Last Wednesday August 10, 2011. Location Lazelle Street in Sturgis. At 3.45 pm Dar Holdsworth is called on the stage of the AMD World Championship Of Bike Building to receive his trophy for winning First Place in the Production Manufacturer Class for the bike featured here. During the last 9 months, Dar emailed and texted me almost every week images of the progress of this new creation, both a tribute to American Racer Robert “Bobby” Rahal, an International Motorsports Hall of Fame and Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee, and also a salute to the American Soldier. This RLX Darwin Motorcycles bike will be promoted both in the auto racing world and motorcycle world to be raffled with all proceeds to support our US troops through 2 military focused charities, Steel Anchor and Pros Vets.
As a matter of fact, Dar Holdsworth is himself a veteran of the Desert Storm operation, and since he started his custom motorcycle business, he tries each year to build one bike to benefit in one way or the other the brave men and women who fight for us, including their families. It’s in 2008 that Dar conceived and was ready to develop this custom American muscle bike, but the economy falling out he didn’t find at that time the vendors’ support he expected. Towards the end of 2010, although we are all still living in a very tight US economy, Dar eventually convinced some top part vendors of the necessity to continue to support our nation’s heroes returning from war and in exchange promised a top creation able to give their names and parts top media exposure. First step here in my Blog.
Before being displayed and competing for the 1st time at the AMD World Championship, the Darwin RLX was presented as a Roller at Sema, then introduced to the Tahal Team during this year’s Indy 500. And this week in South Dakota, one of the strongest custom building trend being to incorporate many sport bikes attributes in bikes built from the ground up, the RLX got a lot of attention of both the public, media and show competitors. I value it around $60,000 + and you can win this beautiful limited production bike signed by Bobby Rahal by buying online a raffle ticket through Dec. 24th. Winner will be announced in January. Jump to Darwin Motorcycles to be directed at the page where you can purchase your tickets. Below the Darwin RLX tech sheet
S&S 132″ X-wedge. Baker FFP primary w/ Baker King Kong Clutch. Baker 6 Speed Transmission. 2 into 1 into 3 stainless exhaust built by Darwin Motorcycles (materials from D&D). Beringer Dual 4 piston front and single 4 piston rear brakes. Beringer hand controls. Brock’s Performance BST Carbon Fiber wheels 19″x120mm front, 19″x180mm rear. World Ceramic Bearings. Dunlap Sportmax tires. Ohlins Road/Track suspension. Racing Innovations Muscle Bike frame: 25 degrees rake. Autometer STACK race gauge. Braille carbon fiber battery. Vortex clip ons. Vortex sprocket. Vortex gas cap. Vortex/Darwin foot controls with reverse shifting (GP style 1 up – 5 down) Joker Machine bar end mirrors. Motion Pro cables & switches. MoFlo Air Cleaner. Alloy Art headlight. Hix Design custom seat. Escort / Passport radar detector (machined into top clamp) Cycle Electric Regulator & Stator. Darwin tag bracket. Darwin custom Top Clamp & rear brake hanger using Summit Machine. Custom body work by Darwin Motorcycles. Front Fender: Shark Skins. Paint: Manny’s Ink & Air. (photography copyright Frank Sanders & Onno “Berserk” Wieringa, courtesy to Cyril Huze)
Dar,
Beautiful machine you have designed, engineered and built.
Wish you well with it and hope you chip away nicely at some of the import sport-bike sales.
Boss Hawg
Perfect. No wonder it won.
Unlike last years winner, this one is at least a likely production bike.
OMG that is dead sexy! Just begs to be rung around the track.
Well deserved, congrats.
1st class bike Dar. Well done
“10”
Very nice looking American cafe racer or muscle bike, whatever you want to call it. The 25 degree rake seems pretty steep. I wonder if a steering damper would be needed on the production bike to combat high speed head shake? I’m assuming there will be a less costly production model but retaining the X-Wedge mill? That thing must have a ton of torque.
In my view, it would be nice to see the American V-twin powered cafe racer gain in popularity. Don’t have HD and can’t watch Cafe Racer TV on Velocity, but I like that sort of thing even though it lacks the popularity here compared to Britain.
finally someone did it!!!!! that’s my kind of machine….. know let’s see how fast it will go…BUB
Congrats, Dar! You knocked it out of the park. Hope to see some of these on the street soon.
very nice ,.would love to see it on a track
Dar,
Just can’t say enough about this bike design. You have put together a world class bike that could easily make it’s way into custom motorcycle legend as one of the nicest customs availible on the market!
Steve Carr
Congratulations Dar, this is my favorite bike of the 2011 AMD show… seeing from my office..of course;-)
Very nice and tastefully design… seems to be rideable and made to enjoy the road!! Very nice, i like it!
Again , well done Dar !
Well done Dar, a perfectly executed design and build.
Awesome!
killler! Nice work Dar
Nice work Dar
Ive always like your bikes…..all the best in the future
hondo..look at the pictures its under the headlamp…and dar..bitchin bike! see you soon
Dar,
You hung in there and earned a big first. Great Job.
Note: Steering damper is shown in 5 images
Congratulations! Thank you for your service, and thank you for helping the vets.
Nice bike.
24.5 degrees of rake is common among many sport bikes and the majority of them come with a dampener.
What is the wheelbase length?
Dar,
CONGRATS!!! Long time comin’ but you were FIRST this year. Awesome bike and even more awesome builder and his family! I still love my Brass Balls – Darwin 2007!!!!
I’m with all of the above!
Yep, well, all I can say is that is what I get not being fully awake. The steering damper is visible in a number of the photos and rather obvious in the bottom photo. Guess I was paying more attention to the specs Cyril listed than focusing on the pics.
What I like about the bike is that it was built to be ridden with high dollar parts. The Ohlins alone are not inexpensive.
I am honored & humbled. There are so many talented builders in our industry. Thanks to you all for the kind words. This bike may have been my vision, but it is a team effort. I am lucky to be surrounded by a great group of associates & suppliers who share my passion for timeless design and functional riding motorcycles without compromise. Cyril, thank you for the great exposure.
This is truly an awesome bike. Congratulations to Dar, Tim and Brian for an awesome piece of machinery. If you are wondering about performance, Dar actually let me take this for a quick spin and it is a beast. Really great components come together to make a sweet ride that some lucky sole will get to win for a great cause and Dar is not pocketing one red cent from this build.
Very nice. American Voxan?
Great bike built by an even greater guy! I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Dar at a few events, you can’t ask for a nicer guy. Pictures don’t do this bike justice.
Beautiful! Congrats Dar!
Great bike! You with Foremost? They’ve got some preetty great rates on custom stuff. Fire it up!
Wow, whomever rides this Bike is so BAD that Rain Won’t fall on them!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am drooling this bike is so bad! peace
Great bike, great company, great employees and a great man at the helm..congrats Dar you earned every bit of it!!!
Atta Boy Dar…..nice work!
Not to repeat what everyone else on here, but that is a REALLY NICE BIKE!!!! Kudos to Dar for knocking it out of the ballpark with this custom.
Meant to say “what everyone else on here said”, my apologies on the poor english. Guess I got too excited over the sight of the bike…
One Way Cool Ride!!!
And the reason why electric bikes are uninteresting.
-nicker-
Like I said the first time I saw it……….It turned out awesome! congrats guys!
Hell of a job Dar! Congratulations!
Over & Out,
Jeff
Fantastic….bring it to the salt for a little air time…B U B?
Ray
Stunning bike Dar. Well deserved win! Keep em coming.
Oh and all those people who miss out on one. Get their names and addresses and see if you cant sell em one!
Dar, A pleasure to have met you, and thanks for all the publicity your bike dragged to ours next door! You stole the show mate, I firmly believe that. Looking forward to using you MonaVie products to lose the 10 pounds I gained from the festival food too. Talk soon, Case