Nice looking bike, would be a shame to repaint those tins. Maybe you could sell or trade them and get some you like better.
As for the 883 vs 1200 sounds like your sister owned the bike for 8 years without knowing it. Did she let you test ride it? Was she able to keep up with the big bikes?
What kind of big bikes are you talking about, if they are not Harleys then you may very well have a 1200.

 

Aw man, that paint scheme is downright scary.

Just sayin'.

 

That pink paint job must be some kind of motivator for your friends to run off and leave you. Ha ha. Ok, just teasing. I did a little research for you and found some quick and easy ways to tell if you have an 883 or 1200. These have been shamelessly ripped from another site.

1. You can actually measure the diagonal of the cylinder.
Jack up the rear wheel, take out both spark plugs
put the bike in 5th gear. Rotate the rear wheel
until the piston is at bottom dead center, BDC.
Use a wooden dowel or chop stick to feel when the
piston is at the bottom.

Then push the bottom end of the stick to the far side
of the combustion chamber and mark the end of the stick
where it hits the upper lip of the spark plug hole.
This is the diagonal of the chamber and it will be different
for a 1200 vs. a 883. Your measurements might be close to this.

For a 1200 it will be about 5 7/8"
For a 883 it will be about 5 1/2"

2. If they used HD 1200 cylinders, they are marked "1200" on the front right bottom right behind the front pushrod tube.

From what you said about the plugs it sounds like your bike is running rich. You need to get that rectified then I think they won't be running off and leaving you so easy.

 

UH...that Uh...well Uh...is very pink....not that there is anything wrong with that

 

That's a theft deterrent paint job alright. lol Good luck on getting it set up like you want it. Remember, black is faster................

 

I guess some sportys are girl bikes LOL

j/k but I'd get it painted if it was mine

the reverse happened to us, back in 2003 my wife crashed an 883 so we found an 883 Hugger for her at a dealer here right before the 100th anniversary, when we took delivery the dealer, Hals HD, told us they screwed up and didn't realize that they had actually done a 1200 conversion on it for the original owner but since we had a price agreed to they honored it.

Great deal thanks to their ignorance but then my wife was nervous about having so much power, you just can't win some times.

 

I know a lot of guys who have tried running those Hyperchargers, a few work real well, the rest are on some shelf in the garage. I bought a '79 shovel with one on it and tried getting it right (and I'm pretty good at it after 36 years of shovels). I finally gave up, put a descent air leaner on it, tuned the carb and the guy I bought it from thinks I did engine work on it, it runs that much better.

 

Could it be that you're a big guy? Or much bigger than your sister? I wouldn't mind owning a sporty, but I'm just too damn big to fit on one comfortably, and my weight wouldn't help much either.

 

i think i would not ride anybike that is pink, i would paint before riding with my buddies

 

I'm with Frog.....Junk that Hypercharger, but I also have to say forget about the Mikuni. Your stock carb will be fine once tuned right. Hell that CV carb is good on engines with up to around 100HP. Plus, it's abour 10 or so years old, so the carb probably needs overhauled/rebuilt anyway.