London’s Cafe Racer Customs continue to impress with the CRC Sportster C&J unveiled at the BSMC III event last week. Harleys are very much like Marmite, but few failed to be impressed by this stunning reworking on the flat tracker theme. Simon and Will are quickly acquiring a reputation for premium craftsmanship combining bold design with robust engineering.

The Sportster is built on an oil-in frame chro-moly chassis built by the American firm C&J, designed for use in the Supertracker class of the FlatTrack race series. The rear swinging arm has been modified with a removable section to enable belt changing. It employs a narrow belt drive.

The engine is a Buell S1W1203cc twin fueled by a Mikuni HSR 42mm slide carb and aspirated via a Forcewinder intake. It uses Screaming Eagle cams and ignition and carbon pushrod tubes. It has Vance and Hines headers and link pipe with a Remus system. It has an aluminium RaceTech tank, and a CRC custom ally seat base that doubles up as an oil catch tank, and a CRC custom ally seat hump. The front master cylinder is from a Honda Fireblade, and it uses CRG levers mounted on carbon fibre tubes secured with aluminium clip-on clamps from HPS. It has an Accossato throttle and Fireblade switchgear.

Will and Simon used titanium wheel and swinging arm spindles and magnesium Dymag TT3s wheels. The forks are Buell X1 Showas powder coated black with titanium-nitride stanchions, with Buell S1 yokes. An alloy hanger secures the single Buell X1 caliper, that's twined with a 340mm disc. The ally front mudguard is custom CRC fabricated.

On the left side is a Storz gear lever and footrest hanger, and on the right a one-off custom fabricated rear brake lever and hanger. The rear brake is a Buell X1 disc with a Brembo Monster S4 caliper on a custom hanger. The rear shock is a side mounted Penske.

The electrics are governed via a custom loom using Deutch connectors. The instruments are Vapor and the headlight a cafe racer style H4. The indicators are Oxford.

CRC have been typically uncompromising in their choice of components, and the sum of the parts equals an exquisitely designed machine whose devastating good looks are matched by its blistering performance. A build that is enough to silence the most ardent of Harley doubters, and to give many exhilarating hours of tracker-inspired joy to its future lucky owner.

Thanks to Simon and Will for sharing this lovely Harley (I never thought I'd hear myself say that!).