TARMAC RAVEN

WHEN HARLEY-DAVIDSON FLEW ROUGH CRAFTS' WINSTON YEH TO BARCELONA TO TEST-RIDE THE MILWAUKEE EIGHT SOFTAILS BACK IN 2017, HE WAS AMAZED BY HOW MUCH THEY'D IMPROVED THEIR NEW SOFTAIL PLATFORM.

he idea of a customised performance version of it's been flowing through his head ever since so, when a customer came into the Rough Crafts' workshops in Taipei (Taiwan) with an open brief, Winston knew exactly what he wanted to do.

He, and Rough Crafts, have had a rapid rise to fame, and there've been a number of collaborations with various big names in the world of motorcycling since the Taiwanese company opened its doors in 2009. Thanks to previous projects he's undertaken, he was able to expand on relationships formed, and get some aid for the build of what was to be called the 'Tarmac Raven'.

The customer's bike was a 2018 Street Bob, and the first job was to change the stance ofthe bike from boulevard cruiser toward something with a little more attitude and purposefulness. The first port ofcall was Swedish purveyors ofsuspension gold, Ohlins, who supplied a custommade rear shock that's an inch longer than standard, and a pair of slightly shorter than stock FGRT301 forks with fat, titanium-nitride coated 48mm fork legs, and chunky black-anodised sliders. They're gripped in a pair of CNC Racing yokes (modified at Rough Crafts to fit the Harley steering neck, and have appropriate risers), also anodised black... yes, there's a theme here.

The raised rear end, and the shorter forks, reduce the bike's rake and trail, and turn the relaxed cruiser into a far more aggressive animal. Winston then turned to Rob Fisher at Roaring Toyz in Florida, who specialise in fat wheel conversions, single-sided swinging arms, and more, primarily for Japanese sports bikes, but are now doing more for home market vee-twins now that the custom sports bike boom is floundering. An ex-AMA racer, Rob knows his onions when it comes

to making a bike handle properly, and actually went out and bought a new M8 Softail to be able to create the single-sided 'arm that was required, and the end result is an 'arm created solely from billet aluminium that carries an eccentrically mounted hub for a Ducati Panigale wheel and brake.

Naturally, Winston wasn't going to use standard parts, Ducati or not, and instead opted for a Beringer disc/caliper bolted onto a sevenspoke BST carbon fibre wheel super light, and super trick. The lightweight BST was matched at the front, both wrapped in super-sticky

Pirelli SuperCorsa V3 tyres.

All that thought and expense on the rolling gear'd be somewhat pointless if the engine's performance wasn't to be addressed, too. Now, the 107 cubic inch (1,750cc) M8 engine isn't by any stretch of the imagination a limpwristed waif incapable of pulling the skin offa rice pudding but, subsequent to a chat with David Zemla of S&S

Cycle, Winston ordered an S&S Power

Package - 124 cubic inches (2032cc) of true 'Merican muscle punting out an impressive 124bhp/135ft-lb of torque. Of course, those figures are dependent on the breathing arrangements for the engine in question Winston's project's equipped with a full titanium system, using an SC Projects end can on bespoke titanium headers made in-house at Rough Crafts. At the time of writing, they haven't had the opportunity to dyno' the bike, but he does report that, "Man, it really has some serious push!"

Despite the Street Bob now sporting this radical look, the frame's actually standard with no cutting anywhere. Winston also kept the standard clocks, just re-designing the Rough Crafts finned risers to suit so that all the stock functions're retained. There're new Rebuffini CAN-BUS compatible hand controls, that work with H-D's new-fangled electrical system which, like the electronics on many modern machines, can otherwise be something of a nightmare to work with.

Aside from being a bespoke machine made to suit his customer's wants and desires, many of the parts created for the Tarmac Raven'll now be appearing in the Rough Crafts catalogue, enabling others to turn their Street Bob into a street brawler fit for the postCovid roads ofthe twenty-first century.