Csa Wildcat

CSA Wildcat

Sympathy for the Devil

IT CAME TIME TO PONDER HOW WE DODGED THAT WHOLE millennial apocalypse bullet. Near as I can figure, the Four Horsemen were making their stop at my house, saw the CSA Wildcat and knocked each other off fighting over who'd ride it. Lucky, eh?

You’ve got Confederate Motorcycles to thank, because even Mephistopheles himself would have a hard time resisting the Wildcat’s sinister charms. In fact, it’d be perfect for that bad boy’s Sunday ride (’cause you know he ain’t gonna be in church). Might be a pretty tough sell, though: “I live in kind of a warm climate, is that air-cooling going to be okay? Is there any way I can get the warranty extended for all eternity?”

Warranty-schmarranty. Old Mephy obviously hadn’t taken one for a spin. (One-year, unlimited miles, by the way.)

You can’t blame the Prince o’ Darkness for wanting one without even taking a ride, though. A cruiser in the streetrod tradition, this mean machine has a certain simple attraction when you’re parked at your local joint for a sarsparilla. The Cat’s got a nice, direct way of saying, “Hi, I’m a badass.” Even if you really aren’t one.

So if you’re a poseur looking for that type of pronouncement, you can hang up the phone on this little sidebar, get out your checkbook and cut one for a cool $19,980-or more, depending on color and equipment options.

Notice that’s several grand less than the Confederate America GT shown elsewhere on these pages. Introduced in October last millennium, the new CSA line comes from a sister division of Confederate Motorcycles, with bikes aimed at riders with a smaller-but still admittedly large-budget.

The principle differences in the lower-priced CSA’s case are a smaller engine (at 100 cubes, maybe I should say “less big”), a different fuel tank and a 1-inch reduction in the diameter of the frame’s backbone (though the wall thickness is increased). The impressive parts list is the same: Marchesini wheels, ISR brake system and clutch hydraulics, S&S engine, SuperTrapp exhaust, Paioli inverted fork and Works Performance shocks.

Pretty, the CSA is not. At least not in a traditional cruiser sense. It’s pretty in the same manner that a black .357 Magnum is pretty-a businesslike, unadorned look, pure machine, pure purpose.

Centerpiece of this is the balanced and blueprinted 45degree V-Twin. Both visually and mechanically powerful, the engine’s unfortunatly too-rich jetting unpredictably punctuates what would otherwise be one of the most unerringly large sledgehammers of torque you can find. Once its throat is clear, though, the Cat leaps forward on its grippy 200mmwide rear Pirelli Corsa Dragon with a lunge so catapult-like that it makes the kicked-back, hands-high riding position feel almost silly. It practically takes claws to hang on as the bike tries to tear itself out from under you, an end-of-the-world thunder emanating from the 2-into-l exhaust all the while. Take it down a notch and everything’s cool-this thing will lug down to nothing, no problem {plenty of flywheel here).

As for the proprietary handmade chassis, let’s just say that 60 inches of wheelbase, low footpegs, too-heavy damping and that huge rear tire consign it firmly to the cruiser

family in terms of handling. It isn’t diabolical when you peel into a bend, just a better-than-average custom bike limited by its very nature.

In the end (get it?), this kind of motorcycle is more about what the parts are and how they look than how they work together, anyway. So while it is a pretty highly functional muscle-custom, its real mission is stomping around like a mutha and looking tough. For that, there’s nothing better. If the Four Horsemen ever get it back together, the end of the world’s going to have one hell of an attitude, not to mention a new kind of apocalyptic thunder. We can only hope they’re just profiling and will ride on by. Mark Hoyer