With some interest I caught a read at Cyril Huze Blog on a pretty sweet dirt track custom Sportster.  What inspired me wasn’t the bike itself (though it is a cool ride), but an idea he tossed in there that “customizing stock Harley models, instead of building new bikes from the ground up, is big again”.

I heard it from Cyril first.  I look forward to the idea that this trend may actually be real as I really enjoy the way Harley has been building bikes for over 100 years, and customizing them can be done pretty well without changing the basic build.  The low center of gravity, the stock front-end geometry, etc, is really pretty effective as-is. 

I hadn’t given it any thought at all until Cyril said it, but I have noticed a move towards more stock-width rear tires after maybe a decade of fat back tires that (and I haven’t ridden one) must turn like churning cold butter.

Trends come and go, but I’ve kept my ol’ shovelhead pretty much the same for 20 years.  Once in a while its stock self coincides with current trend.