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Well, I wanted to post all the headaches I've had the last 3 months since I bought my bike. I started tearing into it after a couple weeks. I'm doing this on a budget, so i've had to improvise on some things. I still have a lot I want to do but here's what I've done so far.
This is what it looked like when I bought it:
I removed the saddle bags and sold them. It needed cleaned up and polished. I also lowered it 2".
I didn't like the way it looked with the giant rear fender so I bought a Nightster fender from someone here and put it on. I need to paint it, but that will wait until the winter. I picked up a cheap side mount license plate bracket on eBay and some light up bolts. I also had to get a Run/Brake/Turn module from H-D to eliminate my brake light.
My back kept telling me I needed taller bars. I found some 10" Khrome Werks mini apes for $50 on eBay. And I realized after I installed the fender that the 2-up seat would just look silly IMO. Also, my wife refuses to ride with me. So i traded it and my rear pegs straight up for a solo seat from a 2011 Superlow. I had to move the ECU next to the battery to use it.
This is how the bike sits now. I eventually want to paint the front fender and repaint the rear fender vivid black and paint the tank HD Orange. I'll also be making a DIY air cleaner soon. I eventually want to get white walls, but these tires are brand new Perelli's. Maybe ill find someone who wants to trade tires from their 72.
The bars were the trickiest part. I had to get a new set of cheapo risers and a speedo relocation. I mounted the speedo on top of the forks where a chrome bracket is bolted to.
those shocks are sure at a strange angle. hows it ride like that?
All physics aside, they ride great like that. A couple of my wife's Sportsters are lowered that way. She isn't heavy enough to compress the suspension in the stock location but angled back like that makes it actually work. The only down side is that the suspension moves more and the tire can bottom out under the fender so I put larger bump stops on the shock shafts.
Jester: I had the both ways and I can see everything with them flipped down. I could only see a little bit of the road and a lot of my shoulders the other way.
Nubs: that's what I felt like calling it. And I didn't hack the fender. As I said before, it's from a nightster.
Iron1250: I think they look sort of weird too but like Mreed said, it rides a little better than stock.
Those bars look way better man. When I get back I think I'm going to paint the rk... If I end up keeping it (haven't decided yet). If I do I'll get some paint guns and we'll spray both bikes. keep an eye out for 2000-2003 superglides and any year fxr that isn't a shovelhead.
So I wanted to post some pretty kick *** updates to the scoot. I recently deployed and asked my buddy Austin (Agove from the above post) if he could babysit my Sportster for me. He asked me a bunch of random questions about what I wanted to do with it when I got back. I told him I wanted to paint it, chop the frame and turn it into a bobber. This is what it looked like when I got back:
He apparently decided to pull the tins off and paint them all for me. I also had a pretty wicked dent in the right front side of the tank that he filled and smoothed out.
This week he decided to chop the rear fender after I told him thats what I wanted to do to it.
Then chopped the frame
So I picked up a Mother Road Customs solo seat and a mounting kit. As well as some rigid struts and he threw it all on for me. This is how it sits right now.
Next think is a wire tuck and probably a tank lift along with and ignition relocation. Then black out some of the engine parts and get rid of some of the chrome.
Last edited by dtaylor00; Dec 14, 2014 at 10:35 AM.
Next think is a wire tuck and probably a tank lift along with and ignition relocation. Then black out some of the engine parts and get rid of some of the chrome.
I think a tank lift and wire tuck will will make it look nice. It'll open everything up in the front and make it look bare like it does in the back.
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My Build Thread: 2007 Custom 883
