Nightster Winter Makeover
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,166
Likes: 7
From: NY
Got a few things done today. The front wheel is finally on. Son-in-law turned the axel on the lathe to the right dimensions sometime during the week, so that was ready to go when I got to the shop today. He measured the wheel and rotor spacing and gave me the measurements this morning and I made a new spacer out of 3/4" id thick walled steel tubing. I didn't take any pics of that...you've seen plenty of pics of crap in the lathe and the front wheel and spacers. But I bolted everything up, including the brake caliper and everything fits fine. So that's done.
Then we worked on the handlebars. I've decided to keep the drag bars but they needed to be lower, closer to the tank. So I chopped about four inches off the risers using a cutoff wheel.
While I cleaned up the ends with a grinder my son-in-law cut the threaded bungs out of the chopped ends and cleaned them up for re-insertion into the shorter risers.
Took some pounding to get them in.
Then squared up the ends.
We'll weld them up later but they are tight enough to bolt on, so here's what they look like.
I like the way they look now and the riding position seems pretty comfortable. There will be a bit of an issue with tank clearance that may require shortening up the turning radius slightly. Not a big deal at all.
And it'll look even better when I get the headlight mounted. This is the stock Nightster headlight that I sandblasted. I've removed the eyebrow and flipped the housing to mount it on the lower triple clamp. I think it's about the right size for the look I want. Just have to make a bracket for it.
That's not the exact final position but something like that. Hopefully more progress tomorrow...
Then we worked on the handlebars. I've decided to keep the drag bars but they needed to be lower, closer to the tank. So I chopped about four inches off the risers using a cutoff wheel.
While I cleaned up the ends with a grinder my son-in-law cut the threaded bungs out of the chopped ends and cleaned them up for re-insertion into the shorter risers.
Took some pounding to get them in.
Then squared up the ends.
We'll weld them up later but they are tight enough to bolt on, so here's what they look like.
I like the way they look now and the riding position seems pretty comfortable. There will be a bit of an issue with tank clearance that may require shortening up the turning radius slightly. Not a big deal at all.
And it'll look even better when I get the headlight mounted. This is the stock Nightster headlight that I sandblasted. I've removed the eyebrow and flipped the housing to mount it on the lower triple clamp. I think it's about the right size for the look I want. Just have to make a bracket for it.
That's not the exact final position but something like that. Hopefully more progress tomorrow...
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,158
Likes: 35
From: Gulf Breeze, FL
Moving right along Ergo...how about a set of lowered black air shocks for that beast? The boots on them would match the gators up front...getting ready to put a chrome set on mine. 
Thread Starter
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,166
Likes: 7
From: NY
Yup, Mike's right Rick. I've had the air shocks on for a couple of months now. They're the 12" Street Glides chopped to 10.75" at Bitchin Baggers. And I do like the way they compliment the fork gators. How short you going with yours? Did you get the 12 or 13" shocks?
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,158
Likes: 35
From: Gulf Breeze, FL
Yup, Mike's right Rick. I've had the air shocks on for a couple of months now. They're the 12" Street Glides chopped to 10.75" at Bitchin Baggers. And I do like the way they compliment the fork gators. How short you going with yours? Did you get the 12 or 13" shocks?
Thread Starter
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,166
Likes: 7
From: NY
Thanks fortyeight! But the credit really goes to my son-in-law. When I started this project I didn't realize just how good he is in the shop. He is mreed's clone when it comes to bikes and mods. Don't know if I'll have time tonight to detail what we got done today, but I have to say that the guy is an amazing fabricator. I'm really just a hack. If this whole project turns out decent it will be because of his talent, not anything I did. But thanks again.
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,166
Likes: 7
From: NY
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Thread Starter
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,166
Likes: 7
From: NY
Big day at the shop yesterday! We made some great progress, enough for me to almost feel like this thing might get done sometime before summer hits. Almost.
So where to start...lessee, we picked up where we left off on Saturday. The bars were essentially done and in place so next we had to finalize the method for mounting the 2-up seat, as that is one of the main driving factors for how the solo seat will mount and where the tank needed to be. To refresh everyone's memory, I'm going to keep the stock Nightster solo seat with the HD passenger seat together as a unit and swap that out whenever my wife and I decide to go for a ride...perhaps once a week or so. I have the smaller solo seat that will be on the bike the rest of the time. The stock seat has a metal tab at the front that slides under the stock rear tank mount and holds the front of the seat in place. We cut that rear tank mount off a while ago and I was thinking that we'd have to create a slot at the rear of the tank to accomodate the front tab on the 2-up seat. After thinking about it for awhile we decided to instead just drill a small hole in the frame at the rear of the tank, tap it for 1/4"-20, then drill the tab on the solo seat so that the front of the seat will be secured with a 1/4"-20 phillips head screw. In fact, the screw that normally secures the stock solo seat will no longer be necessary because I won't use the stock seat without the passenger seat. So we'll use that to seccure the front. Here's the way it looks.
The rest of the 2-up seat mounting points remain in place - the large bolt that secures the middle of the Nightster solo seat and protrudes up from the frame near the ECM hole in front of the rear fender, and the rear most phillips head screw in the rear fender. So the 2-up seat mounting system is finished.
At the same time, we needed a rear tank mount. The simple and clean solution was simply to weld a small tab on the rear of the tank, drill a hole and use the same philips screw to secure the tank. When riding 2-up, both the rear tank mount and the 2-up seat will use that screw. When using the new solo seat only the rear tank mount will use that screw.
So next we had to figure out the new solo seat mounting configuration. Here's the bottom of the new seat from Mother Road Customs.
The two studs at the front are obviously to accomodate a front mounting bracket. The simple and easy thing to do would have been to buy one of the many brackets out there. But why do that when we had the old rear tank mount that we could modify? Some cutting and drilling, a lot of grinding, and a bit of sandblasting and we had a new mount.
More to follow...
So where to start...lessee, we picked up where we left off on Saturday. The bars were essentially done and in place so next we had to finalize the method for mounting the 2-up seat, as that is one of the main driving factors for how the solo seat will mount and where the tank needed to be. To refresh everyone's memory, I'm going to keep the stock Nightster solo seat with the HD passenger seat together as a unit and swap that out whenever my wife and I decide to go for a ride...perhaps once a week or so. I have the smaller solo seat that will be on the bike the rest of the time. The stock seat has a metal tab at the front that slides under the stock rear tank mount and holds the front of the seat in place. We cut that rear tank mount off a while ago and I was thinking that we'd have to create a slot at the rear of the tank to accomodate the front tab on the 2-up seat. After thinking about it for awhile we decided to instead just drill a small hole in the frame at the rear of the tank, tap it for 1/4"-20, then drill the tab on the solo seat so that the front of the seat will be secured with a 1/4"-20 phillips head screw. In fact, the screw that normally secures the stock solo seat will no longer be necessary because I won't use the stock seat without the passenger seat. So we'll use that to seccure the front. Here's the way it looks.
The rest of the 2-up seat mounting points remain in place - the large bolt that secures the middle of the Nightster solo seat and protrudes up from the frame near the ECM hole in front of the rear fender, and the rear most phillips head screw in the rear fender. So the 2-up seat mounting system is finished.
At the same time, we needed a rear tank mount. The simple and clean solution was simply to weld a small tab on the rear of the tank, drill a hole and use the same philips screw to secure the tank. When riding 2-up, both the rear tank mount and the 2-up seat will use that screw. When using the new solo seat only the rear tank mount will use that screw.
So next we had to figure out the new solo seat mounting configuration. Here's the bottom of the new seat from Mother Road Customs.
The two studs at the front are obviously to accomodate a front mounting bracket. The simple and easy thing to do would have been to buy one of the many brackets out there. But why do that when we had the old rear tank mount that we could modify? Some cutting and drilling, a lot of grinding, and a bit of sandblasting and we had a new mount.
More to follow...
Just read the 28 pages straight through. This bike is going to look amazing when it is done! My eye are sore from staring at this screen for so long but man was it worth it! Ergo I hope that someone gives you some 30 hours days in the future so you have the extra time to get this thing done! Great work so far!