Harley-Davidson is a little too much into their style, so they rarely come up with a bike that is truly bad to the bone. But most of their ideas are taken one step further by people such as Mike Wilson of Dyno Mike’s Dynamic Chassis and Sandy Kosman of Kosman Specialties, who have teamed up to build what they call the Harley-Davidson XR124.
They’ve taken Harley’s sportiest ride, the XR1200 and made it look, sound and feel more appealing for the younger crowd, while still retaining the bike’s original style. In other words, they’ve mounted an S&S 124 cubic inch Evo engine on a twin shock rubber mount frame with a Buell XB12 front end (meaning upside down fork, front fender and six-piston caliper). The aluminum tank and rear fender were ordered from Evan Wilcox.
These guys aren’t just bike assemblers, so they’ve built their own exhaust and wheels. Overall, the thing weighs less than 500 pounds, which should make it flickable, while the power-to-weight ratio should make things at least very interesting.
As with most successful tuner projects, this bike looks like it was actually made like this by the manufacturer, but we can only wish H-D would build such a bike.
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The 2010 Kawasaki Z1000 is already one of the best Japanese nakeds around, but ways to make it better are always found either by riders individually or by tuners. These lasts have the habit of developing entire upgrade kits that set the bike miles away from its original state of new product that has just come out the factory gates.
Take the 2010 Roaring Toyz Kawasaki Z1000 case for example. The bike gets a set of Performance Machine wheels (17-inch front, 18-inch rear), 240-section rear tire, a custom-built braced swingarm and Brocks 4-2-1 exhaust, just to mention some of its most impressive new features.
The gold/silver paintjob does help at setting the bike apart from its standard siblings, but what we like the most about this project is the fact that it looks like that’s just the way Kawi did it in the first place. This is really one of those bikes that people see and ask “what is stock and what is aftermarket about it?” Click past the break to find out.
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This old Moto Guzzi 850 T3 was sitting in a junkyard in Trenton, NJ for ten years when Hal Wiley saw it as a good opportunity to build himself a nice café racer. The bike had suffered a small crash in the past and the elements also helped at basically turning it into a piece of crap, but not one that couldn’t be radically transformed with a lot of work and a fair investment.
The Guzzi was entirely stripped down only for the new owner to find that the engine, which had previously powered the bike for 55,000 miles, was top notch on the inside, so it only required a new timing chain, gaskets and seals and it was bolted back to its original shape. Well, not entirely as the original 30mm Dell’Orto carbs had been at some point in time replaced by 36mm Le Mans items. Also, the V-twin now breaths out through a set of EMGO shorty mufflers.
After sandblasting and painting the Tonti frame and bead blasting most of the aluminum parts, reconstruction could begin. But the actual parts that turn the bike into a café one – gas tank and fiberglass cafe seat – had to be ordered from eBay. Also, Hal choose to mount Lester rims with Avon Venom tires for an enhanced retro look. Finally, gloss black was the color of choice.
Like most similar projects, this is still a work in progress. Hal plans to upgrade the engine to 1000 cc and bring in a lighter flywheel so that it will even rev faster. Just what the doctor ordered!
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Inspired by the shark face nose art of World War II’s Flying Tigers, the three fighter squadrons of US volunteers that flew for the Chinese Air Force, Death Spray Custom in London have created what they like to call the Bite project.
This Ducati 996, which was most likely upgraded with a Fast By Ferracci 1026 Stroker Kit and now called ‘1096’, is the project’s pièce de résistance. Obviously, the paintjob is the coolest thing about it.
Ducati may not have thought at a “shark edition” for none of their superbikes, but DSC’s work could stand as a good source of inspiration if the idea ever strikes.
Photos © Neil Bridge
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Take a look at this 1977 Kawasaki KZ400 in the small photo and at the veritable café racer above only to find that there are little similarities, enough to have you say we’re talking about two different bikes. But it is precisely the ease of transforming an old Japanese bike into a café racer what impresses us the most about this project.
Billetproof Customs bought the bike for $300. The reliable engine still ran good, so it was worth stripping everything off of it in order to see what can be done from a fresh start. Said and done. They started with the frame, which was seriously modified and then they built the wheels and brought in lowered front shocks and custom shortened rear shocks. The old Kawi was now 2 inches lower and got itself a much more aggressive stance also thanks to the shortened clubman bars.
The bodywork was next. A refurbished 1979 Suzuki GT 500 fuel tank found its place on top of the frame together with the one-piece seat and rear tail section, which were custom made out of fiberglass by the builder. The reconditioned engine was now ready to go back on and it was fed through a single carb instead of its original dual ones. Also, it now features custom made and wrapped exhaust pipes and so they obtained a retro look instead of the classy one that chrome would have given the bike.
After adding a disc front brake and custom drilling the rear drum as well as hiding the battery under the tail section, the bike was ready for painting. Like all the above mentioned, this was done by the manufacturer and olive drab was the color of choice. Other nice details worth mentioning are the headlight, bar end mirrors and speedo, taillight as well as the custom stitched seat in between. Hit the jump for a multitude of photos.
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