“A 21-INCH FRONT WHEEL WAS TOO SMALL, 23 INCHES TOO LARGE. 22 WAS JUST RIGHT”
BORN FREE is not only a famous 1966 movie about releasing a lion cub raised in captivity into the wild, it is also the name of one of America’s top custom motorcycle shows with a particular focus on choppers. Held in Silverado in the Santa Ana Mountains of California, Born-Free attracts all the big names, including perennial Retrobike favourite Roland Sands.
Most of the bikes are built around Harley-Davidson or side-valve Indian engines, as you’d expect. But not exclusively, with the most recent show also including a rigid chopper powered by a belt-drive Ducati V-twin and a pair of Kawasaki trikes, one a turbo-charged GPz750 and the other a two-stroke H2 triple, the latter with chain-drive to the front wheel!
Which brings us to our feature bike, as radical and finely-crafted as any custom bike ever constructed in Australia, built by Nigel Petrie in response