Roland Sands Design Boss 2 Up Seat.

I put a Roland Sands Boss 2 Up Seat on. I could not find any pictures online of this seat on a 4.5 Gallon tank. The good folks at revzilla assured me it would fit but were unaware of the size gap it would create. So I took a shot in the dark and ordered it.

I am very happy with how it looks and feels. It is firm, but comfortable. It moves you down and back a bit. Enough that I had to adjust my handlebars back a little.

I personally like the look of the gap at the bottom of the tank. I would be happier if my tank did not have that little rivet looking thing at the bottom of the center piece. From what I understand (which I could be wrong) the FI Sportsters do not have this. Don't know why.

A visit to the original owner.

We had some beautiful weather here in South Central PA on Monday, so I took advantage of the situation and rode to my morning meeting in York.  I snapped some pics while I was parked downtown.

Afterwards I stopped over at the home of the original owner's house to go for a ride.  I was hoping that the changes I made wouldn't make him regret selling it to me.  After this smile and the big thumbs up I got from him while riding I think all is good!

Big Facelift

Just finished up the biggest job I have ever done on a bike.  Mods include, riser swap, mini apes internally wired, cables replaced, tank lift with wire tuck, coil and horn relocation.

Here is a shot of the completed project.

The removal of all the equipment previously located above the front cylinder really cleans the look and lines of the bike up.  The tank lift compliments all of this.

The mock up.  At this point I had removed the tall riser that comes on the custom.  I installed 1.5" risers and the top clamp/speedo mount from a Harley 72.  The "idiot light" transfer required a bit of trial and error to finally get working.

Drilling and filing holes in the bars to internally run all the wires.  These are HD bars off of a 72.  I read a lot of bad info online about these.  I tried sitting on different bikes with different bars to see what felt comfortable.  I like the lower rise and soft pullback on these.  The rise on the bars is 11.5". There are holes drilled on the sides for the factory wire clamps which I did not expect.  The cost was about $80 from a local HD dealer.

Extending the wires 7".

I soldered and heat-shrunk all the wires individually, then heat-shrunk the pairs together.  I connected pins to the end and reassembled the Deutsche connectors.  This is a bit of a tedious process, but over 15 years in the pro a/v industry and I am pretty handy with a soldering iron and heat shrink.  Patience is key here.

Speedo thrown in and bars on.  Indicator lights not yet resolved.

Looks very clean with wires inside.  Glad I took the time to do it!

Indicator lights in. Bezel from 2016 sportster low, 72, iron etc.  Had to locate a jewel to hold my traditional bulbs as the new sportsters have LED lights.  I did not want to convert to the LED wiring harness, jewel and everything else.  This worked.  Bezel, holder, jewel and 2 screws from hardware store about $25.

Speedo backing installed.  The factory speedo had the trip odometer button on the back.  The new sportsters with this speedo mount have the trip button on top of the horn button on the left controls.  I had to improvise.  Here is what I did:

I drilled a hole in the center of the headlight housing for a gromet and the trip wires, and one on the side for the trip button.

Heat-shrunk the wires, installed a gromet to keep water out and mounted button to the side of the light housing.  Made sure to tuck the wires in the back.

Here is the housing reinstalled.  You can see the button loacted on the side with easy access when I fuel up to reset my trip. 

Here is another mock up to see how much room I would have in the tank tunnel for the wires.  Also installed a headlight visor.

More wiring.

Assembled and tucked.  I wrapped all the wires with self fusing nylon tape, and electrical tape.  The control wires, and turn signals wires go on the left of the tank, the speedo wires and horn wire are on the right.  The horn is on the down tubes in front of the front cylinder.

At this point I had to determine where to put the choke knob and how to run plug cables. I relocated the ignition switch behind the rear cylinder.

Modified the factory choke knob holder, cut drilled, rounded and painted.  Cut plug wires short and clean.  I broke the fuel petcock during all of this.  So that threw a curve in the job.  Located a new one locally and threw it on (after spilling gas everwhere!)

I will post part numbers for those interested.  I can tell you that I had about 18-20 hours in wiring, cabling, brake bleeding, clutch adjusting, drilling and fabricating.  This was very enjoyable and rewarding.  I drank many cold ones during this job, and for me that is sprite zero.  This can be done at home with patience and basic tools.  I strongly suggest buying and owing a bike lift, this would have been incredibly difficult without one.

I have a lot more I want to write up, but right now I am going to go ride again.  Cheers!

A quick before after:

Before:

After;

Before:

After:

White Walls

Just got back from a very enjoyably ride with my wife.  Had my white walls put on the wheels this morning and snapped a few pictures when I got home and bolted them back on.  I went with Shinko 777's based on numerous reviews I have read and from talking to other riders.  I put a 90/90-21 on the front and the extra 10 mm makes a difference in filling the fender gap in.  I am hoping it helps with the tar snakes that our PA roads have so many of.

Here it is with the tires on and the new Arlen Ness Big Sucker stage 1 air kit.

Wheels off, sucker on.

Took the wheels off in preparation for the white walls tomorrow.  Also installed an Arlen Ness Stage 1 Big Sucker Air Cleaner.  Riser and top clamp with Speedo mount off of the 72 have been ordered from Harley for mini ape conversion.  Need to go sit on some bikes to decide between Harley mini apes which are about 10 inches and some burly brand which are 12 inches.

Will report back tomorrow with tire pictures.

Solo Saddle Bag

I needed some way to carry my papers, cell phone, wallet etc.  I like the look of solo swing arm bags.  I looked around and read posts and decided to go with a Larosa solo bag.  the leather is nice and thick, the buckles are solid and the shipping time was fast.

Their page claims you can keep the passenger peg on, and while you can I found that it covers half of the rear peg and you have to leaveit folded down.  I pulled the peg off and am just going to put it in the bag so I can pop it on should we decide to ride two up.

I followed the directions on Larosa's video.  This video is horribly grainy and has no close ups of where the straps sit.  I feel they could do a better job.  I installed the bag really in the only places the straps would fit, and for some reason the bag pops my battery cover off when I hit big bumps.  I will look into this further, but it seemed to stop and maybe the bag situated itself in a better place.

Tail Light and Lay down License plate holder.

I knew the bike needed some things when I bought it. These were: tires, a carb cleaning/adjustment and probably a general tuneup.  I quickly learned after buying it that it desperately needed a battery as well as it let me sit 3 days later.  After much research I bought a battery and installed it.  It made a huge difference and the problem I thought the starter may have been having turned out to be a case of just not enough amperage from the dying battery to crank it over properly.

I really like the look of this bike, but there are a few blemishes from factory I wanted to clean up. First of them being the giant tail light and billboard style license plate holder.  I looked into options and decided to go with a Drag Specialties low profile LED tail light and a Kuryaken laydown license plate frame.

When driving home with my wife following me she noticed that the factory tail light was barely noticeable, so I was hoping the LED light would be brighter than factory in addition to shorter and better looking.  Here is the difference in sizes from DS low profile and factory.

Here are some before and after shots. 

I noticed after installing the light that since the plate is now laying down on the fender the light for the license plate now shines right onto the back of my head and is brighter than Hell when I look right or left at night.  I tried masking it off and painting the bottom half of it black.

This did not work, the LEDs are so bright they shine right through the black paint.  I put a piece of gaff tape over it for now and that worked.  Gaff tape is amazing. For those of you outside the sound/production world that might not know what it is, look it up and buy some!