Jamesville Motorcycles Finesses a Shovelhead into a Cafe Delight

This might be James Roper-Caldbeck’s first attempt at a Harley-Davidson café racer, but don’t think the well-executed project is beginner’s luck. He and his Denmark-based shop Jamesville Motorcycles knows what they’re doing and have plenty of experience restoring and customizing bobbers.

Apparently this all started when James got an email asking if he’d ever build a racer.

“It’s sometimes a little monotonous building just bobbers and choppers, so I quickly said yes,” he told Bike Exif. “I’ve always loved the late 70s XLCR 1000 too, and that became my inspiration—even in the way the bike has been photographed.”

This build is based on an ’80s FX Super-Glide with a shovelhead V-twin engine. All he knew when he started was that he wanted it to be “black, with a fairing, and to look f—ing mean!” Mission accomplished. He wasn’t going for a full café look, though:

“Not sure what to call it” is another way of saying original or unique, which is always preferred. He started the build by creating a seat pan and cowl from nothing. He wanted to raise the rear high like old superbikes and sourced a Triumph for the taillight.

The tank is from the base bike, but it’s been modded, so it looks a little different. Hilariously, the fairing is an eBay find that was shipped from China. The bike sits a little lower in the front, and a little higher in the rear and uses Progressive Suspension parts for the shocks. The custom exhaust was inspired by Italian bikes like Ducatis, and dual disc brakes were added to help stop the power from that S&S V80 engine.

That’s all to say this is one sweet custom. Hopefully it leads to more experimentation with cafés.

via [Maxim]