While we were working on the Metro truck, side jobs stacked up. This was a 97 Harley Sportster that came in for a more chopper style oil tank, ribbed rear fender and sissy bar. The owner didn’t want to hard tail the bike but wanted some of the cues.
These bikes pose an interesting problem in doing some of this work. The rear frame section is narrow and triangular AND are electric start only. The 300+ amp/hour battery suggested will not fit within the rear frame, it hangs off the left side behind the seat post. Our solution was to use a Ballistic Performance battery, these things are tiny and quite expensive.
In trying to gain as much room as possible, I removed the original seat mount and crossbar then fabricated the new hoop to get the most clearance between the fender and seat pan. The sissy bar is made from 5/8″ 188 wall DOM tube, offset to one side because the tire is not centered in the swing arm. Dr Marvelus did some “smash tube technology” to form the ends to look less like a fabricated part and fit the style of the build a bit more.
I installed the pickup, return and vent line through the bottom of the tank with hose beads so that standard hose clamps could be connected without blowing off under pressure. Dr Marvelus trimmed the seat down quite a bit and mounted the King Sporty tank and added the customer supplied nifty fuel cap in the top.
A few more things added to the list, shaved his triple trees and made a simple licence plate mount and stash box for his paperwork. In all this should stand out of the crowd pretty well.
