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I've owned 20 bikes over the years, mostly Japanese. There's also been a couple of BMWs, an Aprilia and a Triumph. The bikes I have liked best have been big traillies and sport tourers. I'd never even considered a cruiser, and certainly not a Harley.
Last year I was trying to sell a camper van, and not having much luck. To help get rid of it, I added that I'd swap or p/x for a bike. I turned down a Suzuki 1500 Intruder as I thought it was way too ugly. I also said no to a couple of out-and-out sports bikes and an old Pan European 1100. Then along came a bloke offering a 97 FXDWG. I Googled it and, ahem, for a Harley I thought it was pretty attractive.
The guy rode it round to mine. It sounded good and brought a grin to my face when I rode it round the block. It had under 11000 miles and came with a cracking private registration plate which I've since been told is probably worth over £2000. On the bad side, I think it had been ridden through a few Scottish winters and was quite badly corroded. It would need some work and some money throwing at it, but so did my camper van so we agreed a straight swap.
The first thing I did was to try and get rid of the corrosion on the bottom of the frame and the swingarm.
These were taken AFTER some work with a wire wheel. I got the swingarm powder-coated, and treated and repaint the worst bits on the frame.
I still might get the frame powder-coated this winter.
Next, the fuel system. Looking inside the carb, a Mikuni, it's a miracle the bike rode at all.
Worse was to come. The inside of the tank was rusty and the liner was flaking away.
It was easy to clean out the carb, but I had to send the tank away to bet the inside properly treated. That's a story within itself and, as others have pointed out, it's not easy getting the fuel sender in and out of the tank.
The wire bit got bent, and I had to make another. Eventually I got a useable tank though. I added a lovely new gravity-fed petcock, and an inline mini fuel filter which almost fits perfectly in the hole.
What else? I fitted a new kickstand, the old one was rusty and the end part had broken off.
The old torn seat was replaced with a beautiful new Mustang, the sissy pad too.
Here's the inside of the old rear wheel, the outside wasn't much better. That was replaced with a new one from the USA.
Again I couldn't get the right air filter over here, this replacement had to cross the Atlantic too.
The main thing now was to get the tank and fenders painted.
I don't much like black, and I'm not into skulls, eagles, studs and leather. My favourite colour scheme is this, on an old FZ750 I used to own.
A couple of guys at work were going to do the paint job for me, but they let me down and this wasted about three months. I went to a highly regarded local business, and they did a superb job about six weeks ago.
Since then, I've got the bike back together and got its MOT (UK roadworthiness test) done, for which it needed two new tyres. The journey to the MOT garage was my first proper ride on the bike, and it absolutely poured with rain. I was wet to the ***** within ten minutes.
Since then, I've overhauled the front forks, replacing the sliders which were pitted and adding 10W oil and progressive springs. I found some fork gaiters which were almost a perfect fit. I've also changed the bar grips, added wider footpegs with a much better grip, fitted an extended gear lever, shortened the rear brake lever rod and bought a nice second-hand Nelson Rigg sissy bar bag for just £30.
I've got an LED headlight and better shocks coming, and plan to fit a louder horn. It's ten months since I got it, now to ride the thing!
Work on my 97 Dyna
