American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 175 February 2014 | Page 55

The Slippery Eel Written by Duncan Moore - [email protected] When Pontus Abrahamsson built The Slippery Eel it was never intended to be a show bike. However, after scooping the Bike of the Year award from Swedish custom bike magazine MCM, Pontus had a change of heart that saw him place top ten at the 2013 World Championship of Custom Bike Building M ANY of the bikes that have placed top ten in the Freestyle class of the World Championship of Custom Bike Building over the years have been built by professional shops to showcase the quality of their work. However, there have been occasions when privateer builders have made the grade and that was the case in 2013 with The Slippery Eel, built by Swede Pontus Abrahamsson. As a privateer builder, when Pontus built The Slippery Eel it was never intended to be a show bike, rather it was meant as a rider, but that changed after it was featured in the Swedish custom bike magazine MCM. Once the magazine chose the bike as its Machine of the Year at the end of 201,1 Pontus began to think about showing it, and so it was that the bike joined the professional builds in the Freestyle class at the World Championship. ue to the financial constraints of building for himself at home, Pontus had to make the majority of the major components on The Slippery Eel himself, and this process began with the single, curved downtube frame. In order to keep it simple, the frame is rigid, and to give it a vintage look lugs have been created around the tube joints. To ensure the bike was rideable, Pontus stuck to factory spec rake and stretch for the frame. However, for the front end of the build he went D for an option never offered by the Factory – a leaf spring fork. Once again this was all his own work and it incorporates the bike’s handlebars into the design. In order to get the chassis to the rolling stage, Pontus combined a set of 97 H-D hubs with 21in Harley rims, shod with Bridgestone Trailwing tires. The wheel package is completed with Swedish IRS two-piston brake calipers gripping an IRS disc on the front wheel and a combination disc and rotor at the rear. Having go the bike to the roller stage, Pontus then turned his attention to the powertrain. The Shovelhead motor has been built up around a set of Delkron cases that have been finished off with ported Harley heads. The porting work was needed due to Although not built as a show bike, that didn’t stop The Slippery Eel from gaining a top 10place in the Freestyle class at the 2013 World Championship of Custom Bike Building 55 AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - FEBRUARY 2014 www.AMDchampionship.com