The Harley-Davidson XLR-TT roared onto the scene in 1958 and remained in low-volume production until 1969, depending on which experts you listen to, there were somewhere between 200 and 500 XLRs made.
Built for racing on stick-your-foot-out-and-turn-left dirt courses the 883cc V-twin of the XLR was too big for any AMA sanctioned national class races and as such the bikes were largely used in the “outlaw” unlimited classes, outside the purview of the American Motorcyclist Association.
I personally think Harley lost a big part of itself when it stopped building bikes like this, the balls to the wall Americanness of this type of motorcycle is clearly visible, hell it leaps out at you and grabs you by the neck.
This particular bike is one of 30 built in 1964 and it’s going under the hammer at the Bonhams auction on the 14 May 2011 in Carmel, California. This is an immaculate example of the Harley-Davidson XLR-TT and as such is expected to fetch between $45,000 and $65,000 USD.
Via Bonhams
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
