Dual Sportster build

[ATC King]

Here's a couple Harley exhaust gasket installation videos. Looks like you're using the different style, but maybe they'll still be helpful. Kind of makes sense needing to use a homemade, hardware store tool to work on 20th century farm equipmen...um...Harleys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Btu_o3FE_c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEPWP6oK7H4

[fabiodriven]

Here's a couple Harley exhaust gasket installation videos. Looks like you're using the different style, but maybe they'll still be helpful. Kind of makes sense needing to use a homemade, hardware store tool to work on 20th century farm equipmen...um...Harleys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Btu_o3FE_c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEPWP6oK7H4

I actually have both styles. I was planning on running two gaskets on each head pipe because of the little exhaust cones I'm adding. Flat gaskets first, then cone, cone gaskets, then head pipes in that order. I have not yet tried to install the OEM cone gaskets to see how they fit, but the aftermarket flat gaskets absolutely wouldn't have gone in the way this guy in the video shows. They're just too large in diameter.

[fabiodriven]

The key is the retaining rings that are better illustrated in this link. https://www.ebay.com/itm/CHROME-EXHA....c100290.m3507 Put the flange on the pipe, and then spread (twist) the snap ring to get it on the pipe. Slide the flange against the snap ring and onto the studs and install the nuts. Being that your exhaust is custom made, the flanges to mount it may in fact be proprietary, facilitating the need to buy the flanges from Gallup.

The flanges are on their way and it looks like they are the exact flanges you shared in this post.

[Scootertrash]

The key is the retaining rings that are better illustrated in this link. https://www.ebay.com/itm/CHROME-EXHA....c100290.m3507 Put the flange on the pipe, and then spread (twist) the snap ring to get it on the pipe. Slide the flange against the snap ring and onto the studs and install the nuts. Being that your exhaust is custom made, the flanges to mount it may in fact be proprietary, facilitating the need to buy the flanges from Gallup.

Was going to post this as well. Does the manufacturer have pics on their website of the flanges? That may answer your question. I believe all of the evo era exhaust flanges are the same size whether Big Twin or Sporty, hold on, BRB........

Yes, after perusing the Harley microfiches the evo BT and Sporty exhaust flanges and clips/snap rings are the same, so factory components should work. You'll have to make the judgement when you get the "custom" ones.

IMHO there isn't much they could alter as far as mounting where you would need "proprietary" flanges and clips/snap rings, unless their custom flanges eliminate the need for the clip/snap ring.

ETAo you still have the clips and flanges from the original exhaust?

[Scootertrash]

Here's a little inspiration from down under

Attachment 262850

https://www.hdforums.com/how-tos/sli...tralia-611047#

[fabiodriven]

Was going to post this as well. Does the manufacturer have pics on their website of the flanges? That may answer your question. I believe all of the evo era exhaust flanges are the same size whether Big Twin or Sporty, hold on, BRB........

Yes, after perusing the Harley microfiches the evo BT and Sporty exhaust flanges and clips/snap rings are the same, so factory components should work. You'll have to make the judgement when you get the "custom" ones.

IMHO there isn't much they could alter as far as mounting where you would need "proprietary" flanges and clips/snap rings, unless their custom flanges eliminate the need for the clip/snap ring.

ETAo you still have the clips and flanges from the original exhaust?

That's good to know about flange sizes Scooter. This is all so new to me and it's not been as easy for me to find information on the Harley as it is to get info on the stuff I'm used to working on.

The flanges on the OEM exhaust are just traditional one piece flanges that do not come off the pipes to the best of my knowledge. I don't recall any sort of clips or anything with those, but I'll double check next time I'm at the shop. I might go in tonight to work on it, it's so close to completion.

There are fluids in the bike now and almost everything is done. My diodes for the turn signals have arrived and the flanges are scheduled for a Tuesday arrival. The biggest obstacle left is wrapping up the wiring. Other than that there are just a few small details to button up. The exhaust *should* bolt right up in a matter of minutes once I have the flanges in hand.

[fabiodriven]

I got almost all of my wiring done today and the bike is completely assembled aside from the exhaust. The exhaust flanges are projected to arrive tomorrow. The weather seems fitting for the bike possibly reaching completion tomorrow.

[Scootertrash]

That's good to know about flange sizes Scooter. This is all so new to me and it's not been as easy for me to find information on the Harley as it is to get info on the stuff I'm used to working on.

The flanges on the OEM exhaust are just traditional one piece flanges that do not come off the pipes to the best of my knowledge. I don't recall any sort of clips or anything with those, but I'll double check next time I'm at the shop.

I'm 99% certain that the OEM flanges will come off. There may be corrosion wedged in between the retaining ring and the flange. Try semi gently tapping the flange towards the muffler and that should knock the flange loose from the retaining ring which is I guess moreof a snap ring of sorts.

If you look on the engine side of the flange you will probably be able to see the snap ring inside of the flange. The snap ring is hidden once you slide the flange up to bolt the pipe to the Head. It will not look like your conventional snap ring. It will be about 9 tenths of a complete circle with tapered edges at the opening.

I'm on my phone or I would try posting a pic of what it looks like, I'll take a peek when I get home I've got my bike torn apart and I may have the flanges still on the pipes

[fabiodriven]

I'm 99% certain that the OEM flanges will come off. There may be corrosion wedged in between the retaining ring and the flange. Try semi gently tapping the flange towards the muffler and that should knock the flange loose from the retaining ring which is I guess moreof a snap ring of sorts.

If you look on the engine side of the flange you will probably be able to see the snap ring inside of the flange. The snap ring is hidden once you slide the flange up to bolt the pipe to the Head. It will not look like your conventional snap ring. It will be about 9 tenths of a complete circle with tapered edges at the opening.

I'm on my phone or I would try posting a pic of what it looks like, I'll take a peek when I get home I've got my bike torn apart and I may have the flanges still on the pipes

You are correct Scooter! I was able to use my old flanges. The news flanges arrive today too lol. I could have had the pipes on days ago if I'd have figured this out but whatever!

The bike is assembled and running. I just rode it! It's breaking up on the high end so I'm going to clean the carburetor first and then if it's still got issues then I'll have to do some jetting. I'll share some pictures later.

[schlepp29]

How did it feel riding it?! Bet it was fun

[fabiodriven]

I'm going to copy and paste my bookface post to here because it was a lot to write, haha.

The bike is "complete". As anyone who builds machines knows, they're never truly done. This is done enough to be considered complete for the time being. Everything thus far has been done in shorts and mandals. I never got super dirty.

The paint on the tanks is by me with help from Krylon and Rustoleum. I'm happy with how they look.

I still have to clean the carburetor but we were able to ride it today. Only a couple things vibrated off and I only burned my leg four times, which is good because it will not take long for me to figure out where my leg cannot be. The footpeg location is not where I wanted it, but my options for peg mounts where I need them are not many and not up to par in my opinion. I wanted to fabricate my own footpeg mounts but we didn't have a welding machine in the shop until last week, and I'm looking to leave Florida soon so the pegs can wait.

I wanted the suspension a little higher than it is for the sake of overall scale. For the length and size of this bike the suspension should be higher to be proportionate, however it's plenty tall as it sits now. If I got the ride height to make the bike proportional I would no longer be able to touch the ground. The Sportster is a tiny motorcycle, but it makes a yuuuge dirt bike. It already feels really big.

In the end my initial prediction of "$5k and a week" to build this bike was grossly underestimated. It took a lot, a lot of work and thinking. This bike fought me to the very end, nothing was easy. It was a lot of effort for me to keep my head on straight enough to push this to completion, as I was getting very frustrated and tired of this bike over the last couple months.

The front wheel, brake, and forks are Honda XL600R, with the front brake master cylinder being the Harley unit. The triple clamps are the Sportster triples that came on this bike and they are 39mm, same as a Honda XL600R (and also the 350). Front wheel is now 21" instead of the smaller Sportster wheel.

The rear wheel is a 18" 79 AMF 9 spoke, up 2" from the 16" wheel, and it was literally the only wheel I could find for sale in the entire country in the size I needed, new or used. I paid a lot of money for that wheel, and I had to cut my own spacers to center it.

Rear shocks are 15" from Burly Brand used in conjunction with lift blocks from Hugh's Hand Built. I'm probably the only person around combining lift blocks and lift shocks, so this was an experiment. Turns out they can be used together, however the rear brake caliper ends up interfering with the left shock. Because of this, the rear axle must be slid all the way forward in it's adjustment in order to provide clearance between the caliper and the shock. I had to space the left shock out just to be able to get everything to jive.

Because I no longer had any chain adjustment at the rear axle, I built a chain tensioner instead. I might have liked to start cutting up the swing arm in order to achieve the ride height I wanted by moving the shock mounts, as well as doing something to cure my chain adjustment issue, but we didn't have the welding machine at that time and who knows how much longer that would have taken. It's good enough for now.

I mounted a GPS speedometer because I wasn't able to adapt the Honda speedometer drive to the Harley speedometer. I have to fine tune the new speedometer yet. Wiring the bike was a real whore. My buddy Jon Quinlan was a lifesaver with the wiring. I was pretty revved up and lacking severely in clarity at that point, so he stepped in and we got it all sorted. It was a fuckshow for a while there, and yet still needs some buttoning up. The front turn signals are Kuryakyn halos and the rear are eBay stuff.

Another tidbit- this bike is actually an 883. The seller thought it was a 1200 and I wouldn't have bought it if I had known it was an 883. I got over that pretty quick though because the bike is super clean and *was* extremely unmolested. This bike is actually a 1989 Harley Davidson Sportster XLH883H Hugger. I had no idea what a Hugger Sportster was before I found out what this bike is. If you know what a hugger is, then you might see the irony in how this bike has turned out lol.

First and foremost I have to thank Jon Quinlan and Q Repairs. If it weren't for him this wouldn't have happened. After Ben Sherman suggested I build my own bike on the book here, I said something to Jon who was sitting right next to me at the moment. I mentioned how someone said to build it myself, but I wasn't considering it. Jon said "Why not?", and he offered me his shop and his help. I thought OK, I guess we can do this. Without Jon and his shop this wouldn't have happened, so I'm extremely grateful to him.

I'd like to thank Gibson Kustoms in Ocala Florida. I should have gone in and met this guy when I first started this build. I cannot say enough good about this dude.

Sprocket Specialists who worked very hard with me.

Tuffside Seats, who provided me with a beautiful seat in exactly the size I needed. I searched for a very long time trying to find a seat like this. It looks simple right? Try finding one! The whole bike looks super simple, but it surer 'n ain't.

Burly Brand for the rear shocks.

War Horse Harley Davidson of Ocala Florida.

ATC King from the threewheelerworld.com forums was a huge help to me. He posted a lot in my build thread and had a lot of very pertinent information.

Hugh's Hand Built for the lift blocks. He was out of stock but I reached out and begged him and he scraped up another set for me. I truly appreciate that.

Last and far from least, Gallop Motorcycles out of Mexico. They made my exhaust to order and it is absolutely gorgeous. This was the very first thing I ordered during the height of the bullshit fake covid catastrophe, and they pushed it out the door on a wing and a prayer. Fantastic people there with excellent communication. First part ordered, and literally the last part installed. I just mounted it today. I was searching for an exhaust for a very long time, and I knew my search was over once I saw this. Sheee-it, they even shipped it in a snazzy crate.

I'm going by memory here and trying not to forget anyone or anything. This has been a massive amount of work for me. I only get so many hours of productivity per day and same with mental capacity. If I have to stop for mental or physical reasons for the the day it is what it is. In the end it seems so far so good. We'll see how it progresses! Thanks very much for your interest and support!

[schlepp29]

Haaaa!! Dude that's badass!!! I'm a little jealous lol.

[ATC King]

That turned out great!

[fabiodriven]

How did it feel riding it?! Bet it was fun

It feels slightly faster than a fair amount of John Deere's offerings, and it handles like a Buick station wagon with four flat tires.

Time for fine tuning. I have a lot to get after as far as getting everything squared away. It handles awful and I'll be addressing that, but first-

So when you start the bike from cold, it starts right up with the choke and runs OK, but it doesn't respond well to any throttle when you first start it. Once the choke can be shut off it starts running a little better while the bike warms, but when you ride it the bike starts breaking up and coughing. It sputters if you give it a good amount of throttle. After about 15 minutes it seems to clear up, but this is not a normal warm up cycle. 15 minutes may not sound like much but that is a long time for it to run like crap before it clears up. I took it to the gas station yesterday, it's hot as blazes here. After being shut off for only 4-5 minutes while pumping gas, it ran like crap again as if it needed to be run for another 15 minutes again. The bike was still hot, this is not right.

I cleaned the carburetor yesterday but it didn't need it, and I replaced the spark plugs today. Intake seals cannot be the issue because the engine runs at idle perfect, the issue is when you get on the throttle.

I'm leaning more towards something in the ignition.

[schlepp29]

Yeah ignition or jetting possibly? Hey atleast you got this far. I wonder if its running lean?