The American

The American

Café Racers

A café custom with flat track roots and god-given styling

MARK CERNICKY

DEUS EX MACHJNAߞLATIN FOR "GOD from the machine"ߞis a literary term that originated in Greek theater where actors performed free-form plots. If the plots were not working well, a mechanical deviceߞa "machine"ߞ lowered onto the stage a god who would change everything.

These days, Deus Ex Machina is

a creative custombike operation headquartered in Sydney, Australia. The com pany also has sev eral satellite shops around the world, in cluding one in Venice, California. That's where Michael "Woolie" Woolaway built "The American," a Harley powered dirt-track framer afé bike.

Prior to hooking up with Deus, Woolaway built motorcycles for numerous celebrities, including Ryan Reynolds,

Orlando Bloom and Billy Joel.

It was through these custom ers that he met Dare Jennings, Deus Ex Machina’s founder, and began building projects after Jennings opened up a stateside branch.

“I didn’t build The American to compete with a modern sportbike or have the feel of the mile dirt-tracker the framer is based on,” says Woolaway. “I wanted something down the middle—not too much brake, not too much power, but just enough to be fun to ride and fun to look at.”

A C&J Low Boy chrome-moly frame is sprung with a one-off Works Performance shock

handcrafted by Pierre Vaillancourt. A Buell

WP fork is hung in Durelle Racing triple-clamps and fitted with a single Brembo brake

* caliper. Buchanan’s in Azusa, California, laced a set of 18inch Sun Rims to A&A hubs. Avon Super Venom tires provide traction. The rider’s “office” consists of a C&C custom seat perched behind a long, handcrafted aluminum tank, Woodcraft clip-on handlebars and Motogadget speedo/tach. Power arrives via an H-D Sportster five-speed engine massaged with a balanced crank, forged rods, JE high-compression pistons, Edelbrock big-valve heads, lightened and hand-polished rockers, and chrome-moly pushrods jiggled by the lobes of Andrews cams. The 1203cc V-Twin is fed by a 41mm Keihin FCR carb, with spent gases departing through Deus-made stainlesssteel headers connected to flat-trackstyle SuperTrapp megaphones.

Too bad we weren’t able to saddle up The American for a short ride. It would have been fun to find out if there is a god in the machine.