Post Listing Update: This Mule Harley did not meet reserve despite 79 bids up to $19,650 on eBay in Aliso Viejo, California.
Richard Pollock is the man behind Mule Motorcycles, and he was called when the owner of this XR1000 had an accident and wanted to bring his Harley back to life. The XR1000 is one of Harley’s cooler bikes, as it came about when Willie G. Davidson wondered what would happen if a XR motor was shoved into a Sportster frame. The XR1000 was designed to pair the new-for-82 XLX chassis with a motor that retained the Sportster bottom end but got fancy pieces up top. This combined with Dell’Orto carbs yielded a 20 horsepower bump from the stock Sportster, good for 67 ponies.
The XR1000 cost just under $7,000 while a base XLX was $4,000, and the steep price did not encourage massive sales. Less than 1,800 examples were sold in ’83 and ’84. For reasons I’ll never understand, the ’83 bikes were only available in grey. A year later Harley decided to also offer orange and black. For more on the old XR1000, check out this excellent article from Motorcycle Classics, where Clement Salvadori tries to determine if it was a Sportster for the track or an XR750 for the street.
But this example (VIN: 1HD1CDH37EV111749) is no longer stock thanks to a street tracker conversion by Mule Motorcycles. The tank emulates a XR750, and the seat base is from First Klass Glass. Other goodies include Triumph Thruxton forks with RaceTech emulators, A&A Racing billet triple clamps, custom exhaust, Ducati 916 front brake rotor with a MV Agusta caliper and Brembo master cylinder. Since the work was done, the bike has just a couple of hundred miles.
For more information, check out this story on Cycle World, though the magazine article refers to it as a ’83. The story quotes Richard Pollock as saying “the owner needed help with the damage and taking it to a new level that would honor the original design and 30-year heritage without looking like a freaking chopper!”
Find this Mule Harley for sale in Aliso Viejo, California with bidding up to $7,800 and the reserve not yet met
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