions and propped up on Öhlins suspension, with all-black right-side-up forks from the Swedish firm’s Retro sequence using up entrance. The burly fork yokes and swingarm have been machined in-house.
The Shovelhead stands tall on 19F/18R BST wheels, wrapped in Michelin Commander III Touring tires. Arlen Ness brake calipers, mounted on custom-made brackets, deal with stopping duties. “We needed to tie in a little bit of an old-fashioned really feel, so we saved the rear brake setup alongside the traces of a conventional anchor-style mount,” provides Alex.
Stoos additionally fabricated chrome steel wheel axles and a service for the rear sprocket. A bespoke side-stand retains the Shovelhead upright when parked.
With a recent field of Velocity and Science goodies in hand, Stoos went to city on the ageing Shovelhead motor. The V-twin was rebuilt with Velocity and Science heads, rocker bins, and barrels, plus an S&S Cycle oil pump and upgraded cams. The four-speed transmission wasn’t going to chop it, so a five-speed field was put in too.
“We additionally upgraded the rocker arms to roller-style rockers, and the oiling is now inner, like an Evo,” says Alex. “We mainly turned it into an Evolution motor on the within, with the appears to be like of a Shovelhead on the skin.”
The CNC-machined consumption is one other Velocity and Science half, the carb is from S&S Cycle, and the air cleaner housing is a {custom} addition. The left-hand facet of the engine sports activities a monstrous open main from Belt Drives, LTD., adorned with a Stoos-branded cowl.
Whereas the Stoos crew was neck deep within the engine, Texan {custom} bike builder Colt Wrangler lent his fabrication abilities to the undertaking. Working from the Stoos workshop throughout his South African sabbatical, he hammered out the Shovelhead’s waspish aluminum bodywork.
These conversant in Colt’s work will acknowledge his signature fashion. The metalwork seems natural from some angles and sculpted from others, with a slim taper within the center. Painted in alternating matte and gloss black finishes, the bodywork includes a flush-mounted gasoline cap, upholstery by Lifeless Crow, and a pair of Kellermann LED taillights that sit behind the tail.
Tucked away within the junction between the tank and tail is a small cap that gives entry to the oil tank. The tank itself sits under the transmission, with the body downtube performing as a protracted filler neck.
The cockpit options chrome steel tracker bars, fitted with knurled aluminum grips from Arlen Ness, and Efficiency Machine levers. The LED headlight is from Kuryakyn, however the housing is a Stoos half. Adjustable foot management assemblies from Gilles Tooling do obligation decrease down.
The bike at the moment doesn’t have a speedometer, flip indicators, or area to mount a license plate—however Alex plans so as to add these as and once they’re wanted. What it does have is an unapologetic chrome steel exhaust system that guarantees to upset your neighbors.
Stoos Customs’ Harley Shovelhead avenue tracker defies the conventions of classic Harley customization. This isn’t your grandfather’s Shovel—like South Africa’s champions, it’s a fierce competitor able to throw down.
Your transfer, Joe.
Stoos Customs | Instagram | Photographs by Wes Reyneke
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