We’re a small, hands-on kind of custom bike shop. There’s me doing any and everything, Geoff handling the day-to-day running of the place as well as parts and accessories. There’s Ross on the spanners and the key force behind our drag race team – apart from being a top mechanic and experienced racer, he holds the NZ Top Fuel Nitro Harley record of 180 mph at 7.6 seconds – that’s pretty damn quick! And then there’s Jim, my can’t-do-without kind of guy who does everything around the place as well as being our No 1 fabricator and a good mate.
I got my first Harley in 1981, a FXFB, and being a farm boy who was used to pulling things apart and fixing them, I just couldn’t help myself from tearing it down and changing it around. I’ve got a very questioning mind, the type that says, “Yeah, it’s broken, but how did it happen, how can I fix it and how can I prevent it from happening again?”
I started TwinTech in 1989 basically part-time doing stuff for my mates but it soon got out-of-control and I went full-time in early 1991. In 1995 we bought the two units next door and we’ve been growing ever since.
We’ve always taken pride in our workmanship and experience is something you can’t beat. We place a great degree of importance on the day-to-day stuff through the workshop. I’m not happy unless it’s done right; fix it right the first time so there’s no come-backs.
We do quite a bit of performance work which we try to match to the customer’s requirements. We know what works and what doesn’t. Putting it together is one thing; getting it to stay together takes knowledge and experience. And importantly, performance doesn’t stop with the engine – the whole package has to include the brakes and suspension.
TwinTech Motorcycles is also involved in drag racing. We’ve got a XB12R Buell that Ross has started to run. It’s doing 11.8’s at the moment in fairly standard form. We’ve got plans to turn it into a full-on drag bike including a special frame we’re building ourselves.
Billy also rides for us on his 1991 FXST. It runs an S&S 124 ci engine that we’ve worked over and is pushing our 150 hp at the rear wheel. Not bad for a registered street bike. Billy’s running around 10.5 and gaining more consistently so this year is going to be fun.
We’ve always done a lot of custom work. We were sticking 180 tyres (as large as you could get at the time) into stock bikes back in early 1990. We used to make it all ourselves because it was before you could get the wide rear end kits. Generally, what we find with our customers is a guy who’ll come in with some ideas or maybe just a picture. We’ll work it through; their wants, needs, applications, and deliver something far in excess of what they imagined – give them something that blows them away. Obviously we’ve got to work within a budget which can be difficult as the customer’s views often change as the project develops.
We don’t aim to be a volume builder – low quantity, high quality – that’s us.
The Flame Chopper is the first one we’ve built as an in-house project without any customer restraints – just stretch our legs and have some fun doing something we enjoy. Nonetheless, our focus was on building something that was totally rideable. It’s really nice to ride, almost like cruising on a stocker, except for the attention it receives. At last year’s Indy Carnival on the Gold Coast we were invited to do a couple of laps of the track, leading the opening parade. I’ll tell you, it totally blew away the crowd, and a lot of the drivers as well.
I had a vision of how I wanted it to look. I did some sketches and picked out bits and pieces from other bikes I liked. Obviously you can’t buy this type of stuff so there was only one way to do it – and that was to handmake it all ourselves.
One of the great things about working with Scotty (Scotty’s Choppers supplied the frame and guards) is that you can have your own ideas and combine them with his talent to come up with something exceptional.
We bought a damaged TC88 Dyna and decided to mount the motor and driveline into a Softail-style frame. The engine was stripped, polished, and bored out to 95 cubes. We threw in some Crane cams and a set of our own heads which gave it a lot of grunt. Even using the stock CV carb we’ve around the 100hp mark. We balanced the flywheel assembly so, vibration wise, it’s about the same as an Evo Softail. Being a light bike, it feels pretty sharp on the road. The pipes are ours and include heat shields to ensure there’s no bluing.
To accommodate the 250 rear tyre, we chopped off the Dyna gearbox and machined an adaptor plate to re-mount it slightly off-centre to the engine. This kept the engine in the centre of the bike.
Wheels and brakes are PM. We went with the drive-side rear brake to keep the rear wheel/swingarm area really clean; and Fournales shocks for the ride.
I like to have really good brakes n my bikes so up front there’s a 13 inch rotor with a six-spot caliper. The front-end is an 8-inch-over Zodiac we imported through Cassons in Sydney. Kurtso from Burleigh Bars made the handlebars to our design; the Dakota 6000 digital speedo was incorporated and I had a hell of a job convincing my painter to paint them instead of chrome plating. We used Custom Cycle controls for their clean lines; they are really well made.
Craig at Custom Spraypainting Concepts blended the special tone of candy golds and reds to come up with the amazing paint job; it was really first class work. Perry applied the absolutely stunning airbrush work which looks like it moves as you view it in different lights. Brilliant stuff and done in just three weeks leading up to the Brisbane bike show. These guys are totally professional and I wonder what they would have come up with if they had more time.
One of the stand-out features of this bike is its clean uncluttered lines, like the hand-formed stainless oil lines, the apparent absence of cables and wires, etc. It actually runs a full wiring loom (complete with self-canceling indicators)clipped to the frame. Other important features made by us but not very noticeable include the mounts for the taillight, top engine mount, and our own internal fork stop.
TwinTech Motorcycles is in Southport, on the Gold Coast, Queensland. The Flame Chopper has SOLD sorry..
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