We Painted It Blue and Pink

Two things on this build were actual decisions. Everything after them was engineering.

The first was the paint. Candy blue and pink, layered, Miami by way of Dubai. We hadn't seen the combination done in clubstyle, and when we described it out loud people raised an eyebrow — which is how we knew it was right. A colour that nobody objects to is a colour nobody remembers. Under direct light it moves, and the bike reads completely differently at ten metres than it does at one.

The second was the platform. Most people building clubstyle start with a Low Rider S. We started with a Sport Glide, and we'd do it again. It comes out of the factory with inverted forks and sharp geometry, which is the expensive half of the problem already solved, and the 107 leaves you money for the parts that change how a bike rides rather than how it looks on paper.

The bike came to us wearing a Dominator upper fairing, Thrashin Supply risers and a Saddlemen SDC Pro seat. The fairing stayed. The rest didn't.

Engine

• Full S&S Stage 2 kit
• S&S 55mm intake manifold
• Arlen Ness Big Sucker air intake
• Malparidos 2-into-1 mirror polish exhaust
• Don Performance custom ECU map

Be clear about what a Stage 2 on a 107 is and isn't. It is not a big-inch motor and we're not going to pretend it is. What it is, is a bike that answers instantly — mid-range torque where you actually ride, crisp off idle, and no hesitation anywhere in the transition. That's a calibration problem as much as a hardware one. The map is written for this bike, on this exhaust, in this climate. A downloaded tune would undo most of what the parts are there to do.

Suspension and brakes

• Öhlins front and rear
• Galfer waved rotors, front and rear
• Accossato 108mm radial calipers
• CSD chrome crash guards, front and rear

This is where the money went, and it's the right place for it. Öhlins at both ends means the bike stays composed when you're on the power mid-corner instead of asking you to negotiate with it. The Galfer and Accossato combination gives you a brake you can modulate rather than one you either use or don't — bite at the top, and enough feel to trail it into a corner.

The crash guards are chrome, and they're there because a bike that lives on the road eventually meets the road.

Cockpit

• Quick Industries riser and handlebar kit
• Quick Industries MX-style foot pegs
• Quick Industries brake and shifter arms
• ODI x Vans lock-on grips

Geometry first, finish second. The riser and bar kit sets the reach; the MX pegs and matching arms fix the rest of the triangle. Nothing here is decorative — it's all load-bearing, and it's all serviceable.

Fairing and lighting

• Baja Designs LP6 main headlight
• Baja Designs S1 auxiliary pods
• HEX EzCAN module

The Dominator fairing gives the front end its profile. The Baja setup behind it is the part riders underrate: proper white light, properly aimed, on a bike that gets ridden after dark. The EzCAN is what makes it civilised — the auxiliaries run off the bike's own CAN bus with clean switching instead of a loom full of relays taped behind the fairing. We've unpicked enough of those to insist on doing it this way.

Seat

Le Pera Custom Tailwhip. It moves you forward and drops you into the bike rather than perching you on top of it. On a Sport Glide that matters more than it does on a bagger — you feel the front end through your hands instead of guessing at it.

What it adds up to

A 107 that punches above its displacement because the money went into response, suspension and brakes instead of a number to quote. And a paint job that we're fairly sure is the only one like it.

Built at Clubstyle Dubai.