Several types of motorcycles can be called ‘trackers.’ The original is the board tracker, named after the machines that raced on board tracks in the USA in the 1910s and 1920s.
In the 1930s, as the board tracks faded away, flat trackers appeared: street bikes modified to race on dirt or clay ovals. Past icons include the Harley-Davidson XR-750, but others include machines from BSA, Norton and Triumph. This style is still popular today, with interest spurred by an intense rivalry between Harley-Davidson and Indian.
Flat trackers (or dirt trackers, as they are sometimes known) do not have front brakes, but the slimmed-down style is popular with builders of street customs. These can be based on virtually any middleweight motorcycle, but your typical ‘street tracker’ has 18- or 19-wheels, a slim and elongated fuel tank, a short and kicked up tail unit, and sometimes a high-mount exhaust.
A Ducati Monster tracker ready for the Superhooligans, a monstrous Indian Chief-powered cafe from Germany, a gorgeous Honda built for Steve Caballero by Denton Moto, and a heavily patina’d Honda CB450 from … Nepal.
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There are some builders who seem to have the Midas touch: everything they create turns to gold. Aaron and Shaun Guardado are in that exclusive group, crafting beautiful racers and customs when they’re not tearing up dirt tracks—or running the Suicide Machine Company business out of Long Beach, California. After Harley released the XG platform,…
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Work on motorcycles long enough, and you’ll amass two things: a pile of leftover parts, and the wisdom to know which of those parts go best together. Hayden Roberts has hit that level, and this candy-coated vintage Triumph dirt tracker is the result. Hayden restores and repairs vintage British machines under the moniker ‘Hello Engine.’…
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Regular readers will need no introduction to Richard Pollock. Better known as Mule, the irascible Californian is opinionated, blunt, and probably the best builder of tracker-style bikes in the world today. Pollock is entitled to his opinions. If you were planning to write the textbook on how to create a high-performance street tracker, you’d save…
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Harley-Davidson isn’t the only manufacturer with roots in Milwaukee. Briggs & Stratton—known for their lawnmower motors—were founded in the Midwestern city too,…
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If you’re after a job in the motorcycle industry, Deus Bali has got to be one of the best places in the…
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Most custom builders are self-taught men and women: folks with a good grasp of mechanics and an ability to ‘learn on the…
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Some people find it hard to hold onto a bike for more than a couple of years. It doesn’t take long before…
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It’s been a busy year for Hugo Eccles of Untitled Motorcycles. His Ducati Hyper Scrambler appeared on Jay Leno’s Garage, and his…
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Some new bikes are dropped into the market and left to fend for themselves, but not the Z900RS. The moto press hasn’t…
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The bike we’ve been waiting for Indian to build is here. Well, almost. We’re told it’s a prototype, but we know it’s…
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A Yamaha XS650 from Texas, a BMW R90 from China, a Honda tracker and Triumph Bobber from France, and a Yamaha XV1000…
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