This Harley's got a real beat

Harley-Davidson motorcycles have long been famous for their big booming sound, but Moncton bike owner Don Aubut has taken it a step further by mounting a full set of electronic drums to his cool 1977 FLH.

I want to rent it out as a show for special events and bike shows," Aubut said yesterday. "The ideas is that you can drive it right up on stage, put it on a rack, flip out the drums, plug it into the PA and do a drum solo. It only takes a couple of minutes to set it up."

Aubut has been working on the bike for a few months with the help of some specialists. There's still some finishing touches to be done, but he's hoping to start drumming up some business soon. He plans to charge $1,000 for the machine to appear at bike festivals, concerts and any other special event where organizers want something unique. He's not a drummer, so he's looking for some talented stick-swingers who can make the most of the unique setup.

A long-time Harley rider, Aubut says he saw a similar setup at a bike show in Montreal and decided to try it himself. He got some help from Luc LeBlanc, a well-known custom bike-builder at Kent County Customs; and Andy Davis, a veteran drummer at the Long and McQuade music shop in Moncton.

The bike had its headlight and running boards removed to make room, and special brackets were built to hold the Roland TD-9 percussion pads.

Electronic drums are different from regular drums in that they use flat percussion pads connected to an electronic sound module, or "brain." When you hit the pads, the electronic signal goes through the brain to an amplifier or PA system. The sound module has many settings so you can create hundreds of different sounds - from regular drums and cymbals to steel drums, pings, pops, crashes and even voices.

The bike has five pads. The kick drum and high-hat pedals are located on either side of the bike so the drummer can sit in the regular riding position and play with both hands and feet. The bike just needs to be leveled and the sound module plugged into a PA system. The bike is still rideable but Aubut says he'll take it to special events on a trailer so it will be clean and ready to ride onto the stage.