Harley XR1200

Ever since Harley introduced the XR1200 back in 2008 I've always been interested to see what owner and builders would do with this nice piece of machinery. Even though it's styling takes cues from the XR750 I felt like it never really hit the mark. There were a couple of design aspects that needed a little tweaking to make me want to go out and buy this bike.

First of all I think Harley made a great decision to come out with a bike like this. The change up their image and appeal to a different target market. As was similar to the Harley Davidson 48 that was also recently released.

A few things I would change if I ever had an XR1200.

1. Exhausts - I think they need sit higher and more parallel with the rest of the bikes lines.  They look like they've been an afterthought of the overall design.  After reading some reviews it still seems like the pipes will drag if you try and get your knee down.  Remus make a good 2 into 1 exhaust and BUB make a loud tracker style setup.
2. I think it's got a little too much booty.  I prefer my tail sections slim.
3. Wheels.  I think they should have gone for some spokes.  I like spokes and plus you can always bling them up with spokey dokes.

I know Stortz have a conversion kit to turn your regular Sporty in a tracker but they also brought out some nice parts to enhance your XR1200.  Below is a photo of their show machine, notice the BUB pipes.

Stortz Performance XR1200 (taken from the Stortz website)Here are a couple of other examples of custom XR1200s. I think my favourite has been the one Roland Sands took apart. The thing with Roland Sands's bike was that there were heavy frame modifications whereas most of these examples have been with "plug and play" parts.

Custom XR1200 with the Remus 2 into 1 pipe.

Custom XR1200 from Tramp Cycles in Japan
(taken from the Tramp Cycles website) 

Roland Sands XR1200
Single Shock and single sided swingarm stand out