Earlier this year, the 35-year-old Dunedin bike enthusiast was one of two people outside of the United States to be named in the top 14 entries in the Biltwell People’s Championship category of the Born Free Motorcycle Show.
Now he has just learned he is one of six finalists who will attend the show in California next year, where the winner will be announced.
"It’s the Super Bowl of custom motorcycle building.
"The category is to give people that don’t build bikes for a living some kind of exposure.
"It’s pretty surreal to make the top six, considering it’s the first time I’ve ever done this. It’s a real dream come true for me.
"It’s a passion that I’ve worked very hard on and I’m looking forward to showing off my work."
He had ridden motorcycles most of his life, but the real inspiration for his customisation project started when he bought his first Harley-Davidson from the US in 2014.
"I pulled it to bits and rebuilt it from the ground up, and it’s sort of spiralled out of control from there."
Once he learned how to put the bike back together, it inspired him to custom make his own bike.
"I’ve basically changed all of the fender and gas tanks and moulded them into the bike with sheet metal.
"I’ve manufactured all of the exhausts and the foot controls and the front brakes, I changed all the wiring.
"It was a massive, massive amount of work. There’s nearly 600 hours of labour in it."
It cost about $60,000 to build the bike, he said.
"It cost a lot. That would probably never be allowed to happen if I was married."
Now the software engineer is considering a career change.
"I’d love to be able to work on these old bikes and build them for people as a full time job.
"I’d love it if that was a possibility.
"We’ll just see what doors open from going through the rest of this competition."
