... the forks, wheels and brakes on my Harley are Yamaha and Joe's are Suzuki. His forks are upside-downies and mine are rightway-roundies. Joe's engine has an S&S carburettor, mine has a Screamin' Eagle. I have conventional footrests on my bike and Joe has footboards. Joe's bike has a fat rear mudguard, mine doesn't. Joe's engine is polished alloy and mine is painted black. The pipes on my Harley are black, Joe's Harley has chrome. My bike has a hydraulic clutch and Joe's doesn't ... and last but not least, My bike is black and Joe's bike is white. So, where's the aforementioned similarity twixt the two? Hardly in the component parts and the colour of the paintwork, even a high court judge on a choirboy's back at thirty feet could spot that much of a difference. It goes just a little deeper than a coat of paint.

Sitting outside a pub in the Derbyshire peak district two things crossed my mind; how similar Joe's tale of the changes that his Shovelhead had been through in the past 15 years were to the ever changing visage of my own bike ... and what the fuck do you call a native of Derbyshire? A Derbyian? A Darwegian? A Darbonian? A Derbyshireaniuan? A Darbcurian? Beats me, and Joe didn't know either because he's a Lancastrian. I listened to Joe's tale of how he bought the Shovel as a victim of accident damage in 1982, same year that I became the proud owner of a battered AMF Harley, and how it had gone through the changes. I had heard it all before; wide front end - narrow front end, cast wheels - spoke wheels, tuned engine - blown engine, long forks - short forks, high 'bars - low 'bars, PM Brakes, Barnett clutches, Primo belt drives, chrome this, chrome that, black - white - red paint, been there and done that, blown it, fucked it, sucked it and spent more money on it in the past 15 years than I would have on a serious drug habit.

Joe's off and on flirtation with various species of the Shovelhead's mechanically superior Evolution offspring in the last few years mirrored my own, and just as my Shovel was left parked while I played with Evos and fast Japs, Joe's old FX Wide-Glide also became a little neglected. Eventually Joe tired of the Evos, every arse in chaps and his dog had one, and decided that it was high time the Shovelhead was treated to a full, ground-up rebuild and repaint to return it to its former splendour. But, being your own boss and having a business to run can severely restrict the amount of time that can be realistically spent stripping and rebuilding motorcycles. What was fortuitous however, concerning Joe's decision to put his ideas for the Shovel's rebirth into someone else's hands, was that two old friends from his native Southport had recently set up in the Harley-Davidson business had quickly earned an enviable reputation for quality work.

After taking a long hard look at the sorry condition of Joe's Shovelhead the boys from Big Twin Services declared that it was as sad as your granny's funeral, and immediately stripped it right down to the last unified nut, bolt and washer. Joe meanwhile had secured a wedge from the nice man at the Midland Bank to finance the mechanical rebuild and chassis refit. A plan was hatched to return the engine to the original condition that the men at Milwaukee would recognise, albeit with a couple or three mild performance mods in the shape of an Andrews B grind camshaft, a Dyna ignition and a distinctive S&S teardrop airfilter hiding a Super E carburettor.

Nothing so traditional Harley-Davidson however was planned for the rest of the bike. A giant leap forward in technology was willingly forced on the FXWG frame in the friendly shape of some of the latest three-spoke wheels and inverted forks from the land of the rising scum. Dragging the Harley chassis out of the dark ages of suspension design presented another set of problems. Olde Worlde Harleys were never intended to run anything bigger than a 130 section rear tyre, a 150 will squeeze in the gap if push comes to shove, but to slip in something along the lines of a fat and juicy GSX-R1100 5½ rear wheel and 190 tyre, the gearbox and primary drive is going to need to be moved over at least 10mm. This is simpler than it sounds and there are two ways to do it - an expensive way and a not so expensive way. The expensive way is to buy a kit to do the job from the shiny pages of an American aftermarket catalogue whose name rhymes with 'less', although if you saw the price your answer would probably rhyme with 'cough'. All it needs is a new, (or even modified if you're a real cheapskate bastard), transmission plate to shift the gearbox over by 10mm, a corresponding sized spacer behind the drive sprocket on the engine and a spacer ring between the inner primary case and the engine. The modified chain alignment is also going to require slicing a certain amount of metal from the sprocket face of the cushdrive to make sure that everything is as square as a copper's handshake. A JMC swinging-arm isn't a necessary requirement, but it helps the process along nicely and matches the polished alloy of the three-spoke Suzuki wheels. I have the very same set-up on my Shovel, (and it cost less to make than the price of the aforementioned catalogue).

A couple of years ago the only way to have a rinky-dink aircraft type filler on your Harley petrol tank was to put it there yourself. And like the man who was standing in the bread shop one day thinking to himself, 'I wish that somebody would slice this bread before you buy it'. Lo and behold, now you can buy fat-bob tanks complete with the sort of flush filler cap that were fitted as standard on Jap bikes before sliced bread was invented - thus making them the best thing before sliced bread. In order to provide an aesthetic balance with the fat five gallon fat-bobs, and provide adequate clearance for the wider-than-Harley rear tyre, Dave at Big Twin cut a rear mudguard from a Dyna Wide Glide in half lengthways like a banana, and welded a two inch strip in the centre.

Much of the rest of the bike consists of modified and stock Harley-Davidson parts, and despite the use of the late model GSX-R1100 running gear, Joe wanted the bike to look like a Harley-Davidson and be recognisable as the bike that he originally bought way back in 1982. A Harley is a Harley is a Harley ... unless it's a Honda, and then of course, it isn't.

Specifications

Owner:	Joe Graham
Model:	Harley-Davidson FXWG
Builder:	Big Twin Services
Time:	10 months
Engine
Year:	1980
Model:	Shovelhead
Rebuilder:	Big Twin Services
Capacity:	1340
Cases:	Harley-Davidson
Crankshaft:	Lightened and balanced
Rods:	Harley-Davidson
Pistons:	+40 Harley-Davidson
Barrels:	+40 Harley-Davidson
Heads:	Harley-Davidson
Cam(s):	Andrews B Grind
Lifters:	Harley-Davidson
Ignition:	Dyna S Twin Spark
Carb(s):	S&S Super E
Air Filter:	S&S Teardrop
Pipes:	Drag Spec
Silencers:	Zodiac
Transmission
Year:	1980
Type:	Turret Top
Rebuilder:	Big Twin Services
Clutch:	Barnett/Harley-Davidson
Primary Drive:	Chain
Primary Cover:	FLH
Frame
Year:	1980
Builder:	Harley-Davidson
Type:	FXWG
Rake:	Stock
Stretch:	None
Swinging-arm:	JMC
Shocks:	Progressive
Other Mods:	Frame modified for FLH foot board
Forks
Builder:	Suzuki GSX-R1100 USD
Extension:	None
Yokes:	Cobra
Special Features:	Polished
Front Wheel
Make:	Suzuki GSX-R1100
Size:	17in
Tyre:	120/70/ZR17
Brake Calipers:	4-piston Nissin
Brake Discs:	Suzuki GSX-R1100
Rear Wheel
Make:	Suzuki GSX-R1100
Size:	17in
Tyre:	190/55/ZR17
Brake Caliper:	Suzuki GSX-R1100
Brake Discs:	Suzuki GSX-R1100
Paint & Chrome
Painter:	Big Twin Services
Colour:	White pearl candy
Chroming:	Big Twin Services
Polishing:	Big Twin Services
Accessories
Bars:	Bay Area
Risers:	Big Twin Services
Front Mudguard:	Suzuki GSX-R1100
Rear Mudguard:	Big Twin Services
Electrics:	Big Twin Services
Headlight:	Bates
Taillight:	Something Japanese
Speedo:	Harley-Davidson
Front Footrests:	FLH boards
Rear Footrests:	FXWG
Petrol Tanks:	5-gal Fat Bobs with flush caps
Oil Tank:	Harley-Davidson
Seat:	Corbin
Other Special Modifications	All switchgear wired internally. Gearbox and primary drive moved over 10mm to align with GSX-R1100 wheel. Rear FXDWG Dyna mudguard split and widened 2½in. Nissin brake calipers machined. New rear brake caliper mount and rear mudguard struts fabricated. All engineering, engine work and fabrication by Dave & Ants at: Big Twin Services, 6a Kew Road, Birkdale, Southport, PR8 4HH, Lancs. Phone & Fax: 01704 551599 Email: bigtwin@supanet.com Website: bigtwinservices.com
Special Thanks To:	Dave and Ants at Big Twin Services, German George and those vairey nace people at the Midland Bank.