{"id":3029,"date":"2010-10-25T14:31:54","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T19:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/?p=3029"},"modified":"2012-09-02T12:42:36","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T17:42:36","slug":"harley-davidson-sportster-xl883-cafe-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/2010\/10\/harley-davidson-sportster-xl883-cafe-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Harley-Davidson Sportster XL883 Cafe Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, I recently finished my Honda 919 build, and have been in the market for another project.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to get into building bikes for a living, so I\u2019ve been cutting my teeth on Honda\u2019s for the last few years – just trying to get the hang of non-bolt on customization and all that that entails \u2013 and it\u2019s time for my first serious custom.<\/p>\n

I have to admit (and just about everyone knows), I have never been a fan of Harley Davidson.\u00a0 I always felt that they charged too much, offered too little, and their engineering was contemporarily behind industry standards set in the \u201870s; no one will ever accuse Harley of making a motorcyclist\u2019s machine.\u00a0 With this said, I wanted to build a proper caf\u00e9 racer \u2013 a standout caf\u00e9 racer that\u2019s reasonably a runner \u2013 and I wanted it to be American.\u00a0 That pretty much leaves one option.\u00a0 So I set aside the bias, did some research, and traded the Honda 919 for a Sportster 883.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the bike for a few weeks now, have put 1,500 miles on her, and I have to say (and I feel like an idiot doing it) that I love this bike more every time I get on it.\u00a0 The way it delivers power (albeit limited power) is different than anything else I\u2019ve ridden.\u00a0 When you hit the throttle, the bike just feels like an animal.\u00a0 It\u2019s raw, it\u2019s dirty, it\u2019s unrefined, it\u2019s heavy, it vibrates, it\u2019s underpowered, the geometry is all wrong, it handles like a three-legged horse, but it is hands down the most fun bike I\u2019ve driven, and I\u2019m really growing into it.<\/p>\n

Enough rambling, here\u2019s the plan (or some of it)\u2026<\/p>\n

The XL 883 as bought…<\/p>\n

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A rough sketch of the plan. I’m going to keep the stock tank as the Harley “Peanut” tank is pretty iconic, and it gives the Sportster a really thin profile. I picked up another stock tank off of eBay, and will be using it as a base for a seat cap.<\/p>\n

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Bill Becker shot this for me. We were thinking about rearset and handlebar position. I ordered some Biltwell Clubmans, but am probably going to fabricate some rearsets.<\/p>\n

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This is a Vance & Hines Competition Series exhaust. I’m thinking this with black header wrap. I’m not 100% on it yet. I would really be into a nice “pea-shooter” 2:1 style, but I can’t find one. Supertrapp makes something similar, but I’m kind of not into the adjustable exhaust thing.<\/p>\n

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This is a Roland Sands Street Tracker\/Caf\u00e9 Sportster. I’m just putting it up here as a reference. I think it’s definitely a badass ride, but it’s not a classic caf\u00e9, and that’s what I’m into.<\/p>\n

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Another Sportster caf\u00e9 example. I’m into this one a little more. I like that its a little rougher around the edges. Also, if I could find that exhaust, it’d be perfect. I’ve scoured the web and can’t find anything on it. This image was taken off of an eBay listing for this bike a few years ago. It’s been passed around all the XL Caf\u00e9 forums, but the guy whose bike it is\/was hasn’t posted anything about it. I fucking LOVE that exhaust though…<\/p>\n

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I’m dying to get this thing started, and a lot of parts are already on the way. \u00a0I want to be a little slower and more deliberate on this build though, I just want to get it right the first time. \u00a0More to follow…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, I recently finished my Honda 919 build, and have been in the market for another project.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to get into building bikes for a living, so I\u2019ve been cutting my teeth on Honda\u2019s for the last few years – just trying to get the hang of non-bolt on customization and all that that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3029"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3056,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions\/3056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinonthetank.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}