Blacktrack Motors have got cafe racer design down to a fine art. Their first build was one of the sharpest Honda CX500 cafes we’ve ever featured, and they followed it up with a pixel perfect custom Thruxton.
Now they’ve tackled their most ambitious project yet, the BT-03?a cafe racer based on the Harley-Davidson Fat Bob 114 FXFBS.

The Fat Bob 114 is one of the most fun bikes in Harley’s range. Its 114 ci power plant generates 155 Nm of torque, and handling from the new generation Softail frame is actually pretty respectable. But its power cruiser stance is a far cry from that quintessential cafe racer fly line.
Despite this, it was exactly what Blacktrack founder and designer, Sacha Lakic, was looking for. And that was partly because of the bike he was looking to for inspiration.
?The inception of the BT-03 style study came from a bike that marked my childhood,? he explains. ?The Harley-Davidson XLCR.?
?Produced between 1977 and 1979, it was the only cafe racer in the history of Harley-Davidson, with only 3,133 units made. I was spellbound every time I saw one on the streets of Paris.?

Blacktrack didn’t set out to replicate the XLCR bolt for bolt, but rather to create a contemporary interpretation of it. Their mission was also to shave off weight, improve performance, and make the Fat Bob as nimble as possible.
To do so, they only really kept the Harley’s Milwaukee-Eight motor, transmission and frame. Everything else was either upgrade...