Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you all are thinking. I thought the same thing when I first laid eyes on this cool new Harley from Paris’ Blitz Motorcycles. “Surely they mean STREET tracker, not board tracker?” I wondered. After all, this Harley looks about as much like a board tracker as the Hindenburg looked like a hummingbird. But you, like I, would be wrong. See the concept behind the latest Blitz creation was to take the essence of that much-loved era of fearless riders and death-by-buttock-splinters and and apply it to one of Milwaukee’s finest. And gosh darn it if they haven’t just gone and done that very same thing. The more observant readers out there will also note that unlike pretty much every other blitz bike in existence, this one is in fact “avec de la peinture et sans poussière,” or “not completely filthy” as we say in Anglaise. Please welcome the Gentle Board Tracker to our friendly pages.
Fred from Blitz takes up the story. “We indeed got inspired for this bike by boardtrackers from the 20’s. Still the bike is being to be used in the street of Paris, so the footpegs stayed in their “mid-cruise control” position. Of course the engine was torn down so that the different parts could be perfectly painted.”
The donor bike was a HD Sportster 883 from ’91. We handcrafted the subframe ourselves. There’s a Ion-Lithium battery fitted in a bespoke battery case along with bespoke (and simplified) electric wiring. The front brake master cylinder was relocated from the handlebars to the frame (underneath the steering column) and the ‘bars are a bicycle 22mm style called “moustache”.
“The seat is handmade and the tank is a MotoConfort unit, which is a French brand from the 50’s & 60’s. It was painted by a pro and the petcock was moved from the back to the front. We also fitted a mini digital speedometer in the front “hole” of the tank.”
“All the engine covers, frame, wheels, handlebar, levers, etc. were powder coated in carmin red, shiny black, and cream. The cylinders have been hand painted with a high temperature shiny black finish and the push rods tubes were painted in high temperature graphite grey.”
“The rear rubber is a Coker 16″ and the front is an Avon 19”. We added a cafe racer seat and genuine drag pipes. Still we could not help to paint them in high temperature resistant graphite grey, with a “touche” of red inside. We hope you like it.”
