Adventure Sportster Build AKA Piglet

Its a turtle tank off a old ironhead, 60's era sportster. Cafe seat section is the stock tank cut up.

Another good breakdown story.....

Original high dollar battery I had in the bike internally broke due to the vibration of where it's mounted in the seat, so I threw a cheap battery in it from battery's plus and rode on it for a few days, left work one afternoon and headed about 25 miles north west to hit skyline drive on 33. Turned on to 33 and hit the throttle and she back fired like a shotgun. Coasted Into the median and she died, hopped off and started looking around, no voltage. Same thing that just happened last week, went to check my phone, no service. Great. So after weighing my options and being about 10 miles from town I decided to start walking.

Just as I get a few feet from my bike I saw a truck coming and threw my thumb out hoping for a ride, the guy in the old F150 slid through the little plastic cones and asked me about the bike, told him what was going on and he offered me a ride into town so I can make a phone call. Hopped in the truck and immediately realized that my savior Tommy was drunk as a skunk and was continuing to sip from the mason jar on the center console.

Ride with the drunk guy or walk ten miles as the sun sets? I'll take my chances and the ride. So he took me into town where I called a friend with a trailer and told him where I was.

I was planning on just hanging out at the gas Station where I was until I got picked up but Tommy pointed out that I probably shouldn't leave the bike alone, so I rode back out and he dropped me off and shared a bit of the shine he had. As I was waiting for my ride a few more people stopped to chat, some offered rides but the one that really got me was the douche bag that stopped to talk shit about sportsters and never once offered to help. I obviously knew my bike was a peice of shit but he felt the need to make sure that there was no doubt in my mind that passerbys also recognized how shitty it is.

A few minutes later my buddy showed up and we loaded it up and made our way back to Charlottesville. Bike broke about 4:30 and I got home about 9. Still isn't the most Time I've spent on the side of the road

How do you like the wp extremes compared to the 1200S front end? I have a set of wps waiting to get put on my 1200S... Also what kind of rear shocks you got on there? Dead batteries and running out of gas are the only times my sportster has ever left me stranded. Hopefully you are getting it all sorted out, makes for good stories anyway

The wps are the tits. But my suspension standards are incredibly poor. So I wouldn't trust my judgement. Shocks I have now are cheapo eBay Shocks, waiting to pull the trigger on a set of ohlins hd146. The breakdowns don't bother me, makes for real adventure. And being confident that you can fix whatever you break go's a long way

Looks Fun! Glad those forks and triples are working

Are you using 1 inch or 7/8 inch bars? If 1, what risers? I think my wps have a top triple tree by applied racing so will probably go to 7/8 but then will have to convert everything.

7/8 bars. Jp cycle sells barrnett reducer sleeves for like 4$. I'll be switching to fat bars as soon as I find a set of adapter risers with vibration damping that I like. Ktm master uses 7/8 so the only things left are the clutch and throttle. I don't run any switches on the bars, if you choose to you may need to slap some tape on the bars for them

Got some pelican 1430s mounted up today. Not super thrilled with the mounts but they work

Great build. I like the relative simplicity of the mods compared to the more prominent ADV sportster builds out there, seems more realistic for the average bear.
I have a 2000 1200C I will be building into a scrambler/ADV bike over time, and will take some ideas from you in the process.

Also, I just love adventurized Sporties! That's really the purpose the originals were designed for anyway, and given how the basic design hasn't changed much since the fifties, they're pretty good at it. Just have to do some de-cruiserizing first.

Nice work. I'm in the process of a similar build on a 1999 883 Sporty. Question about your rear wheel. I was looking at the Paughco wheels, but they're on back order for almost 3 months. I found the Harddrive wheels you mentioned on EBay. Do you still have the Harddrive wheel? How's the durability? What about it was "falsely advertised"? Did you need to use a spacer on the pulley side to get everything to line up (Paughco rear 18x3.5 needs a spacer)?

Thanks.

PS I'm just down the road from you in Orange.

You can get the Paughco outer and lace it with Buchanan spokes to the stock HD hub. I just did it to my Dirtster but haven't ridden it yet to see about it's strength, but the spokes I bought were the over size and SS so it should be resilient to abuse.

So true but unfortunately my Sporty has got cast wheels so I can't simply replace a different size rim to the hub.

Harddrive wheel is junk. Dented in 4 places first trail. Its advertised as a aluminum wheel, when in fact its a steel wheel with a aluminum hub. Its also extremely heavy, Inmate clutchdumpindan can attest to how weak and heavy it is. No spacer was needed though. I will be lacing my hub to a better aluminum rim one day.

I would avoid street oriented rims like Paughco and other steel wheels if you plan on much offroading. The spokes may hold up but the rim itself will not

I attest! That wheel weighs as much as a DRZ and is slightly softer than warm butter. In it's defense, the chrome didn't flake on any of the bends

My apologizes for the crappy picture but the Sportster is slowly evolving into a real adventure bike

Looking good can't wait for mine to evolve like that

If anyone from the northeast is reading this thread I'm riding to Vermont and back from Virginia next week, looking for riding suggestions

Remember to take your bike.

Bike is looking fantastic Very much enjoyed following the build.



.

Great thread so far! What happened to the popcorn eating smiley?