The V-Twin Visionary NightStalker
Words & Photos Jeff G. Holt
We have always been a brand that is into the whole of custom and performance V-Twin Motorcycles. That’s why we went hard with this bike. This 2023 Harley-Davidson Nightster was found at auction by John Jessup of Dream Rides of Tennessee and they pretty much had it for sale as a used bike with a Toyota Cement Grey paint job.
This is where VTV’s Jeff Holt had the great idea to add another Nightster to the V-Twin Visionary arsenal. Maggie Holt had already built one and it was a stellar build that looked nothing like any other Nightster before it. But Jeff wanted to build one that mimicked a Club Style Dyna or FXR. And with the bike already built in his head, he got busy on sourcing parts to make it a reality.
Starting with a call to Kruisie designs Jeff got one of the mufflers that the crew over there has been making. They are really nice, give power, and make the bike sound like nothing else on the road. Under what looks to be the gas tank is actually the intake for the motor. The fuel tank is actually under the seat and in front of the rear wheel making the bike’s center of gravity very low. Which is a good thing. Jeff got a whole Pan America induction system to majorly upgrade the breathing of this bike. He also ditched the stock side breather and upgraded to a billet aluminum unit. Coupled with a tune from Dream Rides the bike instantly turned into 130hp fire-breathing water-cooled monster of a next-gen RevMax-powered Harley.-Davidson.
Once that the performance was handled, the VTV crew got busy with changing the looks and overall ergonomics of the bike. A set of 10-inch straight Bung King risers were installed along with a new set 1-inch to 7/8-inch dirt bike handlebars. Out back a Bung King license plate mount was also employed to streamline the look of the bike. A call was made to Memphis Shades for a Road Warrior faring that had to be custom ordered to fit correctly on the bike’s 41mm frontend. It also had to be painted to match the rest of the paintwork.
A set of Legend Suspensions +2 piggyback shocks were sourced using a sizing from an Evo Sportster, and up front a magic mix of Race Tech springs and emulators work within the stock 41mm fork tubes and lower legs.
The bike at first had a beatufully re-covered single seat, but Jeff worked with Saddlemen to make up a proper fitting Step-Up seat designed just for Rev Max Nightsters. And with the cockpit feeling like an early 2000’s “small frame” Dyna this bike was rippin’ up the Smoky Mountains in no time.
The final thing was a trip over to everyone’s favorite Keystone Light drinking pinstriper James Bondo for some complementary black and white graphics over all that Toyota grey.
This bike shows that it doesn’t really take much time or money to make these Revolution Max-powered Nightsters get up and running with the big bikes H-D produces. And this particular bike feels so light, so right, and so fast. That we are going to keep it in the stable for a while.
