Harley-Davidson

‘BAR!STA’ Custom Harley Davidson XL1200C Isn’t Your Ordinary Cafe Racer

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by Silvian Secara from https://www.autoevolution.com Seeing creatively customized motorcycles never gets old, so let’s have a look at another. BAR!STA’s story began when a Harley Davidson XL1200C arrived on the doorstep of a workshop based in Frankfurt, Germany. That would be none other than Mainhattan Choppers, a firm with an extensive portfolio of custom two-wheelers. It was co-founded by Harald Geiger, along with Martin Lison and its talented crew is prepared to go above and beyond to satisfy customers’ expectations. Now, as to Harley Davidson’s XL1200C, it is one mean, loud and truly ferocious animal. The thing is powered by a monstrous four-stroke V-twin with a displacement of 1201cc and a five-speed transmission, nested inside a mild steel tubular frame. This air-cooled engine is equipped with Evolution pushrods and hydraulic overhead valves, delivering up to 79 pound-feet (107 Nm) of torque output at 4,000 rpm. As far as suspension goes, XL1200C featured 39 mm forks at the front, along with adjustable shocks, coilovers and an MIG welded swingarm at the rear. Back to the front, its five-spoke cast aluminum wheel wore a 292 mm (11.5 inches) disc and two-piston calipers, along with a 260 mm (10.2 inches) rear disc and single-piston caliper. To give birth to their BAR!STA café racer using this Sportster as the starting point, the folks over at Mainhattan Choppers drew inspiration from the solid correlation that seems to exist between the passion for motorcycles and a sincere love for caffeine. In fact, this is exactly how the term ‘café racer’ came about in the first place. For this project, the team decided to collaborate with Ian Alderton, a remarkable individual with an experience of over 19 years in Honda Europe’s R&D department, as well as several builds of his own, such as a Moto Guzzi Le […]

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Harley-Davidson FXDR Turns Into Silver Rocket in the Hands of Thunderbike

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com We’ve seen over the years custom motorcycle builds being compared to anything you could imagine, but rarely so with something like a spaceship. Yet this is exactly how German custom shop Thunderbike describes its latest Harley-Davidson FXDR project. The Softail conversion, drawing a lot of inspiration from another build called Silverforce, is the latest product coming from one of the world’s most active Harley garages. It has been assembled in the shape displayed in the gallery above at the request of a customer, of course, and no corners were cut, neither visual nor performance-related. As usual with any Thunderbike machine, this one too sports a host of changes compared to the stock incarnation. Thunderbike has a habit of detailing all the parts that go into their builds, and in this case the list is over 20-items long. Changes include the addition of custom body parts – like fenders, seat shell, cover kits, footrest, grips and so on – but also mechanical alterations to make it meaner – lowered stance, fork conversion and above all, a Screamin ‘Eagle Stage II Torque Kit for the 144ci engine fitted on the two-wheeler. All these custom parts and modifications were made to fit together just right, and sprayed over with shades of silver, white, black and red by the shop’s usual painting partner, Kruse Design. What resulted is a bike that “looks as if it has come straight from a rocket base,” if there are bikes on rocket bases, or one that has “an appearance like a spaceship- fast and clean, without frills and gimmicks.” We are not being told how much the entire conversion cost to make, but a quick look at the parts listed as used on the bike puts the sum at over 5,000 euros ($6,000),

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Harley-Davidson and Jason Momoa Are 2 of the Things You Need to Get Through 2020

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com It’s been eight months now since this whole thing began, and even if most of us go about our daily routines pretty much as before, we are all aware things will probably never go back to the way they were. And that’s troubling, since such a change is not something our generation is equipped to handle. So everybody is trying to find an anchor of some sort, something to keep us afloat as we try to envision a way out of this. Sadly, in a sea of misinformation, disinformation and hearsay, there are not nearly as many motivational messages coming through. Not even from the celebrities who over the past years never shied away from speaking their minds about whatever the topic of the hour was. With the help of one of its most prominent riders, Harley-Davidson is trying to become one of the anchors some of us need. Jason Momoa has been tasked with producing and directing a video series under the United We Will Ride campaign umbrella showing “six Harley-Davidson riders as they navigate through the dark days of the pandemic using the power of riding to engage with their families, their communities, and themselves.” “Motorcycles have brought me places that have changed my life and around people that have molded who I am.” said in a statement Jason Momoa. “With my latest production for Harley-Davidson, I’m seeking to broadcast the beauty of riding and the spirit of the motorcycling community during this unprecedented time to encourage riders and aspiring riders to ride. Let’s Ride!” There’s a first glimpse at the series in the video attached below, narrated by Momoa himself. For some, this idea will probably be just one of those publicity stunts companies usually make while taking advantage of the hottest

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1969 Harley-Davidson FLH Is a Custom Camping Bike for When You Need to Get Away

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Had 2020 be any different, we would have gotten the chance of seeing tons of small shop-made custom motorcycles at the various shows across the States. But things being as they are, we’re only left with admiring them online. To fill the gap left by the canceled shows, Harley-Davidson had the brilliant idea of coming up with The No Show, an event dedicated to custom bike builders who had no place to show their creations this year. Back in July, the company’s YouTube channel was flooded with independent builds, revealing all we could have seen in the flesh. The 1969 Harley-Davidson FLH we have in the gallery above is one of them. It is a custom-made Shovelhead assembled at the Juniors Hand Made shop in Costa Mesa, California, by a guy named Scotty Dettwiler. The man hints in the short video below that this is as close to the real thing as the bike can get, while at the same time retaining a custom look. That was possible by mixing stock Harley parts – such as the engine and transmission, which are model-year correct – with tons of other custom parts, made by the builder himself. The fun part about it that, like many others of its kind do, this bike was not created to be sold. No, it’s actually Dettwiler’s daily rider, and he’s not only taking it down the road, but also camping. The feeling of having something you built yourself take you places must be extraordinary, and you can see that’s exactly the case here from the way the man gets off his bike, takes a brightly-colored folding chair from the rear of the two-wheeler, and sits down next to the machine in the middle of nowhere. We are not being told

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Angelle Sampey and Harley-Davidson Back on Top at Indy

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Former Champion Sampey Earns 43rd Career Pro Stock Motorcycle Victory INDIANAPOLIS (August 9, 2020) – Harley-Davidson® Screamin’ Eagle®/Vance & Hines rider Angelle Sampey charged to a final-round win in Pro Stock Motorcycle competition at the Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals presented by Pennzoil at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. The three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion (2000-2002) won for the 43rd time in her career two days after her 50th birthday. The victory is Sampey’s first in the class since 2016. She joined the Harley-Davidson® Screamin’ Eagle®/Vance & Hines drag racing team in 2019. “Thank you Harley-Davidson and Vance & Hines for having confidence in me and for putting me on this great motorcycle,” said Sampey, who rode a Harley-Davidson FXDR drag bike for the win. “I told you I was going to do it. Happy birthday to me!” The Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines team races competition Pro Stock drag bikes inspired by the Harley-Davidson® FXDR™ 114, a high-performance cruiser based on the Softail® platform that combines the unrelenting power of the Milwaukee-Eight® 114 engine with the liberal use of new weight-saving aluminum and composite components to amplify every aspect of performance. Sampey qualified fourth for the event with a best elapsed time (ET) of 6.855 seconds. In Sunday eliminations, Sampey defeated Steve Johnson, her Harley-Davidson® Screamin’ Eagle®/Vance & Hines teammate Andrew Hines and Scotty Pollacheck to reach the 74th final-round appearance of her career. As the team prepared to fire up her Harley FXDR bike to face Chris Bostick in the final the clutch malfunctioned, but quick work by the Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines crew solved the problem and Sampey made it to the line. Sampey posted a near-perfect 0.001-second reaction time and a 6.880 ET to take an overwhelming victory over Bostick (0.053/6.950), who was in the first final

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Sturgis sponsor Harley-Davidson refused to send employees to annual rally over COVID-19 fears

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by Matthew Chapman from https://www.rawstory.com The ten-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is moving forward in South Dakota despite fears from health experts that it will be a superspreader event for COVID-19. According to The Daily Beast, even Harley-Davidson, the official motorcycle manufacturer of the Sturgis rally, is cautious about scaling up its operations at the event. “The dangers gave pause even to a company that counts on people’s willingness to risk being pinballed around without the protection of seat belts or air bags,” reported special correspondent Michael Daly. “To have participated in the rally as it had in past years would have meant being party to recklessness of a different order even than riding a motorcycle without a helmet. If you hop on a hog without a helmet, you are endangering only yourself. But if you go about without a mask you are endangering others.” According to the report, Harley-Davidson has declined to send any staff to the event, and is not directly vending products or holding demos as it has in previous years. “Usually, we have trucks and staff and products and demos and everything,” said a spokesperson. “This year, we aren’t doing that.” The spokesperson added, “We made the decision to kind of support it in a different way. This year, we’re doing it in a way that supports social distancing.” This is not the first time Harley-Davidson has been at odds with many of its customers. Two years ago, President Donald Trump picked a fight with the motorcycle brand over its decision to shift some production to Europe to avoid the trade war, and at that year’s Sturgis rally, many bikers said they were backing the president over the manufacturer of their rides.

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Thunderbike Kreuzfeuer Crosses German Shapes with Harley-Davidson Power

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com It’s very hard to find a recent custom motorcycle worth talking about. That’s probably because the custom bike industry is much slower at churning out new products, and the number of garages doing stuff to/with motorcycles is much smaller than those handling cars. So, when in the mood for some stunning custom motorcycle, the way to go is back in time. It is there you’ll probably find what you’re looking for – and proof of that is the Kreuzfeuer we have in the gallery above, coming to us from all the way back in 2005. Kreuzfeuer (which is German for Crossfire) was built by one of the most active custom motorcycle garages in Europe, Thunderbike. It was completed so long ago that we don’t really know where it is at the moment, or whether someone is still using it as a daily ride. But it remains stunning nonetheless. Just like a great deal of other two-wheelers made by Thunderbike, this too blends the lines of a custom (albeit mass-produced) frame called Dragster with the power of a proven Harley-Davidson engine, Thunderbike styling, and a crazy Kruse Design paint job to come result in a truly unique build. The frame, one of the about 15 available in the garage’s portfolio at the moment, is equipped from the get-go with fuel and oil tanks, CNC machined aluminum swingarm, rear fender, rear wheel axle, bracket for engine, bracket for battery, and seat plate. Inside it rests a Harley-Davidson Twin-Cam engine, 1,550cc in displacement and good for 88 ps. It is equipped with a Harley 5-speed gearbox and a Mikuni carburetor. The entire finished assembly rides on equally sized (diameter) custom wheels front and rear, and a red-orange-black paint job adorns most of the body of the machine. We

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Harley Creates Chief Digital Officer Role, Hires Former Bose Exec

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by Dustin Wheelen from https://www.rideapart.com Hawking Hogs in the digital age. Many see a Harley-Davidson motorcycle as the symbol of a mid-life crisis, but for the past five years, the Motor Company has been going through its own identity crisis. From releasing the LiveWire to introducing the Pan America and the Bronx to the recent Rewire scale back plan, messaging from the brand has been mixed to say the least. Despite refocusing on cruisers and baggers, the company recently created a Chief Digital Officer position to beef up its online presence. Harley hired former Bose Corp. executive Jagdish Krishnan to helm the initiative. Drawing from his 20 years of digital leadership at Bose, Deloitte & Touche, and Patni Computer Systems, Krishnan will prioritize building relationships with existing and new customers through the company’s digital platforms. The brand is also focused on developing its e-commerce and direct-to-consumer capabilities by further digitizing dealers. Krishnan’s digital strategy will heavily lean into customer experience not only online but also in-store. “Harley-Davidson is all about experiences, and an enhanced digital experience is absolutely critical for us to make our GIS and digital capabilities more customer-centric,” said Krishnan’s new boss, Harley-Davidson president and CEO Jochen Zeitz. “We will take a completely different approach to applying digital technology across the company to fundamentally change how we operate and create value.” While retro-styled cruisers and advanced technology seem antithetical, COVID-19 is only accelerating worldwide digitization. With the company recording reduced sales figures in Q2 and preparing for layoffs at the end of the calendar year, harnessing the internet as a retail tool will become more and more important. “We need to be a high-performing team with cutting edge leadership to move us forward,” noted Zeitz. “Jagdish is exactly the right leader, and he will ensure we connect with

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Harley-Davidson Golden Lowrider Is Why Gold Is Not Cool on Custom Bikes

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com/ We’re not sure what is it about gold that makes it look so tacky on cars and motorcycles, but it is what it is: although there are some trying to make gold give a noble look to their rides, all they manage to do is make them look completely and uselessly bling. In the world of motorcycles, the Yamaha-based Nehmesis is the perfect example of bling builds. Completed some years ago, the extreme machine would have looked perhaps even greater had any other colors than gold and red velvet would have been chosen for it. Of course, what’s poor taste for some is worth every penny for others. Despite its shortcomings, the Nehmesis is worth around $3 million, making it one of the most expensive in the world and by extension justifying the choice of hue. A lot cheaper, but equally disturbing to look at, is this Golden Lowrider we have here. Created by German custom shop Thunderbike by pairing a custom frame and tons of custom parts with a Harley-Davidson engine, the two-wheeler goes against everything the garage is usually about. Used to being treated with incredible builds wrapped in colors that only enhance the visual look and at times even mean something – courtesy of the shop’s usual partner in this field, Kruse Design – we kind of find this one a disappointment. Sure, the overall shapes and the mechanics that went into it are of the usual German quality, but those are completely outshined by the gold that wraps around everything with the exception of the engine, exhaust, and some other minor elements. The Golden Lowrider was made by the Germans some time ago, and as usual we’re not being told how much it cost. We also have no idea where the

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Thunderbike Gulf Edition Wraps Harley-Davidson Custom Build in Le Mans Colors

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com There are a few car colors in this world that are perhaps more recognizable than the vehicles they are sprayed on. When talking about production cars, who doesn’t know about the Nardo Gray, or the British Racing Green? Motorsport has its share of stars as well. One of them is called Gulf Oil livery, and was made famous back in the 1960s by Ford and its efforts to better Ferrari at Le Mans. It was later sprayed on other machines as well, and it is presently to be found on one of the many versions of the Ford GT. We must admit though that we’ve never seen the Gulf on a motorcycle. At least not until we uncovered the Thunderbike Gulf Edition, a motorcycle made by the famous German shop with the goal of paying tribute to the “absolute cult in racing” color scheme. The bike itself is the usual blend of a custom frame (in this case one called Dragster RS) and the power of a Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle engine. The two were paired to a wealth of custom parts that look great, but are made stunning by the color wrap. We’re not told who handled the paint scheme, but knowing Thunderbike it was probably Kruse Design. The specialist really outdid itself this time, somehow managing to closely replicate the blue and orange scheme seen on the Le Mans racers. The entire frame of the bike is blue, and so are the fuel tank and fenders. An orange stripe runs smack down the middle, from the right fender, over the fuel tank and seat, and ends on the rear fender. Both shades seems to be the proper ones, and look amazing with the black of the engine block and the wheels. We are not

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