Dual Sportster build

[fabiodriven]

Oh yeah, it's going to be a great gravel road bike.

They're not any heavier than the liter sized adventure bikes being bought by discerning Starbucks drinkers today.


An oil cooler is nice addition regardless. Just want to make sure the oil doesn't stay too cool if riding during cold temps. There are manual and automatic bypass valves that can be installed between the lines to prevent that. Got to keep that oil temp up at least enough to get rid of water condensation. The temperature dipsticks for those oil tanks work good, and they're simple.

https://jagg.com/collections/by-pass-valves






Having a more powerful bike, you may be tempted to eek a little more from the 883, but I'd be hesitant to with the small fuel tank. The Keihin CV40 carbs are really good. You could add something like the Yost Power Tube, but it'll probably increase fuel consumption, and I know they may say it doesn't on their website. Experiences will differ, some better MPG, some worse.

Ditching that stock exhaust will lighten the bike up, but that crossover tube does work. A 2-1 system would be ideal. Too large of an exhaust pipe diameter will kill the bottom end power on an 883. I mean make it totally gutless. Some torque cones are probably going to bee needed with any aftermarket exhaust you use. They'll help keep the exhaust velocity up and prevent reversion.

https://cv-performance.com/exhaust-torque-cones




I don't know what brake fluid that year uses. HD likes to use DOT5 anymore, because it won't destroy paint, but some people find it makes the brakes feel a little less responsive. It's completely incompatible with DOT3,4, & 5.1 though, and is not hygroscopic either (which means moisture will settle in the low spots instead of being suspended in the fluid). I'm mentioning this because you may be running a different brake up front with the different forks and having to use a different fluid for the front and rear would be a little bit of a PITA. If the Sportster doesn't use DOT5, it won't matter.


You having a Buell already, I don't want to sound like I'm preaching to the choir on some American V-Twin stuff. Just throwing some ideas and products out there that maybe you haven't heard about.

Dude you are an absolute wealth of information! I'm very grateful because I know nothing about this bike! The Buell didn't prepare me at all! I'm a bit busy right now but I'm going to reply to your post a bit more in-depth later. Thanks again!

[oldskool83]

maybe id harley really went back to its roots in the dirt conversions they would have more sales. Motors grunty for offroad, ive had them. In an ATV that would be great, or cycle. Little 350 V twin.

[schlepp29]

I'd love to see Harley have race teams for the gncc series. Would be really interesting

[ATC King]

Some of the more recent off-road ventures for Harley-Davidson...


The MT500. There are some floating around in the civilian market.
https://silodrome.com/harley-davidso...ry-motorcycle/




The Buell Ulysses. This was and Adventure style bike, and anyone in HD dealerships at the time, knows they stuck these in the darkest corner they could find, because they weren't 'real Harleys.' Dealership hardheadedness killed Buell.
https://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles...x-ar53810.html





HD is now working on a NEW adventure bike. It's on their website, but isn't for sale yet. The Pan America. A vast amount of the adventure bike crowd cast shade towards HD, because they are closet Americans. The Pan America hasn't even hit the floor yet, and people are knocking it. It'll make a Starbucks run just as good as a GS, and that's a guarantee. A capable PA rider is sure to make mincemeat of any lacking GS, Tenere, Africa Twin, or Tiger rider out there. Same as it's always been.
https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/e...wBEQ&gclsrc=ds

[schlepp29]

I'd love to see one of those in person, I had no idea

[oldskool83]

it's still a very tall machine with a tall wide center of gravity. No one buying that is going to take it off road for any adventure. They need a dirtbike, smaller and slim not made of all iron.

[schlepp29]

Yeah but cruising gravel roads just site seeing would be it's high light imo

[fabiodriven]

Guys I love the banter in this thread and have more to add than I have free time. I'll be posting more substantially when I'm able. Thanks for the replies!

[oldskool83]

the buell was a try but it still used sportbike smooth tires, you fat middle aged men with a 29" inseem wont touch bottom lol

[fabiodriven]

Some torque cones are probably going to bee needed with any aftermarket exhaust you use. They'll help keep the exhaust velocity up and prevent reversion.

https://cv-performance.com/exhaust-torque-cones

So I came on here to get caught up and post something significant. When I saw this product I knew I needed them immediately, so I figured I'd order a set right quick and get back to the thread.

Welp, lol. I don't know what's going on but I just spent the good part of an hour trying to buy these and I could find no way to get them in the cart! No idea how to use this site. Since I've been staring at my phone for an hour now, I'm done lol. I dare anyone else to try haha!

I'm sorry and I'll post when I can. ATC king your posts in particular are greatly appreciated and I have a lot to respond to, but I appreciate everyone for posting. The bike has been coming along really well!

Edit- they're shut down right now. I'm wondering why they didn't say that on the site instead of just deleting the option to order anything.

[ATC King]

There are other brands. I posted those because the site had a good explanation of the way they function.

[fabiodriven]

There are other brands. I posted those because the site had a good explanation of the way they function.

I was wondering that! I'm going to search right now!

I'm in a pickle right now. This company (Chainsikle) is the only company I've been able to find who makes lowset rearset pegs. I haven't been able to find any from anywhere else at all. Two weeks ago this past Wednesday they asked me to email them in two weeks, so that's what I did Wednesday. Still no reply. These pegs are going to hold me up, I need something to happen with this now. It's Friday now and they still haven't emailed me back.

chainsikle are 4" lowered
http://chainsikle.com/menuitem/viewm...mproducts/id/3

Does anyone know of any other places that make lowset rearset pegs? This is going to put a very long hold on this project if I cannot find any pegs.

[fabiodriven]

Goodness gracious so much to add.

ATC King thank you again for all of that. Going by memory, three things stick out. The emulators are something I'll absolutely be looking into. I looked at a Sportster fork conversion and learned all about emulators then. Then I found out that kit didn't fit my forks lol.

The exhaust cones I knew I needed to have once I saw them. Thanks so much for sharing because I didn't know such a thing existed. They're cheap too!

And yes, I did order a 2 into one baffled exhaust. It's hand made in Mexico. From what I can tell there aren't a lot of people in the United States who have this man's exhaust. It's been shipped and currently it's in Mexico City on it's way to me. It took him a couple of weeks to get it out.

Reading back now, I'm going to take a look at the oil cooler controller as well. That's another great suggestion.

Having spent time with my Buell has not translated over to this bike at all, except for me knowing how to check the primary and that's about it. I thought about the Buell Ulysses, but it's not the same as a Sportster Scrambler or Dual Sportster or whatever you want to call it. That Harley adventure bike looks sick!

So the bike is lifted now. I'm giving up on the foot peg situation and giving the pegs that are there a shot. They don't feel awful just sitting there but I'll have to ride it to know if I'm going to like them or not.

Rear now has 15" lift shocks combined with lift blocks. I wasn't positive if these two would work together, but I'm determined to make it happen. As I assumed, the shock and caliper are now too close. I spaced the shock outward and that made me able to at least mount the wheel, albeit all the way forward in the adjustment with next to no travel to tighten the chain before the caliper and shock make contact. I'm debating on moving the upper shock mounts rearward, or I'd like to see a smaller rear caliper on there somehow. That would be easier than moving the shock mounts. This caliper is yuuuge, and it seems unnecessary. There must be a way to get a smaller caliper on there.

XL600R front end went on tonight. It was a complete success, until I tried to turn full lock right and something hit. My front fender mount contacts the little padlock steering lock dealy. I'll have to massage that. I have about another 1.5 inches of fork leg I can slide out of the triples and bring the front up a bit more, and I think I'm going to do that. Seems the front could stand to go up a bit. The Honda front end went on like it was made for this bike. It actually took more work to adapt an 18" rear wheel from another Harley to this bike than it did to get this front end on.

So far so good. It's still fun.

[ATC King]

Fast From The Past sells a Tarozzi fork brace for the XL600R forks. I have one, and it helps the forks track better. The boots still fit good and don't look goofy. I'm guessing it'll still fit, if the Sportster trees haven't thrown the spacing off much. It's a five piece design, so there's some wiggle room before everything's tightened.

http://www.fastfromthepast.com/22-0034



I don't know what you intend to do for front brake line, but I like the original one on the XL600R because it's not like the new dirt bikes that have the brake line hooped over the bars, it's a cleaner setup. The problem is it's a hard line and rubber hose hybrid design and they aren't available new, that I know of. You'd be stuck using a 30+ year old brake line and it may not be the size needed if you intended to attach it to the HD master cylinder.

I'm guessing you may want to keep the HD brake lever so you can use matching mirrors, if the master cylinder assembly and clutch lever both have the mirror mounts built in. You'd have to use some type of metric/SAE adapter if using the Honda master cylinder. Probably would look off and put the mirrors in different positions.


The original peg location may work, but a lot is going to depend on the seat. Keep in mind,the original Sportsters were meant to be competitive with the British bikes of the time and those bikes were THE desert racers of the day. They had thicker, and longer seats, that sat higher and farther forward than the new bikes. The Sportster was HDs performance bike, getting overhead valves before any of the bigger bikes and a unitized transmission. Harley continued that into the late 1990's by introducing new technology on the Sportster first.
http://www.classic-motorcycle-build....r-history.html




Here are some other internet images that have seats more accustomed to your application. Two of these are the later rubber mounted engine Sportsters, which also have larger fuel tanks. I got a chuckle when HD promoted the new rubber mount engine frame as stronger. Well, duh, it had to be because the engine was no longer a stressed member. It also added a good (bad) amount of weight. Engines bouncing around inside the frame, at idle, don't look quite right.

https://thekneeslider.com/gb1200r-br...tom-sportster/






The braking balance is looking kind of comical though. A stereotype of Harley riders is they are terrified to use the front brake, hence the enormous rear rotor, which is even more accentuated now. I done a quick search and didn't find a XL600R oversized brake rotor kit, which are typically available from supermotard parts companies. The kits are a larger brake rotor and new caliper bracket. I think a XR650L brake caliper fits the XL600R forks, and if that's the case, you can use a caliper bracket for the XR650L. You'll just have to source or have a custom rotor made.

[fabiodriven]

Fast From The Past sells a Tarozzi fork brace for the XL600R forks. I have one, and it helps the forks track better. The boots still fit good and don't look goofy. I'm guessing it'll still fit, if the Sportster trees haven't thrown the spacing off much. It's a five piece design, so there's some wiggle room before everything's tightened.

http://www.fastfromthepast.com/22-0034



I don't know what you intend to do for front brake line, but I like the original one on the XL600R because it's not like the new dirt bikes that have the brake line hooped over the bars, it's a cleaner setup. The problem is it's a hard line and rubber hose hybrid design and they aren't available new, that I know of. You'd be stuck using a 30+ year old brake line and it may not be the size needed if you intended to attach it to the HD master cylinder.

I'm guessing you may want to keep the HD brake lever so you can use matching mirrors, if the master cylinder assembly and clutch lever both have the mirror mounts built in. You'd have to use some type of metric/SAE adapter if using the Honda master cylinder. Probably would look off and put the mirrors in different positions.


The original peg location may work, but a lot is going to depend on the seat. Keep in mind,the original Sportsters were meant to be competitive with the British bikes of the time and those bikes were THE desert racers of the day. They had thicker, and longer seats, that sat higher and farther forward than the new bikes. The Sportster was HDs performance bike, getting overhead valves before any of the bigger bikes and a unitized transmission. Harley continued that into the late 1990's by introducing new technology on the Sportster first.
http://www.classic-motorcycle-build....r-history.html




Here are some other internet images that have seats more accustomed to your application. Two of these are the later rubber mounted engine Sportsters, which also have larger fuel tanks. I got a chuckle when HD promoted the new rubber mount engine frame as stronger. Well, duh, it had to be because the engine was no longer a stressed member. It also added a good (bad) amount of weight. Engines bouncing around inside the frame, at idle, don't look quite right.

https://thekneeslider.com/gb1200r-br...tom-sportster/






The braking balance is looking kind of comical though. A stereotype of Harley riders is they are terrified to use the front brake, hence the enormous rear rotor, which is even more accentuated now. I done a quick search and didn't find a XL600R oversized brake rotor kit, which are typically available from supermotard parts companies. The kits are a larger brake rotor and new caliper bracket. I think a XR650L brake caliper fits the XL600R forks, and if that's the case, you can use a caliper bracket for the XR650L. You'll just have to source or have a custom rotor made.

Man you are on point.

So I have the XL600R front OEM brake line and it's in very nice shape. I haven't even tried to fit it up yet. Now I'm excited to see it, lol. And yes, I do want to keep the HD master and lever and I do like the mirror setup as well. I'm wondering about fitting that line to the HD master already.

I love the commentary about the Harley riders being heavy on the rear brake, lol. Yes it looks a bit absurd right now, mostly because it is! That mag wheel is super heavy as well.

I'm fitting the seat right now. I've yet to come up with an idea how to fasten it unfortunately.