The Sportster Chronicles: modifications

Ever watch those corny bike-builder "reality" TV shows and think, "I could have built a way better bike." Or, do you ever walk up to your bike and wish you had a few thousand dollars laying around to build your dream bike?

You probably already have a list of parts in your head you'd like to try out: they're in your head because if your ever wrote them down or bookmarked them on the family PC your wife (or husband - lady bikers are doing it for themselves now a days you know) might find them and remind you of your responsibilities and family obligations, blah blah blah, nag nag nag... But if you only had the time and money!

Yea, I have those feelings too.

Hi, my name is Solosaddle, and I'm a modaholic... There should really be a support group for people like us lol.

Today I'd like to talk to you about a dream build of mine. The theme for this build would be Custom Cafe Racer of the Future: retrofitting a cafe racer with technology from the future... Follow me... Imagine 30 years from now in the year 2044. A middle aged, recently divorced, blogger is left with little more than the family dog (Harley) and a 2010 Harley-Davidson Sportster XR1200. With seemingly nothing else to live for, the blogger begins madly bidding on parts from eBay (with what little saving was left from said blogger's portion of the family property) and procured parts and labor, at local motorcycle swap meets, with trade, barter and promises of various unethical favors. After months of trial, error, blood, sweat, chrome and matte black paint, the blogger finally finished the dream build. And oh, is it a beautiful thing to behold.

In the future I like to imagine that we have done away with mechanical gauges and have fully embraced (and can afford) electronic measuring instruments. So the traditional instrument cluster could be replaced with a simple LED cluster or go all out on a full touchscreen panel. So today it would be akin to replacing the instrument cluster with GaugeFace.

I'd also like to think we'd have done away with lamps/bulbs and have fully embraced LEDs. Personally I'd go for something different, more angular than the traditional round headlamp. Using parts from today I'd go with a 36w LED work light. I've only seen something like this once on a bike in a forum somewhere (can't seem to find it anymore) but I always thought it was the most beautiful front-end I'd ever seen. Not entirely sure how effective it would actually be as a headlight but dammit it's just too bad ass not to try out!

Still on the front end of things, I was thinking a number-plate (normally seen on dirt bikes) would give the bike a nice look and complement the angular edges of the headlight. Plus, how cool and ergonomic (because in my vision of the future ergo is the new black) would it be to do away with todays LED bulbs and use LED strips installed right onto the number-plate. So you would have both high and low beams plus indicators affixed to the number-plate, a light-cluster if you will. This design scheme would be repeated on the tail end as well: brake light and indicators clustered together on a single plate. Not the license plat, mind you, those have gone the way of paper IDs: just as everyone (in this version of the future) is implanted with RFIDs so are most electronics, automobiles and motorcycles -all law enforcement need do is point their GoogleGlass in your direction then the bike's unique RFID-liscense-plate pops up on their HUD. I'm sure I lost of few of you just now on the design but I'm sure if it's done right it would look bad ass. Check the diagrams below to get an idea of what I mean.

Much like the retrofitting builds of today this future blogger -obviously in the midst of a midlife crisis- aimed to streamline the bike as much as possible. In 2044 I'd imagine that this biker would remove the combustion engine (recently banned all over the United States -which now includes Canada, long story- except for Texas -go figure right- and retrofit it with an electric faux-Twin engine. Now, imagine how clean the mugshot of a bike like that would look sans the muffler. Think about it, no combustion, no muffler. Take that even further: no muffler, no protruding indicators, no mirrors. How clean would that look? Super clean...

To pull that look off today you'd need to get a little creative with the muffler and the mirrors. An electric engine isn't as feasible today as they will be tomorrow. So, for now we're stuck with the V-Twin. But that doesn't mean we can't get rid of the muffler. Or at least tuck it out of the way. DP Customs pulled the look of perfectly (see examples below). Again, continuing the angular look with that boxed out exhaust. Though, it does look good tucked under the bike like that I worry what longterm exposure to engine exhaust would do to the rear tire. I'd have had the exhaust port pointing out of either side of that boxed-out tube. But I'm no bike-builder so wtf do I know lol. Looks great though...

As far as the mirrors go, still haven't really worked that out. However, in my vision of the future cameras have all but replaced mirrors. In the states that still enforce helmet laws riders would have cameras installed on their bikes and riding gear. The live feed would then be played back inside the HUD of their helmets. Funny enough, this tech exists today. But, it's not as clean and minimal as I imagine it to be in the year 2044. Here are a couple of examples, Reevu and Skully Helmets. And, for the states without helmet laws, GoogleGlass (or something like one). I'm sure by 2044 there'd be a rearview camera stock on the device: dubbed the anti-creaper-cam. I've contemplated using one of the above mentioned helmets instead of mirrors but as we all know in most every state at least one mirror must be installed on the bike. So there goes the mirror-less profile.

That's pretty much it. There's not much else I would modify or upgrade on a stock XR1200.

And so, finally done with the build (and alimony payments ironically) the blogger -on a newly retrofitted custom XR1200 cafe racer- and his dog (riding it's turbo charged Segway, cause pets in the future own Segways -laugh now but you just wait and see!) head off into the sunset. To find love, coffee, adventure and the meaning of life...

Illustrator skills finally starting to pay off, lol...

Rear-end light-cluster

I imagine a display like this sitting flush on a plate affixed to the handle bar mount

Oh so sexy

Minimal and clean. I imagine the end result to look something like this but just a tad bit more... minimal lol

Finally! The almost 4 week wait is over. The Lick's distressed solo bag and tool bag I ordered finally arrived via USPS. Due to high demand and the quality of work put into these leather products Lick's Cycles is experiencing up to a 4 week wait time. Nonetheless, anyone that owns one will tell you it is worth the wait.

Lick's SoloBags are hand crafted from genuine high quality black or distressed (brown) leather. Made specifically for the 2004-2011 Rubber Mount Sportster models. Lick's also makes solo bags for Rigids and Softails -if your into that sort of thing. The design of these bags compliment the Sportsters well. They can give your bike a unique vintage look instantly and are incredibly easy to install.

Just to give you guys an idea of what it looks like on a Sportster... (not me, not my bike)

A note of caution however: These are not saddle bag replacements. The solo bag measures 10x3x14 just big enough for a few hand held items and thats it! Another issue Sportster owners face is that these bags mount to the lower-left side of the frame and block access to the left-passenger peg. There are a number of ways around this: the most popular is installing a bracket that extends the one passenger peg past the bag, extruding the peg a few inches out and up, cupping the solobag (see photos below). Another popular solution is placing bolt extenders behind the peg extending it as far as you need it to go. The way I plan to get around the issue is to "pinch" the bag on its lower left corner (where the passenger peg is obstructed). By cutting two tiny little holes and zip tying it down, I should have complete access to the passenger peg without having to use any extra equipment. The downfall, however, is that I'll be losing about 2-4 cubic-inches of storage space and the bag is small enough as it is.