The Firestarter – Custom Harley 883 Sportster From Saudi Arabia
How far has the love for bobbed-out, over-the-top chop-jobs extended out into the world?
How about all the way to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, brother.
“This little custom project is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the custom scene is slowly, but surely and steadily picking up,” says Mountain Ram of this project. “I’m sharing some more pics by mail here, and another installment.”
We can’t wait to see more from this gang.
This one, the Firestarter, was sent in to us by Mountain Ram, and if you have to know more, you’ll have to contact him at jupiter1404-at-hotmail.com, because he’s holding back the details like the Bulgarian secret police:
This is a humble “garden garage” build just at the entrance of our building.
Firestarter is Rider Cult’s first custom project, based on a brand new 2008 HD Sportster XL883R. I – along with my brother – form the duo venture known as Rider Cult.
The way it all started was through an article featured in another custom-enthusiast magazine (Hot Bike) on a $1,000 budget built custom. Visions in my mind toggled back and forth between bobber, chopper, or cafe racer. This “virtual” designing and scheming in my mind took quite a while, before it finally reached the vision of the finished bike. That vision kept flashing back in my mind, until it was anchored there; unchanged, unaltered. That’s when I knew that this is the design I was set on, and that I had to start implementing it.
I was already enjoying riding my other Sportster – my 1st one, a 2008 XL1200N Nightster – which I was also slowly customizing in the direction of a lowdown street dragster. I was also infatuated with the hot rod and rat rod cultures, and wanted the R to be the opposite of everything the Nightster was. If the latter had dragbars and was slammed down low front and rear, I wanted the R to have a taller front end with high apes! If the Nightster was clean and refined, I wanted the R to be ratty, raw, and unfinished! Rock’n’Roll played an important role in influencing – let’s say – the attitude of the bike. To me, nothing spelled in-your-face rebel recklessness more than The Prodigy’s Firestarter song. Frontman Keith Flint’s punky attitude in that video was what I wanted my ride to be.
Another Rock influence apparent on “Firestarter” is the headlight visor or fairing. I refused the fairing made specifically for the Sportster and some Dyna models offered by Harley Davidson, whereas I was obstinately in want of the Nightrod fairing, due to its slimmer, more streamlined profile and that “nervure” – the slight line running in the middle of it. And, for the paint scheme, I wanted what was Black Label Society guitarist and vocalist’s – Zakk Wylde – infamous guitar with the swirl, so that’s where I somewhat went with the colors.
This is just a brief description of the project to give a feel of the character of the bike. Much more of course was involved on different levels, such as customizing a dropdown bracket to lower the ChopperShox mini shocks and seatpan about 1″; customizing a bracket to hold the Nightrod’s headlight fairing; chopping, modifying, reshaping and louvering the rear fender. The sissybar is entirely custom made; the No School Choppers 40X taillight required custom modification to fit properly without hitting the Biltwell 10″ rigid struts, etc.
I intentionally wanted to maintain the 883 powerplant delivery stock, with the exception of some ignition hop-ups, as well as those one-off custom modified mufflers and that custom Chopper Dave x66 air cleaner and SE neck assembly. Shifting is handled jockey by a pistol grip Hurst and a LaBriola foot clutch. Does it get any hot rod’der than that?