MUD LOVER

Why did you build your bike like that? There’s a question with as many answers as there are options …

- Tom John

The Sportster was built for a film project that happened between myself and Electric Bubble (the production company). We wanted to take six mates around Tasmania on hand-built bikes. Why the Sportster? Because that’s what I had. I picked it up for a bargain and intended to customise it; what I didn’t intend was the direction the bike took. Being completely transformed into a dual sport adventure bike wasn’t the original idea.

You can ride a Sporty comfortably all day, generally not through off-road tracks but that just adds to the fun of it. There’s no doubt it took a lot of work to make the 1200cc cruiser even mildly off road capable, but we had to take it a step further. The terrain we would hit was really testing for both bike and rider. As a 75kg bloke, wrestling a big lead weight around these tracks was a challenge. That said, my task as a builder was to drop as much weight off it as possible. The stock 2007 Sporty weighs in at 265kg ready to ride, my project hits the curb at 230kg ready to ride. I was able to shed that weight through a lot of hand-made aluminium parts, lightweight wheels, exhaust, and fibreglass tail sections among a bunch of other things.

Lectron carbs are well known in MX and Enduro circles, the way they operate devoid of jets makes them an obvious choice for long, off-road journeys of changing climate and altitude. No matter where you ride the Lectron stays tuned. My Sportster was built to go anywhere and the Lectron aids that freedom.

The airbox was yet another hand-built, original part. The design allows a few luxuries that the standard airbox didn’t. Better water crossing capability, longer maintenance intervals, and better protection from rain/sleeting weather.