My Dirtster build
 

Wanted to build one of these for quite a while and finally decided to make it happen.

I picked up this 2012 Harley Sportster Iron a few weeks ago with only 3300 miles on it. The Iron only comes with the 883 motor, but the previous owner had the dealership put the 1200 big bore kit on it before he even took it home.

It's also got a screaming eagle intake and a set of vance and hines short shot pipes, which will be going away.

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8144-X2.jpg

To get rid of the Harley dog dragging it's ass on the carpet look I traded out the stock 11" rear shocks for a set of Progressive 444 13.5" shocks.

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8147-X2.jpg

That got it sitting a little better, later I'll upgrade the internals of the front forks to gain a little more travel, and better handling.

I've been riding the piss out of it having fun and have a bunch of plans for it as the fundage allows.

I ordered a set of Burly Brand Scrambler bars, a Biltwell whisky throttle, some Biltwell thruster grips, and a set of Burly Brand mini MX pegs for it the other day, a few of the items showed up today and it looks like the rest will be here next week.

Thruster grips
https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8227-X2.jpg

MX pegs, with built in bottle opener.
https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8228-X2.jpg

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8230-X2.jpg

Once the bars and throttle get here I'll get all of that on, it should really change the look and feel of the bike.

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Stock it's got a 19" front wheel and a 16" in the rear. I'd really like to have a 19" in the front and an 18" in the rear, but I cannot for the life of me find any decently priced wheels.

Billet wheels are $1200 each.

The quotes I've gotten for spoked wheels at in the $850+ each price range.

Once I figure out wheels it'll be getting some sort of knobby type tires on it.

Re: My Dirtster build
 

I'm liking the bottle opener built into the foot pegs! "thumbsup"

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Another piece to the puzzle showed up.

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8249-XL.jpg

Re: My Dirtster build
 

In. Hoping this is a Harley I'll actually like.

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Kinda curious to see this pan out. Looks good so far.

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Flat black on a Harley is just beautiful

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Thanks guys, I'm having a lot of fun with it. I've wanted another street bike for quite a while.

Got the new pegs mounted the other day.

Off with the old:

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8276-XL.jpg

On with the new:

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8277-XL.jpg

Then spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday working on putting the new bars on. They claim that in most cases the stock cables/wires/brake lines will work. Well of course not in my case.

First noticed that the front brake line wasn't going to be long enough so I ran to 2 different shops to get stuff to build a new line. The stock line was 3 pieces, rubber>steel>rubber, I replaced it with a single piece stainless line.

Instead of zip tieing all the wiring to the bars like they do from the factory I decided to run the wires all inside the bars so I spent 2 hours trying to figure out how to get the wiring connectors apart. Got the wires all ran inside and went to plug everything is and what do you know, all 14 wires are about 4" too short and need to be extended. I ordered up a wire extender kit this morning, hopefully it gets here quick and I can get it back on the road by the weekend.

Here's the only pic I snapped of the bars. More coming.

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8250-XL.jpg

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Laughed at the pain of hiding wires and finding them short. That's good pain there.

Re: My Dirtster build
 

diggin the MX theme.

do they make a belt to chain conversion for those?

Re: My Dirtster build
 

They do and that's a great thought!

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Yea, not funny. Even more not funny, I ordered the wiring extension from amazon and for whatever idiotic reason they decided to ship USPS and it won't be here until Saturday. With UPS it would have been here today.

Thanks, yes they do make a chain conversion, the plan is to do that once I figure out what I'm going to do for wheels.

I found these guys in Tennessee the other day that have been doing exactly what I wanna do with my bike, and they actually are getting them out and doing trail rides.

I've spent about an hour on the phone with one of them the other day and got them working on some parts for me.

Here are their bikes.

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...729786_n-L.jpg

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...516267_n-L.jpg

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...560114_n-L.jpg

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Me and a buddy did that to our Sportsters, when I was stationed in Hawaii back in the late 70's. He had a '72, and I had a '74. They were great for traversing the island looking for the defense bunkers from WW2.

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Jason, check out xl forum. Lots of good sportster info there and several guys building dual sport sporty's. There's even a separate forum section for them."thumbsup"

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Popped a quick skid plate on it yesterday.

https://rccrawler.smugmug.com/Other/...MG_8346-XL.jpg

Still waiting for the wiring to get here...

Ordered a rack for it off ebay which came in yesterday, but the guy had it listed wrong so it was the wrong part and didn't fit, already shipped it back for a refund.

Hopefully the wiring gets here today or tomorrow, I'd like to ride this weekend.

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Any updates on this, Jason?

Re: My Dirtster build
 

And then ?

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Always something cooking with you"thumbsup"

Re: My Dirtster build
 

And then I've been having a blast on this thing. This is one of the funnest bikes I've ever owned. Being able to just turn off the road and go where ever whenever is so much fun.

Total mods so far are:
-Bars, with hidden wiring.
-Grips
-Throttle
-Seat, 1 custom built single seat or another old scrambler style seat for 2 up riding.
-Custom built wheels, 19" front, 18: rear
-Knobbies
-13.5" rear shocks
-rear rack
-Moto Pegs

Mods still to go:
-Front suspension
-Exhaust
-New rear rack, small saddle bags
-Chain conversion
-Headlight upgrade
-Auxiliary LED lighting
-Rekluse clutch

Here are some pics from the last year.

Random pics from peoples farm fields I blasted through.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mot...20001536_n.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mot...40827888_n.jpg

Clinton Gulch Dam Reservoir, Leadville Colorado

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mot...809412_n-L.jpg

Top of Boreas pass 11,481' above sea level.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mot...68890112_n.jpg

Random Mine, somewhere around 12,000'

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mot...27276800_n.jpg

Top of Mosquito pass, 13,185, this was one of the most insane rides I have ever done.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mot...56070990_n.jpg

Random shot I took lastnight.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Mot...72108288_n.jpg

Re: My Dirtster build
 

Looking good, "thumbsup", about time we heard more of this!