The Drayton Porkchop – 1972 Ironhead Sportster Cafe Racer

ilovedust v’s Boneshaker Choppers

This beautiful looking beast is the product of a recent collaboration by two UK based creative studios. ilovedust an award winning illustration and design agency asked Benny from Boneshaker Choppers to build them ‘The Drayton Porkchop’ Cafe Racer using a 1972 Ironhead Sportster Harley Davidson donor bike.

This motorcycle was never meant to be a polished, perfectly executed custom bike, it was not destined to sit amongst glittery show pieces, it is not an exercise in high end fabrication, it was not meant to have flowing lines and blended edges, that stuff is for hatchback designers.

The Drayton Porkchop was built to be a mean brute that looks as if it was built for a purpose, some kind of abused race bike with an illustrative flash of race graphics in white and gold to finish it off.

The Drayton Porkchop Build

Benny Thomas of BoneShaker started with a 1972 Ironhead Sportster frame and motor, the bike needed to be low and fat so he laced a sportster drum brake rear hub to a 16” rim and a later sportster front disc hub to another 16” rim and shod them both with Firestone ANS tyres.

To keep with the race vibe we went for clip on bars and shortened the forks by 4” and strutted the rear end, Benny told us:

“I hate master cylinders on handlebars so I set up a master cylinder operated by a cable lever, I didn’t want this set up totally hidden, I like to see working parts, I like to see the cables – the parts that make the bike stop and go.”

The bodywork was designed to be simple, a ‘use what you got’ approach. A Yamaha tank was chosen and re-tunnelled to sit on the sportster frame, a bayonet central filler cap was fitted and Benny fabricated a cutout for the carb and throttle cable. A low custom fiberglass tail piece to continue the race vibe was fitted – completing the slammed squat stance.

Benny wanted to do something a little different with the exhaust, as he explains…

“Something that was tight and industrial looking, I made the high level two into one pipe to sit close to the motor and exit from inside the rear right strut helping to keep the bike compact and strangely narrow whilst looking fat from the rear.”

A key theme on the bike is keeping things simple, a few lightning holes here and there, no lights, no bolt on tat, no fancy branded parts, just the raw bones – there is nothing on this bike that it doesn’t need to stop or go – a true Boneshaker.

The Design

When it came to thinking about the design aspects of the bike it was felt that any visuals needed to compliment the bikes toughness, its roughness too, so many bikes we looked at were very polished, high gloss versions with bright colours and fun typography. It had to be matt black, all black everything, that flash of white and gold is the only fancy part about the Porkchop.

All the imagery on the bike was meticulously hand painted and each illustration has it’s own specific meaning. Mark Graham (Creative Director) at Ilovedust told us:

“it’s important that our work has a narrative, but equally as important that it looks good. The ’10’ painted onto the oil tank represents our 10 years in the game.”

Ollie Munden (Lead Designer – Ilovedust) goes on…

“you might notice the ‘pray for me’ graphic on the tailpiece, this is a hopeful sentiment for anyone who dare get on the Porkchop and race it into the desert.”

There are odes to old friends past and of course a few of ilovedust’s house brand elements with an illuminati nod thrown in. It’s very easy to overdo things and the last thing this bike needed was a covering of graphics just for the sake of it. It was very important to have a feeling of familiarity, also a worn in quality about the ‘coating’… it’s almost like the bikes been inked.

What’s next for these two creative teams?

Through building ‘The Drayton Porkchop’ the Ilovedust / BoneShaker bond has grown strong, and the guys have a few other projects in the pipeline. We can’t wait to see what they produce next!

To see more of the builds from Boneshaker Choppers visit their website here, and to see some of the inspirational illustrations that ilovedust create for their impressive client list visit their website here

Bike Photography and Film by Ed Schofield