| Author | Message | ||
     Adrenaline_junkie |
So a few months ago I decided that nobody is ever going to build the perfect bike for me right out of the box. But some are closer than others and some have more aftermarket support than others. So I traded off a couple of machines and came home with a brand new Harley Roadster. While I love the look of a café racer, they aren't really my style. I'm actually a supermoto guy (an old, fat supermoto guy, but a supermoto guy all the same.) Project Supermoto Sportster was on! The Roadster has upside down forks, dual brakes and mid controls. I can get there from here. I installed a Roland Sands 2 into 1 high pipe and an Arlen Ness Big Sucker II (almost as big as an XB filter). Enough power and sound for now. I wanted to put on $1200 worth of Progressive piggy back shocks but decided to install a $100 set of shock extension spacer blocks to lift things for now and try to verify just how tall I wanted to go. Then for the part that will be most important in the Supermoto transformation, the seat. Supermoto has to have a dirtbike seat. In all of the millions of aftermarket seats available for a Harley Sportster, nobody that I could find makes a dirt/scrambler seat for a rubber mount Sporty. That led to custom shops and I ended up contacting Maven Cycle seats in Maine (a one woman operation). After a few emails back and forth I sent her my seat for a rebuild into something taller with a smooth transition onto the tank. Two weeks later it was back in my hands and a true work of art. I got cracking on the bike again. Seat installed in 5 minutes. Test drive showed the seat allowed me to transition forward and backward just the way I wanted. Touching the ground when stopped is overated. With the new seat the stock bars are way too short. Time for the new Scrambler bars. Bars installed no problem. Longer wiring and brake lines still to be installed. Then I got a nasty sinus infection. Then that turned into Bronchitis. Night before last the people at the ER found that it has now progressed to pneumonia. Never been to pneumonia land before. Don't like it much. Taking it very easy. Staying in the house. Drugged all to hell. So the bike has stopped at about the 90% stage, I'm too sick to ride and too sick to work on it. I'm finding it kind of frustrating. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Wow- sorry about the pneumonia; that’s nothing to fool around with. OTOH...  | ||
| Ducbsa |
I test rode one and those mids were in just the wrong position. I couldn't put my feet down without hitting the pegs, almost dumped it a few times. I'm sticking with my XB12S! | ||
| Rick_a |
Tough luck on the pneumonia. Supermoto is more than a styling exercise, however. The true conversions I've seen have been quite radical.  | ||
| Adrenaline_junkie |
That fine machine is outside of my budget. My primary reason for wanting the seat change is so that I can easily scoot forward and backward changing the weight distribution forward or rearward as desired. All of the changes are being made to make the bike handle better, or at least, to work better with my riding style. (OK, the intake and part of the reason for the exhaust were in search of HP) I may not be a great rider, but I know what is comfortable for me. I've had the same problem with every Sportster I've ever owned, including the XR1200; not a lot of feel or feedback from the front tire. Jacking up the rear end of this one 1.125" helped that a lot. Hard to believe how little change in rake was required to really feel the difference. Plus it increased the cornering clearance, as did changing foot pegs and going to a high mount exhaust. Now when I get the handlebar conversion done to go with the new seat where I can get my big butt up on the tank and lead with my chest that front tire will be so planted that if anything gets vague or slips it will have to be the rear tire, just the way I like it, not that I want a lot of slip at either end. For a more skilled rider these changes may not make any noticeable performance increase. But for my cave man riding style I'm hoping I'm rewarded with increased corner speed. |
