Featured in the November 2014 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine
Article & Photos By: Chris Callen
I would suppose that in the dictionary under the words “Good Ole Boy” you might find a picture of the man behind this sweet ass pan. Matt Harris is his name and his shop is 40 Cal Customs but when I tell you this right here is good people, brother I mean it from start to finish. Matt is a Tennessee resident and it was through our conversations that I decided he was in fact a good ole boy after hearing him use phrases like “ he had more stories than the bible” or after listening to him try and explain what a holler is to a crowd of people. Now that term in our circles means that he’s a man who can be trusted, one of us, a good ole boy. Truth is he’s as hard workin’ as he is talented and it was our pleasure to get to know him better during the Sturgis Rally this year. Even though Matt’s old man was a chopper freak as a young man himself with old Kawi chops and a 900 of his own, he gave up his motorcycle ways when Matt was born. He got rid of all his bikes and did his best to keep his son away from two wheels, warning him through his younger years to stay away from them. It didn’t matter that much since Matt was into cars and he and the old man were always at the drags or out at car shows, he got to feed his gear head anyway. At age 7 his dad even taught him to weld. As a welder himself he told Matt that although he never wanted him to have to do it for a living, he wanted to make sure he knew how. Matt was a natural born tinker and had all kinds of Hot Rods and big block Mopars coming up but it was around the time he turned 17 that his dad made his way back to motorcycles. He bought an old ’51 Pan and started to ride again. As you can imagine after so many years away from it he was short on riding partners so one day he gave Matt this old 900 XLCH and told him that if he could get it together he could ride with him. This would be some task since the thing was a real turd from Matt’s description with busted cases and a mess of other problems. He did eventually get it up and going although he stated plainly that he always hated that bike, that he pushed it more than he ever rode it but it taught him a lot.
Years later he and his pops decided to build a bike together so Matt sold the XL to gather some scratch. He used the money to buy the first and last frame he would ever buy from any company. Upon reflecting now he said it was great because if the frame had been right and the motor and tranny fit he may not know all he does today about making his own. It was a trial by fire for sure that would lead him to honing his skills and by the end of that project he was sure that he’d be able to tackle most anything that came his way. I asked Matt in our interview where the name 40 Cal Customs came from and with a chuckle he told me the story. It was a goof at first, started with a friend that went by the nickname of Rudy Brown. Ya see ol’ Rudy had some hard times with his woman and details that we won’t go into here found him in a shootout with the local constabulary. As a result Rudy would go away with some time and a 40 Caliber bullet lodged in his back near his kidney. When he got out of the joint Matt was trying to lift his spirits one day and told him if they ever got a shop going they’d call it 40 Cal. Not too long after that comment they found themselves at an Easyrider show and on the entry form where it said shop name Matt laughed as he wrote down 40 Cal Customs. When he scored Best of Show with that bike and a magazine feature that had everyone talking about 40 Cal Customs he stopped laughing and the name stuck. The bike you see here started out as a 3-way trade. This old fella from Kentucky he knew had a ‘55 Pan but didn’t want to sell it, he expressly told Matt that he’d only trade for a newer Roadking. Matt has a great relationship with the guys down at Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson so he asked them what they had and sure enough they had a Roadking and with a little work the 3 way deal was done. Now the bike he got was a real piece of work, a death trap as Matt put it. He’s guessing the man couldn’t overhead weld since the welds only went halfway around the tubing. The wiring was fastened with wire nuts like you’d use in a house and it just looked dangerous. Matt pushed it into the corner not knowing exactly what to do with it. Recently they got a call to send an application and audition tape for the new show Discovery Channel show that aired this year #BIKERLIVE and since Matt knew that the guys at Smoky Mountain H-D have a crack media and PR team, he went and asked them for some help. Using their people they helped produce a sample video for 40 Cal Customs that Matt believes was one of the big reason they got on the show. Episode one, “The Heart of Dixie” he and his Dad along with Carp and Chase would go up against Nate from Harlot and the guys from Shop 102. Matt and his crew drug out the old Pan and decided the only three items in their outline would be that it was long, tall and skinny. Between the four of them they had all built plenty of bikes but never one together, they always imagined what it would look like if they did. As far as the other qualifications for the bike, as far as Matt was concerned, it had to be a runner. He loves 60’s and 70’s style old choppers but living in the area of the Tail of the Dragon and the Cherahola Skyway, you can’t have a bike that won’t handle a bend and take it hard so the number one factor was that it was right.
Originally they talked about having a plan but when the whole deal started they just went with how they always do things and just built a bike. They scrounged for parts and built what they didn’t have or reworked old goodies. That’s a nice feature with the Freight Shaker is that there isn’t a part on this bike that a guy from the late sixties couldn’t have had. There’s nothing modern, everything is handmade or NOS modified, a real time machine. Even the fact that there isn’t any chrome on the bike, going with stainless and nickel plated parts helps lend to that era of design. Details like the art deco styling, the bead rolling of the scallops into the tank and the combination of metal finishing somehow managed to come together and remind the person looking at it that it was once, as a factory FLE, a working police motorcycle. So how about that name? Well, Scott Maddux who owns Smoky Mountain H-D has one of the best dealerships in the country with the most amazing music venue attached to it. They regularly have concerts at their shop with bands like Shooter Jennings, John Anderson or Blackfoot just to name a few and Scott himself is in a band named Cat House Prophets. Their big song is titled “Freight Shaker” after the Freightliner Trucks and Matt wanted to name this build after their song as a way to say thank you for everything Scott and his staff did to help them along the way. So you see what I was talking about in the beginning, just a good ole boy, and a couple of them actually that got together and built on hell of a motorcycle. I know that in the very near future you will for sure be seeing more come out of 40 Cal Customs, at the very least you can guarantee they will show up in these pages.
FreightShaker Tech Sheet
Owner: Matt Harris
City: Alcoa, TN
Fabrication By: 40 Cal Customs, Ed, Carp,
Chase, Matt
Year: 1955
Model: FLE
Value: A Hundo Shy of Reverend Billy F. Gibbons Beard
Time: 5 weeks
ENGINE
Year: 1955
Model: FLE
Builder: David Snapp-Custom Cycle Corner
Ignition: Hunt Magneto
Displacement: 74”
Pistons: 9:1 KB
Heads: Harley
Cam(s): Bumby
Carb: Dual Linkert M51’s
Air Cleaner: Air’s Clean Enough
Exhaust: 40 Cal Stainless
Primary: 40 Cal O-ring Chain
TRANSMISSION
Year: 1955
Make: Harley Davidson
Shifting: Left Hand
FRAME
Year: Brand Spanking New
Make: 40 Cal Customs
Rake: The leaves
Stretch: Before Excercise
Forks
Type: Shaker Springer
Builder: 40 Cal Customs
Triple Trees: 40 Cal Customs
WHEELS
Front Wheel: Custom Built Spool
Size: 21”
Front Tire: Firestone
Front brake: Sold It
Rear Wheel: Front Rim Laced to Rear Ironhead “drum” Hub
Size: 19”
Rear Tire: Firestone
Rear Brake: Ironhead Drum
PAINT
Painter: Freddy Smith
Color: The only color choice for face melting choppers; Black
Type: Shiny
Graphics: Are for Racecars
molding: Is for the house, she’s metal finished
chroming: Nickel plating only on the front end by Atlantic Coast
ACCESSORIES
Bars: Mod HD with Internal Throttle
Hand Controls: Sold with Front Brake
Risers: 40 Cal Customs
Gas Tank(s): Aluminum, Barillo Speed & 40 Cal
Rear fender: Aluminum, Barillo Speed & 40 Cal
Seat: 40 Cal Customs
Foot Controls: 40 Cal Customs
Oil Tank: 40 Cal Customs/Barillo
Headlight: Throttle Addiction
Taillight: El Cheapo
Speedo:Only at the swimming pool
Photographer: Chris Callen
Cycle Re-sources: 40 Cal Customs Alcoa, TN 865-776-4815 www.fortycal.com