DUB Performance: Road’ster

Photos by Fred Bagur

In a recent editorial I wrote that it takes a custom frame to make a stock- framed Sportster motorcycle cool — I ate those words when I saw this bike. Built by Fredric Duban, owner of Dub Performance, in Millery, France, who took a stock ’02 XLH with an 883cc motor and turned it into this gorgeous machine. At first glance the bike appears to be the offspring of a Buell and a Sportster, but there’s much more to the bike than its looks alone. “I love racy pro street-style bikes like Roland Sands builds, some of his bikes inspired the look of this one,” Fred said.

When looking at the frame and the motor, it’s fairly obvious that Fred started with a Sporty. He stripped the bike down to the bare frame and began the bike’s custom transformation by swapping the H-D front-end for an inverted Buell fork. He threw out the stock swingarm and replaced it with a stock length, French made, Metmatech aluminum swingarm that is far lighter than the part it replaced along with a set of black Progressive Suspension shocks. White Buell X1 17” wheels were bolted to either end of the bike with a Buell rotor and six- piston caliper in the front and a four-piston caliper and 10” rotor in the back. “I had to make sure the bike would handle well on curvy streets and canyon roads — not that we have any canyons here,” Fred said.

At this point in the build, the motor was already out of the frame, making it that much easier to rebuild it to be better and faster than when he first got it. Fred disassembled everything but the cases and flywheels, adding a plethora of performance parts as he rebuilt the motor. New H-D 1200cc barrels were filled with Wiseco pistons and topped with Edelbrock heads, valves, springs, rockers, tappets, and pushrods. JIMS cams were installed in the cam chest behind a Dyna 2000i ignition firing a Dyna performance coil. Fred bolted a Mikuni carburetor to the stock manifold behind a DUB Performance air cleaner. After the motor was re-installed in the frame, Fred made custom exhaust pipes that wrap around the motor and slither through the frame, exiting above the rear wheel and partially hidden by the rear fender section. “A couple of my friends ride a Kawasaki Z1000 and a Ducati S4 Mostro. I made sure when I built the motor that it would be able to compete with their bikes,” Fred said. He changed out the stock H-D gears in the trans for a set made by a French company called AFAM that also made the enclosed primary. He also exchanged the original clutch for a high performance pack from Barnett Tool and Engineering to insure positive shifts during high-revving action on the street.

With a heritage formed from a sport bike and a quick-cruiser, Fred decided to leave most of the bike’s major components exposed. “I wanted to give the bike a naked look like a Ducati Monster,” Fred said. He modified a Sportster tank with a flush mount gas cap and extended the rear portion for a more aerodynamic look. He cleaned up a Buell front fender and mounted it as close to the tire as possible. The rear fender area was made from fiberglass and resembles something from an XR-1000 and shrouds the end of the exhaust. H-D mounts the oil tank and battery box side-by-side underneath the seat. Fred kept the oil under the seat by fabricating a custom tank constructed entirely from aluminum with a 2.8-liter capacity. Lead and water are heavy materials, but completely necessary elements of a battery. When they’re positioned high on the frame, the weight can hurt the bike’s handling so he designed a custom box for the battery mounted as low as physically possible. It’s just in front of the rear tire and underneath the swingarm, effectively lowering the bike’s center of gravity and making it more stable at any speed. Fred went to a friend for the bike’s paint scheme. Norbert Millote molded everything and covered the wheels, frame, fender, and tank in a white base color, sprayed the gas tank with a shaded panel sporting the bike’s name, and finished it with a broad orange stripe along the top of the sheetmetal. “I wanted to pay homage to The Motor Company by using their corporate colors, but I used a white base instead of a black base like everyone else,” Fred said.

The pace of Fred’s building accelerated quickly once the freshly painted parts returned to his shop. The Buell forks were crowned with a pair of Dub risers and dirt bike-style handlebars. AFAM black rubber grips were slid over the ends of the bars along with aluminum hand controls. Creating an aggressive stance for the rider, he made a pair of rear set foot controls mounted to the primary on the left side and around the final drive sprocket on the right. Behind the tank, a thinly padded solo seat is attached to the front of the rear fender and the top of the backbone. Connected to the bars and located between the risers, is an MMB speedometer that’s housed in aluminum. A custom mount was designed specifically for the V-Rod headlight and Fred mounted it to the bottom triple tree.

According to Fred, when Road’ster was finished it weighed less than Europe’s new XR 1200 and it will pull a wheelie every time he twists the throttle if he’s not careful. Fred doubts the bike has more than 95hp at the rear wheel and although that number might not sound huge, horsepower numbers don’t adequately describe the bike’s potential top speed or quickness. Besides, Fred seems to thoroughly enjoy riding the bike. “I live in the north east of France in the state of Lorraine, fairly close to Luxembourg and not far from the Autobahn. You probably know there’s no speed limit there — I get to ride Road’ster full wide open as often as I can. Who wants to race?” Fred said.