Boris HAMC Hells End

THIS MOTOR was in my old street frame, which was an ’84 Sportster XL 1000 frame. It had straight-outs and twin-throat 40 mm Dell’Ortos, huge things, which were excellent but just a bit loud and attracted too much attention. This is a bit quieter. It still attracts a bit of attention but not as much as before.

The motor’s a 1998 Buell Thunderstorm in a 2000 frame I modified to fit the upside-down front-end and the rear guard.

Everything’s fibreglass on it: the XLCR tank, the XLCR ducktail and a chin fairing that I made up. I modified the frame’s struts; the tail-light’s underneath to fit the ducktail, and I modified the back of the frame to fit the tank. I fitted the stock Sporty headlight and handlebar mounts, XLX bars, XR 1200X mirrors, aftermarket indicators with wires running through the handlebars, twin four-spot discs on the front and a standard Harley disc on the back with a four-spot aftermarket caliper. It’s got a Deuce back wheel,  standard Harley master cylinders, Screamin’ Eagle ignition, 7000 rpm rev limiter, Jap front guard.

The gearbox is standard with a Barnett clutch. Mark Hood massaged the heads I suppose you’d say, and the manifold and carbies were matched.

Most of the parts were just bits and pieces I had lying around; it was good to put something together that was using up all the good bits that should be getting used. If you muck around with them long enough, it’s pretty easy to sort of see what works together and make it all fit. The lines are good and it works well, that’s what matters.

There’s Storz mufflers with SuperTrapp headers I had lying around — they worked out a good match — I just had to make the rear mount and twist that up which wasn’t that hard. The exhaust sounds good. I’ve had them on my XR 1000; your leg leans on them, which is uncomfortable, and you can’t take a pillion, which is stiff shit.

Kyle’s Kustoms did the paintwork. He’s very artistic and he’s done an excellent job on the colours; he actually did the whole job twice because he wasn’t happy the first time around. The air cleaner’s good. He said he was going to do something different with it and he certainly did. It’s a Buell High Flow air-filter that I’ve managed to mate in with this frame so it looks the part.

It’s a late model replacement for the factory oil tank which wasn’t real hard to fit but it’s definitely the go. The battery box has different mounting positions and you couldn’t just put it in without upgrading the oil tank; the old and new weren’t compatible, which is unusual.

The XLCR came out with the upside-down Super Glide tail-light so I kept it that way and that’s why I changed the whole back-end of the frame: it looks neat and fits in well and keeps the cops off my back. They’ve changed the law and now bikes from 1981-up have got to have indicators, where it used to be 1991 — they didn’t tell anyone, just did it, which is typical.

I changed the rear drive chain to a 520 from a 530: a bit narrower so the back tyre doesn’t rub on the chain and it’s a bit neater. I had to get the sprocket teeth turned down to fit the chain so it was a bit of a job. You can run a smaller chain and it’s stronger but it wears your sprockets quicker which is neither here nor there. You get one or two more horsepower because there’s less drag. It came out with 91 horsepower, so it should still be up around there.

I’ll probably get about 280 km on a tank and the seat hasn’t got much padding because I don’t want to fall asleep, but usually after about 200 km you want to stop for a quick beer anyway.

Everyone likes it; it looks neat. It handles well. There’s not a lot of ground clearance but it’s positive and very predictable. It’s very light and very nimble; it’s quick through the traffic, goes hard and brakes hard; I just enjoy riding it. I enjoyed building a different bike from my other ones. I’ve built quite a few now and it’s been good fun.

pics by Chris Randells; words by Boris HAMC Hells End