A Harley-Davidson with sport bike goodies both journeys your set off or crosses your wires, however in our case, it’s virtually at all times the previous. If it’s executed proper, there’s one thing plain badass a couple of Milwaukee missile that appears like 100 mph standing nonetheless, all with out shedding its leaky outdated iron character.
By way of doing it proper, it’s unimaginable to argue with this 1983 Harley-Davidson XR1000 with competitors historical past within the Battle of the Twins. This uncommon racer is about to go throughout the block this week, as a part of the Mecum Glendale public sale.
Getting on top of things on this XR1000, it’s important to go all the best way again to Harley’s sensational XR750 flat tracker, arguably one of the profitable race bikes ever constructed. After Harley labored the bugs out of the engine in 72, the XR750 was a dominant pressure in flat observe racing for many years. The H-D loyal watched guys like Mert Lawill slide across the oval, and Evil Knievel launch over buses, and so they couldn’t assist however desire a piece of the motion.
Whereas the vast majority of Harley’s assets have been tied up within the building of the upcoming Evolution engine, Harley’s skunkworks began modifying an everyday 1000 cc XL Sportster to include a little bit of the XR750 taste lovers craved. The consequence was the 1983 XR1000.
In observe, it was little greater than a XL Sportster with XR750-style cylinder heads, twin Dell’Orto carburetors and high-mounted pipes on the B-side. An XR750 for the road in concept, the XR1000 actually shined on the massive banks within the Battle of the Twins.
The sequence was born within the Nineteen Eighties as a response to the growing dominance of four-cylinders in sportbike racing, giving massive displacement, air-cooled British, European and American bikes solace on pavement. Harley’s entries have been the brand new XR1000 on paper, however may very well be extra aptly described as overbored variations of the XRTT street racing bike.
Probably the most profitable of those entries was an unlikely hero generally known as Lucifer’s Hammer. After going up in flames at Daytona in 1973, the manufacturing facility street racer was put into storage for 10 years earlier than being reworked to race within the Battle of the Twins. Regardless of having little to no expertise on pavement, flat observe racer Gene Church piloted Lucifer’s Hammer to a few Battle of the Twins championships.
In an iconic alternate, the Ducati manufacturing facility crew congratulated Church for hitting 156 mph at Daytona in 1986, however Church merely responded that one thing was up with one of many carburetors. Appears like fancy discuss—that’s till they fastened the difficulty and topped 170 mph.
Lucifer’s Hammer is a well-documented machine, however the XR1000 supplied right here at Mecum’s Glendale public sale is a little more of a thriller. Mecum particulars that the bike was raced within the Battle of the Twins from 1983 to 1986, with Rick Ranno piloting. From there, it was bought to Sweden and raced by champion ice racer Posa Serenius at Linöping in 2007. In comparison with the one interval photograph we have been capable of dig up, we’re assuming the bike has since been restored to Ranno’s V-Twins Cycle Store livery.
Again in 2019, Mecum bought the Ranno XR for a paltry $6,600. For that sort of cash, we should always all be elevating our paddles. [Via Mecum Auctions]
