European Stray Cat

March 4, 2016

Article And Photos By: Grizzly

Originally Published In The May 2013 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

John from the Netherlands wanted to have a special old style chopper and he wanted it bad. It had to be based around a Shovelhead motor and a classic four speed swingarm frame; the best looking frame Harley ever made, according to this guy. When yours truly started riding in 1979, Shovelheads with four speed swingarms dominated the Harley scene in the Netherlands. Almost every biker had one, and even long after the Evo was introduced here, people kept on riding those babies. There were thousands and thousands of them in this little European country. Today, however, they restarting to become rare . So rare, that a lot of chopper guys would love to own one again. In other European countries and even in Japan, the old Shovel swingarm Harleys have become more popular. People use them for creating old skool bobbers and choppers often mounting the rear fender directly to the swingarm instead of to the frame. This way the old swingarm Shovels can look damn good in less than no time. Add a small gas tank, a solo pan seat and a Springer frontend and there you go: instant chopper!

Although these mods create a classic appearance, it still is a phenomenon of today. In fact, hardly anybody mounted their fenders directly to their swingarms in the days when these late Shovels were on the streets. Well, at least not here in the Netherlands. Nonetheless, we are in 2013 now and a chopped, swingarm Shovel is looking pretty damn classic for most, and that’s what everybody is after these days. The same goes for John, the owner of this here Stray Cat. He asked Special Parts’ Supply, a famous chop shop on our side of the big water, if they could help him realize his plans. Of course owners Erick, Olaf and Johan did not say no. Despite the good looks of the old swingarms, the other bonus when using these frames is that the chopper remains comfortable for the rider. They are a lot less Spartan than hardtail frames, or not? Owner John clearly has another vision about this. Johnny owns more than one Harley. His favorite ride is his hardtail: a bike with a modern telescope frontend, normal foot shifting and a seat without any cushy springs. It’s a great machine to ride and is very good for cornering and going fast. “Yeah, of course that specific hardtail chopper is way more comfortable than my Stray Cat swingarm Shovel,” John mentioned. ‘Wait a minute! Say whaaaat? Your Stray Cat is the bike with the rear s h o c k s right?’ I asked. ‘How can a hardtail ever be more comfortable than a swingarm? Is it the foot shifting on your hardtail? I know the swingarm has a jockey shift…’

“Well actually, no, that is not the only reason,” Johnny explained. “The Stray Cat is also less comfortable because of the Springer frontend, with all its moving parts, the tall skinny apehanger bars, the tiny seat and yeah, also the fact that is has to be shifted by hand. That’s what makes it a much more primitive ride. But, that was the whole point of this build from the start. I love it when I sometimes have to work on a bike and when nothing really goes automatically. This way it feels much more classic than the hardtail. It is a nice change to shift by hand every once in a while, or having to think when taking a sharp fast corner. It is a totally different dimension of riding, and that’s fine. I don’t want my two bikes to act and look the same.” I asked John how this Stray Cat project came to be. He explained, “I am a regular at the SPS shop and love to drink whiskey with the owners at the end of the last day of the week. During one of those serious whiskey drinking sessions, all the plans were made for my new Stray Cat bike. As you know, we wanted to combine an FLH frame with a retro Springer frontend and use that as a base. We then agreed not to hurry and to take our time doing the build. This way there was plenty of time to think up all sorts of unique details together while sipping our whiskey. I loved it and got the biggest from Olaf from SPS.”

The entire project took almost four years and like he said, John totally liked that. This way he had more time to enjoy the whole process of creating his dream bike. A lot of extraordinary parts were used like: the headlight, oil bag and air filter from Crime Scene Choppers. But the men from SPS also decided to bend an extra narrow oneoff apehanger to create a system where the four piston front brake is hydraulically operated by a cable combined with a hidden master cylinder. The sprocket brake, a setup normally only used on hardtails, found a location on the swingarm. A little peeking glass was built into the gas tank, the gas cap was removed from the middle to an out of center spot a n d some sweet stainless mountain brackets were made for that same gas reservoir.

There is more oneoff stuff to be found on this bike which makes it a cool two-wheeler to photograph. I personally love the Swiss style license plate, the devil’s tail sissybar and that cool two-intoone hotrod exhaust. William, from the Dutch town of Meer, made the leather belt that holds the battery and the sweet seat. Nicolien is the talented woman who painted the bike; maybe the most striking aspect to be found on this Shovel. Artist Nicolien normally does oil paintings on linen, but this time she tried her art on the sheet metal of John’s Shovel and I think it’s an amazing result. “We decided to call the bike Stray Cat because before riding it (which I do a lot by the way), I had planned to have it at many a bike show. We went all over Europe, taking it from Verona in Italy to the Thunderbike show in Germany. So like a real Stray Cat, my bike has been everywhere,” John said.