A Lot of Customs at Shaw Speed & Custom

Shaw Speed & Custom CRXR Cafe Racer

Check out the dozens of beautiful custom Harleys at Shaw Speed & Custom, like the CRXR Sportster based cafe racer pictured here. 

The Bolt: A Sportster Killer from Yamaha?

Yamaha Star Bolt

Earlier today we did a post about the Roland Sands street tracker based on the new Yamaha Bolt. The 58ci  air-cooled V-twin is targeted right at the Harley-Davidson Sportster. So, we thought we'd followup here with a link to Cycle World magazine's Bolt vs. Sportster comparison test, which was published online just yesterday.

Back in March Cycle World published a "first look" at the Bolt and the Bolt R-Spec models here.

Ryca Motors Sporster Cafe Racer Kit

Ryca Motors Sportster Cafe Racer Conversion

As we noted in an earlier post today, Ryca Motors has now expanded beyond the Suzuki S40/Savage cafe racer, street tracker, and bobber conversion kits to embrace the Harley Sportster with a Sportster cafe racer conversion kit for 1991 to 2003 models. No welding is required, the conversion can be made with standard hand tools.

The base kit includes:

Fiberglass cafe racer seat
Custom Bassani exhaust
Rearsets
Burly Brand "Stilleto" shocks
Choice of clip-ons or clubman bars
Custom taillight with bracket
Choice of bikini fairing or headlight & gauges lowering kit

An upgraded version of the rearsets is also available.

This is a cool expansion of the Ryca Motors product line, and perhaps next we'll see a Sportster street tracker conversion kit from them.

Carducci Dual-Sport Sportster Conversion Kit

Carducci Dual-Sport Sportster Conversion

The Carducci Dual Sport Adventure SC3 conversion kit transforms a 1993-2003 883 or 1200 Sportster into a dual-purpose "adventure bike" with both on-road and offroad capabilities. This brings to market a Harley-Davidson based alternative to the KTM, Ducati, and Japanese dual-sport adventure bikes that have been tremendously popular in the last decade or so.

Jim Carducci and his wife are the engineering minds and company founders behind Carducci Dual Sport, LLC, which is located in Sunnyvale, CA, the heart of Silicon Valley. Jim is a mechanical engineer with three decades of design experience, and his wife is an electronics engineer with years of experience in electronics control systems and software design.

Carducci Dual Sport will do complete conversion builds for customers onsite in their shop, or sell complete kits with build instructions for the do-it-yourselfer. All component parts are designed in a CAD system and tested for strength with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) modeling and simulation.

The Adventure SC3 was on display at the 4th Annual Corbin Rider Appreciation Day bike show in Hollister, CA this past July 4th weekend, where is won the IronWorks magazine "Editor's Choice Award." The bike was immediately rolled into the Corbin studio for a photoshoot for publication in an upcoming issue of IronWorks magazine.

Check out the Adventure SC3 if you are looking for a unique alternative to the mainstream adventure bikes from Ducati, Kawasaki, KTM, etc. There are plenty of good used 1993 to 2003 Sportsters on the market at anytime, it seems, and at low prices.

Sportster Cafe Racer in Norton Featherbed Frame

The Sporton Cafe Racer

BIKEEXIF has a new post up about a very well-crafted Sportster cafe racer from Kaula Lampur. It's a 1969 ironhead motor in a Norton Featherbed Wideline frame. Check it out. (Photo Credit: BIKEEXIF)

Burly Brand 883 Sportster Cafe Racer

Burly Brand Sportster Cafe Racer

Bryan Harley has a write-up at the Motorcycle-USA site about this new custom Sporty cafe racer built by David Zelma at Burly Brand. Check it out.

The classic cafe racer style seat you see on this Sporty is a Burly Brand product.

Roland Sands Technics Sportster Cafe Racer

Rolands Sands Technics Sportster Cafe Racer

Hat tip to one of our favorite blogs, Return of the Cafe Racers, for a story about this Sportster cafe racer built by former roadracer turned bike builder, Roland Sands. It was commissioned by Panasonic to publicize their Technics audio products. Note the details of the front wheel, which is designed to resemble a Technics analog turntable for vinyl records.

This custom started life as a stock Sportster 883.

If you've got a Sporty and are considering remaking into a cafe racer, check out the Roland Sands Design line of cafe racer accessories for the Sportster.

Also check out the Technics Sportster video here at Return of the Cafe Racers.

Sportster Bobber Seen at the Portland Maker Faire

Ballsy Sportster Bobber in Portland Today

I saw this cool, ballsy-looking Sportster Bobber at the Portland Mini Maker Faire today. Had to take some snaps to share it with you here. Thought this one showed it to best advantage.

The custom pipes are wrapped with high-heat ceramic tape.

Baja Iron Sportster Scramblers

Baja Iron Sportster Scrambler

Here's a something you don't see every day: A Sportster refashioned to be equally at home in the dirt and on the street... A Sportster Scrambler from Baja Iron in San Clemente, CA.

The Baja Iron Scrambler is the brainchild of Gary Streuter, a motorcycle enthusiast with years of desert, motorcross, hillclimbing, Super Motard, and street riding under his belt. Gary wanted a versatile bike, a multipurpose  "Adventure Bike", that was equally at home on a fire road or freeway, with big V-twin sound and power. So, he created this Sportster Scrambler and formed Baja Iron to do conversions for Sportster owners, and ultimately to bring conversion kits to market for the do-it-yourselfers. 

Another Example of the Breed

For a base price of $7,995, Baja Iron will take your 1986 to 2006 Sporty and convert it to a scrambler with long-travel inverted dirt forks, heavy-duty twin rear shocks, DOT on/offroad knobbies, a chain drive, and a set of dual-sport pipes tucked up high.

If you have a hankering to go adventuring on your Sportster, check out Baja Iron's terms here.

(The gorgeous green and yellow Sporty scrambler you see here is not a Baja Iron bike, but we liked it so much we just had to post the pic. See some more pics of it at the Derestricted design blog here.)

         

Shaw Speed & Custom's Sportsters

Shaw Sportster XLST3 Scrambler

Shaw Speed & Custom in the UK built this awesome Sportster scrambler. For you Sportster fans, they've got quite a line-up of Sporty-based customs.

Check out their Big Twin customs, too.

Tip of the hat to the folks at BIKEEXIF.






         

Sportster Street Tracker Conversion Kit from Phil Little

Phil Little Racing's Sportster Street Tracker

A lot of people have been in here to see our recent post about the Steve Storz Sportster cafe racer conversion kit. So, I though I'd take a look around and see if anyone else was doing one, but  found instead this Phil Little Racing "SXR" Sportster kit. It is designed for year models 1986 and up.

They've got a good slideshow gallery of customer builds based on this kit... follow the link and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

While you're at it, take a look at our Mert Lawwill Sportster street tracker post from awhile back.

         

Storz Performance Sportster Cafe Racer Conversion Kit

Showbike: Sportster Outfitted in Storz Cafe Racer Garb

Long-time motorcycle performance industry guru Steve Storz of Storz Performance has brought a lineup of Sportster cafe racer conversion parts to market now. Storz has always had a reputation for high quality components. If you've got a Sportie and are looking to remake into a cafe racer, or put on a set of those cool, blacked-out high pipes, check out Storz.

A tip of the hat to the folks at IronWorks magazine website, found this baby in their recent blog post on this Storz showbike.

Update: We just did a post about the motorcycle trials riding exploits of Steve Storz's sons, Neil and Eric. 

Update: For another take on Sportster customization, check out our new post about the Baja Iron Sportster Scrambler.