Mule Motorcycles builds the archetypal street tracker. Their stance. They're components. The thought that goes into them. It's all dead right. Mule have also built, and raced, a few hooligans, like this one above. We have a full story on it, and a bunch on photos on our SIDEBURN STORIES page.
We quizzed Mule, aka Richard Pollock, about his hooligan-building philosophy. Most of it went into the story, but here is some more that we didn't have room for. Here's Mule...
'What bike you start with depends on available budget. I prefer the Sportsters because of their power delivery and ease of riding. The more funding available, the lighter and faster you can make your race bike. Like they always say, it just boils down to cubic dollars. There’s 60+ riders signed up to run the GHNC series and there’ll be all levels of riding ability, so we’ll see how it shakes out.
'Right now, if you see what’s happening out West, the big buck guys are getting KTMs; the most common bikes are Sportsters; a couple Triumphs, which start out much lighter than the Sporties; a couple XG750 Harleys; a few Indians, (but to me, they seem bigger and heavier). I’ve only seen one Royal Enfield and that was last year [more raced at the the Daytona AFT support race], but with Johnny Lewis success’ on the RE, all the motor development he’s done, parts from S&S, the Build-Train-Race series, AND the fact that the class has changed from a motor size minimum of 750cc to 650cc (I would think in an effort to get RE involved), we could see a lot of innovation!
'A few years ago, I helped Paul Hartman with his blue Triumph (see SB38 digital). He got an America model motor with the 270 crank, so it hooks up more like a Harley and he’s done really well on that one, even with a pretty much stock motor! I’ve built about 20 Triumphs street trackers and once again, the goal with those was to chop a bunch of weight off and add power. Lots of stuff available for those including tons of horsepower from Bonneville Performance in Florida.
'Building a light, fast bike for this class/series will be like any other. On a stock-ish type bike, you’ll have fun, but you’ll need top equipment to do well and it won’t be cheap. Yes, some guys have done well on almost stock bikes, but that’s changing fast. This is the first year out West for the GNHC series, so it’s gonna be really exciting!'
What the hooligan at the top of the page started as. See the full story on the bike on the SIDEBURN STORIES page. There are 48 stories available for free
Delugged frame, with modified subframe, ready for reassembly
This is an example of the clutch cover mods mentioned in the feature, but not on fitted to this Sportster
Also, check our exclusive interview with Mule.
I learned so much from this subway surfers article. Fantastic effort in making complex topics so accessible!