Dialing In My Suspension

So I found some 1200 forks laying around in my dads old race shop at the ranch. They are fully valve-able with rebound and compression adjustment. Brought em home to clean up the legs, they had some dings from dirt track and road racing. Got em all dialed in and valved up and replaced the seals and bushings. And what do I notice after I scrubbed them by hand and even my bro Carter didnt even notice…… THEY WERE BOTH THE SAME SIDE LEG! I was like maaaaaaaaaaaaaan WTF! How did we both miss that! So now I need to find the other lower leg, or just sac up and buy one for 125$ from the dealer.

I also found these old shocks laying up there. I found some shock clamps for truck shocks with remote reservoirs, milled them out with the help of my buddies Jason Roberts, and Jeff Garins.  Beats zip tying them like all the dirt trackers do! The bad thing is they are 16″ eye to eye. So I machined up a spacer for both shocks and thought I could get away with not chopping the springs…. Wrong, the damn thing started leaking out the bottom of the rebound adjuster. I created to much pre-load on them. So I have yet to get to run these forks or shocks!

 

 

 

The Beginning

So I have had a bike for a while I have been sitting on. I specifically picked up a 96 883 Sportster because of all the parts we have for them from pops old road race and dirt track days. I swooped this thing up for a hell of a deal. Been looking for something for over a year. Finally found the project bike to start with. Now I’ll slowly be chopping it up and making some custom changes to it. I will try to make a grip of stuff my self, and I will definitely support some of the bitchen companies and run some of there stuff too. It’s a starting point so that’s all that matters!

For years I have wanted to fabricate shit, not just bike stuff either. But I have slowly accumulated equipment to do it. So its starting to come together. I’ve always been good with my hands and can learn anything. I am really mechanically inclined. Worked on my bikes since I was 14, and have had old project cars (never finished), I really dig horse power. Kinda funny actually years ago when I was just starting to travel and do all the outdoor nationals full time, a coon ass buddy of mine was busting my balls. He said “you can race, bmx, skate, snowboard etc….. hell you can even fuck!” He asked “why dont you do just one thing?” I said “I like doing all kinds of shit man, only get to live life once. I’m not claiming to be some bad ass or anything. Just how I roll. My life has been a blast the past 15 years, and much more to look forward too! So this is one more chapter to add to it.

96 883 sportster