So there I was perusing one of the many message board threads that I check in on regularly when I tripped across this AMAZINGLY COOL photo of a Royal Enfield flat track conversion that had been rather casually slipped in to to a “Flat Tracker” thread. My eyes quite literally bugged out of my head. I’m not embarrassed to say that I’m a wee bit smitten with this build.
Well, long story short I inquired about the bike and was hooked up with Art Guilfoil who is a part owner of Doug Douglas Motorcycles in San Bernardino, CA. He’s been working on the prototype. And I mean hot freaking damm… how nice is this!
After getting in touch, Art was kind enough to provide the background info on this really trick build.
Hi Steve
The bike you’re talking about is our prototype for a streettracker that we are making parts for. This is something that’s been in the works for about a year off and on and we just got it all together the other day so we could bring it to the IMS show. It has yet to turn a wheel at the track so I don’t have much to say about riding it…yet.
We plan to be up and running building street legal bikes (ed: YES!!) with the parts we are developing within a few months. We still have a lot to do in developing this as a racer but that will progress throughout the year as we develop performance items and test chassis issues not to mention the new parts we are creating.
So, to give you a rundown on what we have so far: New swingarm that is stronger and slightly longer than stock. It uses a disk brake as opposed to the stock drum brake and that’s a major upgrade to begin with. The forks are 43mm R6 modified for flattrack and they are in adjustable triple clamps that have been annodized black and this particular set is engraved “Royal Enfield”. We built the seat loop to use a Champion 250 style seat base and Saddlemen made us the seat. We have relocated the electrics including the battery for looks as well as to protect those pieces. The stainless steel exhaust is a race only unit that’s really loud.
For all of these parts we have some development that will continue before we are willing to offer them to the public but it will come soon enough. The idea is two fold…we do want to race this bike and hopefully it gets a following in amateur racing (ed this seems like a natural!) since there’s not many modern bikes besides dirtbikes that are used for flattrack any longer. So this is that alternative for the guy who wants a proper looking bike and yet wants electric start and reliability. The second part is as a street tracker that allows someone to have a bad-ass conversation piece with a warrantew and can be financed and depending on ow he options it up the price would be 10k to 15k. That’s about half what other builders are getting for their street trackers that are based on old bikes that can’t even be financed let alone have modern comforts such as the e start buttona nd fuel injection.
We think we have a winner on and off the track. For now, we’re just enjoying the build. 90% of the project at this point is personal satisfaction.
I’ve included a couple more photos we took just before it went to the show. Not the greatest shots but it’s all I have right now.
Thanks for the email. If you want mroe info let me know.
Take care
Art
“90% of the project at this point is personal satisfaction.” That is the cornerstone to most great success stories.
My word! That is pretty
…Needs to shift on RH side. Yes indeed, violate the safe-laws of mandated conformity, or turn Flat-track around to run clockwise and shift side up.
Bitch’n tracker, How is the power, like the yamaha? Be hard to run with a cammer but ? If you have a picture of a street tracker shoot one to my email. Hope all is well.