For years, our shop housed an old 1999 Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster. A small, beat up bike with a chromed-out engine and mismatched mag rear/21″ wire front wheels, it donned all the appropriate traits of a classic cruiser. To be honest, there was a long time when we didn’t really know what we wanted to do with it. Thusly, the bike caught dust for nearly five years while we toyed with ideas of converting it to a cafe racer or maybe a bobber.

By our self-instilled doctrine of aesthetic beliefs, we want all of our builds to be different, and with this being our first Harley build, we really wanted to emphasize that. Functionality comes first and foremost, but when we build a bike, we build a bike that will stand out and a bike that can be ridden hard. We took our plans from the drawing board to the recycling bin countless times before deciding that what we really wanted was to make this old cruiser something that could be ridden everywhere. It was this spark of realization that ignited our pondering minds and through the fire came the roaring American Scrambler.

Much like any stock Sportster, the Scrambler started with a dropped-rear cruiser stance. With the front end high and the seat down low, we knew exactly what our first modifications would be. For the front end, we envisioned a more modern design and decided to slap on a late ’90s GSX1000 USD to lower the front. We decided to keep the Harley front hub, but we machined a new front axle and an adapter to accommodate the GSX’s double disc brakes. To raise the rear, we switched to longer rear shocks and raised the shock mounts by an inch, effectively giving us the signature scrambler stance we were looking for. Once we got that, we decided to switch to all wire spoke wheels with aluminium raised-center “dirt catcher” rims by Borrani. With both the street and the dirt in mind, we equipped the Scrambler with dual purpose tyres.

When considering options for a tank, we decided this bike would look best with an original design; so we made one following the design of the Harley’s V-twin motor. We added a stainless rack for detail and set the Monza gas cap off center. To finish off the tank, we added a black flame graphic to an otherwise bare aluminium polished finish.

Having the tank follow the accent of the motor gave us a beautiful curve to play with when building our seat. To maintain the bike’s natural flow, we made the front of the seat follow the tail of the tank and curved the seat up toward the rear. In attempts to further abandon the bike’s previous life as a cruiser, we decided to make the seat as narrow as possible without exposing the frame rails. The seat pan itself is fiberglass and is wrapped in high-density foam fashioned with cowhide leather upholstery.

After finalizing the design of the seat, we made a custom oil tank to fit inside the midsection of the frame. Here, we notched the inside to fit a gel-cell battery giving this used-to-be cruiser the option for a rougher ride. We then added an aluminium number plate with a black patch and gold pinstripe.

We wanted the fenders to match the number plate and the gas tank, so we made those out of aluminium as well and added stainless steel mounting brackets. We fabricated a front skid plate (also out of aluminium) with ventilation slots to cool the voltage regulator and then fashioned a small dashboard out of mild steel that we designed to fit the stock tachometer and warning lights. We then designed stainless foot pegs and foot controls that are mounted in the mid-section of the bike.

When working on the engine, we knew the first thing that had to go was the chrome finish so we sandblasted the side covers and the top end, leaving us with a pitted matte finish. We then swapped the stock 883 pistons with a 1200cc piston cylinder kit. We made our own air filter box out of aluminium and covered the air inlet with a stainless wire mesh. The stock belt drive was then swapped out for a chain final drive and the side cover of the engine was cut out, exposing the front sprocket and gold chain.

With the Scrambler starting to look as wild as we dreamed, finding an aftermarket headlight bucket and tail light to suit our build became an increasingly difficult task. As you can probably imagine, we encounter this situation quite often, and like all the other times before, we decided to build our own from scratch. We built a headlight bucket that we wanted to tuck between the fork legs; so we designed it to be as narrow as possible. The tail light was made of bare aluminium and bolted onto the tail of the frame, wrapping around the frame end loop.

While building this bike, we knew we wanted to stay true to the signature scrambler style, but as always, we also wanted it to have our own unique twist. With the scrambler-style exhaust in mind, we fabricated our own 2-into-2 exhaust out of stainless steel and, in the vein of old school scramblers, mounted the mufflers high. We finished off the mufflers by adding aluminium details and left the brushed matte finish.

The Scrambler was nearly complete at this point, but with adventure in our veins and our eyes on the horizon, there was one last detail that needed to be made – so we gave the Scrambler an all-purpose road kit. The detachable leather bag is an original design and styled to match the seat’s cowhide leather upholstery. To finish the build, a protective aluminium plate was made to help keep the bag clean during the Scrambler’s hopefully-muddy future ventures.

As with all of our projects, we definitely set out to build a bike that was realistic and functional, but more importantly we built a bike that was fun. What started as a standard cruiser has become a bike that could now trek, whether in the street or in the unmapped dirt of the Earth, toward the dawn of a new day.

Written by: Michael Rex Carbonell
Photographed by: Ben Chan

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