'78 XLCH learning how to build, build.

[jaycagney]

Ok, so a little bit about me. I have zero mechanical experience except fixing my car with my dad, and working on my bmx bike. I still can’t figure out my mountain bikes. I started with an ’81 Honda cb650c, fixed it a little bit and rode it for a year or two. Then got a ’75 cb750k, which needed a lot of love so I was able to get my hands a little dirtier. Then I wanted to get into the chopper world, and picked up this ’78 XLCH sportster from a guy who owned it for the last 25 years. This is what it looked like when I brought it home-



Got it in fall, rode it around a bunch and throughout the winter since I was pretty close to work at the time. took the apes off cause I really wasn’t a fan. Girlfriend was a champ about it-



My opinion about bikes changes all the time as I get more into it. So the apes went back on. I think these forks are about 4 over, which I also wasn’t super into



So I put on stock length (maybe?) and some fork gaiters.



then put some biltwell chumps on there, since I liked the look of the apes but not the big rise. then rode it around like that for awhile. took it to some riding spots



another view of the chumps

[jaycagney]

wanted to start cleaning it up a bit, so I bought a grinder and started removing the reflector perches and fender mounts



after grinding I used some hand files and eventually some kind of sandpaper. could of been more anal about it but looked good enough for me



then I started thinking about hard tailing.. started collecting some parts and mocking it up. at the time I was stoked on how it looked



wanted to stop those pesky oil leaks, so googled how to take off the pushrods. and replaced the cork seals

[jaycagney]

in may I finally had enough cash to order the hard tail. went with the david bird because I really liked how it looked as a bolt on, and I had never touched a welder before. 5-6 week turn around time, so it arrived 3rd week in June. Strange Days was a few weeks later. time to start hustling.



new stuff



old stuff



well, time to start chopping

[jaycagney]

went on without too much persuasion, and I started laying parts on it again



rolling around



got a seat which I can’t remember the brand, some 3” springs, biltwell tongue thing and some spring mounts



started trading bottles of jack to my buddy to borrow his mig for a week at a time. this is literally one of the first welds I’ve ever done, in hind site I probably should of practiced for an hour or so, but I was too excited and just went for it. oh well



starting making a fender support to weld to the frame

[jaycagney]

had to cut away part of the hard tail to fit the tongue for the seat far enough back





more weld attempts



bent some metal to weld onto the frame for the first support, tried to match the contour of the trailer fender I got from lowbrow





fender mounted to frame at the chain stay and seat stay (hopefully those bike terms transfer) and spring posts and seat thing welded on



had to buy a tap for the sissy bar support

[jaycagney]

friend had a tank laying around, thought it looked much better





license plate bracket time



complete with walmart trailer light



instagram shot of welding





attaching the thing that the license plate bracket will attach to

[SethBMX]

Awesome. Makes me feel like I have some hope for mine next winter

[IronheadVic]

Awesome thread. Thanks for taking the time to post this. Very cool.

The chalkboard paint tripped me out at the end. Interesting idea.

[RetroRob]

Cool bike and nice write up. Thanks for taking us on the journey.

[lilmad]

Great job

[swade41]

Cool story and support from your girl, gives me hope on my own project.

[carter]

bikes always look best with a pile of camping gear strapped down.

[MiniDanzig]

cool thread man. i think a lot of us have had similar experiences learning.

[jbswear]

Wow. Neat story about the build. Your welding skills are much like mine--crappy starting out...and just serviceable now. Keep it up!

[jaycagney]

well my bike keeps on changing so I thought I would update this a little.

rode it around all summer with different chalk all the time, mostly from other people drawing on it, which was fun-


but then I started to not like some of the "flashy" stuff on it. so I took of the brass kicker at put the stock one back on, took off brass rocker nuts, changed bars, put on some reasonably priced 900cc rockers.


and now that it's winter again, time to start doing more stuff. on my list is- high pipes, I put new headlights on (thanks girlfriend), needs rings, front drum will go on, and I'm going to attempt my own oil tank that hopefully works. started on pipes-




(my girlfriends feminine chalk work, not mine)-


first time welding pipes, it's been super fun so far. made it follow the lines of the hardtail and sissy bar. hopefully matching pipe number 2 will go smoothly, although I think it'll require more time.

[Ktraf]

Very cool thread. Good call on the 6" over tubes they look awesome, I think i see a set of them in my distant future..

[AusAndrew]

This is a super motivating thread! I'm undertaking a similar project with similar skills so it's great to see it is achievable. I prefer it with the low pipes but I'm sure you'll make it work. Look forward to the next update!

[jonnyoz]

Dude you are fuckin killing it, nice work, bike looks great. I like the chalkboard paint idea.

I'm in the middle of my first build so it's always inspiring to see someone else succeed their first time doing something. Hopefully I'll have a similar success story soon. Keep it up!

[jaycagney]

thanks man

tonights progress, straightened out that pipe, and took my old 12" apes and slimmed them up, pulled them back, and made them riserless. Just tacked so far, but I like the feel. I'm also slowly getting happier with my welds

[smaldick]

looking good.where are you in jersey? im in jersey Westville.if you need some shit text me...