The road so far

I've been pretty busy with work this year and haven't spent as much time on the bike as I would have liked, but I have gotten a fair bit of work done.

In February I bought a non-running 82 maxim with dozens of electrical and carb related gremlins. It did look really nice though.

Pic from the Craigslist ad:



A few months later I got to the point where the bike started reliably and ran strong. Once I started riding regularly, I had to change it up. My hands would be numb after twenty minutes, ass hurt after fifteen miles, back was sore after half an hour.

Step one was new rear shocks to replace the wore out leaked down old stockers. I figured I might as well go a little shorter while I was at it. I'm now running 11 3/8" EMGO shocks in the rear.

Next step was to do something about the fork oil all over the front of the bike. While I had forks apart why not throw some Progressive springs in there with some heavier weight oil. I also had to pull bars off in the process so I went ahead and swapped out the flatter bars with some that were a little taller.

So now my back doesn't hurt as bad and I can feel my fingers but the stock seat is still just gawdawful. Somewhere on here I heard tale of a sportster seat that fit like it was made for the bike. I talked a friend of a friend into trading the seat from his 2004 sportster 1200 for a lawnmower tune up. The sporty seat kindof almost fits the bike but not quite. The front of the seat is too narrow for the stock maxim tank and the back of the seat doesn't sit down very well over the rear brace.

I wasn't so sure this seat was going to work so I made all the mods to the seat; if it didn't work atleast I could still use the stock seat. I cut up the front seat pan, spread it apart and made a brace to keep it there, now the front matches up to the tank a lot better. I cut a section out of the rear part of the seat pan to let it sit farther down around the rear frame brace better. Once it sat reasonably well, I was willing to drill a hole in the rear fender to mount the back of the seat.

The longest ride I've taken since has been about 100 miles, 100 reasonably comfortable miles.

So here's where I am now:
Custom simplified wiring haness with all LEDs and an H4 headlight
Aftermarket bars
Lowered rear suspension
Front suspension upgraded with Progressive springs
Seat from Harley Sportster









Next on the list will probably be some forward controls and new exhaust and lots and lots of polishing, but that can wait until winter.

 

Your bike looks great, I love the color.

 

Thank you. I get a lot of complements on the color. I honestly didn't really like it but its grown on me.

 

Great job on the seat!

I read that post about sportster seat, but decided to swap a shadow vlx600 2-piece seat instead. It needed a narrower front mount and I installed the stock rear hinge to hold the back down. There's some extra space between the seat and the frame, but it works reasonably well for my needs.

 

Hey all. It's been a while since I posted anything so I figured I'd put up some new pictures and show you guys what I've been up to.



My old tires were getting thin and the front was showing some cupping, so new white walls! And proper balancing, and wheel bearings, and tapered steering bearings. I'm sure someone will also notice the new brake line. I also rebuilt M/C and caliper while I had the front end apart.



My old mufflers were rotting out on the bottom and we're starting to rattle so I replaced them with some slash cut slip ons. You can also see where I broke my grab bar.



I broke a bolt in the headlight bracket so I replaced it with some fork mounted ones. This also fixed my headlight aiming issue from lowering the back end. After changing the headlight mounting I found out that I could mount the gauges UNDER the stock bracket. This drops everything down tighter.