Hi all. Glad to be here. I'm doing my best to customize this thing. It was ugly as sin when I got it. I want an older, more stripped down look. But I've got to do it for cheap and I've got to do it myself. My knowledge and experience is limited so I'll take all the help I can get. This is my first HD and I want to do it right. So tips, suggestions, cheap parts sites are all welcome.

 

Most common thing done to Harleys is louder pipes. If you go that route, you'll lose some mid range power without doing work to make up for lower back pressure, and it'll pop and backfire without enriching the mixture; simple (there are more complicated ways that cost more and have negligible benefit to most riders) way to fix that is to go one size up on the carb low speed jet and just tweak the mixture screw; that will almost always get it running smooth.

That seat looks like a butt buster for anything much over an hour; there are a whole lot of aftermarket seats in all styles, and none fit everybody the same, that's a personal fit. Seats aren't cheap, either, unless you run into a good used buy. Careful about those, there are lots of Harley years that don't fit other years - none newer than '03 would fit yours.

There are probably still low mileage '02s with original tires. No brand is safe after 6 or 7 years and a lot of us replace 5 year old tires; check the tire dates on the sidewalls (4 digits in a raised oval, first two are week of the year, last two the year). The OEM Harley Dunlop 400 series are the worst handling tire I've ever ridden on, and just about anything else you might replace them with will handle better. Especially on a sportster, I don't concern myself with what brand/model gets the highest mileage, I want tires that will corner hard without breaking loose; for sticky performance, Avons and Pirellis seem to get the highest sticky reviews, and I love my Avons. I've gone sideways on those Dunlops... Also, your cast wheels can use tubeless tires, but don't forget the valve stems. Even if they're metal, they have o-rings that can get hard and leak eventually. Can be expensive to take a bike anywhere just for valve stems. I'd recommend everything rubber on those wheels to be replaced at next tire change.

I'd also check the wheel bearings whenever a wheel comes off. Those plastic seals pop off easy and you can see if they're contaminated or just don't have enough grease (and that's getting too common on new bearings!). There's a particular and a bit complicated way to install Harley wheel bearings, don't try it yourself till you know just what to do. A big culprit for contaminated bearings is pressure washing - keep that nozzle away from wheel bearings if you ever use one.

Weakest mechanical point in your sportster - the spring plate riveted mess in the clutch. Most last as long as people have the bike, but quality control on those must be iffy, a lot of guys on this forum and others have reported the rivets failing and various levels of mayhem in the clutch as low as 15,000 miles. I pulled the one in my 1200C at about 30,000 miles, and the rivets were loose, but none broken yet. I replaced it with a new clutch pack with the extra metal and fiber plates to eliminate the spring plate. You can just get the extra plates by themselves, but at 30K, I figured replace them all now and I'd never have to do it again. That's my grandson putting the primary cover back on from that clutch work in my sig pic.

Anything you want to do on your sportster, search for how to videos on youtube - just about everything Harley is there. I have a manual, too, if nothing else for torque values, they're important. I also use blue loctite on almost everything that doesn't get engine hot. The two big nuts under the primary cover and the drive pulley on the rear wheel get red, but that's about all; the smaller stuff can be a pita to get off if you use red on them. Pull axles, clean and coat them with grease or anti-seize, I've had to pound too many out with a sledge hammer that had been installed dry.

Enjoy, and run into something you don't understand, ask on this forum and somebody will know the answer.

 

Thanks a lot sir. I picked this bike up from an HD dealer on the cheap because it was *** ugly but only 13k miles and it was only $3500. I've put a bit of work in but not much.

These are some good tips. I definitely need to take a look at the axels and wheel bearings. Would I be using the same grease for these wheel bearings as I would for a car?

I also want to swap out the bars but I'm not sure how to measure for new cables. Where do I start and end the measurements?

 

The first & most important thing to buy is a Factory Service Manual.

 

I would suggest you ask in the 'Sportster' section of the Forum...b.

 

When I measured for cables, I just mounted the new bars, then used the old cables
(that were still attached on the other end) as a guide to see how short they were, or long in case you're going lower.
This is an easy way to see how long of a cable you need.
I found out I didn't even need new cables, just rerouted the old ones.

 

Get rid of the reflectors. Relocate the front signals the the lower triple tree. Just a couple ideas that are cheap and easy.

 

Any good disk brake grease might be ok, but I use a premium brand synthetic, have used both Mobil 1 and Chevron with no problems. I stay away from the $2.99 stuff at discount stores. Even if it's $10-15 a tube, a tube lasts a long time if just used for your motorcycle wheel bearings. Same grease also works fine for your neck bearings.

You may notice a lot of wheel bearing failure threads on this forum - the guys often say they couldn't find much if any grease left in the damaged bearing. You don't want to pack a sealed bearing solid, but the thin film that's just enough to wet the ***** some new bearings come with isn't enough, either. I pack them, then wipe enough off the sides so there's a little space for excess grease to move to when the bearing spins up.

Another thing you might want to check on your new purchase is the final drive belt. A bit of gravel caught and pulled between the pulley and belt can take a chunk out or even poke a hole in the belt. Pulleys can get rough teeth with wear, too. It's not a common problem, many folks get 60,000+ on their belts, even on the big baggers.

 

What are your plans as far as customizing

 

I want to lower it in the back about an inch. Put some new bars on it (biltwell chumps most likely). I'm going to pull and paint the rear fender. I was thinking about putting on some new brake light/rear blinker fixtures as well. I want a bigger, spoked front rim. I'd like to relocate my gauges. Other than that, I'm open to suggestions.