Occasionally you get the call. You spend all your free time in your backyard or garage, mostly for the love of it, and then one of the big guys notices what you’ve been up to. Harley-Davidson Australia noticed Nigel Petrie. They called to ask him to have some fun on their dime, and that he did.
Nigel is the mind behind Engineered To Slide, a custom auto and motorcycle garage from Down Under. He’s been headdown and neck-deep in projects of all sorts since 2010. As a builder, Nigel is always challenging himself from one project to the next, whether it’s a drifting Toyota pickup, a landspeed KTM, or this Harley-Davidson hillclimber.
After some historical and technical research, he got to work transforming a bone-stock Street 750 into the modern hill climber Harley-Davidson was asking for. With a truncated timeline of only three weeks, the pressure was on. Luckily for Nigel, working under pressure is nothing new.
“This was my first major undertaking for a big-name manufacturer,” Nigel says. “Working on a brand new bike and on someone else’s budget gave me the freedom to do a lot of things I wouldn’t have normally done myself. It also gave me a taste of the real world: having a deadline, meeting others’ expectations and pushing the limits to meet all the criteria.”
Though the Street 750 is a bike built for the pavement and pretty vanilla off the floor, Nigel was able to give the road-going middleweight new work as a gravel-heaving hill climber. We have no clue what to expect from this maverick Aussie next, but you can bet it won’t go unnoticed.
This article first appeared in issue 024 of Iron & Air Magazine, and is reproduced here under license.
Engineered to Slide | Instagram | Words by Brett Houle | Images by Dean Walters
Sidecar Subject: Harley-Davidson Street 750Engine: Chassis: Dimensions and Weight: Modifications
Revolution X Engine: The Harley-Davidson Revolution X engine is a liquid-cooled, 60-degree V-twin developed for the Street series, offering a balance of torque and efficiency for urban riders. Designed for versatility and accessibility, it features modern technology like dual overhead cams and fuel injection, making it a significant departure from Harley’s traditional air-cooled engines. An Accessible H-D: Introduced in 2014, the Harley-Davidson Street 750 was a liquid-cooled, entry-level cruiser designed for urban riding, featuring a 749cc Revolution X V-twin engine. With its lightweight chassis, low seat height, and modern styling, it aimed to attract a younger, more diverse audience while maintaining Harley’s trademark cruiser appeal. |
