The biggest cliché in motorcycle journalism is the ‘listicle’ of the best-looking bikes ever made.
If we ever run out of ideas and succumb at EXIF, you can guarantee that the Harley-Davidson XR750 flat tracker will be in our list. And we’d lament that it was never street legal.
So this streetable XR750 from Brad Peterson is right up our, er, street. And it’s no replica or lookalike, either.
Power comes from a genuine factory race motor, used briefly in 2007 by National #80 Rich King, which probably delivers around 100 horsepower.
“The motors are sold without a title,” Brad tells us, “but they do have serial numbers. My motor was confirmed as a Rich King motor via the H-D race department records.”
Brad is a machinist by trade, and hails from the port city of Bellingham in Washington State, near the Canadian border. He’s been riding since childhood, and his grandfather—a motorcycle dealership principal—helped build the town dirt track.
Which might explain why the spec sheet for this XR750 is pure street tracker gold. The motor is fed by twin Sudco Mikuni TM 38 flat slides, breathing through Darcy racing intakes. Bill Werner Racing supplied the exhaust and SuperTrapp mufflers, and also the wet clutch.
The powerplant is squeezed into a C&J frame, which has been oiled (rather than painted) to prevent rust. The forks are modified CBR600 items, with nitrided tubes and the caliper mounting lugs machined off the right fork lower. They’re hooked up with A&A variable offset triple clamps and matched to a Penske rear shock.
The bars are Vortex’s ‘J Murph’ bend, which are a little higher than most flat track bends. Brad’s also installed a Brembo front master cylinder and Magura clutch assembly, but there’s no speedo or tacho to reveal how fast he’s going…
Stopping, however, is no problem; there’s a front brake on this tracker. The calipers are Brembo, but Lyndall supplied the iron brake rotors—320mm at the front and 10.5” at the rear. The front caliper hanger is custom machined and there’s an A&A racing rear hanger, with quick-change rotor and sprocket carriers. The rear master cylinder is Grimeca.
The forged wheels are from Performance Machine, and the real deal—super-light 19” rims designed for the dirt track.
The bodywork is full carbon fiber, with a Corbin seat, and reputedly factory-issue. The raw carbon looks good, so Brad has left it unpainted, like most of the rest of the bike.
Discreet LED lighting front and back helps make this XR750 street legal. It’s a bare bones, total-loss electrical system, but it works. “I can easily run a dozen tanks of fuel on the battery life,” says Brad.
Keeping that battery hooked up to a charger is a small price to pay for being able to ride this tracker on the street. “It’s titled and legitimately street legal,” Brad says. “Which is not an easy thing to accomplish in my state. It may be pushing some details into gray areas…”
The XR750 is not one of those volatile converted race bikes, even though it needs to be bump started and can wheelie at will.
“I use BBRP (Brian Billings Racing Products) to keep this XR running strong,” says Brad. “He’s done a lot of tuning to make it a reliable street bike: it runs flawlessly, and it’s not crabby or temperamental.”
“It starts and runs every time, and has been ridden off the street and onto a dirt track. And then ridden home.”
Brad’s home also includes vintage Harleys dating back to 1921, an Indian Four, and models from Aprilia, BMW, Honda, Suzuki, Triumph and Yamaha.
But we’re betting that this XR750 is the most fun of the lot.
Harley-Davidson is in the process of turning a new leaf, and the company made a big statement at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The company announced pricing and pre-order availability for its LiveWire motorcycle as well as two new concepts.
First, the important stuff. The Harley LiveWire has a U.S. MSRP of $29,799. Harley-Davidson is now taking pre-orders at dealerships. If you want to stay in the loop on all things LiveWire, you can sign up for email updates on Harley’s website.
Image from Harley-Davidson
The LiveWire is genuinely an impressive machine. It’s supposed to provide some true performance. The bike does come with a good list of features and equipment, including H-D connect, which is an LTE system that gives basic electric bike stuff like battery range, charge status, service alerts, and more. You can view this information remotely, too, so you don’t have to go out and see how long until your bike’s fully charged.
Image from Harley-Davidson
Additionally, the bike gets GPS tracking in the event of theft, ABS, regenerative braking, traction control, clutchless power, and a range of 110 miles. That seems a bit short, but it’s not horrible. The bike can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds.
Despite the somewhat promising list of features of the LiveWire and its good looks, I’m not sure it’s what Harley needs. It is a move in the right direction, though, and shows how serious the company is about shaking things up.
Killer Concept Bikes
I was a little skeptical that Harley could think outside the box until I saw the two concept bikes it showed off at CES. They’re way different from what the brand is known for, and while they are right in line with what a lot of other motorcycle manufacturers are experimenting with.
Image from Harley-Davidson
The first looks like a lightweight electric dirtbike or mountain bike and the second one looks like a mashup of a scooter and a minibike. Harley did not provide names for the concepts.
Let’s take a look at the electric mountain bike concept first. It has a thin and sleek design that’s more like a bicycle than a motorcycle. That’s not a bad thing though. What I assume is the battery is in a vertical orientation and integrated well into the design.
Mounted to a swingarm, the rear wheel comes with suspension thanks to a single shock. Up front, there’s a triple tree front end and inverted forks. The front wheel is thinner than the rear. Power goes to the rear wheel from the electric motor via a belt drive. The bike looks pretty minimalistic from a design standpoint. It offers some insight into what Harley sees the future of mobility being.
Image from Harley-Davidson
The second concept is a true departure for the brand. It has a frame that reminds me of an old minibike but with running boards down either side. The running boards look like Harley cut a skateboard in half. The electric drivetrain sits at the lowest point in the frame and basically runs the length of it. Again, the bike uses a belt drive.
It has some cool looking handlebars and a unique circular ring, which I assume is a headlight with the HD logo in the center of it. The tires look to be the same size and feature spoked wheels.
A Different Harley-Davidson
The second concept might be the most unconventional of the three bikes discussed in this article. I think it’s my favorite. Call me crazy. Harley didn’t include specs for either bike. However, if they’re anywhere near as respectable as the LiveWire’s I’ll be thoroughly impressed.
These two bikes are concepts. With that said, Harley does plan to make more electric bikes in the future and this is a clear indication of what they’re expecting to produce. Other models will accompany the LiveWire in 2020 or 2021.
The company’s website doesn’t offer too many details but it does say “production model features may vary.” I’m going to take that to mean that there will actually be production models of these bikes. If Harley does produce production models, it will mean the company has truly changed its ways.
Squeezing two Harley engines into one chassis is a special form of lunacy, most commonly found in the drag racing scene in the USA.
In the glory days of the mid-70s, Bonnie Truett linked a pair of Sportster motors and nitro-injected them. A decade later, Elmer Trett built an even faster twin-engined bike: the ‘Freight Train,’ which ran the quarter mile in under seven seconds.
Despite the wealth of tuning talent in Japan, no double-engined Harley has been built there—until now. Kentaro Nakano is the man who has broken the drought, by creating the engineering masterpiece we’re looking at here.
Nakano-san operates as Hot Chop Speed Shop in Kyoto, and is held in high regard in local Harley circles.
At the Mooneyes show a few weeks ago, his monstrous drag racer scooped awards from two of Japan’s biggest moto magazines—Hot Bike and Vibes. So we asked Mr. Nakano to organize a shoot for us, and he kindly obliged.
“I started the project in December 2017,” he tells us. “It’s a tribute to the drag racers of the 1970s, using Sportster XLCH engines.”
The front engine is a 1969 vintage ironhead, and the engine behind it is a couple of years older. Both mills were thoroughly rebuilt, with help from Nakano’s friend Kazuhiro Takahashi of Sakai Boring.
Fuel is metered through S&S Super B carbs (which first hit the market in 1975) fitted with one-off intake funnels.
Nakano has also changed the timing of the engines, to create gaps between the exhaust pulses. At idle, ‘Double Trouble’ sounds unmistakably like a Harley, we’re informed—but at high rpm, more like a Japanese multi-cylinder engine.
Connecting plates link the V-twins together, and the output shafts are hooked up to two primary drives: one from a current model Sportster, and another from a modern Big Twin tourer.
The transmission is the weak point on a 1960s Sportster, and with two engines in tandem, sticking with the stock gears would result in tears. So Nakano has installed the four-speed ‘box from a 1980s Big Twin.
With the powertrain sorted, Nakano turned his attention to the frame. It’s an entirely custom-built affair, using steel piping, with forks from an early 70s Ducati 750 Imola up front—slightly shaved for a custom look.
The discreet paint is by GRIMB Krazy Painting, which despite the odd name is the go-to shop for many of the top Japanese custom auto and moto builders.
Nakano has selected aluminum wheels, 18 inches front and back, and both with classic H-type rims. They’re shod with drag slicks from M&H, the company that ‘wrote the book on traction.’
He’s installed a front brake from the Minnesota specialist Airheart—a company familiar with the requirements of drag racing—while the back brake is from the Californian firm Wilwood.
The cockpit is simple: one-off drag bars are clamped into a custom top yoke, with a 1970s Harley tachometer just ahead. The levers are one-offs too, but the grips are off-the-shelf Japanese items.
The aluminum bodywork is minimalist in the extreme: a simple cylindrical fuel tank sitting on the frame top tube, and a cowl behind the seat that doubles up as an oil tank.
Atelier Cherry delivered the hand-sewn leather seat pad, which looks as though it’s been in service since the 70s.
‘Double Trouble’ looks fast even standing still. Nakano is going to take it to the Japanese drag strips in the coming months, and with the help of engine builder Takahashi-san, he’ll be recreating the spirit (and hopefully the quarter mile times) of the famous 70s American bikes.
If the results are good, the next step is to find a sponsor and take the bike to the Bonneville Salt Flats for some extreme speed runs.
But first, there’s one more small job Nakano needs to complete before he starts racing: the addition of a supercharger.
Trends ebb and flow in the custom world. And with them, the fortunes of bike builders. It might be tough at the top, but it’s even harder to stay there over the years.
Japanese builder Hideya Togashi is a man with more staying power than most. He took his first Best Of Show award from Mooneyes in 2006, and he’s collected several more over the years. And if you look closely at his latest Harley ironhead build, it’s easy to see why he is so fêted.
Togashi-san runs Hide Motorcycle (pronounced ‘Hee-day’) and this 1966 XLCH Sportster was one of the stars of the latest Yokohama show.
The refurbished engine is all that remains of the original bike, and it’s in original condition, right down to the Linkert DC-7 carb. The ‘CH’ designation refers to a slightly higher compression-ratio version of the XL engine—legend says that it stood for ‘Competition Hot,’ but we’ll take that with a pinch of salt.
It’s a beautiful V-twin, and capable of pushing a Sportster to 115 mph (185 kph), but the real action is elsewhere.
“To be honest, I didn’t have a concrete concept or theme before I made this bike,” says Togashi-san. “As always, I cherish the balance, and maximize the beauty.”
When he exhibits at the Mooneyes Show, Togashi takes a very particular approach. After all, the bike needs to looks good in a custom show environment as well as on the road.
“I’ve combined the ‘show off’ elements that are required for the venue, with street elements that the owner can fully enjoy while riding on a winding road,” Togashi says.
Top echelon Japanese craftsmen spare no effort on their builds, but they step it up a gear further for the big shows. So Togashi made the hardtail frame for this Sportster from scratch, using a single downtube design.
Only the frame number plate is grafted on from the original frame, and the finish looks genuine—despite the nickel-plating that Togashi has added.
Under the skin, the forks and triples and steering head are stock, but have been sleeved and cleaned up for a smooth custom effect.
A wraparound headlight nacelle, hand-beaten from aluminum sheet, adds to the sleekness. It took many attempts to perfect, and Togashi has hidden the headlight itself behind a simple grille.
He’s taken the front wheel up a couple of sizes to 21 inches, but the 18-inch rear is the same as when it left the factory. And the drum brakes, cleaned up and devoid of surrounding paraphernalia like fender struts and shocks, look stunning.
With the stance of the Sportster sorted, Togashi turned to the bodywork. He’s used aluminum for the tank, with a finish good enough to leave as raw polished metal on the top surfaces.
“It’s a good balance with a nickel-plated frame and polished metal,” he says. “We did not dare polish the engine or the wheels: their matt finish adds contrast to the frame and bodywork.”
There’s a custom oil tank, wrapping around the trials-type rear tire. The subtle paint is based on a 1933 Harley design, and like the fuel tank graphics, was applied by local specialist Skop Paint Works. The fender is a heavily modified vintage Harley FX Super Glide item.
There’s a hint of flat track in the vibe, and we’re also seeing a touch of European speedway style. But most of all, it harks back to a simpler age, summed up perfectly by the exhaust system—a pair of unmolested, perfectly bent and nickel-plated pipes, ending in subtly flared mufflers.
Like they say, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Most custom motorcycle builders are pretty handy in other areas of life and work too. The ability to set up a lathe or tune an engine lends itself to many other areas of craftsmanship. And if you’ve got a knack for aesthetics, you can probably also design (and print) a t-shirt.
But one trend that’s caught us by surprise is the number of furniture designers who can also build very classy bikes. One such Renaissance man is Samuel Aguiar of Shiny Hammer, who created the elegant ’72 FLH shovelhead we’re looking at here.
The Frenchman is in good company: Stefano Venier and George Woodman both major in furniture design, and there are probably others we haven’t come across.
We first spoke with Samuel a year ago, when he dazzled us with his streamlined electric projectile ‘Hope.’ But this time, he’s swung the other way—choosing iconic Milwaukee metal as the base for his latest build.
“The idea was to make a low and narrow chopper with trials-type wheels,” says Samuel. It’s an unorthodox approach, but it looks stunning.
He’s modified the back of the Shovelhead frame to create a slim and straight profile: it’s now about two inches lower and 1.5 inches narrower than when it left the Milwaukee factory in 1972.
“I was looking for a solution to integrate the rear suspension into the frame,” Samuel explains. “I wanted only the engine to ‘pop’ out of the frame, so I ended up using oleo-pneumatic shocks and a one-off geometry.”
The shocks use technology more often found on aircraft landing gear, and are made by Forunales, an oleo specialist based in Toulouse.
Samuel tackled the fuel tanks next. “I had in mind a triangular shape, which would fill the empty space between the engine and the chassis.” After building two mirror-image tanks, the capacity turned out to be 6.5 liters (just over 1.7 US gallons).
“I wanted around eight liters on this Shovelhead, so I came up with the idea to add a another tank under the seat, next to the custom oil tank.” The end result is eight liters for fuel, and four liters (4.2 quarts) left for the oil.
The three fuel tanks are connected by lines that run both under and over the chassis, “to communicate as one, and breathe, to be able to work.”
A long, ribbed black leather seat segues into a stubby rear fender, which finishes off the flowing lines just perfectly. It’s based on the stock FLH fender but considerable shorter, and with an inch trimmed off the width. The taillight sits snugly underneath the upkick, embedded into a one-off stainless steel surround.
Samuel has fitted the Big Twin with an S&S Super E carb, a go-to solution for Shovelhead engine tuners seeking better throttle response and more power. It’s one of the few bolt-on parts on this Harley, aside from the open primary belt drive and KustomTech forward controls.
The air filter is custom, and Harley devotees will also notice that Samuel has split the rocker boxes—a classic but tricky and time-consuming mod on old Shovelheads.
This sinuous, snaking exhaust system is the part that catches the eye the most, though. “The inspiration was to imagine how the smoke would flow if riding the bike without any exhaust pipes,” Samuel says.
“So the pipes ‘swirl’ out of the heads, and become more and more straight as they head towards the rear of the bike.” The material is polished stainless steel.
Samuel then took a breather from the workshop, and started riding the shovel—without paint, and with a regular telescopic fork. “I thought, looking at the bike, that the front wasn’t special enough when compared to the rest of the mods.”
He ended up spending 300 hours of learning and working to create a one-off girder fork. “I wanted it to be narrow, and I especially to integrate the arms inside the fork, and not outside—as it usually is.”
“I went through sketching, measuring, testing with cardboard, 3D modeling, machining and welding. I wanted the geometry to have less trail, with the wheel moving as vertically as possible. I kept the same wheelbase as stock.”
After completing and installing the impossibly elegant forks, Samuel turned to the wheels. After machining up new hubs, he installed a set of hoops from a Husqvarna 125 enduro bike, in F21/R18 sizes. They’re made by Excel, and are a ton lighter than regular FLH rims.
The brake calipers are Nissin, liberated from Honda and Suzuki bikes, and hooked up to a Beringer master cylinder. The headlight is hardly any bigger: rather than go down the classic Bates route, Samuel has built a compact LED unit, and tucked it away between the girders.
After polishing every square millimeter of the wheels, Samuel installed Pirelli MT43 rubber—a trials-pattern tire that also works on hard surfaces and is DOT-approved for road use.
The chunky rubber adds a bit of visual grit to what is otherwise a sleek and immaculately finished Shovelhead. M. Aguiar might go a whole year between bike builds, but they’re sure worth the wait.
My recent review of the 2018 Harley Davidson Sport Glide (review here) left me unfulfilled searching for a sport touring offering from the “Bar and Shield”.
Despite that disappointment, I didn’t hesitate to swing a leg over the brand new 2019 FXDR while at AimExpo. No one wants to be disappointed twice in a row and I especially don’t want to seem like someone who just piles on undeserved criticism. For the record, I am a fan of every motorcycle brand and Harley does build some nice bikes.
Happily, the FXDR didn’t disappoint me. It made me just as happy as I was with last year’s Fat Bob 114 (review here). I compare the two bikes quite a bit in this review. You may think the V Rod would be a better comparison point, but it’s discontinued and was liquid cooled etc. Certainly, I do admit there are some similarities between the two designs, but why dwell on the past?
The Significant Numbers
The FXDR uses the fuel injected Milwaukee Eight, 114 cubic inch engine coupled to a six-speed transmission. Since it’s the same powertrain setup used in the Fat Bob, the power and performance numbers are basically identical between them.
1868cc Air Cooled Oil engine putting out 90 hp and 119-foot lbs of torque @3500 rpm
Seat Height 28.5 in
Ground Clearance 5.3 in.
Steering Rake 34 degrees
Front Tire 120/70ZR-19 60W, Rear Tire 240/40R-18
Michelin Scorcher 11 tires
Fuel Capacity 4.4 gal.
Weight full of fluids 668 lb.
Max lean angle 32.8 degrees
Fuel Economy 46 mpg
Brakes: 300mm dual disc, 4-piston fixed front and single disc 2-piston floating rear
Price Vivid Black $21,349 or other premium colors for $26,949
First Impressions
Distinctive & Stretched
The look is modern and sleek. Very “un-Harley” from a traditional standpoint. Devoid of chrome and somewhat drag bike-esque with dual staggered exhaust openings housed in one canister. The outside edge of the can is tapered noticeably to prevent dragging in the corners.
The raked out front end with inverted forks for whatever reason reminds me of the Livewire electric prototype. I think it’s the triangular signal lights protruding from each side of the daymaker headlight that is constantly glowing orange while the bike is running. They look similar to the ones on the Livewire and might even be the same ones.
This bike looks like it has a much longer than average wheelbase (68.4 inches). It’s only about 5 inches longer than the somewhat squished looking Fat Bob, in reality.
It stands out markedly in amongst the crowd of other demo units from the 2019 Harley lineup.
Air Intake
My eyes are drawn to the unusual air intake on the right side of the engine. It looks nothing like a Harley Davidson I would dream up and that’s a good thing. Whether or not this will affect performance isn’t known to me, but It’s another indicator HD is moving out of the “Harley box” and their comfort zone. They probably realize that’s where we experience the most growth as people and hope it holds true for a bike builder too.
Other reviewers have noted this intake flows more air than the one on the Fat Bob and so allows for faster acceleration when coupled with the lower weight. For me, it wasn’t noticeable enough on my test ride, but it’s been a year since I rode the Fat Bob to be fair. At best I would say it’s marginally faster off the line than the Fat Bob.
Here’s a link to a terrific review from Matt Laidlaw showing the FXDR vs the Fat Bob worth watching.
Aluminum & Carbon Fiber
The forks and rims are aluminum billet and the fenders are carbon fiber in an attempt to keep the weight down on this muscle bike. Harley was somewhat successful because this FXDR comes in 8 lbs lighter than the Fat Bob when fully fueled.
At 668 lbs it’s certainly portly compared to some other bikes on the market the FXDR would line up against from Japanese and European builders.
Dash & Display
The dash is unlike the other Softails in the 2019 lineup.
It’s similar to the Breakout, but not quite. I like the large banner badge below the display proclaiming the FXDR model with the R in red. It suggests this is the Racing model of Harley and they aren’t wrong.
The 2.14-inch viewable area LCD with a dark grey background and lighter colored digits wouldn’t be my choice compared to the vividly bright tones available on full TFT displays currently on the market. I would have preferred Harley go that way with their modern muscle machine instead.
There’s a lot of unused space in the area covered in plastic that easily could have been omitted in favor of a flat TFT.
I found the dash hard to use on the fly because of the small size, but I was much happier having it on top of the handlebars as opposed to a tank mounted dash as it is on the Fat Bob and basically every other Softail.
Having said that subtlety appeals to many people and nearly everything you’d want is available there on the display:
Speedometer and tachometer
High beam, turn signal indicator, neutral and gear position indicator
Low battery voltage warning, low fuel, odometer, fuel level gauge, clock, trip, range remaining
Mirrors
What happened here? What a brutal choice.
This is a sculpted machine of modern making, but Harley decided to dismissively toss on a pair of standard style mirrors that you can find on any other Softail model?
Frankly, it smacks of a case where the designer actually forgot to put mirrors on the bike! Almost like no one noticed until it hit the assembly line where a sharp-eyed veteran assembler pointed it out and quickly saved the day by screwing on a set from the Heritage Softail parts bin.
A Total Miss
Even worse than the out of sync mirror styling is the fact they don’t perform. The vibration at anything above 45 mph makes them almost unusable.
Please remedy this next year by putting on some aluminum framed, wind tunnel tested mirrors with integrated turn signals.
The Seat
The single seat on the FXDR is surprisingly comfortable. I’m not a big guy being 5’7” tall and about 175 lbs with an athletic build so take my opinion with those figures in mind.
I felt like my backside was cradled in a butt-shaped dish for lack of a better description. It’s firm foam but accommodating in a way that I experienced zero discomfort or pressure points during my 45-minute test drive.
There’s no passenger seat as standard, but an optional one is available from Harley for $209.
The Ride
The style is great and all, but how does this machine do out on a test drive?
Viva Las Vegas!
As I mentioned I got to ride the FXDR while attending AimExpo in the beautiful October weather Las Vegas is known for. A motorcycle-centric day of 80 degree temps with bright sunshine beaming down and nary a cloud in the sky to be found framing the scene of me being let loose on Harley’s new muscle bike. Left far behind was my Canadian home where my bikes had been winterized and put into storage due to snow and cold arriving early this year even by our standards.
I was in a near dream state of mind as I climbed aboard the pearl white colored, big bruiser cruiser in the parking lot of the Mandalay Bay convention center.
Typical Transmission Clunk
The FXDR fired up and I dropped it into first gear with the familiar “BANG” I associate with all Harley transmissions. To be fair, my Kawasaki Ninja H2SX is just as rough going into first gear.
All other shifts came smoothly and without missing a beat. It makes me wonder how only first gear is noisy.
Rolling out of the parking lot onto Las Vegas Blvd I gave it the opportunity to thrill me by shifting aggressively into second and third gear while whacking open the throttle.
It didn’t disappoint whatsoever. That 119 ft lbs of torque made by the 114 engine are almost enough to make your fingers numb trying to hold on during full out acceleration. Not even my Ninja pulls this hard off the line and that’s saying something being that it’s supercharged and tuned for mid-range gusto.
I like the 114 engine so much more than the 107 that I can’t even be bothered with it anymore. Harley should just shelf the smaller engine and put the bigger one in every bike they have.
Planted
This bike loves the road. That’s immediately obvious as I fly down the asphalt and watch the scenery in my peripheral vision blur while the speedo digits ascend. Oh, look there’s the Welcome to Las Vegas sign… and it’s gone as I roar past curious onlookers left in the snarling wake of this road hungry motorcycle. There’s no jiggle, wiggle or shimmy even at higher speeds. Why didn’t they call this the Sport Glide???
Tires
The Michelin Scorcher tires stuck like glue to the road and made me happy with their performance. The rear 240mm tire is a real beauty with how wide it is. It gave lots of confidence in the tight corners. I wanted to use every inch of the sidewalls in each turn.
Loads of fun!
Cornering
The numbers from Harley say the max lean angle is just over 32 degrees on either side meaning it should corner slightly better than the Fat Bob.
I found it easy to turn tight corners without having anything drag, including the heels of my boots (which was a problem with the Sport Glide).
The Sounds
The exhaust was louder on the FXDR I demoed than the Fat Bob even though it was just the stock can and intake. There’s a beautiful tone to it without being obnoxious and it purrs like a tiger at cruising speeds just as I want it to. Well done Harley! Nailed it.
One interesting difference is a high pitched whine coming from the engine I noted. I would guess it’s from the unusual air intake or the throttle body valves constantly adjusting. It’s not annoying, but worthy of note since I don’t remember hearing it on the Fat Bob.
Other than that, there weren’t any clanks, clunks or other annoying sounds to distract from the terrific performance I experienced on the FXDR.
Brakes & Suspension
Wow, is all I can say about the 4 piston caliper, twin disc setup on the front end of the FXDR.
I had the “opportunity” to test the brakes in an emergency stop. Many thanks to the woman in the white Kia who decided to brake suddenly well before the red light we were approaching. I may have been going a little too fast at the time I admit, so I’ll take half the ownership of the situation.
For a 668 lb motorcycle, it stopped in nothing short of what I would rate record fast! I actually chirped the tire and felt the back end getting a little light. I didn’t hear the standard ABS feature kick in or notice it if it did in any way.
The front forks didn’t dive much during any braking maneuvers but did their job soaking up faults in the pavement well. The rear was adjusted perfectly for my weight as well and was mainly unremarkable during my ride.
Very impressive work on Harley’s part. I would say
Feel The Burn
Whenever I stopped at red lights and put down my left leg the hot primary drive cover became a nuisance. My short legs need to stay in close to the bike in order to reach the ground and so my inner calf muscle would touch slightly on the cover. The heat didn’t leave a scar or anything, but it was noticeable.
My First Time In Vegas
The planned route for my test ride was to circle McCarran International Airport ending back at the Mandalay Bay.
The people from Harley let me loose for an unguided test ride which I would normally appreciate in a city I’m familiar with. Las Vegas isn’t one of those cities for me, though. I actually asked them to send someone with me to help navigate, but none of them were local to Vegas either, so I was on my own!
Wandering Through The Desert
My route got pretty convoluted thanks to me enjoying the performance of the FXDR instead of paying attention to where I was going. As a result, I got some extra seat time along with the opportunity to see how the bike performed at almost all speeds. This included heavy traffic, very slow speeds (while trying to read unfamiliar street names) and riding over several speed bumps in the airport parkade I accidentally entered looking for a way back to the hotel.
In the end, I gave up on trying to remember key street and highway names and instead decided to just landmark the tall Mandalay Bay hotel and try riding towards it. That worked, but I ended up circling most of the south end of the city in the process before making it back in one piece much to the relief of the Harley event staff.
Final Verdict?
The unexpected benefit of getting lost in an unfamiliar city while test riding is that I feel well acquainted with the FXDR now. I really like it a lot. I didn’t want to get off it when I got back. I asked them if I could ride it to California because I was traveling there after AimExpo ended to tour the Motoport USA factory in San Marcos. More on that later.
Which Would I Buy?
The FXDR is still going to play second fiddle for me to the Fat Bob, but mostly because the Fat Bob fits my short frame better than the stretched out FXDR. Look at how far I had to reach in the photo above. I find I’m not reaching for the pegs and bars as much on the Fat Bob and as a result, I feel more confident going into the corners on it than the FXDR.
Dollars And Cents
Add to that the MSRP on the FXDR is $26,949 for the fanciest paint scheme while the Fat Bob tops out at $21,499. That’s quite a significant difference. The paint available for the FXDR is undeniably way more impressive and all that aluminum and carbon fiber might add up to $5000 more I suppose.
If I stood 5 inches taller it would be a lot harder not to opt for the newer and marginally faster FXDR if I could find the extra money.
Dress It Up
There are many optional accessories available for the FXDR as you would expect from Harley. This is something they are second to none in providing and a huge part of the brand’s appeal.
I would definitely get the windshield and Screamin’ Eagle exhaust for the FXDR and hope for a different dash with a larger TFT display and better mirrors to come available down the road.
As always I’ll gripe there’s no cruise control and especially loud because it would be easy to include as an option on the FXDR and the Fat Bob for that matter.
All in all, Harley has got a great handling and powerful bike that is greased lightning off the line. Other muscle bikes will definitely be faster further down the line, but HD has always been about massive torque numbers more than horsepower ones after all.
The FXDR is a winner.
Pros
Above average torque
Comfortable
Can corner well for a cruiser
Lighter than other Softails
Cons
Expensive
Dash is too small
No passenger seat
Long reach for short riders and primary cover burns your leg
Quite a few bikes have quirks that can trap the unwary builder. The strange frame curvature on the Honda CX500 is one of them, and the height of the Harley Sportster motor is another.
The venerable V-twin is an unusually tall engine, which makes it difficult to get a straight line from the base of the tank to the back of the seat. And it’s even harder to create a low-slung, slammed effect. But Uwe Kostrewa has managed to pull off both tricks, and deserves a round of hearty applause.
Uwe hails from Cologne in western Germany, and operates his workshop as ‘Hombrese Bikes.’ He’s been building for six years, but burst onto the scene a couple of years ago with a colorful W650 tracker—complete with bright blue powder coated frame.
“Normally I build Japanese bikes,” he tells us. “But I wanted to do something a little different, and thought about building a Harley-Davidson in the Hombrese style.”
Uwe’s Harley is a 2003-model Sportster 883, with an economy and purity of line that makes us think of the best Japanese shops.
“I think the style is a mix of scrambler, tracker and a little bit of Brat,” says Uwe. It ticks all those boxes for us, and a few more: when the images came in, we pored over them, trying to figure out how Uwe got such perfect stance.
So how did he do it?
“First, I took the bike apart and checked out the frame. I decided to lower it at the front and elevate the back to find a good line.”
Uwe has kept the stock fork tubes but installed new internals, including springs that reduce the ride height by 30 mm (just over an inch). At the back, new shocks from Progressive Suspension provide a handling upgrade.
The Sportster was extremely well maintained by its previous owner, and the brake system was in perfect order.
So Uwe simply refinished the wheels with new spokes and powder coated rims, and installed Bates Baja tires—inspired by the famous Goodyear Grasshopper, and produced by Heidenau.
Then it was time to work on the body. The tank was critical: the classic custom ‘peanut’ style simply wouldn’t work here. So Uwe picked out an old Honda tank that was hiding in his workshop, and started modifying it.
“This turned out to be the hardest part,” he reveals. “I had to remove a lot of metal from the ‘tunnel’ to get it lower.”
But when he test-fitted it, he still wasn’t satisfied with the way the bottom edge sat proud of the cylinder heads. So he cut away more material to get a closer fit. “It took a lot of hours to make it look right, but it was definitely worth it.”
After getting the Honda tank to sit right, Uwe turned his beady eyes to the back of the frame. He cut off the stock tubing, and built a new loop that’s screwed on from the inside.
“I didn’t want to weld it,” he explains, “even though the effort required to screw it on was much bigger!”
Before slotting the engine back into the frame, Uwe had it blasted with dry ice—which is a solid form of carbon dioxide, compressed into soft pellets. “It gave the engine a new shine—a very nice invention that gives great results.”
Look closely, and you’ll spot some very fine engraving on the points cover. “That’s by Carsten Estermann,” Uwe reveals. “A very creative guy and a master in his field.”
The motor is now hooked up to a hand-made exhaust system, welded using stainless steel and terminated with a muffler that Uwe dug out of his workshop stock. (“I don’t know the model,” he confesses.)
The ancillaries are a discreet mix of old and new: a classic 4½-inch headlight at the front, and tiny Kellermann Atto indicators all round. The bars are from an older Harley and fitted with vintage-style grips, but the speedo is a thoroughly modern Motogadget Motoscope Tiny.
After the classic Harley-Davidson orange paint had dried on the tank and the aluminum rear fender, Uwe bolted the Sportster back together.
We’re guessing he took a moment to step back and admire his handiwork. And we hope he felt deep satisfaction, because the style and stance of this Sportster is absolutely spot-on.
When Harley-Davidson celebrated its 115th anniversary with a party in Prague earlier this year, it invited a select few builders to present a custom Harley each. And with a remarkable three AMD World Championship podiums to his name, Julian von Oheimb was an obvious inclusion.
The German builder—who operates as One Way Machine—has a knack for turning Harleys into subtle, tasteful customs, and his anniversary build is a stunning example. Called Quartermile, it’s a dark and minimal cruiser imbued with drag bike style.
Despite the low-slung ergonomics and race slicks, it’s not actually a race bike. The visual cues come from an idea Julian’s had buzzing around in his head for years—since he fell in love with a Billy Lane Knucklehead with slicks.
It’s also a bike that Julian didn’t have to build. Harley-Davidson gave all the invitees the choice of bringing an existing bike, or building something fresh.
Even though the show was less than four months away (a OWM bike usually takes well over a year to deliver), Julian was dead set on creating something new.
All he needed was a suitable donor. Luckily, Julian’s dad had a 2007 Heritage Softail, imported from the US years before. The two of them were scheduled to go on a road trip across the Midwest around the time of the Harley event, but had to postpone due to dad’s health.
The focus went onto Prague.
With the base bike decided, it was time to refine the design. Julian dug through his desk drawers and pulled out some old drag bike concepts he’d sketched.
He cherry-picked his favorite design cues, then adapted them to work with a Heritage Softail—on the street, rather than the drag strip.
“OWM customers are usually busy businessmen who invest money to have a perfectly designed and drivable bike for weekend trips,” explains Julian. “This means that road legality is a must. So the slick tires are swapped for Avon tires after shows.”
Julian started by stripping the Softail down, then cleaned up the frame and swing arm. All unnecessary tabs were stripped off, along with the fender struts. Julian lowered the bike too, using a lowering kit that works with the stock suspension at both ends.
Rounding out the rolling chassis is a pair of TTS rims: 2.15 x 21 in front, and 3.5 x 18 out back. The front slick is from Vee Rubber, with an M&H Racemaster at the rear. Julian’s also converted the Softail from belt to chain, and installed new brakes: a Beringer inboard setup at the back, with a Beringer disc up front.
He didn’t mess with the motor much though, opting to leave it mostly stock. It’s got a new primary cover from EMD, an air cleaner from Speed Dealer Customs, and an exhaust system from BSL. (BSL had a setup that matched Julian’s vision to a tee, saving time in the rush to get the build ready for the show.)
Julian always gets the lines of the bodywork to look just ‘right.’ This time, he’s taken a Sportster Custom fuel tank, then edited it to fit the Softail’s frame.
He’s modified the oil tank too, and topped both off with caps from KustomTech. Items like the rear fender, fender bracket, license plate bracket, battery cover and fork shrouds were all made by hand, from scratch.
Finer details include a set of One Way Machine handlebars, Beringer controls and a Motogadget MST speedo. Julian also modified the stock foot controls a little, and built one of his signature headlight installations.
BK-Lack GmbH and Coco Breezé Art Works were called in to paint the bike. It’s now sporting a sublime silver and black scheme, punctuated with discreet flashes of gold—like the elegant tank badges). Spirit Leather jumped in to upholster the bare-bones perch.
After H-D’s 115th in Prague, the bike went off to the Custom Summer Days in Mannheim. It stole the show, quite literally, with a ‘Best of Show’ award. Right after that, Julian handed it over to its new owner—a businessman from the Lake Constance Region who already owns two OWM bikes.
Julian describes the OWM ethos as “perfect design, maximum surface finish and good ridability.”
If you love the wall of torque delivered by a Harley V-twin but not the laidback handling, the Sportster XR1200X is the bike you need.
The XR1200X was the sportiest of Sportsters, with over 90 hp on tap from a high-compression engine, and supple Showa ‘big piston’ forks. At the start of this decade, it was sold in Europe for a couple of years—then filtered through to the US, where it won plaudits from road testers and owners alike.
The rarity of the XR1200X means we don’t see many in custom shops. But Cohn Racers managed to find one, and have tweaked it for better performance on both asphalt and hard pack dirt roads.
The shop is run by Chete P-Ilzarbe, who left Apple to found his own motorcycle garage. They’re based in Miami, Florida: “The perfect place to seduce high profile, millionaire clients,” Chete says. “Especially those who are thirsty for the most exclusive, or the newest and latest!”
That sort of client is very demanding, but the guys behind Cohn Racers have meticulous attention to detail. “We share the same philosophy: everything matters on our builds.”
“We’re currently a three-man shop, although we get help from friends in the trade,” Chete adds. “All three of us have loved bikes since we were kids, and there’s an age gap between us—which gives us a nice combination of old and new school style.”
When the brief came in from their client, Chete and his crew knew it had to be answered by a large American V-twin with knobby tires. “We looked at the Dyna and the Sportster, and then realized the XR1200X was the way to go—it had that flat tracker vibe.”
The vision behind ‘Muscle R’ was to create a mean and athletic stance, capturing the essence of modern muscle cars. But first, Cohn Racers had to find a XR.
“We searched nationally for several weeks with very little luck,” says Chete. “And ended up finding a really clean one. It’d been traded in at a Suzuki dealership, 175 miles up the coast in Melbourne.”
The bike had low mileage and was in A+ condition. It was immediately stripped down and a flatter rear frame was welded on, along with new mounts for the tank.
The Showa suspension on the XR1200X is pretty good, but Cohn Racers have given this one a complete front-end conversion. That means Öhlins forks, a Brembo racing master cylinder, 320mm rotors and eight-piston calipers. It’s all connected up via custom triple trees and stainless brake and clutch lines.
The stock three-spoke cast aluminum wheels are gone, replaced by a custom-built set of wire wheels. “After lots of research, we decided to go for Shinko 805 tires. It’s hard to believe how well they ride on the road.”
The ECU has been retuned for better engine response and smoothness—not least because the huge stock mufflers are now gone.
But the most obvious change is the new bodywork. “We worked closely with our customer to come up with the leather theme on the tank,” says Chete. “It’s reminiscent of 1950s race cars, with the leather hood straps. Vintage racecars always inspire our builds, with cues like wire wheels, loud exhausts and headlight grills.”
The bodywork is fashioned out of carbon fiber, including the tank, front fender, side covers and rear plate holder. There’s also a new seat pan, upholstered with Alcantara by Relicate Leather.
On the electrical front, Cohn have kept most of the stock XR1200X harness but added LED turn signals, a brake light integrated to the license plate frame, and their own custom faced speedo.
‘Muscle R’ is one of those bikes that looks like a helluva lot of fun to ride, and a genuine dynamic improvement on the original. “On the mechanical side nothing in particular was especially hard, but it was quite a learning curve,” says Chete.
“It looks like something CVO at Harley could have built. We try not to be tacky or over the top with our builds: I’ve always thought that was what brought the chopper craze down.”
Most importantly, Chete and his crew managed to remove 67 pounds (30 kilos) from the original weight, so this Sportster now tips the scales at around 484 rather than 551 pounds dry. Which makes it even faster, better handling and better looking than the original. And able to handle a little of the rough stuff, too.
“The bike is just a dream to ride,” says Chete.
Of course, every builder sings the praises of his creation. But in this instance, we’ll take him at his word.
The chopper scene has been responsible for some of the greatest atrocities committed against motorcycling: a smorgasbord of tasteless paint jobs, lethal handling and crippling ergonomics.
But there was a golden age in the late 60s and early 70s when there was still a tenuous relationship between form and function. And a beguiling, carefree style that suggested long road trips driving down dark desert highways in Southern California.
That’s the kind of classic chopper we can get into, and this Harley Knucklehead from Powerplant in LA absolutely nails it.
Builder Yaniv Evan has been running the Melrose Avenue shop for over 15 years now, and has picked up trophies from shows such as Moon Eyes and Born Free.
Yaniv generally avoids the worst excesses of the scene, taking inspiration from his background in aviation and his love of hot rods, racing and vintage motorcycles.
He’s become the go-to guy for many well-heeled enthusiasts in the City of Angels, and one of his clients is Norman Reedus—known for the TV series Ride with Norman Reedus as well as The Walking Dead.
“We’ve built Norman several bikes,” says Yaniv. “This time he had trouble deciding whether he wanted a older Knucklehead, or a chopped up version.”
Reedus ended up gravitating towards a classic ’47 Knucklehead look, so Yaniv has emulated that style while adding classic elements—like the hand painted Sportster tank.
Although the Knuck has a classic vibe, it’s actually been built up from scratch. The frame is a Paughco special order rigid Big Twin setup that Yaniv modified and added his own backbone to.
The engine is a 93ci S&S Knucklehead replica—which matches vintage looks to modern performance. It’s hooked up to a five-peed Indian transmission case with a combo kickstarter/electric start.
“The big compression motor is extremely strong—and difficult to kickstart at the beginning, during the break-in process!” Yaniv notes.
The front end is a replica 1947 Springer unit, with Powerplant’s own polished aluminum P16 risers on top.
“Norman also really liked ape hanger-style bars,” Yaniv reveals. “He tried several options with handlebars, and he always came back to the ape hangers. Plus a 60s-style tall sissy bar.”
The tank is from a Sportster, chopped up and with a slim accent line added across the top. Powerplant have also installed a classic Bates seat, dirt bike ‘bear trap’ pegs on the mid controls, and a handmade aluminum oil tank.
Norman was shooting The Walking Dead during the three-month build, but kept in touch with Powerplant throughout. “There was a lot of FaceTime, and photos sent back and forth,” says Yaniv. “We had a deadline—which was before his baby was born.”
Yaniv completed the Knucklehead just in time, and Norman flew out to LA to test ride his new baby. Then a few hours ago, his second child was born.
That makes two fine new additions to the Reedus family. Let’s hope Norman gets enough time off from his fatherhood duties to ride this beautiful machine.
