Roland Sands reveals finished Harley-Davidson XR1200 café racer

Roland Sands’ latest project, a café racer, has been unveiled for the first time on his blog.

Only the basics of Harley-Davidson’s weighty street-tracker remain – the rest has been thrown away and replaced with a selection of performance and cosmetic upgrades selected by the Californian former 250 racer.

At the front is a set of Ohlins forks carrying radial brakes and a billet aluminium wheel from Performance Machine, the parent company of Roland Sands Design.

The rear swingarm is replaced with a tubular single-sided arm using Ducati linkages and an Ohlins shock to convert it from the standard twin-shock layout.

Clip-on handlebars and rearsets switch the riding position from sit-up-and-beg to racer.

The exhaust is a 2-1 from Vance and Hines, and appears to be completely un-silenced.

Chain drive replaces the ugly belt fitted as standard. The rear seat and subframe is ditched, completely and replaced by a minimalist single seat behind the standard tank giving a look reminiscent of big-tanked 60’s British café racers, but with a more modern twist.

A set of crash bungs are fitted – which give the impression Roland intends to ride his XR1200 pretty hard!

The paint is given a satanic twist – a pentagram RSD logo and a 666 number over the matt black paint complement the largely black-out chassis.

See full pictures at his blog, here: http://rolandsandsdesign.blogspot.com/2010/03/xr-1200-build.html