| Author | Message | ||
     Sticks |
Hillbilly Motors has a Harley section and there's an outfit that makes everything you need to transform a Sportster into a CR replica. Drool. I keep thinking about it. Damn they look cool. I saw a killer ( probably literally on the duff ) but really cool street tracker type Sporty yesterday too. Something about the CR though... I just keep looking at my sportster. Don't have the $$$$$, but... Anybody done one? | ||
| Dynasport |
I took a look and they do have some sharp bikes on their site. I think it would be great, but I bet it would be $$$$$. I'm just waiting for the XR to come stateside. | ||
| Sticks |
10-4 think you're right about the $ and the XR 1200. Like an idiot, I bought the Sporty for my GF for Christmas so we'd both have bikes, then a couple three weeks later she decides she'd rather be my XGF. Oh well, at least I didn't get her ( me ) a pink bike. So I keep looking at that bike as a bit of a blank canvas. Now all I need is a blank check he he. CR drool. | ||
| Trojan |
The XLCR on the Hillbilly site is made by French company Mecatwin, and you can see more about it here: http://www.mecatwin.com/en/motos/hd/xlcr/index.htm Alternatively, if you just want a DIY cafe racer conversion that is available in kit form and costs a lot less than the Mecatwin, take a look at UK comany Hogbitz web site for their classic and distinctly British Cafe Racer conversion. http://hogbitz.com/home.html  | ||
| Sticks |
Hey Trojan, thanks for the heads up, I'll check those out. | ||
| Bad_news_buffalo |
Sticks: who was that Rat Woman that dumped you? I say we all go find her and kick her to the curb or someplace really bad | ||
| Sticks |
Wow, that's creepy. Hi Scout. | ||
| Gohot |
I think a singular point of the increadable beauty of the XLCR is the intigration of the stretched look of the tank. ie. somewhat a flat track theme. The pipes on the other hand, while acceptable, could be enhanced somewhat with a lttle creativity, though for the purist are just right. Overall, in my book it has always been a dream aquisition to persue. | ||
| Ftd |
http://www.cyrilhuzeblog.com/2008/10/12/cafe-racer -rockers-and-rock%e2%80%99-n-%e2%80%99roll/ | ||
| Sticks |
I like the Brit bikes, but I got it bad for the Mecatwin take on the XLCR. I'd rather have it than one of the AMF bikes. All cool stuff. | ||
| Bartimus |
The XLCR was a great looking bike in it's day.  There's always the Storz...   | ||
| Phwx2 |
The XLCR is the first use of the "x" exhaust. I think NASCAR picked it up in the late 1990's and in the last couple of years after market exhaust manuf started using it. It is a very good configuration. I have been wondering for years whether HD did the X exhaust in 77 for looks or on verified performance. Dodge did the first "H" exhaust which can also be seen phased in on the Brit vertical twins in the late 60's. | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
I read somewhere recently that they did actually get a few hp from the siamese/X exhaust setup. Not much, but significant. I'll try and find the article. | ||
| Moxnix |
I bought a new XLCR, sitting unsold on the showroom floor for two years in Port Angeles, WA in 1979 and for 10% less than MSRP. Put 338 miles on it before putting it in storage. One of life's errors, let some one buy it while out of the country. He wrecked it and sold it. A fellow in Seattle bought it, rebuilt it, rode it cross country. I was at a VME meeting in 1990 and recognized it by marks on the headlight toggle the H-D shop salesman had scratched in so he could operate it safely. Good grief. The shop had two, one sold to a youthful scalliwag who crashed in a minor fashion. The shop fixed it up and sold it to a guy in Seattle who died. His widow sold it to a friend who still owns it. Iron heads aren't my favorite, I refer back to the "waffle iron" series between KRs and '72 XRs. The only wishful thinking I've had on getting another is when a 1977 Motorvation Spyder turned up for sale, the series with the 7-spoke Morris mag that matches the bulk of XLCR wheels. Late '78 and the 8 or 9 made in 1979 (as '79s) had the 9-spoke Sportster wheels. Sidecar on an XLCR? XR1000s sat on dealer's showrooms, too. No takers, except for a few Hector the Collectors and dirt track fans. Great motors if you rebuilt them before use. I kept an XR1000 engine in the living room for its pleasing asthetic. Along with a Johnny Goad '72 XR750 motor raced by Ricky Graham. Johnny was the first to put a double row so-called "superblend" crank bearing on the right side to keep the case from cracking. Harley borrowed an engine of his and soon all subsequent XR750s had the same. Still do. Other living room MC art objects were an XLR engine prepared by Baisley his very self that I had to buy a complete coffin tanked chopper to acquire, and a KHR with red barrels that I picked up in pieces from an old racer. Harley never made a KHR guys told me, including a famous museum owner, who years later had one. So one day these two police women came to the house on business, clearly ardent feminists of the short-haired persuasion. They gave each other a look and rolled their eyes my hobbyist's collection of XRTT frames and tanks and seats and fairings in the living room that had outgrown the garage. I'm pretty sure they high-fived each other back in the squad car for their choice. These Euro samples are okay. Evo motors are just better than the hot running and seizing iron kind. Evo frames are much better, too. And if invested money doubles every ten years, then spending a bit over $10K in another XLCR today, just because, makes it even. (Message edited by moxnix on January 24, 2009) (Message edited by moxnix on January 24, 2009) | ||
| Nevrenuf |
saw the xlcr on a poster in one of the military service stores at the nato base in naples italy back in the beginning of "78". i really wanted one so bad but considering i didn't have a year and a half left on my inlistment i didn't want to get further into dept know i propably wouldn't reinlist. and then buell came along and all bets were off. still wouldn't mind a xlcr to have for show. | ||
| Moxnix |
I can feel the Collector stirring. You're right. An XLCR would be a nice piece for the office and roll it out once in a blue moon to show. Oh, now I've done it . . . | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Found it, it's in the XLCR side-bar of "Harley Davidson Sportster Performance Handbook" by Buzz Buzzelli. According to Willie G: "We had a young engineer who was running exhaust system tests on the dyno. He came up with the siamese-type system. We spent a lot of time on it, and it added 5hp. It was the most powerful Sportster we ever had." | ||
| 4cammer |
Moxnix, you need to post some pics of your junk collection...Graham XR750 engine....that is too cool. | ||
| Moxnix |
It was the AMF era. Lore had it amongst afficianados that the engine assemblers matched piston weights and took more care in assembling. Arlen Ness once owned 27 XCLRs. A Sputhe modified XLCR set a record at Bonneville. Cut&paste from his web site: "Cycle World Magazine road tested a street version and declared it to be the “fastest motorcycle of any kind that this magazine has ever tested” (July, 1980). To this day it is still the fastest Harley-Davidson." And . . . " and set a record at Bonneville; 1300 MPS-AG at 176 MP (this record still unofficially stands as the 1350 P MPS G record 24 years later)" | ||
| Phwx2 |
"We spent a lot of time on it, and it added 5hp." And yet they never used it again! That is so far as I know and I'm no expert. I wonder if HD got and enforces a patent on it. | ||
| Bartimus |
wasn't the 1984 XR1000 faster? It had true XR heads, dual carbs, and supertrapp exhaust...   | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Going from memory of what I've read (I was 7 when the XLCR was released!), some of the other '78 Sportsters got the siamese pipes, maybe '79 too. I think it was the only time Sporty's got mufflers on the left and right side, rather than some sort of staggered pipe. I guess they went back to the staggered pipes for the sake of looks... The XLCR would have been the most powerful Sportster at the time (1977). | ||
| Moxnix |
The fast XLCR in C.W. had extensive mods over stock. The Graham motor went to the guy in Ohio and who knows who owns it now. The XR1000 was undoubtedly faster off the showroom floor than the XLCR, plus had the much better frame. I still have an XR1000 seat in the garage, but it looks like a Sportster single, so I'd have to find my parts book for a check. When I went to the dealer to see the XLCR, it had the chrome XL siamese pipes. They were surprised I wanted to switch back to the originals. The problem with "collecting" is: America is a nation of hot rodders, tinkerers, personalizers. I was going to put the XLR motor in a Manx chassis, ala Ricky Racer, and got engine plates out of England. Rickman made a street tracker for it in their very old catalog, too. Then came up a tall backbone XRTT frame w/ the underside of the TT tank indented for XLR heads, must have been a waffle iron tank. That chassis I last saw in MT. In the same garage as an XLCR made of bits from swap meets over the years. Sportster frames with the "tomahawks," those case pieces and water pipe tubing, could get the flexi-flyer wobblies under certain conditions. XLCR frames, including XL '79 thru '81, were better, but not as good as the '82 and up series. Even with oil coolers, the XLCR could be uncomfortabe to the inside of one's thighs while riding on a hot day. But the point wasn't comfort. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Melo Yelo. The next project ride, unless somebody buys her early  | ||
| Bartimus |
slicker, you need to build something like this!  Or this...  and drop an '02 X1 engine in it! | ||
| Cityxslicker |
its on the list. The new shop is going to give me ALOT more flexibility with builds and concepts. Already have two sporty's lined up. The Yellow will get a full color change to Orange And a nasty XL1200N Bobber in black and red classic trim. Pics as they happen. Still on the hunt for a CHEAP donor Blast. | ||
| Fast1075 |
What are you going to build from a Blast? | ||
| Cityxslicker |
dirt bike, because I am still hacked that Buell nixed the dirt squirter. 21 inch knobby up front, 16 inch in the rear... longer swing arm, new triple trees and forks, more aggressive offroad shocks and drop as much pork off the bike as I can. | ||
| Onahog |
I had # 0097 ..1977 XLCR... Like a dummy I sold it..HB | ||
| Oddball |
 this one's rather lusty |
