It's Alive

Bike is back on the ground.  All I need to do is clean and tighten it up.  Might even have to pull the no front brake chopper fake just to see.  Hopefully gonna ride some in the next couple days and then on to a few more rabitts out of the bag and she'll be done for a little while.

Wiring Almost Complete

There is only 9 wires running the length of that backbone right now and when it's all said and done there will be probably only be 4 there, and the other 5 will stop around the battery box. 

I think after I get all the remaining wiring heat shrunk and tidy'd up, I'm going to be really happy I did this.  Wiring a 1200 Sportster at this point doesn't seem as difficult to do as once thought.  My biggest suggestion would be stare at the diagram for a while until you can pretty much remember what color wires go where without having to look at it. 

My wife made me go inside at 1 a.m. again last night because I had to be at work again at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, no less.  (These 6 day weeks are getting old, but there almost over.)  At some point after lunch today I will know if I got everything in perfect order and the old gal will come rumblin' back to life.

Another suggestion would be to find a good diagram.  This one was in the o.k. range.

For Mike

Just for you buddy.  Exactly like you like your choppers!

Pic stolen from the Speed Metal blog

Getting Closer to having the XL 1200 wired

Finally started getting everything sorted out.  I have all the crap I need under the clip.

All the crap I didn't need I draped on the other side of the bike.  I didn't take any pictures of the where I ended last night, but I finally did get around to cleaning up some of the mess of what I actually need to make it go and shine light front and rear, and started heat shrinking.  

I've got my diagram clipped to the side of the fender strut in the back to make sure I don't get my wires crossed.  

This isn't as simple as it looks.  But, the tangled up mess is about to get real simplified.  

Hittin' Switches on 96 XL 1200

Did a little composition.  Doing shit by hand takes time, that's for sure.

Gonna use a little 1/4" Aluminum scrap to fabricate the mount.

Popsicle Mirrors, Ha! I finally found a use for them.  I think I'll keep them though, may hang one off the side of my helmet or something like the real bikers do.  Just kidding.  They are MoCo mirrors though which is cool.

Tools and required accessories for late night customization.  

And well maybe this is somewhere along the lines of what might happen.  At first it started as an idea of making an aluminum bracket to mount a hi-lo beam switch somewhere easy to reach and slip under the chrome cover for the top trees.  Then I thought maybe I just may look for a smaller marine grade momentary key switch than what is shown and put them both up there.  This would just leave fabricating the coil mount left to do for now and cleaning the wiring up with solder and heat shrink.  

Any ideas or feedback on this little idea is welcome.  I'll keep 'ya posted.   

Stock Bikes Suck

So here lately I've been finding myself working 12 hour days, sometimes longer, then coming home and doing one handed laps around the garage until 1:30 a.m. in the morning.  The other hand is for holding cold beer of course if you were wondering.  And then, it's back up at 6 a.m. to go back to work. Why would a man function with such sleep deprevity, you ask?  Well, to ride a bitchin' motorcycle, that's why!  

It seems the more beer I drink, the more parts keep falling off and onto the table.  All I'm going for here for this first season of this bike's tenure as mine, is a super clean, super light, great handling, wheelie pulling, curb jumping monster.  I want a tight and light full suspension All Business Machine.  Head Light, Tail Light, Go Fast, Stop Fast, Functional Shocks that can take a beating front and back, super slim homemade seat, and relocate a few things. These pics don't show it, but the switches are eliminated, and the harness is being remade. Coil isn't sitting stagnant either. Just saying.  

One more week of sleepness nights and it should have some new bars, be rewired, re-assembled, and only need a new set of shoes before it will be ready for this pilot to take command of this beast on the asphalt. 

My 5 year old little man, wants to know why daddy has been stripping parts continuously from his motorcycle.  I can see the anxiety in his eyes when he ask with such confusion because the excitement he once had of riding on back with his "deddy" down to the lake on a real deal "harley dabison" is now lost in the translation of full on customization.  All I can do, is tell him like my homie Josh showed him.  The writing is on the wall (literally) son, "Stock Bikes Suck," and  assure him that it will be better than it once was.