Driving report: Harley-Davidson XLCR

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Driving report: Harley-Davidson XLCR

Willie’s black series

If everyone who liked the all-new, black outfit of the Cafe Racer during Daytona Bike Week 1977 had also bought one, Willie G. Davidson’s creation would not have been a slow seller. The image of the Harley-Sportster XLCR is very popular with US owners, but the collectors hold on? yet ?? covered. But what if the reminiscence of the good old days tastes stale today: vinegar instead of essence?

It’s such a thing with fond memories. The same wine of the same vintage, brought home from the wonderful Italian vacation spot two years ago, tastes good today. Only the enjoyment and the emotions from back then don’t want to come back.
I was actually looking for a completely different machine when I discovered the Cafe Racer. In the spring of 1999 I wanted to see the brand new Dyna Super Glide Sport at CPO, a Harley dealer in Neckartenzlingen. It was available in the Diamond Ice Pearl paintwork that electrified me. A color that, depending on the incidence of light, oscillates between mother-of-pearl gray and frozen ice. There was a demonstration machine of the model in the courtyard, but in a red color that lacked any magic of the ice pearls.
My irritated look got lost in the shop window of the adjoining building. There was the Sportster-based Cafe Racer, a Harley-Davidson XLCR. Petite, jet black and bizarre. It was really a first. In photos I had the unusual feast for the eyes of H.D. designer Willie. G. Davidson has often been appreciated. Never live before. Obviously, the model is offered for sale in the shop window. Unfortunately, the old, hard and rotten original Good Year tires prevented a spontaneous test drive. Now in autumn 2000 the time has finally come. The Cafe Racer stands in the MOTORRAD underground car park with newly fitted Avon tires in low-profile format.
I don’t remember her so small and crouched. Sure, the deep black makes the silhouette compact, the long wheelbase is hardly noticeable. The Kelsey-Hayes double disc brake system in front suggests Harley-unusual deceleration. The narrow handlebars, unusually curved like a child’s streak, look more uncomfortable than they are. The Cafe Racer has an electric starter. After all. Optimistically I pull the choke directly on the old Bendix carburetor. Blue clouds from the two silencers, a lot of smoke about nothing. The V2 does not want to start work. Choke back in, then it works. Hesitantly and shuddering, the two-cylinder goes to work, rattling its way into life surprisingly quietly.
When Stuttgart is behind me, I can feel the almost a quarter of a century old engine gradually getting up to temperature. The warmth of the engine creeps pleasantly up the lower legs, taking over what the pale rays of the sun are no longer good for. The fire in the V2 boiler now burns so properly that the forward movements are smoother. From 2000 rpm, the engine picks up gas smoothly, without hiccups or annoying vibrations. It runs as freely and carefree as I am not used to even from much younger Evolution sports stars with lean settings. Is that due to the bends winding like snakes around the engine case? Or was even the crankshaft of the Cafe Racer finely balanced ex works?
The vibrations quickly get harder. I was surprised to find that the tachometer needle only moves slowly above 4000 rpm. I realize that this has to be the original translation for the US version with a nominal 68 hp. Of the specimens exported to Germany with modified silencers in 1977, only 57 remained. With that I manage almost 4500 rpm. That’s just 150 km / h on the Japanese speedometer. Because today I don’t feel like doing a sporty low-back posture, I start off like against a rubber wall. Maybe some brute who huddles behind the tiny windshield of the lamp cover can make a few more turns with a lot of running. In any case, I don’t have the heart to torment the engine like a horse. Determinedly, I leave the expressway to get into a more curvy track
Am i disappointed? Did i expect more? This machine runs surprisingly well right now and is handy. Okay, the front stoppers need a good handshake, probably the pads are glazed. I could do that, handlebar stumps come on anyway. Rolf Schietinger, one of the managing directors of CPO, puts my impression into perspective: “Well, the Electra Glide pipes have to be on, then the translation fits, the sound is right, and the pressure is a lot better.” The old song, that Harley riders in Germany keep hearing them. The Americans, theoretically far ahead of the world with rigid exhaust and noise regulations. It’s just that nobody in the USA sticks to it. That was already the case at the end of the 70s.
What aesthetic novelty did Willie G. Davidson put on the black and silver Morris Magwheels? The name for his jet-black creation must have been clear to him by the end of the 60s. Back then, cafe racers were the fixed boys who pimped up their mostly English bikes with attributes from street racing. In their free time, they hung around with their goats in front of the truck bars and cafes half the night. In between, from one truck stop to the next, we were greeted briefly.
And at H.D., from 1966 to 1981 under the scepter of the general goods group AMF, which held the majority of the shares, there was a need for action from the mid-1970s. The Big Twins were too slow for the short sprints, the Sportster in the previous versions too good, too conservative and too slow. Willie probably intended to hit the young Harley customers with something at least outwardly like a stripped Triumph Bonnie or a Norton Commando Fastback. Allan Girdler, former editor-in-chief of the US magazine Cycle World and a proven connoisseur of the brand with some amusing Harley books, aptly summed up the failure of the XLCR: Back then, “Harley riders didn’t like cafe racers and cafe racers didn’t like Harleys”.
In any case, I didn’t even notice this model in 1977. Either it was too rare. Or I just overlooked them. After all, the attention back then was directed to the supersport versions of Ducati or a Laverda SF 750 or Moto Guzzi Le Mans. In the States too, Willie’s unusual creation was a flop. In the two production years 1977/1978 barely 3,000 units were sold. In 1979 there were just nine. Death.
On the streets in the Black Forest, I start pondering between 80 and 100 km / h. For today’s standards, the seating position is not even remotely sporty. Willie wasn’t radical enough ergonomically. He probably didn’t know the seating position of the Italian superbikes of the time from his own experience. The footrest system of the XLCR is still too far forward. The engine suddenly dies in the middle of a left turn. Out of old habit I look for the fuel tap on the left underside of the tank. With no result, did I run the thing dry? Disappointment with Willie, who obviously has no provision for a reserve. Until I get the tap ?? for a change ?? discover on the right. Sorry, Willie.
NOf course, with a powerful Buell engine, the Cafe Racer would be as fast as it looks today. Only: a doubtful look at the thin swingarms, the weakly damped struts, the old-fashioned narrow rim dimensions ?? no, the chassis wouldn’t play along. The owner must have thought something like this when he traded his CR for a Buell at CPO for some time. She’s still waiting there. For someone who appreciates their unmistakable silhouette. No more and no less.

Technical Specifications – Harley-Davidson XLCR Cafe Racer

Engine: Air-cooled two-cylinder four-stroke 45 degree V-engine, 997 cm³, bore x stroke 80.96 x 96.84 mm, 42 kW (57 HP) at 6000 rpm, four camshafts below, two valves per cylinder, Bumpers and rocker arms, a Bendix carburetor, O 38 mm, dry sump lubrication, contact-controlled battery coil ignition, chassis: double-loop tubular frame, telescopic fork, two spring struts, double disc brake in front, disc brake in rear, Morris light alloy wheels, tires 3.75-19 in front, 4.25 -18 rear, tank capacity 15 liters, weight 234 kg. Price 1977: 11855 Marks, construction time 1977 and 1978. Information on phone xxxxxxxxxx.

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