Lucky Devil "Root Beer Float" Bobber

This root beer brown bobber was built by Kent Weeks of Lucky Devil Motor Works and presented at the the AMD Wold Championship bike build-off in Long Beach, CA in 2010. The Root Beer Float was built to order for Nyla Olsen of Bikernet. Bikernet has a multi-part series about the bike design and build. 

Vintage Voodoo Leaf-Spring Front End

Cool retro-vintage styled custom front end from Vintage Voodoo.

1917 Harley-Davidson L17T Boardtracker for sale at Deus Ex Machina

For sale at Deus Ex Machina

The crew at Deus Ex Machina has a 1917 H-D boardtracker for sale. They say its in excellent condition and ready to race. Follow the link and you'll find the you'll find the contact info, phone and email.

High-Tech, Lightweight Brake Rotors for Harley-Davidsons

Matrix Brakes Disc on H-D

I stumbled across this company, Matrix Brakes, while doing a bit of research on an advanced materials type metal-matrix composites (MMC). They make brake rotors and brake pads for Harleys from an MMC material that is a mixture of aluminum and a ceramic, Silicon Carbide (SiC). The claimed advantages are much lighter weight than stock (1.9lbs vs. 4.9lbs) and greater stopping power. The lighter weight of the rotor is a reduction in unsprung weight, so that would improve the ride and handling of the bike.

They also make carbon-kevlar brake pads.

You can read more about their technology in a slide presentation here. They are also looking for qualfied dealers, you can apply here.

Ice Racing the New H-D Street 750

Tip of the Hat to The Shanna Daily for this!

Custom Concepts for the Street 750 & 500 from Harley's Design Team

Harley Street Custom Bobber

The design of the new entry-level H-D Street 500/750 models is very minimalist. It's a bike that just screams out for modification. Well, it was deliberately designed to be so. So H-D management asked members of their design team to explore the that potential by doing "sky's the limit" concept bikes. Some of the results are documented in the H-D video we've embedded here.

"The Street" 500cc & 750cc All-New Entry Level Bike from H-D

The Street 750 from Harley-Davidson

In a quest for a new generation of younger buyers in both the United States and the emerging markets of India and China, Harley is introducing a new entry-level street bike, the "Street", their first entirely new model in years. The Street is designed to be a city bike, with suspension, engine response, and clearance optimized for urban settings, especially the rougher streets of Indian and Chinese cities.

The Street's "Revolution X" engine is a water-cooled 60-degree V-twin in both 500cc and 750cc displacements. The 60-degree layout allows a lower tank and seat height even with a greater road clearance than that of Harley's traditional 45-degree plan.

Bikes will be manufactured in both the US (Kansas City) and India. American made bikes will ship to the US, Canada, and Mexico; the Indian made machines will ship to the rest of the world. The 750 model has been made available first in India, where it went on sale last month. The 500cc and 750cc models will both be available when it goes to market in the US this spring.

In the US the 500 model will be priced at $6700 and the 750 at $7500. Read more about the Street at H-D's website here.

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.

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)

Hot Rods & Harleys Magazine, New Kustom Kulture Motor Mag

Hot Rods & Harleys Cover, Issue 2

I put up a post yesterday to draw your attention to the very cool kustom art and pinstriping of Hot Rod Jen... Found her SmugMug.com gallery while googling for pinstripe panel art. I was so impressed that I just googled again today to find anything else by her and came across a mention of her at the website of this new print mag, Hot Rods & Harleys. She is a contributor there.

This little pic doesn't do the cover justice... it's hard to tell here, but a larger, better pic of the original panel is up at their Facebook page.

Hot Rods & Harleys has just begun publication, the awesome panel art here is the cover of issue 2. From their "About Us" page I get the impression that a focus on  the work of custom painters and pinstripers is the thing that will set them apart from all the other hot rod and Harley mags on the market.

You can subscribe at the website, or find Hot Rods & Harleys at Barnes & Noble.

P.S. I did not mean to imply that the cover art was done by Hot Rod Jen... I will try to find out who is and update here later. Meanwhile, here's a link to a better picture of the panel.

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.

Super Rat Motorcycles of Bellingham, Wa

War Crimes

Super Rat motorcycles of Bellingham, WA has been attracting a lot of attention recently, thanks to their innovative customs, like the Triumph Trident cafe racer and War Crimes 1966 Harley XLCH pictured here. War Crimes was featured on the cover of Hot Bike magazine back in July 2011.

Brothers Matt and Carl Bjorklund are the owners of Super Rat, and designers and builders of the bikes. They honed their craft building bikes for themselves, then decided to go professional some years ago.

Trident Cafe Racer & the Super Rat Crew

The brothers have another Triumph Trident project currently in progress, called the Art Deco. Can't wait to see it.

Check out the video below about the making of the Trident Cafe Racer.

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.

Copper Mike's Steampunk Shovelhead

Gravesend Cycles Steampunk Harley-Davidson

I just saw this steampunk-themed Harley-Davidson Shovelhead on the cover of the latest issue of American Iron magazine. I liked the article's tagline: "What the past would have looked like if the future had started sooner." That pretty much sums up the retro-futurist perspective of steampunk.

This machine is a product of the fertile imagination and talented hands of custom bike builder and master metalsmith Michael Cole, aka "Copper Mike" because he loves to work with that metal. The level of handcrafted detail in this bike's design is astonishing... with the small pics I provide here you can only get a hint of that, so go to the Gravesend Cycles Steampunk gallery to get a better look at and appreciation of Mike's work. Especially cool was the intricate engraving on the engine, which can actually best be seen in photos at the Kustom King blog.

Copper Mike is the proprietor of Gravesend Cycles in Lindenhurst, NY, where he builds the bikes and creates jewelry, copper art objects, and t-shirts.

A Closer Look at the Design Details

The Steampunk made its debut earlier this year at Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show held at The International Motorcycle Show in the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

Tip of the hat to the Kustom King Blog where I found more info about this retro-futuristic machine. Check it out.

Also check out the Copper Mike video feature below.

Changes at Harley-Davidson

2012 Sportster 48

Fox Business news published a piece last month about the changes that Harley CEO Keith Wandell has brought to the Motor Company since he took the reins in May of 2009, just months after the world economy imploded. Under his leadership, Harley sold off MV Agusta, killed the Buell brand, closed dealerships, and layed-off a lot of people. The company even considered moving production out of Wisconsin, a move that was headed-off when the employees union agreed to renegotiate contracts, resulting in reduction of the number of full-time unionized employees to about 700 people.

Harley's stock is up about 20% from its lowest point this year. Sales in the last quarter, ended in June, are up 26%, though Wandell says that some of that gain may be due to this year's unusually warm weather, which gave us an early start to the riding season.

You can watch a CNBC taped interview with him here in which he takes about the past year and what lies ahead for the Motor Company.


      

BikeCraft Magazine Issue No. 1 Has Hit the Newstands

So-Cal Triumph Featured in BikeCraft

 BikeCraft magazine is here at last... bobbers, cafe racers, streettrackers, oh my. I just bought a copy of issue numero uno, Summer 2012, and I love it already... great photography, excellent writing, and lots of bikes... in this issue alone, more than a dozen innovative and novel customs from across a wide spectrum of brands. 

Dave Edwards, editor-in-chief of Cycle World  for many years, is at the helm of this new quarterly from Mark Barnett, publisher of the now-defunct Barnett's Magazine (which I really liked and bought on a regular basis). The design and layout of the mag reminds me very much of Cycle World.

The Triumph streettracker pictured here was one of the very cool featured bikes. It was designed and built by the legendary designers and craftsmen at So-Cal Speed Shop for Champions Moto, the first in a limited production run of ten bikes.

Harleyton 45 Featured in BikeCraft

At the other end of the spectrum, there was a great piece about Englishman Nick Roskelley's Harleyton 45 Cafe Racer, a Harley 45ci flathead in a Norton frame. 

I've been eagerly awaiting the debut after seeing the preview of BikeCraft at the back of the now-defunct  Barnett's Magazine final issue. It's better than I hoped for. Check it out at your favorite newstand now, or get setup with a subscription online for $14.99 per year (four issues) at their website.


Update: Actually the Champions Moto Triumph will be a limited production run of twenty bikes, not ten... my mistake

         

Vintage Harley "Kanuth" Hillclimber Reproduction Motor

Fred Lange of Fred Lange Restorations manufactures a complete reproduction of the famous Harley-Davidson "Kanuth" V-twin hillclimber engine. The complete motor with magneto is available from FLR for $19,000. 

To provide the reliability of his engine, Fred Lange will be riding a bike powered by one in this year's upcoming New York to San Francisco Motorcycle Cannonball Run.

Check out the FLR website... he has built some amazingly accurate and beautiful boardtracker replicas that have sold for big dollars at Mid America Auctions, for example.