Like I said, the orange caught me before being a trike did and maybe that’s what the lads at Speed Trix Motorcycles in St. André D’ Argenteuil, Quebec, Canada, were going for. Based around a late model Sportster, it’s got the vibe of something older while still appealing to the extrovert rider who wants something different. That it’s totally rideable even as an everyday rider with the ability to enter shows and grab a trophy (awarded third place in the trike class at this year’s Rat’s Hole show) sure says a lot about how successful this rad rider turned out.

   The rear wheel treatment is unusual and striking at the same time. Stamped steel wheels with Harley-logo baby moon hubcaps and a set of wide whites in a narrow size gives me a tinge of Servi-Car. The wheels are complimented by nice, yet simple rear fenders and an off-set differential rear axle setup that looks more vintage Servi-Car than some aftermarket independent rear with a set of Dodge Viper-width rear tires like you see on most trikes. Up front a skinny and tall, laced front wheel wearing a burly twin disc brake setup nestles under a tight fitting front fender while a Sportster fork mit rubber boots keeps it all in place and ready to rock.

   The Sporty’s Evo engine stays basically stock other than the West Coast Choppers CFL air cleaner and a set of extremely long header-wrapped headers that terminate in a corrugated pipe upsweep. Topped off with a pair of exhaust stack flappers whose initial design in truck and farm equipment was to keep rain out of the vertical stacks when the engine wasn’t running now acts as a bit of theater when it is. I don’t know why, but flappers are always fun to watch. A curved section of welded duplex chain reaches back to grab the pipes and keeps them on board when things get lively. Exhaust pipe fun wherever you look.

   One thing you might notice about this trike is that it now is a foot clutch/hand shifter setup and what better style of bike than a trike to learn this on? Remember, no feet-down position is required on a trike so you might as well enjoy shifting by hand. Taking this opportunity to heart, Speed Trix fabbed up a fabulous coiled-cable shifter topped by a piston for a shift knob with another piece of welded duplex chain serving as part of the mount. All very trick stuff that you have to make sure you notice as there’s complexity within the simplicity of this build.

   One thing I really like is the heavily modified Sporty fuel tank. Very nicely reshaped with a gas cap protuberance reaching for the sky (I don’t know why, but I love the extreme shaping for the cap), it also features a sight gas gauge on the left side of the tank as pushing a bike to a gas station is bad, but an out-of-gas trike is even worse. If you screw up with a sight gauge that’s always on a vertical plane, you might deserve it. Okay, that’s too harsh ─ nobody ever deserves to run out of gas on the road. Out back there’s a round oil tank with a tri-spoke spinner cap that’s gotta be one of those H-bomb tanks built by Sucker Punch Sallys back in the day. But wait, there’s more. Sitting right beside that and feeding into it is L.A. Choprod’s cool Honey Pot oil filter that brings a bit of hot rod nostalgia to the mix while providing an extra bit of oil and cooling for the engine.

   What looks to be a fairly comfortable seat is exaggerated a bit with two-tone covering and a neat bit of pleated diamond seat insert. The reach to the bars creates a mildly aggressive, bad boy look while not undermining the usefulness of the trike in any way. Surprisingly, it’s not even much of a reach to the hand shifter. There’s actually nothing too over the top as far as I can see and it looks like a decent rider of a trike.

   The only thing Speed Trix does not do in-house is paint although I gotta assume they had a hand in what this trike was going to look like. Harley’s corporate colors of orange, silver and black were put to uses here albeit with a bit of a twist in hues. I’m still on the fence about the paint especially the amount of orange, but I admit Speed Trix instantly got my attention at first sight. Hey, getting attention and never losing your bike (or trike) in parking lot is the often stated mantra of those who’ve drifted off into customizing their Harleys exactly the way they like them. I can only assume that this trike’s owner got exactly what he or she was looking for and couldn’t be happier. That’s all that really matters.

For more info on Speed Trix, visit http://speed-trix.com/?lang=EN or check out their Facebook page.