Editor's note: Believe it or not, we are an international publication. No I don't mean international in the sense that we feature metric/import bikes. I mean international in the fact that HOT BIKE is shipped all over the world. With our international distribution we've gotten reader letters and bike submissions from the Middle East, Japan, the UK, and Italy. Our most recent international submission comes from George Ziri in Australia. Once a former sportbike enthusiast, George was converted to the Harley side by his wife's cousin, and immediately immersed himself into the customized Harley scene with his first bike, this once stock '09 Softail Custom. Here is George's story.
My long history on two wheels was never short of reaching 200 kph (124 mph) at any spurt of the throttle. And during most of these times the adrenaline at 80 kph (50 mph) was piqued by a flick of the clutch and pointing the front wheel as high in the air as possible. For those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the past 40 years and don't quite understand my style, I'm referring to the fast and sleek Jap bikes.
George's cousin-in-law Jay...
George's cousin-in-law Jay was the one who inspired him to convert from sportbikes to Harleys.
One summer night I was at my wife's cousin Jay's place, and the group was passing around the shisha pipe smoking apple tobacco. Jay thought he'd tempt me to jump ship and buy a real bike, a Harley-Davidson. To cement the deal, one afternoon Jay decided to borrow his brother's bike and loan me his Softail to go for a ride to meet up with a bunch of H-D riders down at 1900's pub in Sydney. I jumped on and the first thing that sprung to mind was, "I hope I don't drop this tank."
As I eventually got comfortable I felt bigger than the Hulk even though I weighed 75 kg (154 pounds). The vibration and thunder it produced had me startled. As we rode down the street, shortly before the pub, I noticed a crowd of people looking toward us who obviously heard us coming. It looked as though they were watching Schumacher come down the last stretch before the checkered flag. Drawing close to the pub I saw a line of at least 30 H-Ds parked side by side outside the pub. From my generally clean cut and reserved personality, I thought to myself, "What the hell am I getting into?"
Never did I think I would be riding with a crew of bikies; these guys looked as if they had been deserted on an island for quite some time. Soon enough we parked the bikes and got to chatting. I couldn't believe how personable and easy going these rugged non-shaved blokes were who had more tattoos than skin over their bodies. They were the friendliest guys I had ever met and didn't compare to the conservative bunch I normally associated with. The moment that captured me was when we all took off after drinks. These middle-aged blokes started their bikes, and after a few flicks of the throttle, they took off one by one as if they were synchronized swimmers. As all of you know, the pose on each H-D rider's face is mean and lean with lips pouted, and here I was with a grin from ear to ear all the way down Lower Fort Street with Jay in front of me. From there on, I entered a new world of appreciation. The minute I handed Jay's bike back I was on cloud nine and it was as if I had met my first love. That night I spent my time on Google in search of customizing Harleys and came across more hits than Elvis. I was on the phone with Jay every day with new ideas and designs. I spent more time designing the bike than running the facility management company I'm paid too.
No bulky turn signals on this...
No bulky turn signals on this bike, the CCCS hand controls have mini LED turn signals built into the clutch and brake levers.
The Avalon frontend from Mean...
The Avalon frontend from Mean Street cleans up the front with its hidden axle and gives a little bit of chopper attitude with its 5-degree raked trees.