2015 might be the year of the Scrambler. Last year, Ducati joined Triumph and revealed its own factory scrambler and Moto Guzzi just revealed a kit that turns the V7 into a true scrambler. The latest modder that has come up with such a bike is Benjie’s Cafe Racers. Benjie and the guys at BCR took a 1999 Harley 883 Sportster and rebuilt it completely.
The bike was born in 1999 as a Harley Sportster
“For years our shop housed an old 1999 Harley Davidson 883 Sportster,” says Benjie. “It was a small, beat up bike & with a chromed out engine & mismatched mag rear/21″ wire front wheels, it donned all the appropriate traits of a classic cruiser. To be honest, there was a long time when we didn’t really know what we wanted to do with it. Thusly, the bike caught dust for nearly five years while we toyed with ideas of converting it to a bobber or maybe a cafe racer.”
Lots of chrome finish
The first step was to get rid of all the parts that come with a cruiser. For the front end they envisioned a more modern design and decided to slap on a late ’90s GSX1000 USD to lower the front. They decided to keep the Harley front hub but they built a new front axle and an adapter to accommodate the GSX’s double disc brakes. Longer rear shocks had to built in in order to raise the rear. They also dumped the rims, the new, “dirt catcher” units come from by Borrani. With both the street & the dirt in mind, they equipped the Scrambler with dual purpose tires.
The bike is very narrow
Are you interested in a Sportster 883 swing arm bag? See this Willie & Max Synthetic Leather Swing Arm Bag for Harley-Davidson Sportster
The tank had to be an custom made unit because they wanted to follow the design of the Harley’s V-twin motor. The tank got a black flame graphic to an otherwise bare aluminum polished finish. Because the tank followed the accent of the engine, the seat also had to follow the curve in order to maintain the bike’s natural flow. In attempts to further abandon the bike’s previous life as a cruiser, they decided to make the seat as narrow as possible without exposing the frame rails. The seat pan itself is fiberglass and is wrapped in high density foam fashioned with cowhide leather upholstery. The number plate and the tank are made of aluminum with stainless steel mounting brackets. The small dashboard was fabricated out of mild steel. They then designed stainless footpegs and foot controls that are mounted in the mid-section of the bike.
The leather bag is an original design
The very first idea regarding the engine was that it had to be chrome finished. That’s why Benjie and his guys sandblasted the side covers and the top end. They then swapped the stock 883 pistons with a 1200cc piston cylinder kit. The aluminum air filter box and the stainless steel air inlet are custom parts, too. The stock belt drive was then swapped out for a chain final drive and the side cover of the engine was cut out, exposing the front sprocket. BCR then started to look for the perfect aftermarket headlight and tail light to suit the build. This one turned out to be a really difficult task so in the end they had to build their own units from scratch. The tail light was made of bare aluminum & bolted onto the tail of the frame, wrapping around the frame end loop.
Dual-purpose tires
The exhaust is a custom made unit, too. BCR fabricated a 2 into 2 exhaust out of stainless steel and in the vein of old school scramblers, mounted the mufflers high. They finished then off the mufflers by adding aluminum detail & left the brushed matte finish. The last detail that needed to be made was an all-purpose road kit with a detachable leather bag. A protective aluminum plate was made to help keep the bag clean during the Scrambler’s hopefully-muddy future ventures.
Are you interested in a Sportster air filter? See this Spike Air Cleaner Filter Fits Harley Davidson Sportster Xl 883 1200 Up To 2006
