Designing a Custom Harley Batcycle for a Young Batman
Before becoming a legendary crimefighter, this superhero’s early days would be spent saving Gotham on a monster bike cobbled together from parts of crashed Harleys.
I enjoy a lot of great privileges as a result of my position here at H-D Forums. For one thing, I get to see all of the hottest new bikes and accessories long before my readers do. I get to attend cool motorcycle events. Best of all, I get to write about one of my favorite things in the world and get paid for it. What’s not to love?
I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, though. That’s not my intent. You see, one of the privileges I don’t take advantage of nearly as often is our very own artist. Whatever I can dream up can be rendered. They can work miracles with Photoshop and a drawing tablet. Meanwhile, I can’t even draw a Sportster on a napkin without having a quarter to trace for a tire.
An article published last week by our friends over at Ride Apart got me thinking. The next Batman movie, titled The Batman and due in June 2021, is going to star Robert Pattinson (above) as a younger Batman that’s still figuring out his place in the world. Recently, they had a chance to see what he’s going to be riding in the new movie — or, at least, what his stunt rider will be performing stunts on.
Early Inspiration
Who knows, the whole thing may be replaced by CGI in post-production. I started to wonder what a younger Batman’s wheels would look like. I’ve enjoyed Batman movies since I was a kid. I remember a scene in Batman Forever where we see Bruce Wayne’s huge garage, stuffed full of awesome classic cars and bikes.
Ever since, I’ve always seen Batman as kind of a gearhead. He’s a tinkerer, an inventor, and knows his way around a toolbox, from what we can tell. So, what would a young Batman have built when he was still figuring out what the hell he was doing?
After all, he may be a boy genius with unlimited funds. But, lacking education and lacking practical experience, he’s likely to do a few very weird, very wrong things when building his first Batcycle.
Starting Off Strong
First off, the bike has to be brutally fast and cover a lot of ground quickly. Let’s say that young Batman got his hands on a wrecked 2006 V-Rod Destroyer factory drag bike from a salvage auction.
It’s bruised and battered from a high-speed crash, but the good stuff is still there — an extended swingarm, a thoroughly worked-over Screamin’ Eagle engine, and a wheelie bar. Our hero would ditch the wheelie bar in pretty short order, and go to the “dark side” with a fat, meaty car tire on an extra-wide rear wheel.
He’d have to cut the already-damaged rear fairing a bit to create room for the big car tire. He’d create some vestigial “bat wings” from fiberglass in an effort to clean up his work a bit.
The whole scuffed and dented mess would be sprayed flat black, with little bits of the orange showing through wherever the frame or tank gathered additional nicks from use. This crime-fighter may have the money and the means to build his dreams, but he expects his gear to work as hard as he does.
Bits and Pieces
Up front, he’d replace the mangled front fork with a salvaged early ’00s Dyna Super Glide Sport setup, with a black mag wheel, a cut-down fender, and a dual-disc brake setup. After all, if you’re gonna go, you’ve got to stop sometimes, too.
Our hero would use that extra real estate inside the fairing to mount computer equipment and switches to operate all of his gear. …He’d have some bat-grenades mounted on the other side, ready to drop at the press of a button.
Of course, our boy Batman would black out the front fork too. He’d install a military surplus “blackout hood” over the headlight, originally used on Harley-Davidson WLAs during Would War II.
This bike would be a real handful to ride, obviously. Batman stays in control as best he can with a set of wide, low-rise superbike-style bars. It’ll be another few years before he can put together a bike that’s fast, handles well, and is relatively easy to ride while fighting crime.
A Few Surprises For the Bad Guys
The finishing touch atop those wide handlebars is, coincidentally enough, a batwing fairing. How appropriate — I swear, I didn’t plan it this way.
Our hero would use that extra real estate inside the fairing to mount computer equipment and switches to operate all of his gear. For example, the fire extinguisher mounted on the right rear frame of the Destroyer would be repurposed to create a smokescreen. He’d have some bat-grenades mounted on the other side, ready to drop at the press of a button.
The end result is a bike that looks ugly, dangerous, and above all else, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The lessons Batman would learn from this bike would inform his later designs, like the Batcycle seen in The Dark Knight.
So, what do you think? How would you have built young Batman’s bike differently? Be sure to let us know in our forums!
Illustrations for H-D Forums by Pouria Savadkouei
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