Nik Samson
The thing about diggers – the motorcycles called ‘diggers’, not them big yellow things with a bucket on either end that you use to make ‘oles in the ground – is that people, even other bikers, always, but always, say when they see one, something along the lines of, “you won’t get far on that, will you?” and then laugh, because a digger always has a small fuel tank. The thing is there’s always an exception to every rule…
The GSX-R-engined digger you see here is owned by Gav from Chopper Club Scotland (CCS) and, as it has a genuine Arlen Ness Rocket tank and a high-revving four-cylinder engine that he’s not afraid to give the beans at any suitable opportunity, has a tank range of just fifty, as in 5-0, miles. Now, as I’m sure you’re well aware, members of the Chopper Club, be they Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish (north or south), Dutch, Belgian, French, German, Norwegian, or Macedonian (there is actually a Chopper Club Thailand too, but they don’t often bring their bikes to European runs for kind o’ obvious reasons), ride epic distances, something that’s not easy to do on a bike that does fifty miles at most before you need to put more fuel in. Thing is, no-one’s told Gav that, and he racks up the miles with the best of them, although he does stop a lot more often than most, granted. For instance, he lives just outside Dundee, 60ish miles north of Edinburgh, and some 111 miles from the nearest crossing into England, necessitating at least two fuel stops before he’s even crossed the border…
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He bought his chop from one of the Irish crew that we’ve done a bit with over the last few years, detailing their long trips, rough camping, on choppers round Ireland and Scotland, Johnny Angus who, sadly, passed away late last year. That was in August 2024 and, since then, the pair of them, Gav and the digger, have racked the sort of mileage that most chop riders do in a lifetime. There’ve been a few problems along the way, he says, but it’s a one-off chopper, isn’t it, not a factory-built, purpose-designed touring bike, but we’ll come to them in a moment.
When Johnny got the bike way back when, it was a conventional, if nice enough, GSX-R chop with a (possibly) stretched Sportster tank, a single seat, and an understated paintjob, and it was he who turned it into a digger. Somehow, somewhere, he found a gen-u-wine (as our Colonial cousins’d drawl) Rocket tank from the maestro that was Arlen Ness, unavailable, unless you’re really lucky, for years, modified it to fit, and dropped it on in place of the Sporty, changed the rear mudguard, and a few other parts too, had a new, larger, seat made by Leather Annie, and then got his son, Chris, to paint the bodywork in a very traditional filigree (also known as lacework) style black over blue. He rode it for a while, and then sold it to Gav eighteen months or so ago.
Despite it having a tank range only marginally more than a modern bike’s reserve, it hasn’t stopped him riding it on Club runs, and I’ll let him tell you a little of some of the more memorable ones; “We cover a lot of ground riding to runs from Scotland, and the main problems I’ve had’ve been from vibration. The old sissy-bar, made from tube, kept breaking at the same spot – on a recent run to the Isle of Wight I had to use an old butter knife, cable ties, and gaffer tape to splint it (Mike Hendry, whose black n’ blue GSX was in BSH a while ago, has since made me a new one from solid bar, which even I’ll have trouble breaking). On another run, to Sussex, the rear mudguard cracked where it’s been cut back to clear the drive chain. We took it to bits on the field, and spot-welded it to stop the crack travelling any further – it still needs repairing properly, but that’s going to mean new paint at the same time.
“Another long trip down to Eastbourne was a nightmare – again, vibration was to blame. I have a smart USB charger feeding a Quad Lock mount on the ‘bars for my speedo/nav and, at the time, I had an old Lucas-style ignition. The smart USB turns off automatically if the battery voltage drops too low, and I’d done around 100 miles when I realised my phone wasn’t charging. Luckily it was just a loose connection on the ignition itself (the wire’d vibrated off) but, as I was now behind schedule, I pushed my luck with the fuel range, and ran out somewhere on the M6. I pulled over to the hard shoulder (with big juggernauts thundering past me), and used my spare bottle (always carry a fuel bottle) to get me to the next services, but the bike wouldn’t run right. I thought I’d pulled crap down from the tank so dropped the float bowls, but they were all okay, so changed the plugs – still no change. I limped it further down the road, but she was kangarooing badly, and it was getting dark, and I had no headlight. Luckily, Mike and Euan were behind in a van, so I admitted defeat and loaded it in. I spent hours on the Saturday going over everything, and found a bad coil connection, fixed it, made the Sunday ride-out no problem, and even won a prize. She still wasn’t right though – conked out again half a dozen times between the stage and my tent, so another sleepless night, a long way from home with a poorly bike. It took fifteen hours to nurse her home, shepherded by Matt (with bike problems of his own, and still three hours to do after we went our separate ways) and, long story short, it was the ignition contacts themselves – they’d rattled to bits, and were making and breaking contact all the time, one of those massive pain-in-the-arse faults that takes forever to find, and it’s since been booted over the neighbour’s fence, and I’ve fitted a keep-it-simple-stupid set up with push- button start.”
Now, you may be thinking ‘sounds more trouble than it’s worth’, but I must remind you that it’s a one-off, hand-built chopper, and one that does rocket-ship mileages, and these faults, while, yes, annoying, aren’t terribly serious in the grand scheme of things (and, anyway, make great stories). Gav’s got her running sweetly now, and is very happy with her. He is thinking, though, of upgrading the running gear, as there’s not much in the way of tyre choice for 16-inch wheels, and he’s going to have to get it repainted when the rear muddie’s repaired, but that just allows him to personalise it, doesn’t it, make it more his bike than the late Johnny A’s. Whatever happens, I think Johnny’d be proud…
Spec: 1993 Suzuki GSX-R 1127 engine (re-jetted carbs, Pipercross dual foam air-filters, one-off polished alloy rain shield, one-off stainless 4-into-4 exhausts), unknown rigid frame, unknown forward controls, Dunlop tyres (120/80/16 front, 160/80/16 rear), Suzuki GSX 1100F wheels/brakes/forks/brake master-cylinders/switchgear/bottom yoke, ABM top yoke with Iron Cross cut-out, Venhill brake lines, apehanger ‘bars, vintage coke bottle-style, one-off front mudguard, genuine Arlen Ness rocket tank, one-of leather seat, aftermarket rear mudguard (modified), one-off dummy oil tank, under-seat electrics tray, one-off sissy-bar, one-off torque arm, one-off minimalist loom, aftermarket headlight, Iron Cross tail light, toggle ignition switch/push-button start/secret kill switch
Finish: Old-skool airbrushed blue/black by Chris Angus, tank re-worked by Les Cameron Race Paint (07712 677068), polishing by Johnny Angus/owner
Engineering: Bike originally built by Johnny Angus, sissy-bar by Mike Hendry
Thanks To: “My wife Sam; Johnny Angus RIP; Les Cameron; Mike Hendry for fabricating a new sissy-bar last minute; & the rest of my CCS brothers & Chopper Club family for the support…”
