People's Champ Contestant - Chris Hatton

What have you done?
This might get drawn out so sorry if you get bored, take a look at the photos I’m sure they’re more interesting than reading this. This bike started as a motor and a pile of tubes that I man handled into the shape you see before you. Went for a single loop frame that’s tall and tight so went up 4” in the neck and set the rake at 26 degrees, leading to a set of my own Left Hand Choppers trees that I have taken a lot of material off to give them a different shape, with a set of 8” risers and some dirt bars bolted to the trees. I’ve tried repurposing an old spotlight which unfortunately hasn’t gone well so it looks like I’ll be making a new one using the lense from this one. On to the 4” over 41mm panhead forks that have been machined to be a straight lower leg and I’ve extended them by 2”. The front wheel is a Halcraft twin mini hub laced into the smooth 21” rim, with fresh stainless steel discs I’ve managed to source a set of brake callipers from the YZF450 that will fit behind the disc and spokes as the gap is very small.

Leading onto the body work I wanted to do a full moulded frame with a tall sportster tank that hugs around the top tube, I started out with a standard tank that I narrowed and put some extra steel around the bottom to give the tall look I wanted then added some recesses the sides to break up the extra height of the tank. Flowing down the top tube in to a moulded seat unit, the seat pan I bent up and added some foam which got sent out to Horse MFG in London who did any amazing job with the leather work. I wanted to do the oil tank in the fender which is something different for me, starting out with a soft tail fender that again I took about 2” out of the centre and shaped the side wall for a bit of flow. I used the profile of a Butts seat to come up with the shape I wanted for the oil tank with the fill cap just behind the seat. I continued with the recesses on the oil tank too, I added a small oil tank section under the seat tubes to ensure I can get enough oil in and also to house the Le Beef oil line banjo kit. The rear fender struts will help take the weight of the oil and my arse and give the back of the bike some flow while housing a one off taillight that I’ve tucked inside so it doesn’t detract from the bike shape and flow.

Onto the motor, a freshly built 1980 Shovelhead with a Mikunin HSR42 and Morris Magneto bolted up to it. Made a set of stainless steel exhausts that route a lot different to how I’ve done pipes in the past, I wanted the motor and mag to stand out and running the front pipe down the left does that tucking under the primary and with the transmission lifted I used the space to route the pipe underneath and exit just behind the transmission on the right. The rear pipe runs through the gap where the standard oil tank would be and exits on the left to make the most of that gap. I’m running a Sunset primary plate to hold the transmission to the motor with a 1 1/2 BDL primary belt set up. Off the backing plate I’m going to be running mid controls with a foot clutch set up and with the ratchet top transmission I’ve made a chain link handshift with a spiked knob to tie in with the filler caps of the two tanks at the top. The opposite side controls I’ve mounted of the transmission kicker cover stretching forward with a set of dirt bike inspired pegs and brake pedal that I made up, this will be pushing a trick master cylinder to link up with the juice drum in the rear wheel.

The rear wheel has a mid star hub with a juice drum laced into the smoothed out 19” rim, both wheels have Bates Baja tyres wrapped around them.

I’m sure there’s loads of things that I’ve missed out on so please check out the photos.

What do you have left to do?
This list seems endless and is definitely getting longer every time I work on the bike, I’d like to say it’s all the little details that are left but I’m sure I’ll remember something big tomorrow that I’ve totally forgotten about. First off I need to make the primary side foot pegs and clutch pedal toe pad to match the brake side set up also I’m working on machine a stainless steel side stand with an internal spring set up. I will be running hard oil lines out of the banjo bolts which I need to bend up and route to the remote oil filter and back. Once those few things are done I can strip the whole bike down to the frame and tanks and start the filler work to smooth out all the joints and welds which I’m not looking forward to but will definitely be worth it. While the bikes apart I can work on the front brake callipers and welding the hangers from the fork legs to secure them in place. While a good friend is laying the colour down I can work on the metal finish on a lot of the stainless steel parts with the rest of the mild steel stuff going out to chrome. When the frame etc. comes back from the painters my fiancé Sami Graystone will be creating some amazing artwork for the fuel tank that will be carried on throughout the rest of the frame, I’m super excited about this part!

Any problems so far?
The main problems for me was doing the metal work on the fuel tank, I wish I’d bought a brand new tank to start with instead of using a 20 year old tank with some beat up steel. That shit wasn’t fun to weld at all. In general the sheet metal on this bike fort me all the way, I’ve never done this much on a bike before so I’ve learnt a lot from it which is the point of this stuff.

Favorite part of the bike so far?
I’m most satisfied with the over shape and flow of the metal work from the shape of the front of the fuel tank all the way to the rear fender tip and fender strut flow, it’s probably because the metal work fort me so hard I’m really pleased with how it all came out

Favorite part of the competition?
It’s definitely been the support there has been for the whole project starting between all the builders in the competition and from so many people reaching via social media, its made me share more of the step by step stages of the build which is something I don’t normally do and the positive feedback has fuelled me through some of those long days in the workshop.

Want to give any shout outs?
SO MANY PEOPLE!

Top of the list is without doubt my fiancé Sami, for encouraging me to enter in the first place and forever being understanding of the process and the time it takes to do this stuff!