Yah I know…not that impressive. Well it was to me. I loved that mo fo!  I was my first Harley and my first stab at customizing  a motorcycle. It started life as a 1987  FXST Softail. The front end and fenders and tank were taken off a wrecked 93 Heritage Softail. I’m not sure what make the wheels are. They look just like Centerlines. …No they’re not Fatboy wheels. All the rest of the stuff like the bags, driving  lights,  seat, and the cool ass Fish-tail exhaust were bought at swap meets. I sold that bike over a decade ago, but I’m happy to say I still see the old softail around town every once and a while.

250 wide tire Mutant About a month ago Alan sent in some photos of his 250 tire, Redneck Mutant rolling chassis. Now, about a month and change later, he has transformed his Redneck roller in to one badass looking hotrod Mutant Buell

Here’s the before picture of Alan’s 250 Mutant roller.

The one thing I don’t like about Buell and Sporter engines is the big dorky looking cam cover. As you can see, Alan has taken care of that by giving the one on his Mutant a trim job. Looks much better if you ask me.

A little while back I sold my Mutant Buell to a really good guy named Marc. While he really dug the look of the Mutant I built, his girlfriend wasn’t too happy with the fact that she couldn’t ride on the back. The stock Redneck fender is just too short for carrying a passenger . To make a long story short, Marc bought the Mutant from me with the promise that he would extend the fender so there was enough room for the little woman.
Marc being a man of his word, made good on his promise  and sent me the pictures to prove it.
Check the before and after pictures….

Before the Mutant Fender Modification

After the Mutant Fender Modification

Lots of guys write asking what year and model of Buell makes the best donor bike for a Mutant or any other custom. Here’s the basics to get you going. Most manufactures of custom Buell frames are made to mate with Evo style Buells 1991-2003. Some do carry frames that will work with 2003 and newer XB models, but they are less common and usually a little more expensive.

Should I go Fuel injected or carburated?
Buell tube frame models from 1996 to 1998, 1999-2002 M2 Cyclones
were equipped with carburetors and standard dual fire ignition systems.
1999-2002 X1 Lightning and the S3 Thunderbolt models were fuel injected. One of the biggest issues when building a custom chopper of any kind is hiding the wiring. Given that, you’ll want to minimize the amount of doodads on the bike that require power, switches as fuses. Fuel injection systems require a fair amount of wiring which is the reason why most guys opt for a good old fashion carburetor. If your donor is fuel injected have no fear…It’s pretty easy switch it over. All you need is a carburetor, a manifold, an ignition module and some fittings.

Which models have the best engines?
If horsepower is important to you, you’ll want a Buell donor with a Thunderstorm engine. The Thunderstorm engine made it’s debut in the 1998 limited production S1 White lightning. The high flow heads, 10:1 pistons, hi-performance cam, and hotter ignition had the Thunderstorm engine producing 100 plus horsepower right out of the box.
The Thunderstorm engine became standard in the 1999-2002 in all three models ( X1,S3,M2 ). So how do you know if the Buell your looking at has a Thunderstorm engine? The first thing to look at is the heads. All factory Thunderstorm engines came with black powder coated heads.

Front Ends
All 1996-1998 S1 and S2 as well as 1999-2002 X1 and S3 models came with the Showa inverted front ends. while all 1997-2003 M2 Buells came with the regular tube and slider forks you see on a stock Harley.
Both will work fine. It’s a matter of choice. Some like the modern aggressive sport bike look of inverted forks, while others like the old school look of a regular front end. Either way, both will work fine.

Wheels
All Buell models from 1996-2002 came with cast aluminium wheels. While most were powder coated to match the color scheme of the bike, some models like the 1997 S3 had polished aluminium instead. Not a big deal but something to consider.

Part one of a two part tutorial on padding and covering your mutant buell seat.
When working on your Mutant Buell project (or any chopper build for that matter), you’ll find yourself constantly looking for ways to save money in one area, in order to be able to spend a little more in another. Padding and covering your own bike seat is a good way to save some coin. It cost me all of about $50.00 to pad and cover the seat on my Redneck Mutant build. Not bad considering the quotes I got ranged between $200.00 -$ 400.00.

My first task was to find some good material to pad the seat pan with. I needed something that not only felt good on the ass cheeks, but was going to be easy to work with and shape. As luck would have it, I found exactly what I was looking for at Walmart in the form of a foam rubber camping mat. It’s just a 1″ neoprene rubber mat used to lay your sleeping bag on . It turned out to be the perfect thickness and density for a motorcycle seat, and, at the fraction of the price of what they wanted for the same chunk of 1′ closed cell neoprene rubber at a supplier. Now on to the business of padding the seat pan.

Start off by cutting the 2 pieces of neoprene rubber that will make up the first course of padding on the seat.
Cut them out so that there is a good inch overhang around the edge of the seat pan.

Before we go any further, make sure your seat pan is clean and free of any grease and oil. Give it a light scuff with a brillo pad and wipe it off with some brake cleaner or acetone to get rid of any oil or grease.
Now grab a can of spray on rubber adhesive, and coat the surface of the seat pan, as well as the bottom
of the two pieces of padding you cut for the first tier of padding. After applying the glue, let it sit for a few minutes until the glue becomes tacky. Now lay down the bottom part on the pan so that the edge of the rubber pad butts up against the back section of pan that sits against the fender. Now lay the back section of padding down. Because the back section of the pan is curved to the contour of the fender, the back section of foam tends to lift up. To remedy this, I took a couple of short bungee cords and wrapped them tight around the the back part, and let it dry for an hour or so.

Next, I cut the two pieces of neoprene that will make up the next two layers of the seat padding. Again, be sure to cut them so there is 1″ of excess material over the edge of the seat pan. Grab your spray glue and coat the top of the first layer of padding you applied, and the bottom of the piece you’re about to lay on top of it. Once the glue becomes tacky, lay it down on first layer of foam, pressing it down firmly making sure that it’s laying on top nice a flat. Now do exactly the same with the third and final piece.
It’s really important that all the layers are glued down tight and you have a good bond between them. To ensure that happens, I wrapped 4 bungy cords nice and snug around the whole works and let it dry for a couple hours before continuing on with the next step.


Padding your Mutant Buell seat pan continued

This is the wiring diagram that I used to wire my Mutant, but it will work on pretty much any Harley evo engine as well. It’s pretty simple as you can see. Only 2 fuses and the spring-return ignition eliminates the need for a starter relay. Click on the image to view full size.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve no doubt heard about Eric Buell’s latest release for the 2008 model year, the 1125R. And if you’ve had a chance to check out the spec sheet you’ll know that unlike previous versions, the Sportster based engine has been replace by a fire-breathing 146HP @10,500 Rpm Rotax engine. Now I know there’s a lot of you purists out there are saying ….”But it aint a Harley”. Well, I was a little squeamish on that too but….146HP…10500 Rpm….F@#K around…. How can you not want to chop that? Unforskinatley, with the first ones just hitting the showroom floors, it may be a while before any bent ones start finding their way onto Ebay. I for one will be keeping an eye out though. I haven’t had a chance to see one in the flesh yet, but all that will change next week when I go to the Vancouver Motorcycle show. I’ll be posting full review when I return.

Check out the 1125 Gallery
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1125 Promo Video