There?s a lot of truth in the phrase ?You make your own luck.? And that?s the subtext of the story behind this striking-looking Victory Octane, built by Samuel Guertin of Montréal-based Clockwork Motorcycles.
Guertin?s star is on the rise, thanks to a stream of quality builds that capture the zeitgeist of the current custom scene. And then he found himself in the right place at the right time?which happened to be his local Polaris dealer, Mathias Marine Sports.

?It all started one ordinary day when I went to the dealer to buy some OEM Kawasaki parts,? Sam tells us, ?and some people realized that I was ?the guy from Clockwork.?
?I ended up at the back of the store sitting on a brand new Victory Octane, with the key in my hand and an interesting proposition on the table.?
Mathias Marine Sports asked Sam to build a custom Octane, for their entry into Victory?s ?Operation Octane? competition. Even better, they told him to do whatever he liked.
Like most of us, Sam had never seen a Victory up close before this moment. Let alone thought about customizing one. ?To be honest, I didn?t really know what I was going to do with it at first.?

He started by removing the parts he didn?t want: the bodywork, the seat, the front end, the wheels, the exhaust system, and anything else made of plastic. ?But I kept the tank, mainly because I was on a pretty tight time frame, and would just have to deal with its lines.?
Sam is not a fan of bikes built just for the show, and didn?t want h...