I bought what started life as a near stock 1989 Harley Davidson 883XL right before Christmas of 2009 as a complete running Sportster. Wait, let’s back up for a second. Years ago, during the wide tire motorcycle craze, I thought I would try my hand at building a custom bike. I could already weld, fabricate, and machine, so why not jump on the bandwagon? I picked up a Redneck frame and springer and began assembly. The bike really turned out great; it looked good, was well built, handled like a 75 year old retired hooker and was stolen right out of my garage.

After the Redneck build I was finished with the wide tire, walrus mustache-looking fad. I wanted a bike that was smaller, narrower, handled better and didn’t need to be washed or polished. I then formulated a plan for my own world domination. Disassembly took only but a night or two. I picked up a Led Sled (great bunch of guys) weld-on hard tail with 4” of stretch in the rear and lowered 2” along with a DNA 4” Springer. I had the roller complete by the summer of 2010. Not much else was accomplished that summer. I would always rather be riding than wrenching.

I wanted to try and fabricate as much as possible on this sled. The first set of bars I made were ditched for these Z-bars you see in the pictures. I altered the stock gas tank with new mounts and that fancy mason jar lid. Then fabricated the mid controls with some hacked-up FASTWAY motocross pegs. The oil bag has an old flip top lid from a wine jug. The tag bracket, battery box, golf cart leaf spring seat, sissy bar, and every bung, spacer, and mount were made in-house. The pipes were fabbed from cut up 1.5” fox body Mustang primaries. They were wrapped and I put our Billet Proof Rain Cap Flappers on the tips.

I wasn’t real sure how the trail would be affected with the addition of the Springer, so I used as stabilizer from a GSX-R 1000 to help ease those violent tank slappers. I had to employ a Monster Craftsman chain diverter for the chain to clear the lower fender mount. All the wiring, and I’m using the word ‘all’ very lightly, is exposed and covered in an aerospace-approved, high-tech cloth made on a mil-spec wire loom.

The front wheel is a 21”x3” DNA with high-gloss powder coat on the hoop and hub. The rear wheel measures 18”x6” and will get the same treatment this winter. The frame was coated with 20% gloss black powder. The tank, oil bag and rear fender was coated with LINE-X. Funds were a bit tight that that point so I thought a bed liner coating would look good and be a durable coating as opposed to just paint.

My second build turned out great! She goes down the road straight at both slow and fast speeds, had tight steering and no power. I love riding it. It’s one of those bikes you can start up and go hammer on without fear of breaking. The ONLY issue I had was with the chain tensioner/diverter, which ended up being my fault. I made the mistake of not calling Jon at Monster Craftsman first and ended up buying the wrong product for my application. The tensioner snapped after a missed shift. I called Jon, explained my issue, and he explained to me that I needed a diverter, not a tensioner.

I really would like to include my dad, Ron, in this build. We’ve made a lot of memories with projects like this. He put in a lot of nights on this one, especially with the wiring. He tackled that job all himself. Thanks for all of the help, Dad! I also need to thank my very patient girlfriend, Kate. Thanks for all of your support!

Article Originally Appeared In The Horse Back Street Choppers 122 September 2012