Wild Orange Yonder

WILD ORANGE YONDER

American FLYERS

Lightning takes flight

EVERY RED-BLOODED American sportbike fan would love to own a Harley-Davidson VR1000, but until such time as The Motor Company starts churning out street-going versions, all we can do is dream.

Or if you’re Erich Martin, you can actually do something about it, and build a VR Replica of your own.

An aircraft mechanic by profession, Martin, 38, has owned 64 motorcycles, mostly dirt-trackers and sportbikes. A few years ago, he realized he was riding too fast on the street, and decided to try “mellowing out” by riding Harleys for a while.

“I built a Sportster caferacer and had a lot of fun on that until the day I got my ass kicked by a Ducati 888 on ‘my’ road,” Martin recalls. “It was pathetic: I was two-wheel drifting and he was eating a cheese sandwich! That was about the time Buell was getting serious, so I thought, well, that’s a Harley...”

Martin determined that the best route to HarleyDavidson sportbiking bliss would be to modify an SI Lightning. So modify he did—in the comfort of his Southern California apartment!

Heart of Martin’s so-called “SIR” is the engine, built with the help of Paul Musgrave at Hammyboys Motorsports. Breathing through a Keihin 41mm flat-slide, sparked by a Buell race ignition module and exhausting through a works header, the Sportster 1200-derived mill pumps out 90 ponies. Coupled with taller, European-model gearing, this gives the bike a top speed over 140 mph. “It’s fun to ‘wax’ new sportbikes using old Russian-tractor technology,” laughs Martin.

The Si’s chassis was upgraded with an X1 Lightning aluminum swingarm, American Made Suspension shock, WP inverted fork and three-spoke Marchesini wheels. Also helping handling is the racier riding position, achieved via Graves clip-ons, American Sportbike rearsets and a Corbin seat. Completing the transformation are a bikini fairing swiped from a Honda Magna, a VR-replica fiberglass tailpiece from AirTech and various carbon-fiber tidbits from Bartels’ H-D, where Martin works on weekends.

As for the orange-andwhite paint scheme, artfully sprayed by Dennis Voll, we had just one question: Why isn’t it black on the other side, like a VR?

“Because I only like the orange side,” replies Martin.

Hey, it’s his bike.

Brian Catterson