Putting a new spin on an old bike.
If you’ve ever thought to yourself that it might be nice to turbocharge your project bike, you might just want to check out YouTube channel DoctorMotorcycle. While that’s far from the only thing that the channel does, it’s definitely a focus of their builds, from a Suzuki GS400 Scrambler to a twin-turbocharged Moto Guzzi V50 III café racer.
The bike in this video is turbocharged—but it’s neither of those bikes. Instead, it started life as a 1994 Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200. Through a whole lot of time and effort (and excellent time-lapse, ASMR workshop video editing), it turned into the turbocharged custom you now see before you.
It’s worth noting at this point that in the video just prior to this one, DoctorMotorcycle finally got his hands on a TIG welder—which he uses in this Sportster build. That’s just one of many things going on here—from the simple and practical, like scrubbing and cleaning, to reshaping and recovering the seat so it works with his ultimate build vision.
The video starts with some pretty routine stuff. There’s a bit of external scrubbing and cleaning, and then taking apart the forks to change some extremely dirty-looking oil that clearly needed it. From there, the video starts to dive into things like the bolt-on, minimalist, digital display up front. Then it gets into the all-DIY portion of the build.
In that section, there’s turbo plumbing, a bit of time spent with the TIG welder, and also some serious reshaping of both the seat and the rear fender. Although all these parts require wildly different skills, DoctorMotorcycle tackles them all with aplomb, and the end results come together admirably well.
The seat comes off, and DoctorMotorcycle takes the whole thing apart to make it better fit the build. The seat pan and foam are sculpted, and then DoctorMotorcycle shows off his mad Singer sewing machine skills in creating a little tuck-and-roll texturizing in the seat cover. All excess in all parts of the seat is trimmed away, leaving only the parts that fit the bill. The completed seat is visually much tidier than how it started.
As for the fender, just like your hair when it gets too long, it’s time for a good chop. Once abbreviated, it’s reinstalled on the bike and sits very neatly right under the newly-shaped saddle. The tank comes off last, getting a whole new paint job to better fit the vibe of the project. The whole video is nicely put together—and so, it appears, is the bike.
Keyword: Watch A Turbocharged Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200 Custom Come To Life