You don’t often see the words ‘Harley-Davidson’ and ‘streetfighter’ in the same sentence. But if anyone can make a happy marriage of these uneasy bedfellows, it’s Winston Yeh of Rough Crafts. And he’s done it in spectacular style with his new build ‘Hooligan Tactics’—complete with pixelated paintjob.
“After finishing the Urban Cavalry Dyna, I thought about doing a Sportster version with a similar ‘street fighter’ feel,” says Winston. “Then a customer came in with a slightly modified Harley Forty-Eight. He said ‘Do whatever you want with it.’
Winston happened to have an XR1200 swingarm lying around, and that was how the Forty-Eight took shape. “The rest of it just fell into place naturally,” he says, “with inverted forks and piggyback shocks from Progressive Suspension.”
He makes it sound easy, but those forks are not simple bolt-ons: they’re from a Suzuki GSX-R600.
Winston designed and made the triple trees and a custom axle, and also cut the radial caliper mount on the right-hand side: “For that single-disc lightweight look,” he says. “I just like the cleanness of the right side showing the wheel.”
The forged billet aluminum wheels are from Arlen Ness’ 10-Gauge range. Anodized in black, they’ve gone up in size from the stock Harley Forty-Eight: up two sizes at the front to 18 inches, and up one at the back to 17.
The matching composite rotors are from Lyndall Brakes, and the tires are Dunlop’s hardcore Sportmax.
There’s a smattering of classy Rough Crafts parts throughout. The most noticeable is the straight-shot exhaust system, with a Rough Crafts finned air filter upstream.
Winston’s also designed the rocker covers, the grooved clutch cover, the front and rear lights, the risers and the narrow drag bars—which are fitted with a mix of Rough Crafts and Performance Machine controls.
The paint is a style we haven’t seen before, which Winston describes as ‘digital camo.’ It’s a bluish-grey shade you rarely see on Harleys, and the pixelated effect works brilliantly—hence the slightly military, ‘tactical’ vibe. As always with Rough Crafts builds, it was expertly applied by Air Runner.
It’s a killer bike, and might just kickstart a new genre of Harley-Davidson customs. If you’ve got a Sportster in your garage and fancy roughing it up with a streetfighter vibe, you know who to call.
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