Rare Bird: A 1970 Sportster XLH Turned Desert Sled
You’ll find no shortage of custom Harleys on builder Kento Oketani’s home streets of Long Beach. But you won’t find anything quite…
Read more »Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson is an icon of American culture and the most popular marque for custom builders. Shortly after the company was founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, customizers started bobbing, chopping and dirt tracking the famous V-twins.
After WW2 Harley motorcycles were at the center of the bobber craze, and kept their lead as Californian bikers turned to choppers in the late 1950s. The 45-degree engines have their own nicknames and folklore: from flatheads, knuckleheads, panheads and shovelheads to today’s Evolution and Milwaukee-Eight motors.
The Sportster is the basis for more Harley-Davidson customs than any other model. Originally fitted with an ‘Ironhead’ motor, it turned 60 years old in 2017. It’s probably the single most customized motorcycle on the planet, and certainly has the largest supply of aftermarket parts.
Gleam Machine: Rodsmith’s Ironhead Sportster café racer
A sleek frame, a mechanical aesthetic, a distinct lack of plastic and a lot of polished metal. This Harley-Davidson Ironhead Sportster café…
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Going Pro: A Harley flathead bobber from a shed builder
There’s usually a little trepidation when we hear from a custom builder that we don’t know. Is their work any good, or…
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By the Book: A Sportster street tracker from Mule
If we had a stock Harley-Davidson Sportster and a hankering for a top-shelf street tracker, we’d probably call Richard Pollock. Better known…
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Gelände/Strasse: The Dyna Low Rider S, done two ways
The 2016-model Dyna Low Rider S was the last hurrah for Harley-Davidson’s beloved Dyna. The Motor Co. was on the cusp of…
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Speed Read, May 15, 2022
Meet the new LiveWire S2 Del Mar—a bike so hotly anticipated, the first 100 sold out in 18 minutes. Then peruse a…
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VR1000 tribute: A two-faced Buell S1 from GDesign
If there’s a bike that symbolizes the uneasy relationship between Harley-Davidson and sporting performance, it’s the VR1000. Developed in the late 80s…
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Still Got It: OWM scrambles the outgoing Harley Sportster
With the release of the Nightster, the decades-old Harley-Davidson Sportster has now fully passed the torch on to the next generation. But…
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Hello Darkness: Hidemo debuts a 2022 Nightster custom
It’s only three weeks since Harley-Davidson pulled the sheets off the 2022 Nightster, giving us a look at the spiritual successor to…
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Speed Read, April 17, 2022
Harley-Davidson expands their new Sportster line with the 975cc Nightster. Plus we profile a BMW R18 from Canada, a Ducati SportClassic from…
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Muscle R2 by Cohn Racers: The ultimate Sportster special
The market for modified Sportsters is crowded. Most builders of repute in the USA know their way around the venerable platform, and…
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Streamlined: A French designer reimagines the Sportster
There are a million ways to customize a Harley-Davidson Sportster, so it’s tempting to look to those that have gone before for…
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