XLCR replica stage 1.

Ben van Helden has been on a divine mission to make a XLCR replica.
his approach to the build was in an angle not much used. when most people who build replica's would settle for replica parts, Ben's idea was to use as many original parts as possible (and affordable) for the replica.
the best canvas to start an XLCR replica is offcourse a '79 IronHead. this is basically the same frame and engine as the XLCR. (for those who don't believe me, i still have my '79 frame hanging on the wall and the part number  for the frame is the same as an XLCR frame but with one character more)

here's what he started with:

a butt ugly '79 XLCH with good frame and engine.


here's the finished product with all the trademark parts like seat, exhaust headers, headlight mount and fairing and lots of more parts being real (not replica!!) XLCR parts.

now why is it called "Stage one" you might ask? "it looks like the real deal right?
well.. ben is somewhat of a purist, but sometimes in a little rush to get a bike on the road.
the bike is now fully functional, but lacks a few details which he will attend to do to get to "Stage 2" like making the engine wrinckle black, put on the rear controls (which he already found! very very rare part) 18" rear wheel and some more little things..

but the 79 engine has a "normal" 1 down, the rest up shift pattern, and a XLCR has it backwards (1 up, the rest down) because of the rear controls. these shifter cams are rare and expensive, so it was out of the option.
but after some brainstorming sessions on the SON Forum, the answer was found, since it is a Harley, parts should be recyclable and reusable in a simple way.

an XLCR shifter cam:

and a stock IronHead shifter cam:

if you would look closely you see some differences and if you look a lot better you see that the differences are actually similarities!
so Ben took the stock ironhead shifter cam and removed the cam axle and turned the cam and re-lined the axle.

(XLCH stock) axle and cam apart:

cam and axle in new position:

and there you go! one reversed XLCR type shifter cam!

if you want to see more (and i know you want to see more!!) about this sweet build and more bike goodness by Ben check out these links:

the XLCR replica build.

Bens Bikes.

Both links are in Dutch though, but if you can't read Dutch there are still plenty of nice pictures to drool over.

HD paves the ground for competition? and crumples their P&A sales in one blow to?

as some may know, HD is issuing their dealers to stop part sales overseas, to home builders like you and me outside the US, and independent bike shops inside the US and abroad.
and the MoCo will not sell directly to the indy shops inside the US and abroad .

home builders outside the US (like me) have to pay the 4 times higher price for parts, because they have to buy it at the overpriced dealerships. the small home builders (or at least i...) just don't have the dough to pay 4 times the price of the US price including shipping and local taxes, and still build nice bikes.


but the problem for the indy shops is that they can't stock original HD or SE parts any more.
on a parts sales standpoint of view the indy shops are going to miss a lot of income, because their loyal customers have to go to the dealer to buy some parts. but remember! the dealer sales the parts to the indy!
if the indy gets his parts from another manufacturer the dealer will loose income, the other parts manufacturer (like S&S to name one) will have more sales in little parts, and HD dealers and thus the MoCo will have less parts sales..

also, the Screaming Eagle (SE) parts can't be sold by any other than the HD dealer to the end user. for the bling bling shit, that isn't a big loss.. but stuff like heads and cylinders are a big loss. more than halve of the SE performance parts like heads, cylinders, cams and A/C's are put on bikes by indy shops.
performance shops use SE parts to make entry level performance kits. these kits can be bought for reasonable prices, and be put on your bike for normal hourly wages.
after market performance companies will jump in this void and can produce and sell more performance parts for lower prices. (hopefully)


when this happens the sales of parts and performance parts from HD and SE will plummet and giving the MoCo even more problems.



now this is just another fine example of the sick and twisted ways to kill HD from Mr Wandell.

yes.. the same idiot who pulled the plug on Buell in an effort to save some bucks. killing Buell did not save the MoCo money... it made an income loss of almost $100 Million!

so now the second step is to kill a big part of P&A sales, giving the competition more room, and killing the P&A sales done by dealers to indies?!
(bear in mind: some indies do order in excess of $40.000 worth of parts at their local dealers annual!!!)

and on another fine side note.. Wendell gets over one million dollars a year for his "services"!!(salary and bonuses)  if the MoCo hase to save some bucks the best million dollar save is to kick Wendell out and start selling to indies again!

those fuckers!

seat and tail combo.

i made a seat and tail combo for Toxic.
first i cut up an old sportster tank..

after that it was time to make a cardboard template and making the template into sheetmetal. once cut and formed it could be welded to the tank.

time to make some supports and mounting brackets..

now time to make a new template again!
this will be seat base and i will make a slightly smaller one which will be the actual seatpan. so the seat can be easily removed for access to the room in the tail section. what this room will hold is still uncertain. i could put the battery in there, or make an oiltank out of it, or use it just as a storage compartment for my bike lock and stuff.

test fitting with my big ass is important to!

the tail section has to be finished. the bottom lines are just a rough cut and the filler opening is still in place.
but i can finish that all once i know what the rear will house. if it's going to be an oil tank i can let the filler opening exist and close up the tank. if it will be a battery housing i have to make a battery tray inside, an acces hole behind the rear of the seat and after that i can close the bottom.
if it's just storage i have to make an access opening behind the seat and make a flat floor inside the tank above the mounting tabs, and a second bottom on the underside of the tank.
or i make the exhaust exit through the tail, that could be cool to! i always loved the tail of the aprillia rsv4.

ow.. i also ordered some pre bend welding pipes, or who you might call those things.. but i ordered the wrong inside diameter.. my bad, but i can't send them back.. and frankly they were pretty expensive. (stainless cold pulled and formed with polished inside..)

ground contact.

got me some fresh parts for Toxic. some stuff to make his feet more nimble and light!

 

the swingarm including the wheel and brake are as heavy (light?) as the stock swingarm with nothing!

saweet!

and a nice Buell front end. fully adjustable and brembo caliper.
but just standing in a corner they wouldn't do much for the bike right?
so in with the parts  already!
the swingarm came with a Brembo caliper, but to mount it the left shock absorber has to be off set. i'm not sure i like that, so first i tried another bracket and a GMA 4 piston caliper..

looks nice, and true custom!
but the Brembo will look da Bomb to.. so i'm not sure which one i'm going to use..

after that in with the front end!

offcourse the orange will go..black and green is the way to go!

told you so!

at the Mooneyes Expo in Yokohama, the real cool stuff for the biker cult and hot rodders is shown.
what is on display over there in Japan is the stuff that is cool or will be cool in the cult. no 330 tire OCC style crap, but real bikes and real cars.
remember i told once i started my digger build (Daddy Cool) that the diggers are back. well look what draw a lot of attention at Mooneyes.

be prepared! a lot of diggers are being build right now!

cardboard time..

the Savage from thijs is just a bare roller with some left over engine in it.
as seen as thijs wants a somewhat prostreet look, although i don't really think it suits the bike, i got cutting some cardboard.
first some preliminary tank lines.

just to get a little looky looky of how it would look like with more metal on the frame i cut some more cardboard.

wow, that looks like shit!
now it's up to thijs to find a donor tank that i can cut apart. and after the tank is one the bike we will look at the rest of the metal work.  i like it to be as bare as possible, because in my opinion it's the best looking option. just a tank and some fenders and that's it for the metal department! but it's not my bike... so it's up to thijs.

design stage rear end XR883

got fed up with the intake/exhaust clearance issues for the XR883 heads, it so fucking tight!
to change my mind set i had to do something else, time to get a little thinking about the seat tail section.

so out with the cardboard and make some sketches and cut some shapes.

i grabbed an old sportster tank from the stash pile and this will become the rear section.

as you might know, i'm a sucker for correct flow of the lines, and to see if it all had a pretty decent flow i checked the lines.

but actually i can't go with these lines, the swing arm will be swapped for a longer one and the front end will get a usd sports bike front end (or Buell) so the lines will change.

purpose build Buell

at Zen Motorcycles they are making a Bonnevile racer.
they want to break the 1000 A-PG class land speed record, this is the class for less than 1000CC gas powerd pushrod engines.
basis is a Buell XB 9 engine in a single loop rigid frame. the engine has no gearbox, just the engine and a clutch.
the bike isa tribute to Masayuki Morimoto’s boardtracker Harley.
and the bike looks actually killer!

sporty trikes

to be honest.. i don't like these (sportster) trikes, but i thought i would share this with you all.
i like to chop, hack and cut frames and parts, and hate bolt on shit.
but the boys at Trikeworks have just done that! these sportster trikes can be build without cutting anything!
it's just a bolt on rear end..... so for the RUBs who do not want to void their warranty (pathetic), and still have done something else to their 48, Nightster, Iron or whatever blubbermount sporty they might have. it's all reversible!
and if you cough up enough dough, the Toxic Garage can do it for you within 3 hours! (1 if i can use my grinder!)
nah, just kidding.. it's a bolt on thing... we don't do Fucking bolt on!

i guess it look all better if it had smaller wheels and a little longer wheelbase, and if i can Chop that Fucking Sportster!

more brainfarting...Evo XR 883...

it was getting busy inside my head, ideas overflowing each other and all involved the XR883 brainfart..

ah well.. i guess i have to get it out of my head and try to make Toxic into a XR883.

my biggest problem is manifold/exhaust clearance in the "V" of the engine.

i dug up another front head (it's a BT head, but for size and comparison the head will do) and put it on Toxic.

with some PVC plumbing i could look how my clearance would be.. or the lack off..

hmm. that is just to tight..

i hacked up an old exhaust to see how tight of a bend i could make to get a little more room for the manifold.

now that saves a little more room!

i took a little side step and want to see how it would look as a 2-1 exhaust..

kinda cool....

but on with the XR setup. time for more PVC pipes to check and see what i can do..

if i use an oval piece of tube i can pull it of.

now i was somewhat content with it...

and i wanted to see how it would look as a complete setup. with both carbs sticking out.

so back to the stash pile and dig up some carbs! and put it on the bike for more looking and measuring..

looks bad ass!

but i still have a manifold that is very close to the exhaust.. and that could give problems..

and why do i still keep intake and exhaust on the same side of the engine?

the real XR's have the exhaust on the left and intake on the right. so.. why shouldn't i do a left and right configuration? the exhaust still exits to the right side and can't exit to the left like XR's do. but i can make the intake manifolds exit to the left. this will eliminate the exhaust heat issues almost complete! also in the lines of a true XR i have something on the left sticking out the engine and something on the right.. it's just mirrored..

so next up is getting the carbs on the left!