The Midnight Express Is a Harley-Davidson Sportster Infused With Street Tracker DNA

The rest, as they so often say, is history. He’d focused primarily on the tracker genre since day one, teaming up with many talented craftsmen along the way. Mel Cary was one such individual, as he’d spent a few years working at Mule before moving on to other endeavors. With his previous experience involving Top Fuel dragsters and race boats, he was Richard’s right-hand man while the two shared the same workspace.

They remained good friends following Mel’s departure from Mule and would eventually cross paths on a professional level once again. As of 2017, Sir Pollock’s former accomplice decided to acquire a custom street tracker of his own, but he wasn’t content with sitting back and seeing others put it together. On the contrary, Mel wanted to build the motorcycle himself, with some input from Richard when needed.

While searching for a suitable donor, he found a pristine Harley-Davidson Sportster with just 240 miles (386 km) on the clock and immediately knew it had to be his. Mel hopped on a weekend road trip to Phoenix, Arizona in order to pick it up, and the custom sorcery got underway as soon as he returned to Cali. As the Sportster was coming apart, a large chunk of its factory equipment left the chat.

Items like the stock wheels, suspension, and exhaust system were promptly ditched, along with all the bodywork components except for the side covers. Then, Mel scored a pair of 19-inch Morris hoops and got Kosman Specialties to widen them ever so slightly, before cloaking their rims in Goldentyre flat track rubber. With the footwear sorted, his attention turned to the bike’s suspension.

At the front, we now find the premium upside-down forks of a Ducati 996, held in place by custom triple clamps. They’re a vast improvement over the standard Sportster paraphernalia, but so are the new suspension parts on the other end. Mel fitted adjustable remote-reservoir shock absorbers from Penske in that area, both of which came out of Mule’s parts bin.

On the other hand, the tracker-style fuel tank and tail unit were supplied by Storz Performance, with no fender to speak of front or back. A compact license plate bracket hangs off the tail’s rearmost tip, accompanied by LED lighting and the shock reservoirs nearby. Further ahead, you’ll come across a plain saddle whose top section features perforated upholstery.

For copious amounts of stopping power at the front, Mel added fresh Brembo discs and top-shelf Beringer calipers. The latter brand supplied a new master cylinder, as well, and it’s connected to the other goodies via braided stainless-steel brake lines. Moreover, the motorcycle’s cockpit area is also home to A&A Racing risers, which support an off-the-shelf handlebar from Mule’s proprietary catalog.

Rizoma bar-end mirrors are present, too, but the project’s author refrained from adding any sort of instrumentation. He relocated the ignition to further reduce the clutter in the cockpit, while swapping the factory headlight bracket with a Joker Machine alternative. The LED turn signals you’ll spot on each side were also sourced from Rizoma, and it’s interesting to see that Mel didn’t go with a flat track-style number board in this area. Either way, the setup looks absolutely superb.

Since the V-twin engine was virtually brand-new, its internal workings were left pretty much unchanged during the customization process. Our protagonist did, however, install some youthful breathing paraphernalia to spice things up a little. Inhaling is done by way of a Mikuni HSR42 carburetor topped with a Joker Machine air cleaner, but the new handmade exhaust system is what really grabs our attention here.

Mel shaped the headers from scratch using stainless-steel, capping them off with a pair of reverse megaphone mufflers once done. In terms of electrical upgrades, he replaced the Harley’s gel battery with a smaller and much lighter lithium-ion unit. Lastly, the bodywork components made their way to Superbike Paint over in San Diego, where David Tovar had them wrapped in a shiny layer of black paint.

Red Harley-Davidson tank graphics took the build across the finish line, and this charming Sportster street tracker was dubbed The Midnight Express following the project’s completion. With valuable guidance from the mastermind at Mule Motorcycles, Mel Cary managed to create one of the raddest custom Harley trackers in existence. If going sideways and left is your thing, then it’s almost impossible not to fall in love with this bespoke gem at first sight!