AMV.66.COVER2.indd 1 08/01/2014 13:12

58 American-V.co.uk

CUSTOM

RaceRThink of riding in America and you’ll conjure-up wide open spaces, big twins and a laid back riding position, but there’s much more to the States than that which is one of the reasons why the Sportster exists.

LDK 883

AMV66.LDK.883.indd 58 07/01/2014 16:44

American-V.co.uk 59

LDK 883 RaceR

AMV66.LDK.883.indd 59 07/01/2014 16:44

60 American-V.co.uk

CUSTOM

We don’t really see them in an American context because our American dreams are more about highways than city streets, and quite possibly also because many of us still don’t quite understand the Sportster’s place on the food chain.

Is it an entry-level bike? A sportier model? A girl’s bike? A youngster’s first motorcycle? A city bike?

Yes, to all of the above. And it’s also a Harley-Davidson.

It’s relatively light, nimble and like all torquey bikes, it is incredibly forgiving making it an ideal first bike where the licensing system allows. And in a country where a metropolitan area can be vast and criss-crossed by multi-lane highways, a Sportster makes a massive amount of sense: enough grunt to compete in traffic-light derbys, but narrow enough to thread through tight cross-town traffic.

You wonder why you don’t see them, but in truth it’s only because you’re not looking: there are dealers who sell more Sportsters than big twins, and The Motor Company have spent a lot of time and marketing dollars in recent years wooing a younger, broader and more culturally diverse group of riders into the Harley family, Stateside, and the Sportster has been at the forefront of that strategy.

After a year of complicated builds, Frank Manen of LDK fancied putting together something a little simpler in his run up to Christmas, and having always fancied doing something with his favourite Sportster – the XL883R – he made the most of this 2006 model: the first of the rubber-mount Roadsters.

He wasn’t looking for anything particularly radical, indeed a casual observer might mistake the majority of the work for factory modifications – especially as Harley have started playing with white bodywork recently – but this is an original.

Frank has put it together to show that you don’t need to spend a huge amount of money on a bike to make it stand out, working within the spirit of the original bike, giving it an extra touch of

elegance, and a little more ground clearance at the back to help it in the corners.

Mudguards that have been reshaped in-house lend a lightweight look to an already lean motorcycle, and painting all of the bodywork in a gloss white – picked up as an accent colour in the middle layer of the rocker boxes, fork legs, fender struts, headlamp shell and regulator/rectifier and sparkplug covers – makes it stand out a lot more than the brilliant Silver that Harley played with

AMV66.LDK.883.indd 60 07/01/2014 16:45

American-V.co.uk 61

LDK 883 RaceR

bobbed rear mudguard, f lanked by a pair of Joker Machine’s LED indicators, while the front indicators are a pair of LED strips, sourced by LDK wrapped round the stanchion above the bottom yoke.

You could be forgiven for thinking that there’s something of a European look about it, but then with LDK having just opened up a new satellite operation in Malaga, Spain, there’s a chance that some cross-fertilisation is taking place, and it will be interesting to seeing where that leads, as the world continues to shrink.

this year on the model, or the Morocco Gold of next year’s scheme. It has even been picked out in the white stitching of the solo seat, modified in-house by LDK.

Of course the two-tone appearance of the tank is achieved by a single, large decal on each side of the larger of the two Sportster-style tanks and reapplying a pair to this gives it a factory paint look, and also gives a third colour to lift the bike out of monochrome obscurity. You haven’t got to look too hard to see that Harley racing orange has been picked up by the hand-painted pinstripe on the blacked-out original wheels, as well as on the redundant points cover.

A pair of V&H Short Shots dressed with black heatshields are working with an LDK version of the Forcewinder/Heavy Breather style air cleaner to keep the gases f lowing freely, and the air cleaner has been balanced on the primary side by the original speedometer and warning lights. The latter keeps the top yoke clean and low, aided by the RSD clip-on handlebars, although they have been mounted above the top yoke on fork stanchions that have been pulled through by an inch which will tighten up the steering especially combined with the rear piggy-back shocks that jack the back end up by an inch.

The full lighting rig is completed by an H-D LED taillight filling the top inch or so of the

you don’t need to spend a huge amount of money on a bike to make it stand out

Words: Andy Hornsby pics: LDK

AMV66.LDK.883.indd 61 07/01/2014 16:45