Featherbed Sportster

[Dirty dave]

Hi guys ! Back in the 60s and 70s there was a guy that raced a featherbed Sportster dose anybody know anything about him or even better have pictures ? Thanks for any leads

[hayleyl]

Here are a couple that have raced in Australia. A common thing to do back in the day. Cheers Hayley

Trease.JPG (142.56 KiB) Viewed 77266 times

Feather2.jpg (357.71 KiB) Viewed 77266 times

[Dirty dave]

Thanks for sharing ! I’m stating a build so looking for Ideas

[Ferrous_Head]

The furst one 's Johnny Trease's "Not Sporton".

I call it a "Not" because so much of the engine isn't in fact Sportster. Right down to him casting his own cases. Incredible man, incredible bike. RIP John

This is one of my early projects. I think like 20 years ago. Lightweight ChroMo frame.



I have some other pics if anyone is interested. (And I can find them)

[Ferrous_Head]

Ah ! You may be thinking of Brad Andres.

He had a "kind of" Featherbed frame, modified Sporty frame. I have pics of it here somewhere. I nearly bought the frame and related stuff many years ago.

[Ferrous_Head]

I think the frame was made by Nicjhols but it was a long time ago and that might not be right.

[hayleyl]

Looks like a 'lowboy' frame. Cheers Hayley

[Ferrous_Head]

Not a Lowboy. It was an attempt to use the McCandless brothers idea of feeding the head stock loads into the frame tubes in compression and compression.

The "Featherbed" is an outstanding design for it's time. It's a natural fit for a Sportster engine. When you see "tiny" 500 singles or even 650/750 twin engines in there they look "lost" inside that space.

There are two types of Featherbed frames, narrow and wide. The early ones are wide, later was narrow. They were only narrowed in the top tubes to make the seat more comfortable though some people say the narrow didn't handle as well.

Despite what others might tell you it is not a difficult task to drop an Ironhead engine into a Faetherbed frame.

[hugoct]

That is a Widman, Riverdale Sport Enterprises frame manufactured by Cummings Welding.
The Harley Racing Department had that frame homologated by the AMA for Class C use on KR TTs, XLR TTs and Iron XR750s.
Few were made and there are issues with the packaging of the gas tank, oil tank, and seat.
KR authority Leo Hulnik road raced one with an XLR motor in it.

[Ferrous_Head]

Brad Andres offered it to me along with a bunch of other KR parts. Gas tank, shocks, fairing and other bits. I just assumed he rode it as a bike. He wanted too much money and it's not as good as a genuine Featherbed.

Dave, I use the Featerbed as a starting point as I need to comply with Historic Rules. The bike should be based on whaat was available before 1963. That rules out things like trellis frames or Dwltaboxes. Doing a "special" opens up the possibility of something that is not just unique, but works better then the factory stuff.

This is the main loop I start with. Very simple, fairly lightweight and strong.





The Sportster/K frame is not junk but it's not great either. What really lets the bike down is the brakes and suspension.
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