Well, when I got my bike, it was a mess. Me and my old man tore right into it. He had the same bike a decade ago, and did a complete tear-down without a manual, so I knew I had the right guy to help me.
The rear master cylinder was an 87, so we fabricated an adapter in my friend's metal shop, rather than replace everything else. I added directionals, as it had none, and replaced a bunch of little things. The stock carb was junk, so I put an S&S Shorty on there, as you can see in the picture. Replaced the petcock valve, a bunch of stuff. Stators, voltage regulator, battery, it was great working with my old man.
Then, about two months into it, I wrapped myself around a tree.
Tore tendons in both my hands, contused both my knees and couldn't walk for a week, took out a large chunk of my tongue, gnashed up the inside of my mouth real bad so I couldnt eat any real food for almost a month (that was the worst part), destroyed the front end, wrecked out my new directionals, cracked the helmet that was on my bitch seat, the bike bounced off the tree so hard that it was going so fast backwards that it knocked all my exhaust off and bent up my support arms, snapped the shift lever, wrecked my tac and speedo, and destroyed my wheel. After the police and fire dept. showed up, they demanded the bike be towed, and, unfortunately, loaded it onto a flat bed by winching it up the ramp. On it's side.
So what did I do? Junked the old front end, and mounted a used '88 set, that I picked up real short money from the local shop I always go to. And thats why my front fender is purple on my nice green bike. But the 39mm forks give it a much nicer ride.
A truly custom sportster
