Monday, October 17, 2011

XR124

Harley-Davidson's ideas are taken one step further by people such as Mike Wilson of Dyno Mike’s Dynamic Chassis and Sandy Kosman of Kosman Specialties, who have teamed up to build what they call the Harley-Davidson XR124.

They’ve taken Harley’s sportiest ride, the XR1200 and made it look, sound and feel more appealing for the younger crowd, while still retaining the bike’s original style. In other words, they’ve mounted an S&S 124 cubic inch Evo engine on a twin shock rubber mount frame with a Buell XB12 front end (meaning upside down fork, front fender and six-piston caliper). The aluminum tank and rear fender were ordered from Evan Wilcox.

These guys aren’t just bike assemblers, so they’ve built their own exhaust and wheels. Overall, the thing weighs less than 500 pounds, which should make it flickable, while the power-to-weight ratio should make things at least very interesting.

As with most successful tuner projects, this bike looks like it was actually made like this by the manufacturer, but we can only wish H-D would build such a bike.