When Greg Westbury got the call to participate in the prestigious Artistry in Iron Master Builders' Show, he knew he'd have to pull out all the stops in order to compete. The owner of Westbury Handcrafted Motorcycles (WHM) of Concord, CA, knew that Roger Goldammer had won top honors two years in a row at the Las Vegas show. It's a huge honor to be included, but winning the Artistry event is the pinnacle of success, as the only judges are other world-class builders. Twenty-five bike builders from all over the globe participated in the contest in which the master builders themselves decided who was the best. This invitation-only event featured not only the biggest names in the industry, but also the newer, lesser-known guys who are pushing the custom bike envelope.
This past fall, in the show that ran concurrently with Las Vegas Bikefest (www.lasvegasbikefest.com), Greg's bike, "Lucky," was chosen by his peers to be the best of the best. We caught up with Greg after the victory and asked him about Lucky.
He said his biggest inspiration was doing exactly the opposite of what many in the business were doing. The rest went fat...he went skinny; many went futuristic...he went vintage; crazy pipes were in...he went simple. Basically, he wanted to go against the norm. He also felt that an ode to bikes of the past would lead to a long shelf life, instead of building a modern-looking bike that would seem outdated and pass by next year.
This bike was the first of its kind for Greg, who broke out of his own mold to push his limits. He started with the idea to build a frame with the oil contained within its tubing, with a larger reservoir added into the backbone under the gas tank. In this case, the frame holds 2-1/2 quarts of oil, which course through the frame, motor, and the WHM beehive oil filter that's prominently displayed under the seat.
Speaking of the seat, Duane Ballard made this one that's somewhat reminiscent of a horse's ass. The rigid frame was designed to fit the panhead motor, which Greg got from Custom Chrome and was assembled by Mike Baker with a mixture of performance parts. Greg fashioned the shorty exhaust pipes, making sure they didn't detract from the beautiful motor. He raised the transmission to gain space for the battery, which rests underneath the five-speed. Tying the motor and the tranny together is a BDL primary that Greg had to heavily modify from the 3-inch unit he bought to the 2-inch one you see here. At the time, BDL didn't offer the 2-inch.