Greetings from old biker, new Harley owner
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6th Gear
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 14
Likes: 5
From: Mechanicsburg, PA
Greetings from old biker, new Harley owner
Well, after ~40 years of riding metrics, I finally added American Iron to the stable: She's a 1996 Sportster 1200 I bought at an insurance auction as a wreck (front end was d-stroyed).
Put a new front end on her from a 2000 XLH883 and a lightweight skinny wheel. Dumped the front & rear fenders, put a lightweight solo seat on her, got rid of the crash bars and otherwise 'chopped' & 'bobbed' all the weight I could. She's as close as I could get to "big engine + two wheels" and slimmed down to just under 400 lbs. dry.
Got her retitled and reregistered and she's back on the road. Loving every minute of it. Goes like stink, handles like she's on rails, and I have lots of fun beating clueless newb 'sport bike' riders through the twisties.
Rejetted the carbs richer but she's still awfully cold blooded and 'coughs' a bit if you take the choke off before the oil hits ~150+ degrees. (asking about that will probably be my first 'real' post here...)
When I'm not riding, I run a bike restoration & part-out shop. We focus on 60's-80's Japanese bikes (so far...) We "RE:CYCLE" old bikes, thus the handle (ha ha).
Joined here hoping to get some sage advice when needed, and might even be able to contribute some wisdom of my own from 40 years of riding and decades working on bikes professionally (hey, my experience may be mostly metric, but carbs are carbs on some level, ya know?)
Put a new front end on her from a 2000 XLH883 and a lightweight skinny wheel. Dumped the front & rear fenders, put a lightweight solo seat on her, got rid of the crash bars and otherwise 'chopped' & 'bobbed' all the weight I could. She's as close as I could get to "big engine + two wheels" and slimmed down to just under 400 lbs. dry.
Got her retitled and reregistered and she's back on the road. Loving every minute of it. Goes like stink, handles like she's on rails, and I have lots of fun beating clueless newb 'sport bike' riders through the twisties.
Rejetted the carbs richer but she's still awfully cold blooded and 'coughs' a bit if you take the choke off before the oil hits ~150+ degrees. (asking about that will probably be my first 'real' post here...)
When I'm not riding, I run a bike restoration & part-out shop. We focus on 60's-80's Japanese bikes (so far...) We "RE:CYCLE" old bikes, thus the handle (ha ha).
Joined here hoping to get some sage advice when needed, and might even be able to contribute some wisdom of my own from 40 years of riding and decades working on bikes professionally (hey, my experience may be mostly metric, but carbs are carbs on some level, ya know?)
Big Kahuna HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2010
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From: Shit Weather USA
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