Adventure Sportster Build AKA Piglet

Picked up this 1994 sportster 1200 last spring with plans to make a adventure bike. Started its life with me out like this .....


今天这里是如何坐……

First project was a custom oil tank, built with significant amount of help from some friends, it holds a little over 3 qts and eliminates the battery tray and side filler


Next up was building a cafe tail section that would hold the battery and breakers inside since we have eliminated the stock battery position, stock sportster tank cut up for tail



Add wiring, ignition, a mikuni and shes ready for a ride

Add Spray paint, wiring, ignition from dynatek, Mikuni HSR 42, and she runs. Sounds easy when i say like that

In the first ten miles i ran into issues with pretty much everything on the bike, clutch wouldn't disengage, broke a exhaust stud due to poor exhaust mounting, broke multiple battery terminals and pinged on hard acceleration. Found the lock nut on the clutch adjustment rod in the primary was missing allowing it to slacken itself, and retarded the timing a few degrees, couple more miles around town and shes ready for her first day trip

Cool, but you need bigger images. It's hard to see the outcome of your work w/ the little ones (even after opening the image)
There is usually a selector on the photo hosting site.
The rear subframe pic is the only one that is big...

Keep up the good work!

We have a guy that rides with us up here in the Pacific Northwet on a dual sport sporty he made. Pretty much stock except for the suspension and he is no slouch on it! Good Luck and of course get ready for, "why'd you do that?"

Left Richmond Va about 8 that morning after working on the bike for a hour or so convincing myself it wouldn't leave me stranded. headed to Charlottesville, where some kind folks at the advance auto loaned me some tools to put my taillight back on that had rattled loose, from there i headed north on 29 to Ruckersville where i stopped and put my headlight that had fallen off back on, took 33 west to Harrisonburg where my shifter toe peg unscrewed itself while riding, threw that back on and made my way south on rt 11 to Stanton Va where the bike started running hot and pinging, adjusted the timing a few more degrees and talked to my uncle who was headed to Richmond from Danville on his 52 pan, we decided to meet in Lynchburg for a bite to eat and to ride back together. After putting the negative terminal back on the battery heading over Afton mt on 250 i made it to lynchburg and met up with my uncle. Hit 460 headed for Farmville when i felt a whipping pain in my left arse cheek......stopped to investigate and found the problem.





Luckily it left me with enough belt to keep going after cutting off the loose strands and adjusting the belt tension. We cruised into farmville where we stopped to fix the headlight on my uncles pan. The sun set as we rode 60 into Richmond, one hell of a first ride.

Well they do call it a shakedown for a reason....

Better to have been shaken and survived than to never have ridden at all...

Or something some smart guy once said..

Austin

You have mad skills dude; and the patience of Job. Thats got to be the best shakedown run I've read in a while. Made me chuckle a few times. I'd have turned around after the head light; you've got stones for sticking it out. Great story, and keep the pic's coming(larger ones)

Regards

Rod

Couple other things I haven't mentioned about the bike it's a 94 1200 got it from a dealer that replaced the the transmission and the guy never paid so they sold the bike to me. It's got a 2001 ish 1200s front end which is dual disc and adjustable compression and rebound dampening.




Laurel fork UFSF


Rode in this configuration for about a year with a few small changes

Did a 520 chain conversion when someone decided to cut the belt off it while it was outside my apartment.

做了一个厚铝skidplateout of some scrap i had.

Moved to Charlottesville VA in the mean time into a apartment, so I no long had a shop to work on it in....... But my bedroom sufficed

Done a bunch of local trails mostly the Rapidan WMA and the Middle river WMA in Madison Va. Snapped off my shifter shaft when i laid it down on 810 ton some twisty gravel, vice grips got me home once again. clutchdumpindan there on the klr

What a
Not sure how hard it is to cut through a Harley drive belt, but you don't do it with a butter knife...
That requriRs a real "the better part of you ran down you mamma' @$$ and wound up as a €umstain"
(Full metal jacket) to cut your belt. What if you had to work the next morning?


On another note,
There was once an article In surfer magazine where they were talking about pro surfers, someone noted that loose bills and free surfboards don't keep you warm at night.

On the other hand, if you start it up in side (and properly vent the exhaust) your Piglet will....

Irrespective of any farm animal jokes (perhaps I should have said advsportster..

The piglet is no joke. He hammers on this thing off road and it always pops out the other side running better than ever...even if it did lose a few parts along the way

Rebuilding the carb on the side of a mountain...nothing to it...



Lost the muffler and shorted out a spark plug wire...happens to GS's all the time I hear...



Bad spark plug wire again that sounded like a bad rod knock...this one actually freaked me out a bit...



All in a normal ride when you attempt to follow The Piglet where no Harley has gone before...

Shitty part was I did work the next morning. And I live in a nice part of town... Or so I thought


n

Once all the parts are back on its not slowed down by rocks...



Or creeks...



Or trees...



And it seems to roost me just fine too...

Yeah he definitely adventures that thang more than most adventure off the line adventure bikes

I am fully "hat'in" on your behalf.....

Awesome! What forks did you end up with on there after the 1200S?

Forks were the next big Change that made that took the bike to the next level in my eyes. It's a set of wp extreme 50mm Forks of a 90s ktm exc. Got from inmate nutmeggah,
with some minor bearing and seal swapping it fit right up

Had a hard time sourcing a 18'' rear wheel. Ended up with a brand called hard drive from eBay. It was overpriced, falsely advertised and weighs as much as a drz




So in true piglet fashion I destroyed it on the first trail. That's one of three or four bends from its first ride. But I mostly blame clutchdumpindan for making me keep up with him on his titled dirt bike

tell us a little about the tank; looks kinda like an old superglide?

Rod