A hundred years, it’s a hell of a milestone, and this year Warr’s Harley-Davidson of Kings Road, London, celebrate its Obsidian Jubilee. It makes the business the oldest Harley dealer in Europe, and impressively, it has stayed family-owned and operated for all that time. This Saturday the dealership will hold its birthday celebrations and a clear part of its ongoing success is their King’s Road Customs outfit, churning out killer creations under the same roof as their new bike showroom and enormous service centre. Back in 2016, they took out the European Battle of the King’s and this Harley-Davidson Roadster XL1200CX known as ‘JT26 Rascal’ draws direct inspiration from the HOG that took the top spot on the podium.
The Battle of the Kings is run by Harley-Davidson Europe and is a dealership-based bike build competition, open to their dealers in the UK, Europe and North Africa. For 2016, the donor bike had to be a HD Iron 883 and Warr’s took out the title, with a machine called ‘Rascal Racer’, inspired by the XLCR, the Willie G. café racer of the ’70s. And it should come as no surprise, for decades now, the custom bike side of the business has been run by Charlie Stockwell, a renowned bike designer and builder of literally hundreds upon hundreds of incredible one-off creations. From vintage-styled board trackers to hulking V-Rods, crazy choppers and sporty Buells, he’s done it all.
So, when a customer came in and asked for a bike based on the Battle of the Kings winning machine, Charlie quickly had his thinking cap on, as he wanted to go one better. Starting with the range-topping Roadster XL1200CX is a great start and a big step up over the under-powered Iron 883 that was the base for the original bike. The owner of this machine also had a big input into the colour scheme and additional visual details, and with a design agreed on by all, it was time to get building. Stripping a Harley back to a bare frame is something that Charlie can do with his eyes closed, but this chassis would follow in the footsteps of Willie G’s creation and have to handle well.
To achieve this, the London outfit made a call to their Swedish friends at Ohlins and placed an order for some killer parts to transform the way the Harley holds the road. At the front of the bike, a custom set of inverted forks slot through modified triple clamps, with their gold and blue anodised colour scheme leaving you in no doubt about their origin. At the rear of the bike, a set of over-length remote reservoir shocks allow for an almost infinite range of adjustment, to really dial things in. Further improving the performance is a lightweight set of wheels, which at the front wear a pair of big drilled discs, which are clamped by massive 6-piston Performance Machine calipers.
Time to turn the attention to the looks of the bike, and starting at the front end, the factory fender remains in place, with the side repeaters removed and contrast-cut aluminium slotted in place. The front fairing was a must-have item, but attaching the part to a Harley requires a considerable amount of fabrication. The top section of the fairing stay has nowhere to pivot from, so to make it work, a mounting point is neatly welded into the front of the fuel tank, with a pair of struts then running out to the fairing from there. The lower supports are a little more straightforward, affixed to the frame on the lower section of the backbone, which means they’re neatly hidden under the tank.
The fairing itself is kept minimal in size, not sweeping back to the knees, before being finished out with a smoked screen. The fuel tank itself comes in for further modification, with the knee dents exaggerated and then given their own aluminium inserts to match the front fender. At the rear of the bike, the tail unit is exactly what you would expect, with a shortened subframe allowing for an ultra-clean finish. The fibreglass gets all of the lines right, with the narrowed hump, bulking out around the upper shock mounts. Topped in a diamond-stitched leather seat, the cafe racer look really comes together.
But the big visual statement has to be the paintwork, and this is where the owner had two key requests. The first was the colour scheme, heavily inspired by the famous Rothmans livery as seen on the all-conquering HRC NSR500 GP bikes. The white, blue and red, with neat gold details, is flawlessly laid down and helps to give the Harley the racer vibe. The next request from the owner, a mad Chelsea Football Club supporter, was for the number on the boards to be that of club legend John Terry, hence the JT26 in the name of the bike. Back to more practical matters and Roland Sands sent over one of his machined gas caps and a pair of his rearsets to complete the form and function.
Now for the engine, and the primary reason for going for the larger Sporty, with its higher output 1200cc engine. Charlie has a long-running relationship with Vance & Hines and they provided one of their uber-rare T-1 Titanium full exhaust systems for the project, which not only ups the power but helps to seriously lower the weight. A forward-facing billet pod filter assembly from Performance Machine rams home the air into the thumping V-Twin, and a few grands worth of Speedflow fittings ensures that all of the liquids and lubricants stay exactly where they are supposed to be. A hundred years selling, servicing and building one-off Harleys is a hell of an achievement, and with stunning creations like this, it’s easy to see why Warr’s has stood the test of time.
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