Award-Winning Custom Harley Sportster Is a Sinister Cafe Racer Dressed in Carbon Fiber

To be exact, the show welcomed as many as 30,000 people over a three-day period, in turn offering 350 custom bikes and cars for them to drool over. It probably doesn’t hurt that Thailand has a blooming scene for modded rides of all shapes and sizes, with looser regulations enabling some builders to get extremely creative while keeping things road-legal.

That being said, you’re bound to see a lot of crazy and over-the-top stuff at the Thai capital’s Hot Rod event, and we mean this in the best possible way! Among the show’s organizers is one Chakkaphan Rungsukcharoen (aka Mark) of FatBoy Design, a talented local craftsman who’d been customizing motorcycles since 2008.

He’s also the official retailer of Mooneyes parts and apparel for Bangkok, serving the local community’s aftermarket needs and meeting like-minded individuals along the way. For the project we’re about to look at, Mark collaborated with one of the industry connections he’d made some time ago – carbon fiber specialist and Slayer House founder Nattapat Janyapanich.

With their starting point being a Harley-Davidson Sportster Forty-Eight, Slayer House was to take care of fabricating a new CFRP outfit while FatBoy handled the rest. The guys had a mere 60 days to get the bike ready for the 2022 Bangkok Hot Rod Custom Show, and what they were able to pull off in such a short timeframe is absolutely incredible!

Drawing some inspiration from his father’s Lamborghini Murcielago SV, Mark went straight to work 3D-scanning the Sportster. This left him with a CAD rendering to shape a new outfit around, before 3D-printing all the molds that Nattapat would need to form the carbon attire. Harley’s cruiser was to become a svelte cafe racer with aggressive looks and a riding posture to match, but getting there was easier said than done.

To build the new garments, Slayer House employed a dry carbon fiber processing method where an impregnated sheet is placed atop the mold, then vacuumed down to take the desired shape. Nattapat came up with a two-piece fuel tank cover, angular side panels, and a pointy tail section, as well as a stunning half-fairing with 3D-printed winglets.

For the most part, the carbon bodywork remained unpainted, yet FatBoy Design did top it off with some white graphics for contrast. These depict Harley logos, Lamborghini script graphics, and the names of both workshops that took part in this transformation. You might’ve assumed the subframe was either heavily modified or ditched altogether, but Mark actually kept it stock and revised the Sportster’s stance with a bit of suspension sorcery.

He made the factory shocks vanish to make room for longer Ohlins alternatives, which carry progressive springs and piggyback reservoirs. At the front, we now find custom CNC-machined triple clamps holding on to a premium pair of inverted forks from Showa. These were shortened before going on the Forty-Eight, so as to get its mean, forward-leaning posture just right. A whole load of attention has been given to the cockpit area, too.

There you’ll spot clip-on handlebars outfitted with Performance Machine control levers and snazzy grips from Roland Sands Design. A bespoke gauge housing was made for the motorcycle’s speedometer, and its forward-mounted foot controls have been replaced with rearsets to suit the updated ergonomics. To see where the Murcielago vibes are most abundant on this build, one will have to look down at the unsprung sector.

Mark swapped the Sportster’s standard wheels with aluminum aftermarket replacements, which were also supplied by Roland Sands Design. They feature five sets of twin spokes, Pirelli rubber at the front, and a Dunlop tire at the rear end. FatBoy fitted a twin-disc braking system up north, complete with drilled Performance Machine rotors and aftermarket calipers draped in yellow paint.

This is a direct nod to the Lambo owned by Mark’s father, replicated on the rear brake and wearing the Italian supercar brand’s script logo over the base yellow finish. In terms of powertrain adjustments, the bike saw its belt final drive replaced with a chain mechanism that uses tailor-made sprockets. An open primary drive setup also makes an appearance, as do see-through engine cases which let you see what goes on inside the V-twin.

The upgraded air intake originates from Performance Machine, too, while Two Brothers Racing came up with a fresh two-into-one exhaust system. A Jagg oil cooler also made its way onto the caffeinated Harley, and its ECU was remapped to play nice with all the aforementioned hardware. This ravishing Sportster was ready just in time for the Bangkok Hot Rod Custom Show last year, and it actually took home the Best Cafe Racer award!