Harley Cafe Racer Build Introduction

Hey guys, I'm Tommy Clutch Creal here with "Fix My Hog," and what you see behind me is a very stock Sportster. Over the next couple days, we're gonna be taking this thing apart and making some modifications to make it one cool looking cafe racer. Now, with this build, obviously, Harley's trying to get more riders out there on the road over the next couple years, and with that, we need to figure out budgets and price points. Obviously, in the marketplace right now, it's a little bit different and difficult to find a Harley at your price point, so in efforts for them to get more riders on the road, not all of us can afford a $30,000 bike out there, so with this one, we found this used and fit right into our budget. Now, there's various ways to find 'em and to go through and figure out how things will fit for you, and one way is to look on the interweb. One website that I can refer to you is garagebuild.com that can help navigate you through your build and get you in the right state of mind for it. All right, guys, obviously, Harleys aren't cheap, but at the end of the day, they do hold their value, so that's good for us. With going through your entire build, there's a lot of things to keep in mind out there, and obviously, going through your design phase is gonna be one of the more critical areas to go, and there's plenty of platforms out there that you can look at to help with that area, but I will tell you the most important thing is your budget, and that consists of a lot of things. So that's one thing that we're gonna get into on this used Sportster here. So budget brings us right back to the bike here at "Fix My Hog." Now, how we got in this project, Dennis and I were tossing around different ideas and projects, and we had to obviously put a budget together with it, but I wanna bring you guys something different and unique. And my background, I was teaching students and guys and gals for over 15 years on how to build bikes, so my wheelhouse is building bikes from the ground up, and we thought what a great idea to pull in a used bike that we can provide and get you guys some different know-how on how to properly modify it and make it a different style and stance as well at the same time. So with that, obviously, we need to look at a budget and how much we're gonna be spending on these bikes 'cause it's gonna get pretty loose. And we allocated $2,500 for the Sportster here. Now, going through that whole process, I can get it, you can be banging your head off the wall here and there, but a few highlights that you wanna pay attention to when trying to find that bike is location being number one. Down on one of the coast, West coast, East coast, you're gonna get different buildup and different debris from the ocean, which can provide a lot of rust. Also, the person, that's a huge thing. Hopefully, you can trust that individual, look down that road and see if you can score on that deal. And then also how much they're offering and what they had done to the bike before. So, we were looking for originally a 1200, and we scored on this 883 that already bumped it right up to a 1200 and got that all ready to rock and roll. So we had a budget of $2,500 on the Sportster, actually came in a buck short on that and got it for $2,400. And you know, the biggest thing with going through and trying to find a bike is being able to find it and in a timely manner, and how we got to this point was not the easiest task. We had one bike fall through, we had another one that we didn't get responses from, and that could be a difficult and just discouraging task. So even for us that have been doing for 15 years, it stinks sometimes. But there's many various ways you have to look into how to find these bikes. Number one, the people, do you have a good network of riders around you or even people around the neighborhood, you know, that have some hidden gems in the back of the garage or even in junk yards, pushed way to the back, you might find something, so being persistent on trying to find that bike will be key for you. Also, location. If you're in the States here or overseas, you wanna keep in mind that you want it stored indoors. You don't want it outdoors and having all the rain and the rust on there because it's only gonna cause to additional problems and probably service work that you're gonna have to do, so it might be a bigger investment than you originally allocated. One of my buddies, one of my main fabricators, found a older 1989 Sportster for 800 bucks with I think 500 miles on it, roughly, around there. Killer deal, merit, no issues on it, no dry rotting. So, and he came around to finding that just by being persistent, talking around, and he wanted to find a beginner bike, so even if you flipped it right now, he's got a great asset right there. So being persistent, make sure you're looking in the right areas. I know a lot of people jump on some of the websites on the interweb. We actually found this one through just networking and found it here locally. So we were able to go down there and go through the entire bike, I took it out for a test drive. And some of the key areas that I looked on this one as well, you know, you obviously wanna look externally and see if there's any issues with rust, if there's paint chipping, if there's chrome chipping or peeling, 'cause that'll indicate that there's some kind of wear and tear or someone maybe mishandled the bike and didn't care for it as much as you do with your bike. And then also go through the braking system and take a visit on a lot of the leathers and also the cylinders. And you can see some paint chip or chrome chipping here, but that's all right in our case. So, it all comes down to what you really want, and we took that and went through on the external, and then I also went and took it on a test drive and it pulled nice, had a good response, there was no issues with it. We were fortunate enough to fall into this one because we were looking for a 1200 originally to start with, and this already had the juice in here with a kit put in, so it was already bored out and ready for us to get back on it. Hey, guys, before you jump in and buy that bike, make sure you guys check out our buyer's guide. That is huge for the reason that it'll take you through all the ins and outs of what to look for on the bike. Also, the test drive and also be able to get you some pointers on what to ask the seller as well. I wanna touch one more time on this budget. So we put together a total budget of 11,500 on the bike. Now, don't get me wrong. You guys can do it for much cheaper on that, but we wanted to bring something to you that's gonna be really sweet at the end of the day, over the next couple days, actually. And we got the bike for $2,400, so it gave us some room and flexibility in our design area on what to provide for paint or if we go with powder coat and also with parts as well. So, that was our overall budget, and now we're gonna jump into design. All right, let's talk design now. So we've got the bikes sitting up there, and this is the fun stage of bringing this thing to life and turning it around into a different bike. Obviously, we need to have some framework before we start moving forward, our budget's already put in place of 11,500. And for me, one thing that I like to do is always just get some of the things out of my head and down on paper. Now, I'm not the best artist, but the bikes do turn out great. So I did start and did a hand sketch of just what we're trying to go for with this cafe racer. And along with that sketch, it'll give us kind of reference points of what we're gonna be modifying on there, and if you run into some budget issues, that'll also help eliminating some components that you may not need to change. And with that budget, sometimes it's easier to keep track of it, you know, pen and paper, old-school style. For us, what we did is we actually put it on an Excel sheet, easier for us to get it back and forth. And just started listing parts. And even within that, all we did was name the part that we wanted, what we were gonna modify, and what we're gonna keep also. Gives us a basis of how to move the project forward and keep us on track. So obviously, we don't have tons and tons of money to throw at these things, but we were fortunate to have a couple of these guys help us out. RevZilla hooked us up with this sweet Burly seat. And this guy matches the exact image and look that we're going for. Along with that, we had a Drag Specialties tank sent to us, and this is gonna giving us a different flow to the bike as well, matching up the backbone and what we're gonna be doing with the bar, so these guys really did a good favor to us, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about these. So why is the seat so important, you may be asking. Now, cafe racers, we all know have a different style, different stance, more of an aggressive look, but from a history background, they were stripped down and made more of a aggressive bike, and this seat provides a very good basis for us to get a low, sleek style to it as well. Burly made a good job on this one, even with the stitching, you know, down to the details on this one, we were truly digging the back pad on there. And we knew going into this build, after doing our sketches and design talks and everything, that we were gonna modify the struts and the rear fender as well to kinda help and compliment one another with some of the parts on there, so the seat forms and fits perfectly on the bike and that cafe racer quote-unquote look and image will be blown out of the water with this seat, so we're super stoked to have this one in. And obviously, during the process, if you're able to get parts in while you're doing the builds and going through that whole process, it's better to have it in your hands to be able to put it on the bike and see if you like it or not. You may like it on the TV or TV screen, but maybe not so much in person, so make sure you get 'em in hand. But this seat is definitely gonna help compliment a lot of areas on the bike. One thing that you wanna do match up with your seat is your tank. So this tank, you can see on the side is recessed over here and provided a very slick backbone for us. Now, a lot of times you don't wanna keep your stock tank that you're getting right out of the factory, so we decided on this tank RevZilla hooked us up with, and even the recesses in this kind of blows a little different areas on the bike out more and makes it pop a little bit better too, having a different look to it. Putting knee pads in here will kind of help with our color scheme as well, but this tank definitely provides a lower stance, brings out that aggressiveness, that tough feel to it as well, and will help clean up a lot of things under the backbone when we get into, you know, even the electrical stuff. So, super happy and super stoked about these two components, and once they go on the bike, even as you see it sitting behind me right now, I don't change the whole look and feel of the entire bike, which, believe it or not, two components, that's it. So, also keeping in mind why you're putting that budget together, check these out and make sure these are some of your top priorities that you get right off the bat and on your build as well. So again, seat and tank are gonna be two of the bigger parts that you you wanna address on your bike.