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Harley-Davidson Destroyer Is Not the Muscle Bike You Know

Back in 2001, American bike maker Harley-Davidson decided to enter the muscle bike game with the birth of a new line of motorcycles called V-twin Racing Street Custom (VRSC). Also known as V-Rods, these bikes have sure made a lasting impression on the industry.
Harley-Davidson Destroyer 15 photos
Photo: Nine Hills
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Built unlike anything Harley had done before, as the first Milwaukee-made street machines with double overhead camshafts (DOHC) and liquid cooling, V-Rods had the advantage of using the Revolution engine, a wonderful piece of engineering put together with the bright minds from Porsche Engineering.

The powerplant, developed starting from the one used on the VR-1000 superbike Harley deployed in drag racing, transformed some of the members of the V-Rod family into the quickest Harleys around, with an acceleration time to 60 mph of 3.5 seconds.

In production for 16 years, the V-Rod family produced some fine two-wheeled examples, like the Night Rod or the Street Rod, but it was the non-street legal Destroyer (VRXSE) that achieved the aforementioned performance levels.

Even if there are presently countless street V-Rods being customized all over the world, particularly over in Europe, few garages try to go after the potent look and legacy of the Destroyer with their projects. Poland-based Nine Hills Motorcycles doesn’t shy away from that, it seems.

The garage has in its portfolio around 40 custom builds already, but just two V-Rods, both worthy of a closer look. The first is the Aggressor we’ve featured not long ago, while the second is the one we have here, called Destroyer. Although not exactly the same kind of bike Harley sent to the drag strip using this name, the all-black build does seem to have what it takes to be worthy of the legacy.

The thing started life as a street-legal 2008 V-Rod, but it no longer looks or feels as it once did. The first thing Nine Hills did was to convert the bike to be able to support a 300 mm rear wheel, the usual and preferred move of European custom shops. The bike was then slapped with an Arnott air suspension to change its stance.

The Poles tampered with the front fork, fitted a brand new fender over the front wheel, and went for a new headlight complete with a suitable fairing. To really make it stand out as custom, the shop also adopted new frame covers, a custom handlebar, and a matte black paint to encompass them all.

Overall, the shop achieved a clean-looking build, one that even if it doesn’t scream power as much as the drag Destroyer does, it sure comes close.

As most European shops do, Nine Hills too, keeps quiet when it comes to how much it cost to put the thing together.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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