I received my 2" vented gas cap today from Moore's Cycle. Fits like a glove.

XS with Style

A good friend of mine has been building this XS for some time now. Lately, he's been working on lacing up some new wire wheels. The rear 18 inch is done and looking sweet.

Forever Two Wheels

Yesterday, I received my first new belt in about 1o years. Its a sick hand-made leather belt by Tom Fugle. Check out his stuff at Biker Belts. I laced it up with a Death Machine buckle.

Old as Dirt

Today, I spent some time grinding 80 years worth of the elements off of this old 1930's Studebaker, spare tire cover I'm trying to fix up to be a rear fender. Ivan from Hammer In Hand hooked it up out of his stash.

Tomorrow, I'm going to call every machine shop in Bloomington and see if anyone will be able to run this baby through an English wheel to make it more presentable.

King Queen

I received my seat yesterday. It's a mystery brand King Queen set up. I'm feelin' it.

$50 Wheel

While I was up in Michigan getting the frame converted, I saw this 21" front wheel for $50 in Ivan's front room. I couldn't pass it up even though it's for a wide glide.

My goal is to have the Sportster done by Hot Rods N' Hillbillies but hopefully I'll have it done way before July 31st. It's just nice to have some kind of goal.

Parts, Parts, Parts

I'm patiently awaiting the arrival of some parts so I can continue my build.

Once I have the rear axle, I can line up the rear wheel and have some spacers made. Then to Josh "Clutch Fab" to make a sissy bar and mounts for the rear fender. He's also going to help me with this old British style gas tank I got from "Born Loser" Mike D. The tabs are all crooked, so we're gonna chop'em off and make tabs that are more suitable for my build.

In the meantime, I'll post random shit.

Busted

1964 Royal Enfield

Here are a few photo's of Alec Hill's original 1964 Royal Enfield.

Ridin' photo from two summers ago. The Horse put it in there "Ridin' Free" section. Shit is clownin'.

Here's a photo of my buddy's S&S Panhead.

So Clean

via (Show & Go)

Feeling It

Pretending I Have a Rolling Chassis

My New Hard-Tail Sportster Frame

This frame turned out sick as hell! I really like the lines and profile. It has about 4.5" of stretch and I'm not sure how much lower in the rear it is just yet. I had to order a new rear axle so I haven't been able to set it down on the wheels. Hopefully the axle will come in today and I'll be able to take a look at whether or not I need to shorten the kickstand.

Lined Up Beautifully

You Have to Plug It First

Like It Never Happened

Final Chops

Line it up

Naked

Here we are with the chopped frame. Looks naked doesn't it?

Chopped and Screwed

Ivan begins to chop that shit up.

Doing a Jig

This is my stock frame chillin' in a jig ready to be chopped. The weld-on rigid section sitting next to it.

Kidney Killer

Here are a couple photos of the rigid section I had welded on last weekend.

Ivan Iler of Hammer In Hand Custom Cycles did the conversion. I have nothing but good things to say about this guy. He was kind enough to allow me to stick around and shoot the shit, take photos and ask questions about the entire process. Although the day I went up to St. Johns, Michigan to do the damn thing was probably the longest day of my life. Upon calling Ivan and getting the details about the conversion, he told me it'd be about three to four hours to do the work. I ended up chilling there from 10am to 4am (considering daylight savings time I thought it was 3am when I left). But it was worth it! I learned so much watching this guy work.

When it came down to leaving, Ivan said, "I think I made a friend and an enemy today." A friend, yes; an enemy, no way! Thanks Ivan. You do amazing work.

Check out his bike Midnight Oil on the cover of the March issue of the Horse Backstreet Choppers.

Pulled That Bitch

Getting the motor out was a hell of a lot easier than I imagined. I laid it on it's side, as suggested by a friend, unbolted the last of the motor mounts and lifted the frame with the motor still on it's side.

Boom! Motor pulled and off to Kirby at Vee Twin Performance in Ellettsville, Indiana for the 1200 conversion kit! Photos from this process to be posted later.

Here We Go

Everything off but the motor. Damn.

Stripped Down

This is what I did with the bike after having it a while. I had dropped it a couple of times in loose gravel which is kind of embarrassing but I think it happens to a lot of people. Needless to say the turn signals were the first things I removed and I traced back the wires and removed them.

After a half a season of riding it, I quickly realized I needed to tune the carb. I completely disassembled it and re-jetted. With the help of the S&S service manual, it runs very well now.

A good buddy of mine sold me a JB front master cylinder and GMA front caliper for a steal.

I stripped the puffy, pillow-top seat and reupholstered it myself using shit I bought from JoAnne Fabrics and a staple gun.

The gas tank is a 4 gallon axed fat bob tank.

I acquired the saddle bags from a friend on the cheap.

It went through many changes and this is what it looked like just before I completely disassembled everything.

Sportster Project

I've had this 1990 Sportster 883 for a little over three years now and I'm finally tearing it apart. That's the main reason I'm creating this blog; to document the progress of the project. Here's a photo of the bike when I bought it. It was pretty much stock except for the S&S Super E Shorty carburetor and the drag pipes.