Heart of a Racebike
Team Saddlemen has been making a splash in Bagger racing in recent years, but having an in-house race team is about a lot more than just bringing home trophies. At Saddlemen, racing is a way to test and develop new products that look just as at home on a street bike as they do on a race bike.
At the end of the 2024 race season, Saddlemen found themselves with extra performance parts sitting around. “We update and change motor parts every year, so we had extra parts,” explains Saddlemen CEO David Echert. “We decided to make a ridiculously high-horsepower street motorcycle.”
The extra parts and plenty of Saddlemen products were put onto a 2021 Harley-Davidson FXBBS Street Bob. By the end of the build, the motor was cranking out about 185hp. No street gas for this beast: it runs on T4 fuel.
Among the racing-inspired Saddlemen parts on the Street Bob are the company’s mini fairing and lowers plus plenty of carbon fiber. The carbon fiber elements, like the front fender and case covers, were originally developed for Team Saddlemen’s Bagger racing endeavors. In 2025, the parts are making their debut as products available for customers to buy, helping give V-Twins on the street that same performance look. The pre-preg carbon fiber creates high-quality, beautifully finished pieces that save weight over stock.
“People have always related to us as a seat manufacturer, and it’s just recently gotten out that there’s a lot more to Saddlemen than just us building seats,” notes Echert. “We’ve done very well in racing, and we’ve got another arm that’s designing everything from triple trees to mid-controls to the way swingarms perform. We’re getting it out there that we can do a lot of great stuff, and we have great builders.”
A set of Saddlemen DXT saddlebags makes the Street Bob as functional as it is fast, and up top there’s a Step-Up seat featuring Saddlemen’s Tri-Gripper material. Designed for aggressive riders who want to be locked in place on the seat, the Tri-Gripper is all about traction and control.
For the Street Bob build, Heath Pinter handled the paint and bodywork, while the Team Saddlemen crew tackled the parts installation and tuning. One of the things that had to be figured out was how to convert the water-cooled heads—which the Road Glide Limited race bikes use—to an air-cooled setup suitable for a Street Bob. The exhaust is a custom one-off piece designed in-house at Saddlemen, too.
Saddlemen teamed up with Speed Merchant for the swingarm, triple trees and mid-controls. Thrashin risers add to the mid-control design to ensure a balanced riding stance. Lower down, Lyndall rotors and wheels have been paired with Brembo brake calipers for a premium stopping setup.
You can check out more custom builds from Saddlemen or browse products to build your own street bike with the heart of a race bike.
