Street Chopper's "Sporty Swapout" Build

We are at it again, First with RUBY our 40th Anniversary bike and now with the Sporty Swapout. We are going to take this unmolested XL 1200 Sportster and give it a completely new look right here on streetchopperweb.com

Check back often to see just which way we take this bike. Trust us, your are gonna LOVE it!

The Blog: THE SPORTY SWAPOUT



Helping us out on the build are these fine companies:















 

Here are the some of the parts we are using to convert the XL1200 to something a bit more palatable.



Ride Wright Wheels 16-inch front and rear






Hawg Halters 39mm Wide Glide Conversion Kit







Custom Cycle Controls Drag Bars




DNA Rotors and Pulley
 

These are the dudes who are going to be throwing the parts on:
FREEDOM CYCLES



 

Kazoo and Devin didnt waste any time in pulling the stock parts off of this bike.

















































That's enough deconstruction for today...  

MORE PARTS!

Le Pera Seat



Midwest Motorycle Parts Tank



Joker Machine Pegs and Sprocket Cover
 

39MM WIDE GLIDE CONVERSION

Though it does sound weird, the late model Sporty is a pretty wide bike. Unlike an Ironhead these bikes are almost a wide as a Dyna where the frame meets the swingarm.

We decided that we were going to go the opposite direction than most and "chunk-up" this sporty a bit. We were not going to try and make it look like a Dyna ir FXR, nothing like that. we were just going to thiken up the dimesions a bit. we wanted to go with a Wide Glide frontend on this bike, but didnt want huge fork legs.

While hunting around for a complete Wide Glidetrees to install on this bike, we ran across a conversion kit from Hawg Halters. The Kit comes with everything a person needs to swap their narrow glide to a wide glide. in the box there was with triple trees, wheels spacers, and even a rotor spacer if the OEM front wheel is to be used.

Follow along as Kazoo and Devin widen the bike up a ***





We started the installation by cleaning and re-greasing the head bearings that came on the bike.






The steerer tube was greased up and the bearing was inserted into the lower tree.





The unit was then installed into the head tube of the bike.





The upper bearing and top tree were bolted up.







Compression spacers were inserted into the lower tree.these will lock the stanchion tubes into place.






The OEM top nuts on the legs were swapped out for threaded units supplied by Hawg Halters. They will thread into the top tree.








The legs were installed into the new trees and tightened down to factory specs.  

FRONT WHEEL TIME

We are workin' for the weekend and decided that the wheels and tires needed to be mounted on the bike. We shuffled off our Ride Wright wheels as well as the stock set over to Wheel works where we had them install the existing rear tire from the Sporty to the new 16-inch wheel. we also brought the boys at Wheel Works a take-off 2009 bagger wheel that we stole the front OEM H-D tire off of.




Check out the difference in diameter going with a 16" wheel over the stock 21. Even though the bike was kind of chopped out in the rake department, some compensation in the legnth of the forks may have to be done.





Here's the rear wheel with it's H-D Dunlop tire installed.















Kazoo and Devin installed the rotor and mocked the wheel up in the fork with the caliper installed to figure our what size rotor and axle spacers were needed.





















Kazoo then got busy making the rotor spacer work with the Hawg Halters supplied axle spacers, which were dead-nuts on.


And we're done for the day!

Next Stop: some killer drag bars and risers that will really clean up the look of this bike!  

BAR INSTALL (PART ONE)

We wanted a set of simple-looking bars and risers. We also wanted full controls, but with a streamlined, almost non-existent look.

After looking at a ton of solutions, we opetd for a set of custom built jobs by http://www.customcyclecontrols.com/

These bar systems have an old school look with a ton of technology packed inside. The drag bars bars have hidden wires, reservoirs as well as perches that really do a great job in cleaning up the looks of any stock or custom Harley.





We started by installing the risers and feeding the wires and hoses through them







The simplistic looks of the new CCCS bars really class up the control department





Now the bike looks half cool and half stock... That is all about to change.





We will be wiring up and plumbing the bars in the next few days. Stay tuned  

LIVE WIRE!

This week we are tacking the witing portion of the handlebar install that is not for the faint of heart. it requires a bit of finesse and a good knowledge of H-D's wiring diagrams. Lucky our man Kazoo knows late model Sportys like the back of his hand.

To get the proper legnth of the control wires coming form the hand contols we did a bit of measuring on the left-side controls and got down to business.






We also had to find a location for the turn signal switch, so we did





We then measured the left-hand control wires and cut them to fit





Ample amounts of shrink tubing were used to secure the wires and keep the located where we wanted them




The ends of the wires were stripped and prepped








New Duetch pins were installed to the wires and they were installed into the desired location in the connector





The connectors were snapped back into the OE wiring harness and we are done wring the new hand controls, signals and horn into the existing harness.

 

REAR WHEEL INSTALL

Now that the front end is all buttoned up and the hand controls are wired, we can now turn our attention to the rear of the bike.

The old stuff had to come off to make way for the new.















We are going to swap out the rear shocks for a set of Progressive 812 Shocks with stealthy internal turn signals and a more classic look.





Now we have the fever for pulling chrome covers off, so we turned Kazoo loose.













Off came the old and ugly pipes as well.







The new Ride Wright rear wheel was then mounted up with the OEM tires, and a new rotor and pulley courtesy of DNA















We figured it was a good time to start bobbing the rear fender, So we mounted up the rear wheel and got to measuring and cutting.



















We knocked down the remaining points of the fender and she was good to go!










REMEMBER SPARTO!

And now for the Sparto tail lamp from Midwest Motorcycle Products. These lights are the classic "L.D." bobber tail lamp and are very easy to install. Just make sure that you get it on the fender straight.





















Here is the Sparto lamp in conjunction with the Progressive LED shock lights. the three lights together when the brake was depressed surprisingly gave off a ton of light, yet looked simple when the rear running light was on.

 

JOKER MACHINE

This week while the rain was pouring down, we received a box from Joker Machine. inside was some of the coolest CNC-machined parts available for Harleys. the first thing we pulled out was a front pulley cover. it is a machining marvel and will keep our Dickies from getting sucked into the final drive. the other Items were a set of MX-style foot pegs with matching shifter peg. it only took a few minutes to bolt up the Joker Machine goodies, but man, what A difference it made to upgrading this Sporty.























 

CARB HOOK UP

A few weeks ago we tackled the lighting of the bike and now we are going to hook up the OE CV carb to the new handlebar set up. The Custom Cycle Control Systems bars are a two-cable internally-routed set up that can be a bit tricky to set up due to the stealth routing.






We started by routing the cables through the bars and installing the ends, which are affixed with set screws. we made sure they were good and tight and that we slathered on a ton of blue Locktite.







The cables were then fed through the housing and hooked up to the carb.





Once the cables were checked for length, we installed two more cable ends and tightened them securely.





The carb was then bolted back onto the manifold.





Joker Machine also sent us one of their choice Sportster air cleaners to further upgrade the looks of the bike.





The backing plate was bolted on first.





Then the two hollow bolts were installed. the act to both secure the air cleaner to the engine as well to allow crank case ventilation.





Both bolts were torqued to factory specs.





The K&N-made filter and Joker Machine face plate were held in place with a single 12-point bolt.





Now that is one slick (and simple) air cleaner!  

BASSANI EXHAUST



Here's the blacked-out Bassani Road Rage 2-into-1 pipes mocked upon the bench.





We start by getting the specific exhaust mounts on the bike. The are located where the old OEM pipe mounts were.





Since this bike has a carb instead of fuel injection, we blocked off the o2 sensors with some bung plugs.




The exhaust flanges were then installed onto the new pipes.





Anti-seize compound was applied to the exhaust port studs and new gaskets were also installed.





Kazoo then carefully slid the head pipes onto the motor.





Once the pipes were properly fitted to the engine, the front bolts were snugged, but not tightened.





The muffler was then slid into place and checked for fit.





Kazoo then snugged up the rear mounting bolts.









The ceramic black heatshields where bolted into place with the supplied stainless clamps.





Everything was then adjusted and tightened to factory specs.







The Road Rage pipes are now on the bike and ready to set off car alarms anywhere this Sporty roams.  

FINALLY, SOME PAINT!



We received the paint back from our pals at Liquid Illusions and man did it turn out great!





Kazoo wasted no time in fitting the tank on the bike.





A little dab of Loctite on the bolts.





The rear mount was also tightened to factory specs...





...As the front







The brand New Pingle petcock was installed and tightened down.




The fuel line was fitted to the tank...





...And then the carb.







Here's how the tank looks on the bike.















Kazoo then moved onto installing the taillight on the rear fender.













The fender was then fitted to the bike using the stock locations.





All of the lights were hooked up and checked.







The Le Pera seat was installed and we were done with the installation of the sheetmetal.  

Bike looks great guys. I like the colors too. Good work and thanks for the post.