‘Pure and simple’ Hog turns Japanese
East meets West in Calgarian’s Harley-Davidson Sportster Forty-Eight
Michael Hatton’s dad, David, loved telling stories. Often, they related to motorcycles, and dad would regale son with tales of two-wheeled fun and freedom.
In 2006 when David decided to return to riding, the pair took a motorcycle safety course as a father and son adventure.
“After the course, I learned to ride my dad’s big BMW R1200GS,” Hatton explains. “I was 17 and still at high school in Lethbridge then and like most young guys started riding a sport bike.”
A Kawasaki Ninja 650 became Hatton’s ride of choice. However, because the Ninja was a fully faired machine — meaning the bike’s mechanical components are hidden behind body panels—Hatton decided he wanted to see what was underneath.
“I wanted to be a little bit different, and enjoyed stripping the bike down to its bare bones, focusing on lightening it up and improving its performance,” he says. “I love seeing how things come apart, and have always liked seeing the intricacies of an engine — why hide the mechanical details?”
After the Ninja came a Honda CB360. Hatton further investigated customizing motorcycles by turning the CB360 into a café racer-inspired machine, stripping the paint from the tank to leave it in bare metal, adding a set of low handlebars and changing the seat.
Hatton moved to Calgary with the Honda and was in the market to upgrade. He was looking at a Triumph Thruxton or a Moto Guzzi V7, but ultimately bought a 2011 Harley-Davidson Sportster Forty-Eight.
The Forty-Eight is a slightly retro-styled machine featuring beefy 16-inch wheels front and rear and power from Harley-Davidson’s 1,200-cc V-twin engine. It offers a bit of attitude with an unusual riding position that sees the pilot with feet and hands in a forward position.
“I wasn’t really a fan of Harley-Davidsons and the ‘culture’ that surrounds the brand,” Hatton says. “But I was interested in customizing, and the Sportster appealed to me as a platform to start from.”
The Forty-Eight he found was for sale on Kijiji in Red Deer. It was a bargain, Hatton says. He picked it up in 2012 and rode it for a couple of weeks in its stock form.
“I enjoyed every second of it, and it all clicked for me and soon understood why people like Harley-Davidsons,” Hatton says. “It was just pure and simple motorcycling.”
But that didn’t prevent Hatton from thinking he could improve his Forty-Eight. A follower of several online custom motorcycle forums, Hatton was aware of how radically the Sportster could be modified.
Instead of following American trends of long and skinny custom Harley-Davidsons in the ‘West Coaststyle,’ Hatton says, he turned instead to Japanese influences.
“In Japan, they tend to go for a big and chunky look, and it’s much more muscular,” he explains.
From that point on, the Forty-Eight was something of a work in progress. Hatton started with a set of low clip on handlebars and applied a variety of different stickers to the gas tank.
Then, after another move, Hatton finally had a garage in which he could work. That’s when he stripped the gas tank of stickers and paint and devised a Mad Max-esque cowl and built a seat out of a skateboard deck.
He altered the feet forward riding position with rear set foot controls and installed a high-rise exhaust system from Spitfire Motorcycles.
“Every winter, I’d change the bike up a little bit,” Hatton says.
In the Forty-Eight’s latest iteration, Hatton had help installing a set of Kawasaki ZX-7R forks from Kenny Kwan at Ill-Fated Kustoms in Calgary.
Kwan machined a new steering stem to mate the Japanese fork to the American frame. He also fabricated a new steering stop to prevent the forks from turning too far. Stock Kawasaki clip on bars are 7/8-inch diameter and the Harley-Davidson hand controls are one inch, so Kwan made up a larger set of clip ons to fit the Harley gear. Hatton left the green Kawasaki wheel with its dual discs in place.
Another change was the addition of a seat from a 2016 Sportster Roadster.
Hatton is not out to please the purists, and says, “My Harley-Davidson with the Japanese flag painted on the gas tank and the Kawasaki front end is certainly divisive. Some people love it and other people hate it.
“The bike is about 90 lbs. lighter than stock and it handles and stops so much better now, but for me, it’s more than just about transportation. The custom motorcycle is about self-expression and creativity; it’s about working with your hands and ultimately having a bike that tells a story.”