EXCLUSIVE Top US custom builder Roland Sands Design has taken a long, hard look at the evergreen Harley Sportster, and put together a very sexy package of modifications. Here are the very first pictures of the RSD Café kit that will be on sale soon—a kit that’s designed to be affordable, so owners will be able to buy the parts in stages to spread the cost. The basics will include pipes (built by Vance and Hines), moto pegs, and a coil and key relocation bracket. Also on the list are wheels, some very slick brake discs, a new pulley and a fork brace. At the moment, the café seat, gauge/headlight relocation kit and velocity stack are still at the prototype stage, but they should be in production by mid 2010. The result looks stunning to our eyes—check the full set of images on our Facebook page—and there’s even more good news to come: in the New Year, RSD is turning the XR1200 into a fully functioning race bike that’s still street legal. Can’t wait to see that one. [Thanks to Rodney Aguiar.]
Canon EOS 5D Mk II | 1/500s | f/3.2 | ISO 250 | Focal length 85mm |EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
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23 Comments
RSD also introduces a breakthrough in female motorcycling wear: kevlar thigh-highs—all the protection of leather with the sex appeal of lace. Coming 2010!
dig it… a lot
yeah I want that too. This website will eventually end up bankrupting me.
Same here. I want all of these bikes. I’m liking of this one – except for the high-mounted exhaust. Those always seem to break the lines.
When do we get to start arguing whether or not this one is better than the Deus Sportster Custom? ; )
I almost always like RSD bikes and absolutely love this one, with one constant objection: that I-drew-this-on-my-notebook-cover-in-eighth-grade-detention-hall logo of his.
dig it…a lot….too
Nice bike, may be the first Harley that I’ve thought “Yeah, I could happily own that”. I was in Deus two weeks ago and their Sportster is nice too – think I like this one more though. Not sure why, but suspect that it’s either the more retro styling cues or the chick : )
Meh, the model is better looking then the bike and the model isn’t even that good looking.
This is missing the sexy flat-topped aesthetic most cafe’s have, but its kinda an insult to cafe bikes to put this behemoth in their genre.
The bike has a weird merge at the triple clamp and a dumb tank and I am not digging the tail at all.
None the less, a huge improvement on regular Harley Aesthetics
Agreed with Mattro, the RSD logo will always detract from his products.
Keep the bike, send the girl!!
Okay… is it me… or are there FAUCET KNOBS on the top triple tree to hide the riser holes??? Can’t decide if they’re so weird its cool… or just plain weird…
The faucet knobs are also completely biting the style of Billy Lane.
It’s still too fat and bloated to be called a cafe racer in my opinion.
Do something about the whale size proportions of the seat and rear fender, and then we might be getting somewhere.
yeah, nice frontend, pipes, footpegs and paintjob. But the rearend looks fugly (I mean the bike’s of course). Looks like some redneck just cut off the rear and forgot to lower the bike. If you don’t lower it, it needs something different here.
Not my kinda bike really, think it’ll date quite quickly, but do you have this image
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3576846&id=51822757740
in higher res please? Would make a very nice wallpaper for my office machine.
Cheers
I agree with macfly…
looks to me like they used a two-up seat from a superglide in a solo config. With the right seat and rear fender I could ignore those exhaust pipes. As is, it would still be fun to have as my second bike. Love the retro-intended look overall.
Chris, Just one ?: how much did roland pay you to post this on your otherwise fantastic blog?
Not one cent. If there’s any kind of commercial transaction involved, the article will be flagged as Sponsored. I was the sent the details, and given the newsworthiness of the bike and the quality of the images, decided to run a larger-than-usual piece.
JOSH: I think it’s just great you feel the authority on women’s appearance and feel entitled to state your crass and irrelevant opinion on the matter-I feel oh-so enlightened now.
Personally, I find the model quite fetching albeit clad in a very poor choice of riding gear. I prefer the motorcycle photos that show the ladies actually riding the bikes and not just draped across them as human accoutrement.
This lady cycle owner maintenances her own bike and rides almost every day, but prefers leathers to thigh highs (even if kevlar….lol-at least she has a helmet, though!).
Clip-ons on a Sportster? Sorry…epic fail in that department. And agree with previous comments about not dropping the tail. Shouldn’t even be thought of as a cafe racer.
nice one and nice lady
I’m starting to believe harleys can be cool bikes (well most of them are too big, too heavy, too slow, too amercian …)
Chris, glad to hear it. Certainly their work is notable. I guess they deserve recognition from the best bike pic blog on the net. i’m particularly fond of the series of dirt bike singles-based cafe racers they built a few years back.
Is there any possibility to have the second picture in higher quality, to use as wallpaper on my computer, please?
This is close to a perfect bike according to my poor taste ;D
By the way, really nice blog. Congrats =)