BREAKING

Feature Bikes

Tyler’s Sik Sportster

Featured In The April 2015 Issue Of Cycle Source

Article By: Chris Callen  Photos By: High Image Photography

Feature 3a

The bike you see here is the result of a man’s decision to take a step back to keep his bike building broad in scope. I’ve known Tyler Foster, the man behind this build, for quite a while now. I met him pretty close to when he got his company SikPipes started and I’ve always been a fan. Well, like most of us, as the business around the motorcycle world has changed Tyler found himself going in all directions. Thousands of sets of his custom made pipes later and he realized he had been running on the wave of the very popular Bagger movement. Now, this is not a bad thing, these cats were helping him become a household name in custom motorcycling but Tyler wanted to retrace some of his steps and get back to more of what he was doing at the start of SikPipes. Back then, maybe seven years ago now, SikPipes was basically Tyler alone in a 24×24 garage attached to his house. His primary customer was from the low budget Sportster and budget Bobber community. This was great because the flood of custom work he was getting to do pushed Tyler’s creativity to the point that he’d be ready for anything that would get thrown at him. Funny how life gives you exactly what you need if you pay attention. One thing that was always at the top of his list in either his custom exhaust pipes or his own bike builds was that rideability was key. Enter this little gem. After watching everything that has been going on with the board tracker styles, the bigger wheels and the mixing of modern technology with classic style, Tyler was inspired to build a bike to take him back. Since his company was basically founded on Ironhead and Evo based Sportys, this little Sportster project would be the perfect pallet for his mission. Foster explained that he has always been a fan and looked up to people like Pat from Led Sleds and wanted to see if he could put his own twist on one.

Feature 3b

With 23 inch front and back wheels, good modern brakes, and extended swingarm, the convenience of modern functionality from components like fuel injection and killer suspension, this bike would be a load of fun to ride for sure but the question remained if he could bring it all together in a form that would make sense. The only way to do that would be to keep it sleek. There would be no way to pull this off by piling a bunch of junk on, no, this would have to stay nice and light. If you notice this was taken as far as to not have either front or rear fender. Other bikes might look odd without those sheet metal pieces but the lines of Tyler’s Sporty pull it off. The remaining sheet metal feature, the fuel tank, was given that much more special attention. For that Tyler took the task of making it stand out to Kyle Morley of Execution Style Paint. He and Tyler met in Daytona years ago and now they talk almost every day. That’s how Foster explained the time he’s spent doing this and how it has changed him. In the beginning it was like a job and the people you met were contacts. Now it’s just what he does and these people are like family. With that in mind, of course he trusted one of the family to put the graphics down. In the end the sum total of what he came up with made Tyler’s Sporty look totally radical. It’s part sport bike, part bicycle, part board tracker and believe it or not there are even a few traits from the modern bagger trend mixed in. It’s the perfect motorcycle to set the tone for where things are right now. The industry that has been split in two over the Baggers vs. the rest of the custom bikes is starting to come back to common ground. The young guys that are taking their place as the middle aged guys, all of it comes down to two wheels are cool and almost anything you can come up with will fit in somewhere. To build a bike like this that stands out as something entirely different, well that’s another thing entirely. As for SikPipes and Tyler, well he keeps juggling the details of a fast growing company in the custom bike world, but he’s not losing touch with one simple rule he has for the bikes he builds, he rides what he builds. Keeping bikes fun to ride, that’s never a bad thing.

Feature 3c

TECH SHEET
Owner: Kyle Palombo
City: Campbell, NY
Fabrication By: SIKPIPES
Year: 2008
Model: Nightster
Value: Your Guess Is As Good As Mine
Time: 6 Months
ENGINE
Year: 2008
Model: Sportster
Builder: Harley-Davidson
Ignition: Power Commander
Displacement: 1200cc
Pistons: Stock
Heads: Stock
Cam(s): Stock
Carb: EFI
Air Cleaner: Custom Velocity Stack
Exhaust: SIKPIPES
Primary: Stock
TRANSMISSION
Year: 2008
Make: Harley-Davidson
Shifting:
FRAME
Year: 2008
Make: Harley-Davidson
Stretch: Stock
FORKS
Type: 32 Choppers/Springer
Builder:
Extension:
Triple Trees:
WHEELS
Front Wheel: Glenn Dyne Design
Size: 23
Front Tire: Avon
Front brake: DNA
Rear Wheel: Glenn Dyne Desing
Size: 23
Rear Tire: Avon
Rear Brake: DNA
PAINT
Painter: Kyle Morley / Execution Style
Color: Black
Type: PPG
Graphics: Kyle Morley / Execution Style
Powder coating: Retro Powder Coat
ACCESSORIES
Bars: Nash
Risers: Custom
Hand Controls: Stock
Gas Tank(s): Stock
Front fender: None
Rear fender: None
Seat: Steel Seat Pan
Foot Controls: Stock
Oil Tank: Stock
Headlight: Head Winds
Taillight: Lowbrow Customs
Speedo: Stock
Photographer: High Image Photography/ Tracy Parker

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