1989 Sportster Cafe Racer TT Bike

Kevin of Loaded Gun Customs from Berlin, Maryland, United States made available to us these photographs of this Harley Sportster Cafe Racer TT Bike for which they took a 1989 Harley Evo Sportster frame and engine as the basis.

Kevin: "This bike started out as a standard Sportster that had been ridden since 2007 by a very nice women who was ready to move up to a big bike (Dyna). Anyway, it came in very good condition with 17,120 miles on it. We then took the complete top end apart and freshened it up for performance reasons and went through the entire bike to build something really cool to take to the local bike nights. The result was this Cafe Bike or TT (Tavern to Tavern) Bike."

Kevin: "While doing a complete top end rebuild, the pistons where amped up to 10 to 1 units to help make her run as good as we wanted her to look. A new battery was installed as was a new starter, and some wiring that looked questionable was cleaned up. We then ran a new Dyna coil to fire our NGK plugs taking their signal from the Screaming Eagle race box with a 6800 rpm rev limit."

"The stepped 2 into 2 exhaust in a high chrome kept the Harley look and still allowed us to run our rearsets with ground clearance. We run Bel-Ray Sport trans in all our Buells and Sportsters so after a complete go thru of the clutch and primary area this is what we filled the gear box/primary with..."

"We opted to have the rocker boxes and side covers polished to a high shine while we were putting new gaskets in anyway. Then all the chrome was cleaned and polished, giving it a amazing yet simple look. The barrels where then painted flat black to get everything else to pop."

Kevin: "After cleaning and checking the heart of our project we moved on to the handling. After some aggressive riding time on some other Sportsters we have become quite fond of the Progressive dual rate spring set-ups with sport valving. The 15.5 inch shock brought our ground clearance up, and dropping 50mm in the fork tubes gives her a much better corner carving stance."

"The front brakes where completely taken apart and cleaned, rebuilt and painted. The performance pads in the front with the one piece stainless line kit haul her down from doing the ton with ease. The rearsets give excellent input for aggressive shifting while corner carving, and the brake input do to the one piece rear line is minimal with excellent control for trail braking around your friends..."

"The rearsets themselves are simple and beautiful pieces made from 6061 aluminum for weight savings and stiff feel. The foldable pegs are Buell race units from Crossroads Performance we had laying around the shop."

Kevin: "The billet clip-ons are 1" diameter so all the stock controls can and do still work. We have removed the blinkers for the looks however all wiring and controls are still there so if needed they can very easily be added..."

1989 Harley Sportster Evo Engine

Here's a closer view of the 1989 Sportster Evo engine. These 1200cc Sportsters are among the fastest Harleys ever built, making them the ideal basis for a CafeRacer.

Loaded Gun Customs Cafe Racer Tank

Kevin: "We took the stock tank and body work and traded it for a flush mount tank and a LGC Custom rear fender with a molded in taillight and tag bracket. This was then smothered in bone white paint and some heavy clear to really make it pop."

The Saddle: Leather Art by Duane Ballard

Kevin: "The hand made seat pan was sent to Duane Ballard to have his leather Magic applied to our "cafe" inspired OUTLAW back road runner... This is hand made, hand tooled with real leather!"

Ready for the Backroads

Who wouldn't like to take this CafeRacer for a ride over the country roads?

This is the end...

(November 2009)