1988 Harley-Davidson Sportster

The Sportster may have been my second bike but it was the first motorcycle I truly fell in love with. To me, everything about the Sportster is beautiful, it's the very definition of "Motorcycle". A big V-twin underneath a tiny gas tank and shoved between two ridiculously huge wheels, a great looking fender that compliments the tank, and a seat to slide off of while you hang onto the bars for dear life while it teaches you what "Torque" is. It's basically a caricature of a motorcycle, in the best possible way.

This particular bike was given to me as a teenager through a family friend, it got me through highschool, got me my first girlfriend, got me my first job, and it was very patient while I learned to wrench on it. I abused the hell out of it, took it on road trips it was never designed for, drag racing, canyon carving, etc.

I thought I was untouchable and had my license suspended by never paying a ticket I recieved while driving one of my other vehicles, I was out on the sportster one day, and got pulled over, when the cop ran my info, he had to impound the bike.

I watched it get sold at the impound auction to a man who promised to hold onto it and sell it back to me when I could finally come up with his asking price, which was double what he paid.

Time went by and he told me he chopped it for parts, I gave up hope of ever seeing it again until months ago, I found a craigslist ad selling a sportster that looked extremely similar to my old one, and it was nearby to where I had lost it in the first place.

I met up with the owner and he told me his uncle bought it at an auction and gave it to him, he used it as his daily driver for a few years then let it sit and finally decided to sell it. I bought back my old bike and tore it completely apart for a rebuild.

My goal was to keep the lines and stance as close to stock as possible, keep it close to the bike that I fell in love with, and throw a flashy paint job and performance parts at it and make it a fun Sportster, true to everything the Sportster is.

The bike was completely torn apart, polished, painted, cleaned, and assembled. I wired it from scratch with an automotive style ignition switch (turn key to start), had a custom solo seat upholstered to my specific design. I painted the bodywork in Ford Sonic Blue Pearl with white racing stripes. I've always loved that color combination. The motor is a 1200cc EVO breathing through a slightly modified CV carb with a K&N Breather, has hotter cams and open exhaust. It rolls on Pirelli Night Dragon tyres on stock cast rims painted gold. The frame and lower sliders were painted in metallic grey while the motor got a black and polished treatment.

The suspension is stock, the front forks are Showa and they work fairly well when set up right, and the rear shocks are stock, but very tall and absorb road bumps well. This bike, to me, is a "Muscle Bike" and exactly as you'd think, its designed to burn rubber in a straight line, not corner like a GSXR.