Matt?s latest bike is a sculptured metal masterpiece, with retro-futuristic curves and a delicious sheen on the hand-beaten alloy. It looked promising when we saw it on the bench in his workshop two months ago, but it looks amazing now.
?This build is for one of my oldest and closest friends,? Matt tells us. ?He owns a lot of different bikes, old and new, but really wanted a Harley-Davidson with a rigid frame?and a whole bunch of modern components. A bike still ?built from bits,? but more like a ?best of? album.?

Two 40mm Dell?Orto pumpers supply the go juice, sitting on an aluminum dual-plane manifold?which was cast to Matt?s design by the transportation hardware specialists UES International.
The mechanicals are all class. The stopping gear is Italian, with Brembo brakes from a Ducati 999, a front master cylinder from a Moto Guzzi, and a rear from a Ducati Monster.
But the real star of the show is the fabrication, from the soft sheen of the fairing, tank and tail unit?blocked back to a satin finish with multiple grades of Scotch-Brite?to the subtle gold glow of the stainless exhaust system.
After the electrics went in, hooked up to custom switchgear from Purpose Built Moto, the last job was to finish the wooden crate to protect the bike in transit. But Matt didn?t even get to check how the bike rides. It was finished only hours before he loaded it onto the truck to drive to the airport, so he couldn?t put gas in the tank before it went on the plane.

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