Custom Harley-Davidson FLH 1200 Bobber Is a Matter of Fine Metalwork and Classy Looks

He is a full-time furniture designer by trade, but has occasionally built some rad custom two-wheelers that left everyone stunned when they broke cover. Unfortunately, there are only three projects of this sort in Samuel’s portfolio, but each and every one of them is a genuine head-turner fit for an art gallery. We’ve looked at his shiny Moto Guzzi 1000SP cafe racer some time ago, and the specimen pictured above is just as intriguing.

For this particular project, Shiny Hammer picked a Harley-Davidson FLH 1200 from the model-year 1972 as the starting point. Monsieur Aguiar sought to create a slammed and slender bobber rolling on trials rubber, which sounds a little unusual at first but has worked out rather nicely in the end. With a clear vision of what he wanted to build, he took the old Shovelhead apart and dug straight in.

The first port of call had to do with the bike’s framework, whose rear section was revised to make it sit a bit lower than stock. It’s slightly narrower, as well, giving this FLH the slim rear-end profile that Samuel was after. What’s more, the Frenchman got very creative with the suspension mods in that area, all with the aim of keeping things as clean as possible.

We find an oleo-pneumatic shock absorber sitting parallel to the swingarm on the right-hand side, supplied by Forunales and installed on custom linkages. Oleo struts are commonly used on planes’ landing gear, but this is one of the very few instances you’ll see them on a motorcycle. The suspension is no less enticing, as the Harley’s original telescopic forks got swapped with an intricate girder setup.

This isn’t some off-the-shelf aftermarket part, though, as Shiny Hammer invested the time and effort into building it from scratch. It took as many as 300 hours of research, designing, and fabrication to make it come together, but the end result was definitely worth the effort. For starters, the concept was sketched and subsequently 3D-modelled with the exact dimensions.

Cardboard mockups were then created to make sure everything would fit, and the final structure was ultimately crafted over many long hours of painstaking labor. The girder forks aren’t the only bespoke parts made specifically for this bobbed Shovelhead, mind you, as Samuel also busied himself with a nice bit of bodywork fabrication. Where the stock fuel tank had once been, we now find a triangular two-piece replacement integrated into the frame’s contour.

Although these two cells have a combined capacity of just 6.5 liters (1.7 gallons), there is a third under-seat gas tank located right next to the oil chamber. It takes the total fuel capacity to a more manageable eight liters (2.1 gallons), which would still require frequent stops at gas stations but is sure to do the trick. The only other bodywork component you’ll find here is a short rear fender with built-in LED lighting.

Sitting above it is a solo saddle wrapped in black leather, while the taillight is encased in a stainless-steel housing. Down in the unsprung sector, there are custom wheel hubs linked to a pair of Excel rims, which were taken from a Husqvarna enduro bike and shod in road-legal Pirelli MT 43 tires. As for their diameters, the front hoop measures a sizeable 21 inches while the rear is an 18-incher.

Braking duties are taken good care of by Nissin calipers, aftermarket rotors, and a Beringer master cylinder. The FLH 1200’s front-end equipment is finished off with an LED projector light acting as the headlamp, as well as a chromed low-profile handlebar in the cockpit. There is, however, no instrumentation to speak of.

In terms of powertrain-related mods, the V-twin motor was outfitted with an open primary drive cover and a high-grade S&S Super E carburetor. The latter breathes through a custom-made air cleaner and is complemented by a stunning exhaust at the other end of the combustion cycle. Manufactured in-house using stainless-steel, the pipework snakes its way back gracefully on the right-hand side and begins to straighten out close to the tips.

The finishing touches came in the forms of KustomTech foot controls and a stealthy coat of black paint for items like the frame, fuel tank, and rear bodywork. Various other bits and pieces were polished to a mirror finish, thus concluding Shiny Hammer’s makeover with a pinch of lustrous shine to really draw the eye. All things considered, you can probably see why we’d love to see Samuel Aguiar indulging in such ventures more frequently.