From a ‘Lump of American Highway Pig’ To a Muscular Scrambler
Aussie builders make XL 1200C into ‘Ultimate Adventure Sportster Scrambler.’
Mountains, rainforests, tiger snakes, jack jumpers and yes, Tasmanian Devils: Tasmania is a place where a biker can run into trouble.
In other words, a perfect place to test an all-terrain Sportster adventure scrambler.
That’s what Australian Tom Gilroy did. But first, he took a 2006 Sportster Custom and basically turned it into a completely different motorcycle.
The build came about because of the idea for a film that would chronicle six of Australia’s top builders riding their purpose-built machines across the wild and wooly terrain of Tasmania, the rugged island off the coast of Australia.
Lighter and Higher
For that, Gilroy made the unlikely choice of starting with one of the bigger sportsters to turn into an all-terrain adventure scrambler.
The first thing he had to do was make the bike lighter. He did that partly by swapping out the original fat front end with the forks and double disc brakes from a 2015 Triumph Tiger.
Then he added a 19-inch front wheel, custom fenders and fork guards. He also lightened the load with a lightweight aluminum swingarm that raised the clearance by about 1.5 inches.
‘American Highway Pig’
Another obvious need was beefier suspension and more ground clearance since the bike would be traveling for two weeks over creeks, beaches, deep sand and other rough terrain.
Gilroy and his shop, Purpose Built Moto, added 14.5 inch K-Tech rear shocks so that, combined with the higher swingarm, gave the bike 210 mm – about 8.3 inches – of ground clearance.
They added a 17 X 5.5 alloy rim out back, and for tires, the team opted for the Mitas E-10s. Those tires performed admirably on the two-week trek, Gilroy said.
“Grippy in soft road condition and not noisy or lumpy on road, the only problem I had was in soft sand where the knobby tread pattern and weight of the sportster would simply dig the rear wheel a trench,” he said. “That’s to be expected when you build a dirt bike out of a lump of American highway pig though.”
Seeking the Middle Ground
The team installed ISR levers to make shifting easier over constantly changing road and ground surfaces and converted the original belt drive to a standard chain from motoproducts.com.au.
“That will get me a comfortable 100km/hour (62 mph), and a first gear speed of 25-40ks off-road (15-25 mph),” said Gilroy. “Maybe a little too high still, but on an adventure tourer, that’s about the best middle ground you could ask for.”
He also added a protective grill to the LED headlight to guard against rocks and other debris.
Onboard Compressor
One particular intriguing innovation was the on-board air compressor. The pegs were mounted just forward of the swingarm pivot, which left some space for the compressor inside the peg mount basket.
“Come off the beach with 18 psi in the tires, leave the bike running and hit the compressor and you can ride away on bitumen at 30 PSI, no worries,” Gilroy said. “It came in handy more than a few times during our trip and is always readily accessible.”
An on-board air compressor on an all-terrain sportster scrambler capable of taking on almost any terrain: Can’t get much cooler than that.
Photos: Purpose Built Moto
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