Renard Speed Shop Custom Sportster Scrambler
Scrambler styles motorcycles are the hot ticket right now. From custom Harleys to Ducati releasing a new production Scrambler, and of course Triumph has been churning them out for several years. These ‘scramblers’ loosely resemble bikes with a go-anywhere attitude, upright ergonomics and retro-cool looks.
A Harley 1200 is an obvious platform for this style. With some stellar Sporty-based examples rolling out of garages with this one being one of the best. It’s from Renard Speed Shop, and it’s the Estonian outift’s first Harley build.
The commission came from Bertl’s, a small Harley dealer in South Germany. They wanted a custom XL1200 for a bike show, and they loved Renard’s Bonneville T100 scrambler. There was one major design criteria. The Sportster chassis couldn’t be altered in any way. “The whole rebuild had to be bolted to the original frame,” says Renard’s Andres Uibomäe. “So we couldn’t cut anything off, or drill holes.”
Despite this Renard managed to change the Harley’s looks substantially. Starting with a completely custom fuel tank and seat. They created a set of aluminum side covers – hiding the stock side cover and oil tank – to match the new lines of the tank.
A set of 70mm longer-than-stock Öhlins shocks (anodized black) gave the Sporty a much-needed kick in the tail. Up front, Renard added a set of preload adjuster caps to the front forks. The Harley now rolls on a set of Dyna spoked wheels—19” in the front and 17” in the rear, fitted with Metzeler Karoo3 tires.
The upswept exhaust with carbon fiber end cap is from Roland Sands Design, as are the rear sets. Seems Roland provides for many of these builds with some very nice bikes of his own. A new headlight bucket houses the stock HD element, while the turn signals are from Rizoma, with the rear pair doubling up as a tail light.
Leaving the frame stock meant that the rear fender struts were now protruding beyond the new, slimmer mudguard. So Renard put them to use hanging a multi-purpose luggage rack around them.
Paint is a simple matte black, with a semi-matte stripe separated by a gold pinstripe. “I wanted to have some graphics on the tank,” says Andres, “so the client’s logo seemed like a good idea…” The whole project was done in just a month. The original frame is intact and could be swapped back to stock.
Would you switch it back?
