One of the greatest benefits to a design team is a client willing to entrust them with creative freedom, and for us, Andrew has long been one of those amazing clients. This is the third Ellaspede motorcycle he has commissioned, the first - a 1968 Honda CB450 K1 - dates way back to our transitional period moving out of Leo’s house and into our dedicated West End studio. Andrew’s longstanding support of Ellaspede was particularly highlighted to us when we looked back through the photoshoot from that original build and found some snaps of him with his kids, who are now adults, back when they were barely taller than the little chrome Honda. A few years down the road we spruiked up another of Andrew’s Hondas, this time his 2011 CB400 workhorse, to add a touch of interest to his daily commute. Both bikes have found their way back to the down to the shop regularly for routine maintenance and updates over the years.

Last year, Andrew reached out to us wanting to scratch a new itch, something non-Japanese. He’d always wanted to own a Harley, but having grown accustomed to the do-it-all nature of his CB400 he wasn’t keen on going full straight line loving highway hog just yet. With this in mind, he settled on a 2009 Harley Davidson XR1200. Often referred to as Harley’s sportiest Sportster, this particular example came with a few aftermarket additions - a full Officine Italiane Zard exhuast system, a fairly aggressive fibreglass tank cover, a carbon air filter scoop for extra horse power with a shiny SIDI sticker for even more, an open belt drive shoelace shortener and a whole lot of attitude. Fifteen years out the factory, it was starting to show some signs of age, but all in all it was a tidy bike with plenty of eagles still screamin’.

Andrew’s brief to us was to keep the essence of the bike intact, keep the seat two-up capable for doubling his now much taller kids around, but otherwise just to do what we do. Initially, our design minds ran a bit wild, brainstorming an elaborate combination of hand-fabricated components and custom 3D modelled & machined parts - but with the goal of retaining the XR1200’s soul, we quickly reined ourselves back in. Despite its divisive landing upon release, we count ourselves as fans of this model. With its heritage steeped in the universally adored styling of the XR750 flat tracker, it’s a little surprising that the XR1200 was ever controversial at all, perhaps coming down to a bit of half racer/half cruiser design confusion. With that in mind we changed tack, deciding to approach the design as our interpretation of how the bike might’ve been released today, likely leaning further into its flat tracking roots for a more cohesive and resolute aesthetic. Here are some concept renderings that we presented to Andrew early on to illustrate the direction in which we were keen to head.

Our initial designs were thankfully well received, and whilst the colours we presented were relatively muted, Andrew was pretty set on the classic blacked out Harley look. It was hard to argue against the tried and true mean look for this particular bike - its aggressive factory specs, high compression heads, upgraded throttle bodies and performance cams all demand an equally tough look to suit. The murdered out colour-way was agreed upon, and along with a gentle massaging of some awkward visual proportions from the stock components, we were set to move forward with the overhaul.

One of the more unique design considerations we took on board was the ability to return the bike to stock in future. Since its target market European launch in 2008 and subsequent 2009 release in the USA and Australia, the XR1200’s more abrasive edges have softened in the eyes of the public and it is now considered somewhat of an underdog sweetheart, or even a future classic. This change in perspective arrived a little too late for Harley’s top brass though, seeing the model discontinued after four short years due to strong competition in the naked bike class from Ducati, Triumph and Yamaha as well as its general ugly duckling misalignment with the rest of the Milwaukee marque’s line up. The custom bike scene can be fickle, particularly so with the resale market - so the ability to chameleon back to the stock look on a unique bike like the XR1200 provides welcome peace of mind. The combined seat & cowl unit, modernised cockpit, headlight unit and tail tidy were all designed to integrate into the existing geometry without the need for aggressive, irreversible adjustments.

Our first build for Andrew earned the nickname ‘Elvis’, based on his 1968 Comeback Special. During the XR1200 build, the legend Carl Weathers sadly passed away, prompting Andrew to settle on the fitting moniker ‘Apollo Creed’. We briefly pushed for him to go with ‘Chubbs Peterson’ instead, arguing that Happy Gilmore’s golf mentor was Weathers’ true defining role, but that argument fell out of a window pretty quickly and we tapped out like we were arm wrestling with Dillon from Predator.

In a nice full circle moment, we were able to set up a photoshoot not only with the freshly completed XR1200, but with Andrew, his wife and their three kids, just like we did 12 years ago for Elvis’ shoot. It was great fun getting them to recreate some poses from that original shoot way back when, and appropriately reflected the good times we’ve had working with incredible long-term clients like Andrew over the years in our little West End shed.
 

Albums we listened to during the build of this bike:

Build Pricing & Enquiries:

For build and pricing details or to discuss commissioning a custom motorcycle build of your own please email contact@ellaspede.com