Obviously not the first mash-up of its kind, heck, Harley-Davidson even manufactured its own cafe racer known as the XLCR in the late 70’s (to little popularity) but with the resurgence of racer culture and all of the associated cliches, Gasoline decided to have a go at making something strangely familiar on the ever trusty 1200 Forty-Eight sportster.
Now, any fan of either Harley-Davidson or Jack Daniels will be able to tell you that this is certainly not the first time the two entities have joined forces let alone the creation of a custom motorcycle, thus creating quite a conundrum for Gasoline Custom Motorcycles - a group that refuses to imitate, do things by halves or submit to the realms of socially dictated norms thus the team at Gasoline were captivated to venture into the often controversial world of hybrid cafe racer Harley-Davidson culture. Individual design/style changes come in the form of custom paint and decals, the occasional fuel tank add-on and Brooks leather saddlebags, grips and mudflaps to compliment the 40’s/50’s aesthetic of his builds.In the later months of 2015, Gasoline Motor Co was approached by Jack Daniel’s Australia with a desire to build a distinctive Harley-Davidson to suit the cafe racer movement. Post Modern builds also regularly feature a mix of custom components from Japanese parts manufacturer Easy Riders, for which Jim is the Australian distributor. Jim says the bike will easily get air over speed humps but recommends standing up on the pegs before landing. The rear end has been made rigid by swapping out the springs for solid struts, lowering it by around an inch and tucking the rear wheel up into the fender. He prefers a more comfortable upright riding position so this bike has a wider set of handlebars, giving it the look and handling characteristics of a BMX. The red bike (“Pinko Bastard”) is Jim’s personal ride, which he refers to as a kind of Street Tracker. The stock seat was replaced with a Nitro Heads unit and the bars swapped for Café Racer style, low hanging Clubmans.
After the tear down it was treated to a full respray in gloss black. The customer wanted another Blackmail so it’s almost a carbon copy of the original. The black bike is Jim’s most recent build. With modifications like these a Post Modern Motorcycle will haul along at around 90-100kmh at full tilt. The exhaust is debaffled or completely replaced with a hi-flowing system and the carb gets a new set of jets. He starts by pulling out the stock air box and fitting a K&N filter to the carb. While there’s no huge power improvements to be easily gained from the CT110’s engine, Jim unlocks a smidge more grunt by dropping around 5 to 10 kilos of excess weight and by opening up it’s airways. The barrel is also given a thorough clean before being resprayed in engine black and pieced back together.
Jim then replaces the piston, ring, cam chain, seals and gaskets and the heads are blasted clean.
The engines are rebuilt by removing the side cases, barrel and head. Starting with this platform Jim performs a set of standard upgrades to all of the bikes he builds. Postie Bikes feature a heavy duty gearbox, rock solid heavy duty gauge rims, 3 stands (center, left and right) so they can be quickly parked on any surface and a locking front brake.
These versions of the CT110 were designed and built especially for Auspost by Honda and feature a series of special modifications to cope with the day-to-day wear and tear of postal delivery. When Jim started showing people the bike the feedback was unanimously positive and Post Modern Motorcycles was born.Īll of the Post Modern builds are ex-Australian Postal Service vehicles. Soon afterwards he purchased his first Postie and it was transformed into the ‘Blackmail’. He stripped away the stock seat, added some fat rubber and was happy with the result.
After a friend suggested he try Postie Bikes as a platform Jim started sketching a few ideas. Back in the early nineties Jim was customising Yamaha SR’s and British bikes under the influence of the Japanese custom scene.