Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

And now for something completely different E lsewhere in this issue, you will find our 2005 Cycle News Buyer's Guide, stuffed with every type of two-wheeled contrivance you could expect to find by manufacturers big and small. But you won't find any reference to this motorcycle anywhere in those pages. Why? Because, it's a kit bike and not really a real bike in the strict OE production sense. Actually, HR3 is the brand name for an entire line of kit bikes manufactured and distributed by Custom Chrome, Inc., and the HR3 "V" is the latest addition to that line. The "V" is a sort of streetfighter-meets-bigtwin-cruiser motorcycle, American-style. CCI calls it "the crossover bike the industry has always wished for." Supplied unfinished but with everything necessary to complete the kit, the "V" retails for $19,995. There is certainly something visually intriguing about the "v," so when the good folks at CCI offered me - via an invite through CO's dirt track team, Rogers Racing - a chance to ride a completed "V" before the official release of the first customer kits, I figured it was worth a closer look. After spending the better part of an afternoon cruising in the hills between CO's Morgan Hill, California, headquarters and the Pacific Ocean, Icame away with a sense of what this bike is all about. The first thing that you notice when you 26 JANUARY 12, 2005 • fire up the "V" is vibration and noise mostly noise - emanating from the racy looking D&D two-into-one exhaust system. It sounds a lot like a straight pipe, which will be cool to some and over the top to others. The rumble lacks the kind of mechanical clatter that you might expect from such a beast, so that's a good thing. The second thing that you notice is, typical of a carbureted V-twin, that the "V" is a little on the cold-blooded side. Heh, heh... Guess all those cubes require a little extra time to melt. At higher revs, the rubbermounted chassis quells the vibration, and you qUickly learn to chop the throttle to quiet the raucous roar of the "v." After you've warmed it up sufficiently and clicked the six-speed tranny into low gear, letting out the clutch to get under way reveals one of the biggest gripes that we have with most motorcycles not equipped with adjustable hand controls. You can probably guess what it is, but I'll revisit it later. The clutch action, however, is smooth and positive. Ditto for the tranny, which is quite possibly the tightest, smoothest-shifting nonunit box I've ever experienced. Thing is, it doesn't really matter what gear you're in because the brawny, II O-cubic-inch RevTech stroker motor is an arm stretcher in any gear. I'm talking ungodly torque here, and the jetting in the Mikuni HSR45 carburetor is crisp enough to snap your neck with the flick CYCLE NEWS By SCOTT ROUSSEAU of your wrist. Rolling on the "V" from stoplight to stoplight in third gear is a real hoot, giving the rider a sense of being launched out of a slingshot. The "V" is not necessarily a tire smoker, and the front-biased weight distribution safeguards against wheelies. All you get is the straight-line hookup of your average Westinghouse locomotive. Of course, with the motor being a straker, you can overrev it in the lower two gears, so early shifting is a must, but you'll never overwork it. And with sixth gear being an overdrive, Millennium Falcon-style warp speed isn't a problem either. All that power and torque would be about as useful as tits on a bull if the "V" had some cheesy, flimsy chassis that did the wave every time you rapped the throttle. Fortunately, the "V" features a purpose-built FXR-styte chassis manufactured by respected motorcycle tube shaper Santee. Known as the Featherbed, the twin shock chassis imparts a long, low, rigid feel that is easy to get used to in a straight line but is even more surprising on serpentine ribbons of asphalt. The "V" offers more front-end feel than a 550-pound machine has a right to. Its 17-inch Avon Azaro-shod Marchesini front rim is connected to a 54mm Paioli front fork wrapped in a stout billet triple-clamp assembly, offering up steering precision that is sportbike-themed at the least. The dirt-track style bars offer a goodly amount of leverage to aid in turning the "V" when and where you want to. But lest you get the impression that you could hop aboard a "V" and go beat up on your compatriots who hold ignition keys to rockets of the rice or pasta variety, forget it. You can ride the "V" hard, but only so hard. Bear in mind that while she hides her weight well, there's only so much that can be done to get around that cg-challenged, 45-

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