Not so much anymore, as times are changing and the Sportster is getting the respect it deserves. It’s true that a lot of Sporty owners fall into those two categories, but it’s also a fact that Harley’s Sportster has rather illustrious racing roots from flat trackers to dragsters to road racers in its history. You can’t really say that about any other H-D stock V-twin currently in production except the V-Rod which came from a bad attempt at road racing, but excels on the dragstrip today with a factory race-only model.

This fact is lost to a lot of folks, but not Scott. When he came across a 1992 883 motor with S&S cases sitting in a garage, he bought it and decided to build a custom bike around it. But not a bobber or a long chopper, he wanted something closer to the Sportster’s racing ancestors so he opted to go the café racer route, popular in the 70s and 80s. So why go against everyone’sperception of Sportsters as women- and cheapos’-only rides? He also told me, “I didn’t want to keep the bike in stock form by just changing the bars, cutting the rear fender, and removing the front one. Instead I wanted to do something that would catch eyes. So I decided to take an early café racer direction with wild characteristics that would make people stop and ask questions, like, ‘Why did you do that?’ Those famous words I love to hear.”

With that in mind he got started. First, Scott put the motor together and swapped in a more radical Andrews cam setup to give the motorcycle more grunt, but other than that left the Evo-style V-twin internally stock. The only thing he added to the build was a Dyna igniton and a Foundation Custom ribbed air cleaner. He didn’t care for the stock exhaust (but then, who does?) so he fabricated a cool 2-into-1 set of pipes that climaxes in a short, upswept megaphone whose sound should dispel any ideas this is a “girl’s bike” and ceramic coated it black for both understated looks and better performance. While this was going on he hunted for a chassis and as it turned out, he got a stock 1992 XL frame from a buddy of his and with chassis and motor handled, Scott went about turning out the rest of the project.

Scott had a 39mm adjustable Sportster fork in his garage to which he added a set of Foundation Custom mid-glide triple trees. Why? So he could fit a wider 16” Bridgestone tire up front to match the rear, giving it a big rubber donut look. Jones also made an old-style, drilled-out fork brace to make it look racier. He then added adjustable Progressive Suspension shocks with piggyback reservoirs out back for a fully customizable suspension configuration all around. Up front, an H-D rotor with a massive Jaybrake caliper replacing the stocker joins an H-D rear brake setup to bring this bike to a halt. Now he was rolling (and so was the chassis).

While cruising the swap meets, he came across the perfect gas tank for this machine: a 1972 Husqvarna dirt bike fuel bag. But even though the tank was a great stylistic fit, the stock seat wasn’t, so Scott took some aluminum flat stock and formed it into the shape he wanted, creating a racing-style tail. He had his buddy, Candy, stitch up an old-style seat cover using white leather with black piping and prominent snap-buttons holding it in place. Besides looking retro-cool, it also provides just enough tail section to keep dirt off Scott’s back while he’s riding it. To insure street legality, he tucked a cat-eye taillight under the tailpiece with a near-horizontal license plate mount hanging off the tail adding a bit more muck protection, but a DMV inspector might take umbrage with plate visibility.

But you can’t put together a café racer with just racy forks and a tail section; you need clip-on handlebars. Scott made a set and fit them with Sportster hand controls. Although he used stock hand controls, he didn’t really have that option at foot level. Not, that is, if he wanted to be true to his café racer design. Scott made his own out of 5/16 aluminum plate and fabricated the mounts to place the foot position one-inch higher and four-inches further back than it was originally, to give it a semi-rearset stance like a race bike.

Scott also tried to keep the racer spirit alive when he had West Coast Colorworks spray Candy Metalflake Tangerine paint with white pinstripe panels and very small Harley-Davidson graphics by Bob Iverson painted on the tank. However, the H-D nine-spoke mag wheels were something else; he powdercoated them in seat-matching white. Why, you ask? Exactly. Scott Jones is very happy with this bike, telling us it’s way fun to ride. “I’m ready to build another one, so watch out for Enya’s step-sister.”