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Welcome to Mountain Choppers
About us
Mountain Choppers is a one man, one dog operation run from a small 2.5 bay detached workshop located on the edge of Tamborine Mountain, Australia.
It's here that Matt & Reign the Great Dane primarily focus on building and restoring traditional Harley Davidson Choppers from the 40's through to early 80' s.
The intention is to build, ride & maintain these bikes not just day to day, but around the world while putting them to the test in places you’d otherwise never expect to see them.
afghanistan harley davidson record attempt
The Plan
What started as a joke between Matt and Tim Caraco (RIP) slowly turned into a reality over the course of 5 years, leading to the world first attempt of completing the Highway 1 (Ring road) of Afghanistan on a Harley Davidson, while taking Tim's ashes along for the ride.
With Madman Tyson Lloyd- who agreed to ride shotgun in a local Afghan's Toyota Pickup truck to film and document- the two set off on this trip with a very loose plan.
The Route
After riding 14 hours through the night on a bus with the Knuckle in pieces, the boys entered Afghanstan from Termez, Uzbekistan then joined the ring road just outside Mazar-i-Sharif.
Matt, now on the Knuckle, and Tyson in the Toyota Pickup truck, together would make their way counter clockwise around the ring road hitting all Afghan major cities including Herat, Kandahar and Kabul.
This image is from the Garmin in-reach mini 2 showing the exact route that was taken.
The Execution
After passing through numerous Taliban checkpoints, ISIS controlled territories, being held overnight in Taiban a compound and walking through an unmarked minefield, on the 23rd of April, 2025 just 13 days after entering the country, Matt's 1947 Knucklehead chopper became the first ever Harley Davidson to complete the full ring road of Afghanistan.
FILM COMING SOON.
Our Builds
The Black Stag- This 1960 FL Panhead in an original wishbone frame and has some great club history. Originally purchased new, this bike was taken by the son of the original owner then parted out and mixed with parts of a stolen cop bike in the early 60's as a part of a club initiation. The bike was eventually left to his son who sold it to Matt in May of 2019.
Real 59-60 gas tanks, megaphone upswee
70-80- This bay area style tough guy 1970 Shovel with chrome 80 cube jugs is in a half shovel, half original knuckle frame. Ribbed wassel fender, 2-1 pipe, original Bates seat, mirror and headlight as well as a frisco'd hummer gas tank. The frame and tin set were painted by Big Bad Mitch Bailey. This bike now resides down south and is ridden often.
The Blue Sapphire- 1953 FL Panhead in an original wishbone frame.
The pipes, sissy and springer were early bird swap meet finds from Matt in the US on a parts hunting trip. The original old Lacquer painted tanks were purchased from a friend, then the fender, headlights, dash, reg and primary were painted by Matt to match.
Hell's Belle- 1952 Polished & ceracoated stroker panhead in a heavily molded tank in to original wishbone frame.
This bike, built for a great friend & loyal return customer, was started from a bare frame & split engine cases.
This style is heavily influenced by the molded long chopper show bikes of the 70's & is covered in hand made one off parts, some built here in house, others from around the wo
No Gas, No Brakes- 1959 Panhead Chopper with outside oiler heads in an original wishbone frame. This gas tank was made by shrinking and welding together two panhead 3.5 gal tanks down to less than 1 "axed" gallon of fuel capacity while still keeping the original fuel shutoff valve. The bolt on 1 gal fuel cell to the Axe head sissy helps get the rider to the next gas station.
This chopper resides i
Bucephalus- 1947 FL Knucklehead in a 47 bullneck frame. This is the Chopper Matt chose to take on his Afghanistan ride. Built with miles in mind, this bike carries 5 gallons of fuel and was already tried and tested the year before Afghanistan in New Zealand when Matt and 8 close friends all rode from the bottom of the south Island to Auckland on the north island.
Morris Magneto and a bolt on Mount
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