SPORTSER BOBBER
ABSOLUTELY GLORIUS FENLAND FRAMED BEAUTY
Back in 2017, Jules Knowles was at a bike show when he saw a psychedelically-painted, goose-necked bobber with a Sportster motor, and absolutely fell in love with it. It was parked next to another goose-necker too, and he and a friend he was with mused over which would be in their fantasy garage. Both bikes were gorgeous, but Jules felt there was just something about the psychedelic one that he particularly liked. He took the obligatory photos, not in a million years imagining that, one day, he'd actually own that very bike. A little while later, his father passed away, and he was left a sum of money. Inspired by that bike, he decided he wanted a similar one built and so, over the next year or so, he amassed an album of inspirational photos. He also kept an eye on social media and eBay, of course, and it was while on t'Net he saw another goose-necked bike for sale. It belonged to a gentleman by the name of Matt Burberry, who's had bikes in various custom magazines over the years, and while it wasn't quite what Jules wanted, sitting in the back of the photo was that psychedelic goose-necker he'd originally
fallen in love with, and which'd been the catalyst for the whole process. He contacted Matt, who said that it wasn't really for sale, but he was welcome to come and have a look at it anyway, and Jules jumped at the chance. He did and, as they say, the rest is history...
Matt'd had the bike built back in 2016/17 by Tom at the wonderfully named Slinky Bint Customs in Derbyshire. He'd met him a while before when Tom'd had a GSX-R hardtail he'd built featured - Matt was building one, but having a bit of trouble with the guy who was building it, he contacted Tom and asked him to finish it for him. Through that, they got friendly, Matt'd bought a bike or two off him, and then he decided he wanted Tom to build him a show bike. They got together, and the machine you see in front of you is the result of Matt's ideas and Tom's skills.
They started with one of Fenland Choppers' goose-neck rigid rolling chassis kits for the Harley Sportster engine and, once that was ready, Tom set to work to turn the basic bike into the show-stopper you see in front of you. He added a Cole Foster tank, and hand-made the ultra-tight pie-cut exhausts, the twopiece 'bars, the brass accents throughout the bike, the battery box, the brass 'pegs, and just about anything that you can see that didn't come from Fenland's workshop. Matt at Dragon Seating made the (quite fat for the genre) kicked-up ribbed seat - a job that Tom describes as not easy to do to get it to fit flush with the rubbed rear mudguard. Okay, actually, he was slightly more to the point than that, what's written here is the cleanedup for publication version...
Just about every part's felt his touch - the 16" wheels were fitted with suitably bobber Firestone tyres; the springers, and the calipers and hangers, were powder-coated satin black, as was the frame; by CBS Engineering who do all Slinky Bint's powder-coating; and the stock engine cases replaced with much sexier ribbed EMD items that just look so, so right. AM Polishing in Sussex made some of the shiny bits shiny, and brush-finished others, so that the bike has just the right level of shininess without the brightwork taking over, if you see what I mean?
No, that honour's taken jointly by the engineering, the bike's overall wholeness, and the amazing black, grey and silver 'flake paint done by that maestro of metal-flake Stig, of Stig's Custom Paint. I get what Jules means about it being psychedelic, even though the colour choice is quite restrained; no in-yer-face colours of the kind that usually come to mind when you think of psychedelia, but it's a great description of the design. It's simple, yet involved, and it gives the bike a really different look to yer average, usually quite plain, bobber.
When the bike was finished, Matt rode it for around a year, taking to various shows, including the one Jules saw it at, and picked up a fair amount of silverware with it, too. Then, as detailed above, he sold it. He and Tom have built a couple of bikes since, both of which we hope to show (as long as this bastard coronavirus lets us out at some point), but now it's time to talk about Jules' ownership. He's run the bike for a while now (these pies were taken back in August last year, and he contacted us back in February of that year), and has had some great times with it. It's everything he wanted when he saw it all those years ago, and he gets a huge buzz when he rides but, and there's always a 'but', isn't there, and while he'd very much intended for it to be his forever bike, his missus wants a new kitchen so, very reluctantly, the bike is up for sale. If you think you could give it a good home, forever or not, give him a call on 07552 139443 and talk turkey... sorry, turkey? Kitchen? Geddit? Oh well, please yerself.