I unfold my best English. Lucky enough the young Belgian understands me. We’re in the middle of Belgium’s nowhere on a dusty large cattle-farm far away from towns and villages. I ask him if we could shoot a bike and a girl on his grounds as location. He looks a little puzzled because I’m all alone with my minivan but he allows me to use his barn.

At this moment a ‘56 pickup comes rumbling along the path, stopping in a cloud of dust. As it settles the young farmer freaks out about our model in the cab and the bike on the bed of the truck. Of course he knows Fred Krugger, the owner of the truck, builder of the bike that is the reason for our travel to Belgium’s outback. But he knows him by his real name, Frederic Bertrand.

“Krugger” is the name of his company, inspired by an early Harley-engineer from Germany named “Krueger”. His name gets lost in the logbooks of the mother company after a while. But still this name is part of H-D’s early history and sounds European enough to fans especially in the US of A.

While the two Belgians are speaking French and laughing about the weird idea to shoot the exclusive bike in a smelly cattle-farm we get ready for the “Goodwood” shooting. The truck, the barn, the warm sun and the styled model Swetlana create a great atmosphere of vintage spirit and old skool racing-attitude.

In fact the bike seems to be built in the ‘60s or ‘70s, hauling over Daytona’s Raceway or showing up at Ace Café in Brighton England. A look like a Norton Manx, flat and racy. And that’s the reason for the bike’s name. “Goodwood” is a traditional racing course in England, well known for the big racing competitions thru ‘50s to ‘70s, long before it was overworked and became a lousy smooth modern security-course.

But the bike has been built all new. The planning and gathering of parts and components took three months and the building took another three. Almost everything had been built by Fred himself, and he did this work all alone.

To start with the frame it is a double-sling-bridge frame, the engine attached under the upper sling to massive bridges. In between the upper slings and beneath the fake tank is located the injection and intake system, the electric with the battery and the external 3 liters oil tank. The fake tank has holes and a scoop for the intake. The real tank is two-parted and comes formed as a back hump at the rear.

Each tank section holds 5 liters. In the middle of the rear, between the tanks, the exhaust shows its ends. The complete exhaust was formed from tempered stainless steel and made by Fred himself. The pipe’s ends are wrapped with asbestos-tape to avoid too much heat radiating toward the tanks. But still the seat gets warm enough to remind the rider what bike it is.

The swingarm also is double-sling designed, supported by a single shock from FOX Motocross, that is fixed to a bridge of the frame in front of the seat. It has a center-axis bearing and is secured like a racer’s screws.

The front-end is a self-built girder-fork with another single shock beneath the front fairing, also FOX. Both shocks can be adjusted in many ways. Both swings are covered with brushed metal-sheets, outstanding fitting in the design and looking much more lacy than they indeed are.

The wheels come from a V-Rod-model, the tires are from Dunlop, a 120 in the front and a 180 on the rearwheel. The handlebar is custom, the controls a little Beringer mixed with Krugger. The brakes are Beringer, two 6-pistons on the front, one 6-piston-caliper on the rear wheel. The lines are steel braided. The far behind, attached footpegs come from a racer but are much modified and have all new cranks that even Fred can’t remember where they came from originally.

All metalwork Fred did by himself, he bowed all tubes for the frame and the bar. He welded and milled whatever was necessary. And as a gimmick in the rear part of the front fairing he attached two shift-flashers. He plans to run that bike at Bonneville--as fast as he may be able to run it. And he feels like setting a trend.

It was noted that all the best bikes from the Custom Chrome Europe-Show at Mainz/Germany had a racy vintage touch. Maybe he’s right and the bobbers are finished. So let that Belgian, with the German name, show the world how bikes can look. And maybe see him blast over the salt lake at Bonneville this summer.

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