Rat Harley

[Brizio]

I always wanted to do a Rat Harley, but never did until recently... I remember the Rat Hole show a the Daytona Bike Week, in the 90's. It was run by Big Daddy Roth. The rat bikes were used, and had a bunch of stuff on them, like a collection of items on wheels. Now the rat bikes are build to look like old. A lot of Harleys were WLA (military version) painted at some point in a "regular" color, or colors. I had a ESCI WLA in 1/9 scale, that fitted perfectly for this project. The kit was made in the late 70's, but the parts are pretty good and not many flashes The major thing I did, was replacing all teh fuel, fluid linees, using metal wire. Also added a lot of electrical wires. 

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And here the Rat Harley, mostly of the stuff you see on it where scratchbuild. It is funny how sometime the items take longer to be build than the actual kit.  

And yes, it leaks oil. I mean it marks it's terrritory...

Here is why I'm saying that sometime the items take longer to be build, than the actual model. On the left is the stock side bag. On the right the one I made. for make it I first made a metal frame of the shape of the bag, laser welded togheter. Covered with soft vinyl that looks like leather, added piping and painted. The three belts, are from the kit.

Here the aluminum suit case and the bag that is going to be on the front fender. You can see it in picture #4. 

Here the suitcase finished. The cans are made out of plastic.

 

 

[TooOld]

Awesome bike and it's great to hear from you Fabrizio !  I've always admired your fabricating skills and imagination , this Harley sure does present those skills for everyone to see .  I sure hope to see more of your work in the future . BOB .

[Brizio]

Thank you Bob! The Harley was a fun buld, altough I prefer smaller scale, but It is nice to see it done. I'm working on different builds, beside builds I do for work...  Lately I start to play with Matchbox cars... Giving them a "what if" touch, but keeping them box stock.

[TooOld]

17 hours ago, Brizio said:

Thank you Bob! The Harley was a fun buld, altough I prefer smaller scale, but It is nice to see it done. I'm working on different builds, beside builds I do for work...  Lately I start to play with Matchbox cars... Giving them a "what if" touch, but keeping them box stock.

I've been doing many Matchbox scale cars too , fun to do and they don't take up much space !

[Brizio]

1 hour ago, TooOld said:

I've been doing many Matchbox scale cars too , fun to do and they don't take up much space !

Agree on the space!  

[espo]

The fascinating part of this build is studying all the little detail bits and pieces you have added. I think of it as much as an "Overlander" as a "Rat Rod" style. 

[Brizio]

9 hours ago, espo said:

The fascinating part of this build is studying all the little detail bits and pieces you have added. I think of it as much as an "Overlander" as a "Rat Rod" style. 

That was the fun part of the build. Nobody would drive something like this for a trip, above on offroad trails. My bike is more like the rat bikes that were around before building a rat rod or better a rat bike was a build itself. like this one.

 

[PappyD340]

Fantastic Harley!!

[Brizio]

On 11/15/2022 at 3:34 AM, PappyD340 said:

Fantastic Harley!!

Thank you Larry!

[Sam I Am]

The pictures do not do it justice.  I had the privilege to see this in person and it's unbelievable. The oil leak is the crowning touch.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Sam I Am

[iBorg]

I love this!!!!!! Great build with so much to look at you realize every picture you mentioned something. Question, you mentioned laser welding. Can you share more info?

[Hmann68]

Amazing! It takes quite a while to absorb all the details. Very nice work ??

[ChrisR]

Awesome!

[Brizio]

17 hours ago, Sam I Am said:

The pictures do not do it justice.  I had the privilege to see this in person and it's unbelievable. The oil leak is the crowning touch.

Did you see it at the Pacific NW Model Fest? Next time let me know, I would love to put a face behind a name!  Thank you! 

13 hours ago, iBorg said:

I love this!!!!!! Great build with so much to look at you realize every picture you mentioned something. Question, you mentioned laser welding. Can you share more info?

Thank you Mike! Yes, laser welding. I made all the bags using the same process, and is a pretty simple/basic tecnique. First I decide the design of the bag, lol. After using wire metal I bend it in shape. I did the tw faces first, in the case of teh cilindric bag, the faces have round shape. After I cut few piece of wire to give the dept.  The rest of the process is to put all together.   It can be done with soldering, or even glueing, also can be done in plastic (small round rods). But since I was using wire metal, and have acces to a laser welder, I prefer to use it. Is super clean, and fast. To make the side bag on the rear fender, that is the biggest bag of all, it toke me less than a minute to laser weldit together. A the end you have a cuboid frame object. After I cover it with fabric vinyl, and detailed. The cool ting to do a frame structure in metal, combined with a flexible material on top, is that you can bend it easyly without the worry that it can break. All the bags I made I had to adjust them so they can have a more organig posture on the bike. 

3 hours ago, Hmann68 said:

Amazing! It takes quite a while to absorb all the details. Very nice work ??

Thank you Christopher!

3 hours ago, ChrisR said:

Awesome!

Thank you Chris!

[crazyjim]

Now that's a FABULOUS build.  I love it.

[Brizio]

18 minutes ago, crazyjim said:

Now that's a FABULOUS build.  I love it.

Thank you Jim! 

[James2]

Very refreshing to see someone knows the truth about what a Rat Bike is! Nicely done model, detailed very well and believable. 

Great Job!

[Brizio]

19 hours ago, James2 said:

Very refreshing to see someone knows the truth about what a Rat Bike is! Nicely done model, detailed very well and believable. 

Great Job!

Thank you James!

[Big John]

When Big Daddy started his Choppers magazine he had articles on down and dirty rat choppers.  This one would be a prefect candidate for an article.  Love the oil drip pan!