Harley-Davidson Sportster Hop-Up & Customizing Guide (Wolfgang Publications)
Todd Zallaps began his foray into the motorcycle world with the trade of a riding lawnmower for a basket-case 1964 Harley-Davidson Sportster XLCH chopper. The machine had all the appearances of a cool old-school chop. Unfortunately, after being told all it needed was a few pieces here and there he quickly learned that this was not going to be a simple evening in the garage. All that cool molding covered up dangerously unsafe welds. And the motor was poorly pieced back together by somebody who had probably never seen the pages of a service manual. Realizing there was still potential life in the project, Todd began the painstaking process of tearing the old Ironhead down piece by piece. Along the way, he began to acquire the necessary knowledge to rebuild and maintain the machine by taking classes in welding and metalworking. Eventually, the 64 was made reliable and sold to finance another Sportster project. This began a cycle of Sportster-specific rebuilding/restoration that maintains his interest to this day.Though Todd maintains a job as an editor for an academic journal during the day, he still manages to find time to further his interest in Sportsters. Today, Todd prefers to fabricate Sportsters that are both modern and functional. That way, the customer can enjoy a trouble-free product that requires minimal maintenance.