1999 sportster 1200 "FIRST FRAME UP BUILD"

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Hello everyone,
Dantheman here first off I'm new to this whole forum thing, good or bad any criticism is better then none btw..
So I got this 1999 xlh 1200 sportster about 4years ago picked it up for 2k with 22k miles on running a bit ruff at the time how you see it here is the day I got it..previous owner picked it up and could'nt get the bike to run rite...after looking at it and wanting to do a custom build thought it would be a good platform to start with... after tinkering around with it when I got home it ran pretty good so I ran the bike harddd for 2 seasons until it was starting to get a bit tired so at that point it got thrown in the back of the garage until I could find time and some spare cash to make it different as this being my first really gound up build time gets the best of projects like this and after a year or so collecting dust and not have time to really get balls deep in it got put on the back burner as I had 2 other bike at the time...so now july 2019.. i started full tear down to bare frame and to start this long awaited project...the problem was everyone builds sportsters how can I make mine different and stand out...I'm 28 years ive bin riding for 10years and have many bikes that turn into projects and changing parts but I wanted this one to be different I'm a heavy equipment diesel tech. And motor builder so I have experience with welding and fabrication exc. This is how it started

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Breaking bike down to start build




NOW fully apart I decided to clean the frame and swing arm remove all bearings and races, clean up the frame and sprayed it in my garage black again with 2 coats and a clear...while it dried I tried coming up with a plan on what direction I wanted to go with this and absolutely I have a budget with that being said my budget for the bike is 3k all said and done..with me doing absolutely as much work and fabrication as I could in my garage at home...I wanted it to be sleek,fast,light, controllable and try to make it stop great with it being a brick and outdated while trying to stay in budget was the issue

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Design and configuration



I started by drawing up a sketch of what I liked and what i wanted it to look like or get it as close as possible lol...then i took measurements of everything from a custom swingarm to custom suspension making new shock mounts..to modifying triple trees custom oil tank and modifing tank and tins axles and breaks..rider weight and sag while making sure it was possible by using all stock stuff that was on the bike to start with so idont blow the budget and how to make this possible!!! I SCRATCHED MY HEAD FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT...waking up at night to just rite something down and trying to figure out how that could be possible finally I made finished up these blue prints on paper that could get me close enough and learn on the go also so then the motor I called my buddy alex at hammer performance and went back an forth on how to build a 120hp evo sporty while staying in my budget he laughed at me and said well I like you style let's try it so I did some bartering and got a set of screaming eagle bin fin heads and had them stage 3 port and polish them got a 1250 big fin jugs and pistons 600 sledge cam Jim's hydro big travel lifters and buell push rods roller rockers and 7mm stems titanium retains and beehive springs while they did all the machine work I dissembled the motor clean prepped clearanced the case and lifter gallies..up dated the tranny and did absolutely everything to get ready for the parts to come back from them there where alot of all nighters but the parts came back and couldn't be more happy with the work they did then I assembled the motor

[DANTHEMAN7734]

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Motor assembly

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Theres a fucking budget!!!!

So yeah I spent 2100$ on the motor parts gaskets clutch machine work oil pump exc... trans up date parts and everything for the motor to go in wow well that budget almost went quick...now was the time to really same and save as much stock parts and modify them...and it was a couple weeks of constant cutting fitting drilling and milling bunch more all nighters so many I actually put a coffee maker and a beer fridge in the garage lol and now parts are coming together finally

[AlbertaFarmer]

Very cool, man. Looking forward to seeing how this one ends up.

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Alberta farmer... hey man thanks well I'm actually almost completely done with build just got a bit busy to finish the rest of the posts it's almost ready to be dyno tuned I'll post what I have shorty

[DANTHEMAN7734]

so honestly I have everything 600 pictures from start till now ...july 2019 - September 2019... and this is a spoiler but gotta throw up a picture of it now...SHORT summery I made a 5inch extended swingarm out of a stock one 4040 tool steel welded with 2inchs of it in side both sides of the swing arm the centering and leveling jig took a bit to make and reinforced it...drilled tapped and custom made bracket for headlight relocation on lower thriple upper trees I taped all the way thru for a custom digital display tuner and dash fro. Europe that I made bolts brackets and rewired and pinned harness for made aluminum solid mount riser bushings and took a set of 2007 yz450 dirtbike risers and machined new mounting bolts and risers for 1in fly internal wired bars then stripped tins and polished them cut and welded gas tank ...to be lower...530 chain drive kit....48..23 tooth....modified original back fender cut striped and polished raw made front motor mounts and top coil relocation motor mount polished fork tubes making a internal part of subframe horseshoe type oil tank for a sleek look and integrated lithium battery tray new tubes and tires polished rims hubs and spokes custom made a brand new wiring harness with all Deutsch connectors double weather proof seals...mechanical oil pressure gauge shuck mount relocation and adjustability making aluminum fork brace...also made floating rotor rim spacers and dirtbike reversed lower chain guide and so SO MUCH so much more I'm actually whooped the fuck out this build is so ambitious for the time frame sorry for rushing everything but I'm still pulling all nighters and I'm so close to finishing it then tearing it down to clear and powder coat everything theres so much I'm missing but that's just a little bit of the work I did so far and so much to write up and I'm short on time at it is guys hope this is helpful for now lmk any...issues or concerns with anything I'll try to post the whole build when I can but for now I'm missing everything in between but this is what it looks like now thanks for understanding

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Almost 2 months of work

[farmall]

Looks good!

Detailed pics of fabrication also welcome.

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Wow so 9months have gone by and I'm finally getting back on the forum to post about my sportster build well long story short life, house, bills, work and other things actually made me put the brakes on this build for awhile so it got wrapped and put to the side but finally the last 2 months I have gotten back to it and actually I'm glad I waited because I picked up some extra tools such as a c.a.d program a milling machine sand blaster powdercoating machine and some other stuff for my home garage now I decided to go back to this scoot and get some dust off the old girl and finally finish it

[DANTHEMAN7734]

So I'll start by saying I have extremely detailed information and pictures plus blueprints i made on how I got some of these parts to work together

[DANTHEMAN7734]

Where I last left off with the sportster I got alot done but wanted to do more to make it different so I started to re-think the whole stock suspension and factory braking system would be first on the list and yes there is still a budget and didnt wanna get to crazy but everyone knows how that goes so I tried to find a set of good rear shocks and then just rebuild my forks and put bigger rotors and calipers on but obviously that starts to add up real quick so with that c.a.d program and hours and hours of taking measurements and comparing them to everything out there if i did most of the work my self and use good ol'Ebay and buy some good second hand parts should be able to get a pretty good set up on this ride at a decent price and figure out how to make everything work and perform great...I know some of you are not going to like this but I decided best bang for your buck and some time I could make jap. Bike front forks work along jap.bike rear suspension i wanted to fab up a monoshock design for it but I just made and fabricated the 5in extended swingarm on it so ladder bar shocks I stuck with I went thru over 100 jap. Bikes before I found the closest wet weight of bikes to length of shocks I wanted and spring rate that would be ideal with minimal modification I found that a 02 zxr1200s has the closest wet weight length and spring rate I needed but had different eye let mounting hole and bushings 14mm upper with a 12mm lower shock bushing inner sleeve I got great condition shocks from one on ebay cheap 150$ and then bought 2brand new lower shock bushings pressed out the upper bushings and preached in new lower bushings in the upper eyelets now I have 12mm upper and 12mm lower sleeves those 12mm sleeves had alot of meat on them so I then used the drill press and drilled the 12mm sleeves to 1/2in upper and lower the shocks are 14in long from eyelet to eyelet and fully adjustable reservoir shocks..I then made 3/4in stainless spacers to move the shock away from the frame a bit to clear the chain with the new shocks being wider...after they were mounted and bolted up nicely I removed the stock lower shock mount on the swingarm and moved it forward 1in then made a 3 hole plate each hole being 1in apart from each over to raise and lower the bike on the fly if I wanted a different stance also to fine tune the suspension and see what location would work best for different riding situations....with that all done I started on The front end with a good amount of jap. Bike swapped font ends out there I did a bunch of research and made another c.a.d model and sell how it would sit I ended up get a 07gsxr750 forks tubes and calipers really good to great condition again off ebay for 250$ and then took more measurements and figure out how to make it work so ididnt want stupid clip on bars I still wanted risers and bars and utilize alot of what I already previously made for it here are some put of the custom triple trees made for those fork tubes then I made stainless rotor spacers for it because that year gsxr ran a 310mm rotors and it's an odd size more common is 320mm so I made rotor spacers and caliper spacers to run 08 and up hayabusa rotors then milled the custom trees for risers and bars along with alot other stuff I'll explain in a bit her are some pictures of it now

[DANTHEMAN7734]