Just finished my ground-up restoration of an '88 Sportster 883 to 1200 conversion....and then some.....
It was an 883 when I bought it last year. Rode it last summer and put the first wrench on it last Thanksgiving day. Total teardown... Frame was bead blasted and primed then brought home and shot the next day with 3 coats of PPG Delfleet FBC Black then cleared with 4 coats of Delfleet F3920 High Solids clear. Rear fender was bobbed and threw out the tailight. front fender is staying on the shelf. Tank and rear fender was bead blasted and shot with the same PPG Black as the frame. Tank had some pinholes and was sealed using a Caswell Plating tank sealing resin which is a pretty remarkable product after having used it. Seat is a $60 solo found on craigslist that is a perfect fit.
Front forks were lowered 2.5" using a Progressive suspension lowering kit and hand worked with emery cloth and scotchbrite to remove corrosion and restore the finish. 12" rear shocks were scrapped and installed 11" shocks from wife's '92 Sportster ( she got a new pair of 10' shocks) after some modification with a die grinder. They were mounted on a set of offset lowering plates to take it down a little further in back.
Carb is stock Keihnin CV, rejetted and fitted with a Yost emulsion tube. Vacuum slide was hand contoured to reduce turbulence and increase crispness of throttle response. Intake plenum and ports were hand worked to remove burrs and mold steps. Heads are stock that were sent to Jon Mastoris of Custom Cycle in Springfield Ohio. Valve seats and faces were reground, vlv seats to a five angle spec to reduce flow turbulence. Jon also completed the 883 to 1200 boring and supplied the Wiseco conversion kit w/ pistons. I drove my stuff 2 hours from Findlay to Jon because there is no straighter shooter in the business if any body needs machine work done. He's won't just tell you what you want to hear and won't take a dime he hasn't earned, and I mean earned. Excellent work.
883 heads were kept to reap the benefit of the much higher port velocity (translates: much better air/fuel homogenization) from the smaller ports, so up until about 5500 RPM, this will out perform stock 1200 heads. After that you got me, but that's about 115MPH and too fast for streetwork anyway...LOL
Engine went back together stock with the exception of a set of Cometic .040" metal head gaskets to replace the stock .060". Big jump in compression and performance. BUT, only leaves .025" piston to valve clearance so a five minute warm-up is mandatory or there WILL be bent metal. Otherwise....HOLD ON. Case, heads and Jugs finish was left intact as bare aluminum and covers were treated, primed and painted with VHT Wrinkle finish ceramic spray-on coating then oven cured. Starter was rebuilt and painted using self-etching epoxy primer and VHT flat engine paint.
Wheels are stock with Dunlop HD rubber and a lot of elbow grease to clean them up. Rear looks bigger because of the bob job on the rear fender. Installed a Nickel Plated O-ring chain.
Wiring harness was patchwork so I rebuilt the harness and wired the rear turn to a run/brake/turn function with some radio shack DPDT relay switches after a new Badlands rear/brake/turn module smoked out. Just as well to keep it "old school" with the rest of the bike. Bars are Drag Specialties 12.5 baby apes, wired internally with a set of Crime Scene Choppers custom switchboxes. Cauition lights were repositioned to the headlight louver and the speedo and tach were left off until I can find some I like that don't look like "Big Ben" mounted on my clamp. Start and Kill switches were relocated to the ignition cover just behind the battery box.
License plate bracket is a 2010 Streetglide folding model on a fabricated shock stud mount. And, took the baffle tubes out of the stock exhaust so the damn thing sounds like it should.
THANKS for the compliment FXRDUDE!
(note: this bike was moved from the July BotM contest because I totally spaced and missed it in the voting - Lucky)
I can tell ya it run's like a Bat out of Hell, and more confortable than the Dragon to ride. Yep I managed to ride this one without crashing it.
A BIG Thank You to our GREAT friends at HiJinx Apparel, for contributing Drunken Fools/CycleFish T-Shirts as additional prizes for the winners this month!!!
kawasaki zx600cc with a few mods done to her ,she.s 10 yrs old ive painted almost every thing on her ,had the rear shock out n painted ,the rims have been painted the seat has ben recoverd ,new screen new hugger ,tail tydy ,blue flame end can also been cut down for more noise ,braded brake lines KnN air filters ,new front n rear indicators for the sharper look ,new pags and heal plates ....think that about it all .
.....................
..................
...........Naaaaaaw, nevermind maybe I'll just sit on her instead!!
