From: txd@Able.MKT.3Com.Com (Tom Dietrich)
Newsgroups: alt.motorcycles.harley
Subject: The 'Ol Sport lives
Date: 30 Jul 92 19:45:14 GMT
Organization: 3Com Corporation


                          'Ol Sport LIVES!!!

	As some may remember, it all began back in September. I bought
a '72 Sportster that was supposedly a 1250cc version. It was sad. It
would not start because it "had a pin in the starter that was broken".
I bought it anyway as I figured that everything was there, and I
considered it a basket case to be rebuilt from the bottom up. It had
8" over fork tubes, a "coffin" tank, a "home bobbed" fender and a
"king/queen" seat with a WWII Bayonette's scabbard welded to the sissy
bar. Yes, the bayonette is removeable from the scabbard. It was
painted black with large metal flake. There was a bar welded to the
lower front of the frame for the forward pegs to attach to. The stock
pegs had been removed. The rear brake and shifter were in the stock
positions. How this guy dealt with braking and shifting is beyond me.
The turn signals were gone, it had two of the rectangular car style
driving lights mounted one over the other for head lights, and the
tail light was busted. The primanry cover was held on by three hand
tight screws. The primary chain and gears were delivered to me in a
Henry Weinhard's box. The tall pullback handlebars were uh, shall we
say less than symetrical... Ya, that's it. It was not a pretty sight,
but I had a vision. 
	Beth looked at it when I brought it home, and said "oh, that's
nice..." I could see that shs didn't share my vision. I don't
understand, just because this beast had two flat tires, cobwebs all
over it and had a pan under it that was catching oil... 
	As I said, I had a vision. I started looking for the parts
that I would need. I've put in a lot of hours in the pits at Sears
Point, working on road race bikes, and I have an idea as to what it
takes to make a bike go through the turns fast. I wanted a Harley that
would corner! Some digging through the manual revealed that the stock
rake for this bike was 30 degrees. Hmmmm, 28 degrees sounds better to
me. Keep the clearance up, stay with the 18, 19" wheels. Gotta have
serious brakes, like dual disks in front. (not the drums that it
had!) 
	I started at the Hog Farm... (I'm gonna insert a little
personal opinion here) I bought a King Sporty tank and a  bobbed
fender. This was the last time I returned, The folks that I
encountered there were not the sort that I would wish to have in my
house. I just didn't feel comfortable dealing with them. Next stop was
to see my buddys Jerry and Mark at Just Leather. Mark informed me
that he's have saved me $100 on the $300 that I spent on the parts
from the Hog Farm. (More fuel for my opinion) I talked to Mark about
my plans, and he told me that a lot of the parts that I'd need would
have to be used. I kind of figured that. 
	I made it to the swap meet at Vallejo, and came up empty. By 
this time, I had her mostly apart, and spread all over my garage. Now
comes the MC show at the Cow Palace I tactfully avoided the
opportunity to ride a new Harley again, and went in. I ogled the
custom Fat Bob looking Sporty, checked out Lloyd at his Spectrum
Powder Coating booth, and got a price list. I just had to drop into
the Corbin booth, and decided on but didn't purchase a Gunfighter with
Royal Blue flames. (By now I knew that the "Ol Sport would be blue) As
Beth and I were just about finished we ran in to Diana, and chatted in
front of the Road Rider booth. I took the opportunity to pick up a
Customn Chrome catalog. (maybe I shouldn't have done this, but I'm glad
I did!) This became my wish book. 
	Having a subscription to Cycle News, the Storz and Mikuni
catalogs were sent off for. I now had the majority of my reference
material. I was talking to a parts guy at Grand Prix about the front
end that I wanted, and he told me of one that he saw at R.A.M
products. R.A.M. stands for Real American Motorcycles, and Bernhard is
one of the most helpful and decent folks that I've had the pleasure to
run into for a long while! Sure enough, he had a complete front end
from a '75-82 that had the dual disks that I lusted over. The front
end included a chrome wheel that I thought looked far better than the
aluminum wheels that were in my garage. I then made the first major
purchase of this project... There would prove to be many more! 
	I tore the motor down, and while the gears and cylendars
looked great, there was something rattling around in the bottom of the
motor. I though about this for a while, and decided that I would have
the motor rebuilt, rather than doing it myself. Ya, I know, and I
could have done it myself, but my job (yuk) gets in the way of a lot
of those major time consuming projects. I wanted this thing on the road
for June. I took it to R.A.M. and had them find/fix what was going on
in the bottom end. While they were at it, I had them rebuild the heads
with harder guides and valves in preparation for the unleaded gas that
I knew would be run in it. 
	Now that she was pretty much stripped, I did a little checking
and found that Pucchio's Welding had a good reputation for working on
Harley frames. I took the frame to them and explained what I had in
mind. At first they were reluctant, saying that it wouldn't be as 
stable on the highway. I told them that I knew that, but that I was
after cornering agility not stability. I guess that they decided I
knew what I was doing, and accepted the job. One week later, I picked
up the frame, with a 28 degree rake and a lot of garbage, including
the bar for the highway pegs removed. It was a very clean job, and
they let me out of there for $45.00!
	With the frame done, the next step was Spectrum Powder
Coating. Lloyd was helpful, and obviously enjoys his work. We selected
a black base with a super fine "rainbow" metal flake in clear over it.
I gave him the frame and various other parts that I wanted  to match
it. He baked all of the old oil out of the parts, sand blasted them
and coated them. Our agreement was two weeks. A week later, as my
painter fell through for the tanks and fenders, I went back and asked
Lloyd to cover them with a Candy blue over a Silver base. Again, a two
week job. My only complaint with Lloyd is that it took him six weeks
to finish what should have been done in three. The parts are
Beautiful, and have a very resiliant finish, but I realized that I
wouldn't make the Joust with the Sportster.
	By now, the motor is back from R.A.M., and it looks beautiful.
Other parts are trickleing in from Just Leather and some from R.A.M. 
my garage is getting pretty full. The 40mm Mikuni flat slide is there,
the Progressive shocks from Storz are there, and a whole gaggle of
other various pieces parts. 
	The one thing that is missing is a left side footpeg mount! I
can't locate one anywhere! I asked the net, and got some good
responses, one from Denver that informed me that the folks at the
local Harley shops were shall we say mis-informed. They were telling
me that it was an obsolete part, and not available through Harley.
Armed with the part number, I went to Bernard, and asked him. He told
me that he could get it for $90.00! I didn't like the price, but as I
had been to a lot of places looking for it, I told him to get it for
me. About the same time, a friend coerced a guy at the Eagles Nest to
look a bit harder. He produced one from back east. I paid $40.00 for
it, and the $90.00 for the new one. During the process, I aquired
another right side peg too. I have an extra set, but I'm keeping them!
You never know when you'll need something flike that, and they're just
too hard to find.
	Now things are going back together, and I'm learning a lot. 
Learnign about the hows and whys of Harley's motor mounting technique.
I spent an entire night drawing up a schematic of the electrical
system. There were fun questions like "how do I mount this fender?"
and "how do I mount the seat?" or "where will the lights go?". Beth
marveled at my fabricating skills as I came up with brackets and
mounts. (I think that some are a bit rough, but *she* is impressed, so
I'm not going to burst her bubble)
	To make a long story short, it's all together now, it started
immediatly. There are a few minor bugs. I found a couple of mistakes
in the wiring, and the front forks are harder than I want. I can fix
any of these, as I put it all together anyway. I need to work out the
idle jetting on the Mikuni. But I've  got 90 miles on it already.
Those 90 miles have taught me one thing though, I'm going to ride the
Concours to Washington. The idea of 3,000 miles on this tightly
sprung, shaking beast is more than I want to do for *fun*. Don't get
me wrong, It's a blast to ride, but I think that a week in the saddle
would not qualify as what I consider fun.
	It's by all accounts a beautiful bike. I always thought that
it would be, but now those who doubted my sanity when they saw it
agree. 
	Would I do it again? Give me a year or two to recover, and ask
me then. Right now, I'm afraid to total up what I've spent, and
looking at the long hours in the garage makes me wonder a bit about my
sanity. Now it's time to ride!


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                               Tom Dietrich  
			   '72 1000cc Sportster
                    "Get on your bad motorscooter and ride!"
                                                   R. Montrose
e-mail txd@Able.MKT.3Com.COM                    Ma Bell (408) 738-8301
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Newsgroups: alt.motorcycles.harley