Speed Rod

SPEED ROD

SPECIAL SECTION STREET FIGHTERS

The French Correction

PAUL DEAN

HARLEY-DAVIDSON CALLED IT THE Street Rod. We called it perhaps the best backroad H-D ever. But the bike-buying public evidently called it something much less flattering. The Street Rod-a standard-style, semi-sporty take on the original V-Rod cruiser-was such a flop on the sales floor that just two years after its introduction, it was punted out of The Motor Company’s 2008 lineup.

Despite having been dissed by most motorcyclists, the Street Rod in its short lifespan did acquire quite a few fans around the world, including Frenchman Jean François Vicente. In the tiny (pop. 4846) town of Fegersheim, just a stone’s throw from the German border in eastern France, Vicente owns and operates VD-Classic (www.vd-classic. com), which for the past 16 years has been hand-building one-off performance bikes and producing accessories for a small but eclectic variety of motorcycles.

When Vicente first spied a Street Rod, he admired the basic package but felt he could take it to a higher level of sophistication by following the same philosophy that guided him through every project he has ever tackled. “My aim is to have a homogenous design, and by homogenous I mean that when you look at a bike, every part seems to be in the right place, doing the right job. To create the Speed Rod, I wanted to start with a Street Rod and build a sharp, light, compact bike with an engine that looks big.”

The latter objective required no effort whatsoever by Vicente; the Rod’s Porsche-designed 1130cc, 60-degree V-Twin doesn’t just look big, it is big. He was in fact so satisfied with the engine that he left it completely stock. So too have the frame, wheels and brakes remained just as they rolled off the assembly line.

Changing the look and the sound of the bike was what most intrigued Vicente, not modifying the mechanicals. To that end he fabricated fenders, tailsection and airbox cover (in the traditional gas tank location; the Street Rod’s tank is under the seat) of his own design from ultra-lightweight carbon-kevlar. A screened scoop built into the leading edge on each side of the “tank” directs air to the plenum

beneath. As if the front fender weren’t already light enough, Vicente attached it with slim little titanium braces that weigh next to nothing. The abbreviated tailsection supports a solo saddle and has an inner liner on its underside that gives the rear a tidy, finished appearance.

Vicente spent many hours designing and refining the Speed Rod’s 2-into-l exhaust system. The header pipes are highly polished stainless steel, while the racy-looking silencer is a mix of carbon and aluminum on the outside, with stainless-steel internals “I was looking for the right shape and the right sound, too,” he says, “so I tested a lot of baffles. I didn’t want a rumble; I wanted a muffled but deep sound.”

Though Vicente left much of the bike stock, he made detail changes to just about every aspect of the styling. He removed the Street Rod’s large radiator shroud, preferring to showcase the radiator rather than disguising it. He then fabbed a smaller shroud with a stainless-steel grille in front.

Removing the stock shroud exposed the rear-brake master cylinder, so Vicente moved it to a more conventional location above the brake pedal; a nifty little rubber boot with a see-through fluid-level window covers the reservoir. The instruments were moved forward on the top triple-clamp and fitted with an aerodynamic housing. The vertical water-pump hose on the right side of the engine was dressed up with a sand-cast aluminum cover that has polished fins matching those on the cylinder heads. The countershaft-pulley cover, drivebelt guard and swingarm-pivot caps all were designed and made by VD-Classic, as were the billet-aluminum foot controls.

Vicente didn’t ignore the chassis altogether. He fitted Speed Rod with Öhlins piggybackreservoir shocks that are 40mm longer than the originals to quicken the steering and increase cornering clearance. He also modified the fork’s internals so the front suspension rates would better match those of the rear.

Except for the shocks, Vicente and his VD-Classic team imagined, designed and hand-fabricated every one of Speed Rod’s new components. “I drew a minimalist body and tried to drop the weight as much as possible to create a muscle-car attitude,” says Vicente. “I wanted to build a true roadster capable of good performance on twisty roads.”

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to ride the bike and verify that claim ourselves. But based on the evidence seen here, we’d have to say he succeeded.