You know I do love the look of the front fender delete. I will say I used to ride with my friend and he has springer softail with deleted fender and when we rode in the rain he would run a 30 to 40 foot spray. greatest thing to watch. wet fella for sure, He used bandanas wrapped around the tubes. great bike. like it
Hey, 83xlx I want to say that I use that exact handle on the xlx forum and what is interesting is that my senior high school saying was just that {If it is not broke don't fix it}. Cause I do own a 1983 xlx and it is my beauty. I have owned it for a few years. There was a iron head meet and greet in nj I believe a few years back that I failed to attend, I think that the following if iron heads is great. To me they are nostalgic I have a dual fire ignition on mine. I like it. I kind of ride hard. I have to replace the base gaskets. Mine rips. for a 1983 xlx. when I got it it did not. it actually slipped.
The IronHead Meet&Greet in New Jersey has been called The girl's Bike Brunch. It is organized by "the other IronHead forum" and is held 2x each year, roughly Spring and Fall. Check it out here [the forum has recently been moved to a new server and is experiencing some technical problems, but is still useable...... https://www.xlforum.net/forum/sports...talk-1957-1985
Back in the winter , I had posted a picture of a build I had started , now that I'm retired , this is what I do to entertain myself .
This is the 79 Sportster I've been working on , I'm riding it now , this thing is fun to ride and is everything I had envisioned it to be before I started the transformation.
It's a 1979 XLS , I bought it last year , right from when it arrived it needed a bunch of repairs and maintenance to get it on the road and safe to ride . It was my daily commuter ride , to my part time job.
Winter came , I had already decided , I was going to transform it into a street tracker.
I started the project last summer , while I was still riding , by shopping ebay , ordering up parts from various vendor's , over the next several months , purchased and set aside parts that were chosen for the build.
To make the bike into what I wanted , I had to make several parts , modify some of the parts I bought , to make them work , lots of machining and welding .
The engine , as far as I know is stock , I'm told it has been rebuilt and they used Wiseco pistons , other than that It has a few things I added , an S&S super B carb and a Dyna "S" single fire ignition , single plug with two coils......... later on , next winter it's coming apart to be " modified" , ( I have parts , lots of em )
I started out building wheels , using Harley Davidson hubs , the front hub was for a 19" wheel from the 80's which I lightened . The rear hub is from a heritage . The shouldered aluminum rims came from ebay , the spokes from Buchanan's .
The forks are a blend of various pieces , Some swap meet , some ebay . It's a 39 mm Showa , the triple trees are for an 883 super low and are wider than a standard 39mm , this is to allow the use of a 130/80-19'" Dunlop K180 dirt track tire .
The fork lower legs are early 2000's , The internal's are modified with Race Tech gold valve emulators and Race Tech springs , the preload is now adjustable by installing a pair of adjustable caps , from ebay .
The front brake is Brembo , from a Ducati 748 , I have two calipers but as of right now I'm only using the left ....... once I find the correct rh lower leg I'm going to add the second brake , at some point .
The rear brake caliper is a two piston from a 2016 Sportster ... bought off of ebay , it came with the mounting bracket which required a bunch of machining to make it work on a 1979 swingarm .
I modernized the hand controls with later switches , clutch control and master cylinder & mirrors .
The pipes are Stainless steel , hand crafted in my shop , based on some sample pictures I found searching the internet . They are made out of "takeoff" pipes that I cut up to re-purpose the bends , normally "takeoff" pipes would have otherwise been discarded and wound up in the land fill.
I built a second system for my flat tracker ( a second bike / story to be told later ) . It was a struggle to build the pipes , in the begining I had limited experience welding thin stainless tubing ..........a bit of dicking around , it was a learning curve but I got it done.
I added a kickstart because you can on a 79 Sportster .
The fuel tank is a new king Sportster tank that I cut the bottom off , then removed a pie shaped slice , made a new bottom & tunnel and welded it back together.
The seat is a Saddleman , the fender / tail section is Air Tech XR750 .
The tires are Dunlop K180 ..... 18" on the back ( maybe gonna build a 19" wheel later ) , 19" on the front , both are 130 width .
I was using an early 70's set of gauges with a mechanical tachometer last year , those are set aside now for another build and I mounted up a pair of mini gauges from Drag Specialties with an electronic tach .
The tail light is one of those old ( but new ) Lucas style , on a hand made bracket that also holds the license plate . The turn signals are L.E.D. .
Last edited by Gearhead88; 07-20-2024 at 12:04 PM.
I'm told it was used to herd cattle if the quad was being used , the fender and oil tank were caked in dirt n' cow **** .
The laydown license plate was one of my favourite custom touches on the bike , it was a slice of decaying plywood.
It ran good though and because I can envision things as they should be or could be , I was able to fix it up for the summer and take to another level over the winter.
01-13-2024 | 06:42 PM
