Editor’s Note: We were intrigued by the first-ever female invited builder for Born-Free 13 and had to dive a bit deeper into her story. After asking a few simple questions, Becky “Axel” Goebel, had plenty of info to share so we let her take the reins and tell you the story of this bike and her Born-Free experiences herself.

I built this bike because I got invited to be a Born-Free Builder for the 2022 event. If I were to complete the build, I would be the first female to ever build a bike for the show. I also saw it as an opportunity to build and finish my dream bike.

My main goal was to finish the bike. Because the 2021 Born-Free event was pushed to August, the builders for 2022 didn’t have an entire year. This build was my first Harley build that wasn’t a Sportster so I had a lot of research and learning to do aside from the actual build. I also wanted to do as much of it myself as possible and make a few parts myself. I also wanted to learn a lot.

I made the bird deflector, the headlight mount and the kicker “dicker” pedal out of metal I melted down from the pistons that were in the motor when I bought it. 

The motor and transmission were totally rebuilt in-house so I was able to have my hands on every part of the internals thanks to motor magician Cody Kemmet at @hawg_supply – so to me that’s a very special motor.

The seat is an obvious eye-catcher and was made for me by Butts Seats back in my Canadian homeland. 

I had decided to paint the frame myself based on timing. I shipped the tins to my painter in Iowa and thought the Frame would be easy since it was just one color and then I wouldn’t have to ship it. It wasn’t. I had never used filler or moulded anything before. I had never done bodywork like this. It ended up taking me two weeks. But I did strip the frame, mould it, prime it, paint it and clear it myself.

The beginning was hard and stressful because I didn’t really know where to start but I knew I had to start. I also has some trouble in the end getting it started and making everything work together. Also, I really wanted to have a hand clutch on it, so the whole mechanism was a bit hard to make work.

Getting it started and kicking it over in the end was defiantly the most rewarding part.

Every time one of my parts came back from chrome was rewarding to see something you made or changed all shined up.

The casting was always rewarding when it finally worked out. Same with painting the frame. It’s nice to see your hard work finally finished and looking how you hoped it would.

Also having my bike finally sit on the grass at Born Free was extremely worth it and rewarding.

I always just had a bike in my mind that I knew I would one day have. It’s just a combination of things I like from my years as a motorcycle magazine journalist. I was always taking photos and writing reviews about all types of bikes – asking a lot of questions, learning what I liked or didn’t like. I am surrounded by amazing bikes, really my whole career is just being surrounded by the nicest choppers in the world. I always knew what I kinda thought was cool with each part and once those all came together, the bike looked pretty good! Simple, easy to ride, something I could ride far,  bring my stuff, be mechanically sound and simple, something easy to kickstart, low to the ground and easy for me to move around etc. A lot of thought went into me using this bike as a small girl.

Although this is the third bike I built from the ground up and my work is in the motorcycle industry, I am definitely not a professional motorcycle builder. I am currently working on building up my brand Axel Co. and growing my marketing experience in the motorcycle world. I am also still working on this bike. There is more I want to do before it’s 100-percent road-trip ready. Right now I am dialing it in!

I had a lot of people saying I shouldn’t have been an Invited Born-Free Builder. I knew I was out there on the grass next to some of the best builders in the world. I didn’t go into this like some people do like it’s a competition. I didn’t really compare myself to them cus I am NOT one of them, never thought I was, and crazy thing is, you can’t invite yourself! I just wanted to see if I could get it done and learn some shit and I did. I actually ended up finishing the bike in time – running and riding and even took home an “Award of Excellence” at Born Free that is now hanging on my living room wall. I managed to pay for the bike entirely myself, and I’m going to keep it and ride it for the rest of my life. SO, to anyone who thought I shouldn’t be a builder, well – looks like I built! And now I have a nicer bike than most of the dudes leaving stupid comments on my social media. Thanks for the fire under my ass haters.

Shoutouts: 

Cody at Hawg Supply 

Harley-Davidson

Born-Free Show

Michael at Flying Weasel

Pookie – Fabricator at @hawg_supply

Dunlop Tires

Andy at Pangea Speed