The short-lived Harley XR1200 was a special bike. If you’ve ever thrown a leg over one yourself, you know what we mean; an 80-plus horsepower Sportster with factory flat track style and a chassis that’s built for twisty roads.
But if you’re truly familiar with the XR1200, you’ll also know its tragic story. This rowdy street tracker was ever so slightly ahead of its time, and H-D killed it after a few short years due to poor performance on the showroom floor. If only they’d held out for the current street scrambler craze…
We’ve always felt that the Harley XR1200 never got a chance to see its full potential—and the folks at Macco Motors in Málaga, Spain feel the same way. Their latest creation, a 2010 Harley-Davidson XR1200X dubbed ‘The Revenant,’ shows us what could have been if the Bar and Shield had stuck to their guns just a little while longer.
The customer’s request for this build was fairly straightforward. They wanted a tough-looking bike that was built for the city, but they also wanted a healthy dose of scrambler style worked into the design. And they requested that the two-up capability of the donor machine be maintained, which meant a rear seat and a second set of pegs would need to be worked into the design.
If you’ve followed our coverage of Macco’s past projects, you’ll be familiar with their penchant for building super-clean twin-shock motorcycles. A tidy tail section can make or break bikes like these, so naturally, that’s where builders Jose García and Miguel Porras started.
The XR was stripped down, and the subframe was chopped behind the shock mounts. A new hand-formed section of tube steel was welded in its place, which shortened the long flat track tail section of the original bike by more than a foot.
The chop gave the Harley a clean look, but Jose knew he’d have to get creative if he still wanted to shoehorn a pillion onto the back. His solution was an elegant one—consisting of a custom-shaped split-level seat wrapped in Alcantara to give the pilot some extra support, while also leaving just enough space for a passenger to squeeze in and hang on tight.
The rest of the tail section was finished with an LED taillight and matching turn signals, which were cleanly worked into a custom plate bracket using machined adaptors. Jose elected to hide the pillion section under a piece of removable hand-formed bodywork. So if it weren’t for the presence of the stock passenger pegs, you’d never guess you were looking at a two-up machine.
With the rear end sorted, it was time to focus on cleaning up the rest of the bike. The massive, oversized mufflers were the first thing to go. In their place, Macco simply welded on some open end caps (so yes, you’ll hear this XR coming long before you see it).
As for the lights and controls, a Biltwell Tracker handlebar was fitted, and then capped off with Rizoma alloy grips, and bar end mirrors with integrated signals. All of the original controls were removed as well and replaced with Motogadget switches. The wiring for all of this was then routed down through the handlebars and into a Motogadget breakout box for the cleanest look possible.
Macco once again tapped the folks at Motogadget by utilizing their analog Motoscope speedo. This was rerouted under the right side of the fuel tank with a custom machined bracket, keeping the bars wide open and unobstructed.
The build still needed a little scrambler flare, so Jose went to work sorting out the wheels and tires. A set of 18” spoked wheels were assembled from the OEM Harley catalog, and shod with Continental’s iconic TKC80 tires—giving the XR a proper set of teeth should it ever actually leave the comfort of paved city streets.
This XR isn’t your typical Sporty, in that it comes with a set of dual floating disk brakes up front, which Macco fitted via a set of custom-machined adaptors. Out back, the single-piston Nissin caliper was upgraded to a four-piston Brembo setup for style points and added stopping power.
As for the suspension, you may have noticed this XR was treated to an upgraded set of Öhlins piggyback rear shocks. These late-model XR-X’s benefit from an upgraded set of fully adjustable Showa forks from the factory, so Jose retained the stock units, but had them anodized gold to match the Swedish bling in the rear. A set of Flo MX-style footpegs double down on the all-terrain vibe, with all the foot controls and linkage painted gloss black to match.
Last but not least, it was time to finalize the XR’s bodywork. Macco kept the factory fuel tank, oil tank cover, and front fender, but added a race-style belly pan from Free Spirits Parts. Each piece was treated to a base of ‘Hockenheim Silver,’ which is actually a BMW factory color reserved only for their M2 Competition models.
Jose explains that this color changes from nearly white to a dark gray depending on how the sun is shining, and makes the most of the XR’s natural lines. The additional striping you see is a combination of pearlescent red and blue—the latter of which also changes in the light from a gloss black to a deep indigo.
In old-world European folklore, the term ‘revenant’ describes one who has returned from the dead to haunt the living. While nothing will bring the Harley XR1200 back from beyond the grave, we’ll sleep better knowing Macco’s squeaky-clean Sportster is out there, haunting those responsible for killing the American street tracker just before the dawn of hooligan road racing.
Macco Motors | Images by Roberto Martin
