Angular Ironhead Gets Cafe Racer Treatment
Contemporary look was inspired by a winning race car and a German gas tank.
Production Ride
An Ironhead Sportster turned weekend racer makes for one cool vintage machine. When it comes to tricked-out bikes, DP Custom Cycles have built an impressive roster based on the XL platform. Unfortunately, production at the once flourishing New River, Arizona shop seems to have ceased. Like the Ironhead, their handcrafted rides are now a thing of the past.
Photos courtesy of Jed Strahm.
Naked Cafe
DP Custom Cycles was started in 2008 by brothers Jarrod and Justin Del Prado. They quickly earned an excellent reputation for turning classic iron into slick machines—often mining motorsports for their inspiration. Dubbed the 'Naked Cafe,' this once stock 1980 XLH was fashioned after the Audi R18 TDI—the 2011 winning race car at the 24 Hours Le Mans.
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Open Look
'Naked Cafe' was the shop's fastest and best-handling bike to date. Justin Del Prado elaborated on the style in a 2011 Bike EXIF interview. “We started with a 1980s matching-numbers donor and decided to turn it into a cafe, with a lot of open space in the frame. Stock frames are cluttered up with components, so we wanted to lighten up the look.”
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Angular Lines
Del Prado's Ironhead has crisp and defining lines. The sharp profile is a combination of the exposed stock frame and an unusually boxy aluminum gas tank sourced from a 1970s Maico—a German motorcycle company founded in 1926, and still in operation today. Del Prado stated that the tank's “angular lines inspired the rest of the bike.”
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Design Work
Seamlessly blending small details together makes a custom bike look just right. Many parts on the 'Naked Cafe' are DP Custom one-offs. The rear cowl, front-mounted oil tank, exhaust and seat were all fabricated in house. Del Prado elaborated, “We spent tons of time fabbing up the little things you can’t see—it’s what you don’t see that makes the design work.”
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Wicked High
Keen observers will note the lack of conventional exhaust pipes running down the bike's right hand side. Instead, Del Prado fabricated what he called a “quantum-port” exhaust system that tucks neatly under the motor—not unlike a Buell XB. He explained that the symmetrical 2-into-1 chamber provides “just the right amount of backpressure,” but more importantly, “it sounds wicked at high rpm.”
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Long-Lived Motor
Feeding spent fumes to the custom exhaust collector is the iconic Ironhead engine. First introduced in 1957, it was replaced by the Evolution in 1985. Originally released in 55 cubic-inch displacements, the long-lived motor was bumped up to 61 cubic-inch in 1972. During its almost thirty-year production run, the Ironhead has powered all manner of rides from mild to wild.
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Nostalgia Power
DP Custom's 'Naked Cafe' bucks a lot of trends, something which helped establish their name. Del Prado mused, “Most people think Harleys can't be cafe racers or painted in anything other than black with loads of skulls on them.” Capturing a contemporary style, this build blends high tech racing with a solid dose of nostalgia—all the while acknowledging the Ironhead's potent power.
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