What is a Street Tracker?

Mule Sportster Tracker
“Stealth” Street Tracker by Mule

There are many evolutions of the modern motorcycle, as you know. Many of these evolutions are modern takes on classic styles of bikes. One such homage is the Street Tracker. These ultra-sleek machines are reminiscent to the glory days of flat track racing, featuring the pared down look of a dirt track racer, but offering everything you need to be street legal. Whether it’s your own build or bought from a custom shop, a street tracker will turn heads anywhere.

The First Street Trackers

Modern street trackers can trace their ancestry to the AMA Grand National Championship racing series. During the 1960s and 70s the series was the premier motorcycle racing championship, and many of the events took place on dirt ovals of varying lengths:  The Mile, The Half, and Short Track. It was a time when legends like Dick Mann and Kenny Roberts were tearing up tracks everywhere. These racing giants loved their bikes and wanted to ride them on the streets as well, so modified the racers by adding lights, mirrors, a horn, front brakes, and eliminating the need to ‘bump-start the bikes. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for race fans to develop a desire for their street trackers.

XR750 Tracker
Harley’s Legendary XR750: The Greatest Source of Inspiration for Street Trackers

Factory Street Trackers

Manufacturers have not jumped on the street tracker bandwagon. Well, Harley Davidson has tried. The maker produced the XR1000, paying homage to its racing XR750. The bike was prohibitively expensive and sold poorly. Harley gave it another go with the XR1200, but production only ran from 2009 to 2013.

Triumph, it’s been rumored, filed a 2012 trademark application for the name “Street Tracker,” so a factor tracker from the Brits could be on the way. This does seem like just another effort by manufacturers to capitalize on a trend in the custom bike-building world, naming a bike after a whole genre of customs.  We’re reminded of the Ducati Streetfighter and Scrambler, other genres of custom bikes subjected to the same process.

XR1000 Street Tracker
Harley XR1000 Street Tracker: The XR750 Influence is Evident

Custom Street Trackers

Street trackers typically have a set of wide bars to match the ones needed for additional leverage on a flat track. From the handlebars, you move back to the gas tank. A street tracker typically looks best with a small tank. The best example for the look of the tank can be seen by looking at the immortal Harley-Davidson XR750. The tank should move easily into a narrow seat. The rear fender is minimal, just enough to cover the taillight, and often made of fiberglass from a retailer like Omars Fiberglass or Hot Wing Glass. Typically you run 19 inch wheels, equally sized front and rear. Traditionalists use wire spokes to reduce weight, but you can use cast wheels just as well.

XS650-Tracker
Michel van Rossen’s XS650 with 710cc engine

Once those mods have been completed, some builders add a number plate and fork guards, though these can be a bit much, overdoing the illusion that you’ve been sliding on a dirt track all day. The most common tracker platforms are the Yamaha XS650, various Triumphs like the T100, and the Harley-Davidson Sportster.

XS650 Street Tracker
Our Editor-in-Chief’s 1981 Yamaha XS650 Street Tracker

Mule: King of the Street Trackers

Richard Pollock of Mule Motorcycles is the undisputed king of the custom street tracker. His father was an electrical engineer at Cape Canaveral, and Pollock has said that he’d like an aerospace inspector to be able to look his bikes over and give them the thumbs up. Truly, his builds look like the engine bays of Indy racers. Operating out of his shop in San Diego, California, he has almost singlehandedly defined the street tracker aesthetic, hand-building bikes that are highly functional in every way, unadorned machines that earn their beauty instead of dressing up for it.

Mule-Street-Tracker
HD-Based Tracker by Mule Motorcycles

Sideburn, Dirt Quake, and the Resurgence of Flat Track

Sideburn, based out of the UK, is THE magazine when it comes to flat track racing and the culture surrounding it. As they say themselves:

The world’s finest, most glamorous, most colourful, most informative, global-reaching go fast, turn left magazine. All right, the world’s only go fast, turn left magazine. The place where every weekend is a dirty weekend.

Sideburn created an event called Dirt Quake, where everyday riders can take their bikes out on a flat track for real bar to bar racing. The events include classes for what they call Inappropriate Road Bike (IRB), Street Trackers, Choppers, Ladies, Harleys, and even a Snowmobile class. The events have been a huge success, and are now international, having migrated to the US of A. You can find out more on Sideburn‘s website.

The resurgent interest in dirt track can also be seen in the inclusion of AMA Pro Flat Track in the 2015 X Games in Austin, Texas. Without a doubt, flat track is on the way UP.

Street Trackers on BikeBound.com

Below is a sampling of the street trackers we have featured here!

Kawasaki Ninja 150 Custom Smoky Sprinter: Kawasaki Ninja 150R Street Tracker - Two-Stroke Ninja from Batakastem Workshop…  While two-stroke streetbikes have been phased out of the North American market since the 1980s, you might be surprised to learn that modern, small-displacement smokers have remained available from major […]
Ducati Scrambler Street Tracker XTR Xpress: “Makoki” Ducati Scrambler Street Tracker - 70s-inspired Ducati 800 Street Tracker by XTR Pepo…  Introduced in 2015, the Ducati Scrambler was a bit of a misnomer, as it had a few of the trimmings of a proper scrambler beyond the name. […]
Stibnite Stinger Stibnite Stinger: Yamaha MT-07 Powered Scrambler - The Malle Mile Beach Race Winner from Stibnite Moto…  Some call him the “07 King.” Dan Stone aka Danners of Stibnite Moto has earned a name for himself turning up to Malle Mile events on […]
Sportster Street Tracker The Evil Twin: 1200 Sportster Street Tracker - Bill Brosius shares a Harley street tracker build with his father…  Bill Brosius grew up on the back of his father’s Harley-Davidson, as father and son followed the flat track races all around California and […]
Suzuki DR Big Scrambler Big Suzy: Suzuki DR800 Big Scrambler - Unik Edition scrambles DR Big…  In 1990, Suzuki released the DR800 Big, the largest mass-production single-cylinder dual-sport ever available to the buying public. The “dashing desert styling” came straight from the mighty DR-Zeta Paris-Dakar bike, […]
ATK Street Tracker Canyon Runner: ATK 605 Street Tracker - Street-Legal Dirt Tracker from Vintage Sykles…   Austrian-born engineer, Grand Prix motocross racer, and ISDT gold medalist Horst Leitner founded ATK in 1985 after relocating to the United States. The name derived from Leitner’s patented […]
Triumph Scrambler 1200 Street Tracker GRMTO Street Tracker: Triumph Scrambler 1200 XE - Triumph 1200 Street Tracker from Gas&Retro…  The Triumph Scrambler 1200 was the first modern production scrambler to nail both ends of the spectrum: form and function. Here was a scrambler that could boast true off-road […]
Yamaha R5 350 Street Tracker Yellow Addiction: Yamaha R5 Street Tracker - Scott Pickett’s “Classic American Street Tracker”…   Introduced in 1970, the Yamaha R5 350 was the predecessor of the storied RD twins that smoked their way into the hearts of a generation. While the RD series […]
BMW Dahne Custom Dähne Daily: 1065cc BMW Scrambler - Dähne-framed Daily Rider from Kradhaus Bikes…   Born in 1944, Helmut Dähne is a BMW motorcycle racing legend. As a teenager, he went to work for BMW Motorrad as a mechanic and later went to German […]
Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 Scrambler Tracker Showroom Special: “Peachy” Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 - INT650 Street Tracker / Scrambler from Container Garage…   The Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 (aka INT650) is quickly becoming one of the world’s most popular platforms for customization. As prices for vintage bikes continue to […]
Suzonda Project Suzonda: “WTF200/2” Street Tracker - 400/4 ➞ 200/2: Two-Stroke Mashup from Colin Davies…  Introduced in 1974, the Honda CB400F was one of the sweetest little machines of the 1970s. While it didn’t have the outright power of larger siblings like […]
Honda Tiger Scrambler Java Tigris: Honda Tiger 2000 Scrambler - Vinduro-Style Honda from Mestiere Works…  Indonesia is the world’s third largest motorcycle market, with more than 125 million motorbikes in use. An estimated 85% of households own at least one motorcycle, and Japanese manufacturers hold […]
Meguro 650 Scrambler Baby Buffalo: Kawasaki Meguro 650 Scrambler - Meguro 650 Scrambler from Rocket Fantasy Garage…  Founded in 1937, Meguro was one of the first Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, a “prestige brand” that supplied police and military motorbikes to the government and raced alongside Honda. […]
Yamaha XT500 Street Tracker Torakusu XT: Yamaha XT500 Street Tracker - Jean-Michel Atlan’s street tracker, reimagined 40 years later…  In 1877, Japanese entrepreneur Torakusu Yamaha, the third son of a samurai of the Kishu-Tokugawa family, founded Nippon Gakki Company in order to manufacturer reed organs. Torakusu’s […]
Suzuki GT380 Tracker The Triple Option: Suzuki GT380 Flat Tracker - Two-Stroke Triple Tracker from Moore’s Competition Cycles…  During the 1970s, the Suzuki GT series of three-cylinder two-stroke street bikes never earned quite the same widow-making reputation as the infamously fast and lethal Kawasaki triples…mainly because […]

 

 

For a full list, go here.

4 Comments

  1. troy simmons simmons

    So awsome!!!!!!!!!!! You have to love that bike!!!!!!!!

  2. My Street Tracker two Stroke Brasilian.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDUf3cDLhv4

    • bikebound

      Beautiful. Email us some build information (in English, if possible) and at least five photographs, and we will feature your build on the blog: taylor @ bikebound.com. Cheers!

  3. Bruce Herrington

    This has been a great article on Mule Motorcycle and the Trackers.

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