Sportster tuning

CV carb

Maybe the UK harley dealer could employ you and sho wthem ho wto mak eit work properly..

In my book the Mikuni is streets ahead.. Having said that on the standard 1200 the CV was fine, it was only after the stage 1 that it became a real nuisance.

Chuck also happens to be right (the rascal always is). Mikuni makes a great carb, but why spend the $$$ to get one for a typical street/road bike when you can get a CV to work just as well with a screwdriver & some simple & inexpensive parts ??? Including for Harleys making as much as 100 HP @ the rear tire.

Damn, 100 HP, that sound great. I was smoked by a frickin' Vespa from a stoplight just yesterday, and as they say.. that's not right.. I know the Sporty is a lot heavier, but I ought to be able to outrun a Vespa under any circumstance.

Vespa - ouch

Bad news that... image is shattered..

You have same bike as mine except mine ius teh custom so a bigger front wheel to make cornering more tricky..

Better keep my eyes open for Vespa's and pretend not to see them.

Chuck, Cowboy, I was on the West Side Highway, which is on the edge of Manhattan. It's a 3 lane "highway" with stop lights. There aren't any stores and the speed limit is 40, and most do 35-50 MPH. I was in the left lane, the Vespa was in the right. I flew by him once, traffic was mid heavy. After a few more blocks he passed me by and then we were at a stop light. It wasn't exactly a drag race and we never actually took a good look at each other, but I felt like putting the driver in his place because there was something aggressive about the way he was driving (jealous I guess) I never gave the impression that I even noticed the guy.

I just wanted to take off quickly, nothing crazy, and the Vespa just had faster pickup then me. Now a Vespa 250 can do 60 easily and I guess its light weight gave it the edge in the short run, but I thought my Sporty should have trounced the Vespa, guess I was mistaken.

Chuck, love the new icon

Bet that wouldn't happen with a Rocker underneath.

HRK, thanks to Art, I think I know what needs to be done, but I may wait until next year to decide which way to go. My Sporty's getting close to 5,000 miles and will soon need the scheduled tune up, oil change, (possibly switching to synthetic) etc. I could change the drag pipes with V&H baffles I have now at the same time to something like V&H Straightshots and would probably see a performance boost. Still, I'm tired of trying to clean those crusty, discolored aluminum cylinders and would prefer chromed ones and wouldn't mind the 1200 bore kit upgrade either. When I ad up the cost of upcoming maintenance and parts I'd like to have, putting that cash and effort toward a newer bike is starting to appeal to me.

Nope. As nice as the StraightShots look & sound, they're really just fancy drag pipes with baffles. If you'll look @ the exhaust article & dyno charts I've posted in the past you'll find that the best Sportster exhaust there is (except for all-out racing only) is stock pipes with crossover & quality slip-ons like Cycle Shack, KromeWerks, the older SE's, etc. Nothing gives a wider or smoother powerband or more overall power idle to redline & that's a fact.

C'mon now, you can do an 883>1200 conversion for less than $1000 & paint the 883 cylinders (bored out) with black B-B-Q grill paint. Polished fins you want? (They're not chromed). Take a belt-sander & a Dremel to 'em. You can make the standard 883 cylinders look exactly like the ones on a 1200C if you want. And one of the nicest jobs I've ever seen was done with wrinkle-finish black (rattle can) on the engine cases & cylinders, fins polished & chrome fasteners. Everything on the engine/trans unit was either black wrinkle-finish or chrome - no bare aluminum @ all. The bike looked like it came from the factory that way, but it was done in a small shop.

And as much as I like the newer Sportsters, they got 60 lbs. heavier in '04 & no way would I buy one with the EFI & have to spend a ton of $$$ to get it running right, when tuning with a carb is so easy & inexpensive. A properly built & tuned 883>1200 from prior to '04 will dust a new 1200 too. Gotta watch out for those scooterboys though

Thanks Art, always good to hear from you. Glad to know the V&H Straightshots wouldn't make much difference before I bought em'. Maybe this winter I'll look into those Sporty upgrades. The black crinkle paint sounds interesting.

Oil cooler and heat problems

I find that my 1200 Sportster dislike sthe heat... Its our summer now and getting very hot for Uk standrds ans humid.. This causes the bik eto overheat and cuts out after a 'pop' backfire. It sound slike it blows out of the carb air filter.

I have been thinking oif fitting an oil cooler and wondered what wa steh best tone for teh job... I have been advised my ther HD owners to us ethe radiator type and not the smarter looking billet style..

Any suggestion sto cool my bike down in th heat?


Thanks
Malcolm

There are more tricks & better heads than the Thunderstorms - which until the XB's came out in '04, were the best you could get without spending a fortune on aftermarket heads. But you can do a LOT with stock 883 heads & one example is a set I've got that started out being stock 883's & were done by HeadQuarters before the XB's came out. Looking @ them on the inside you'd think they were T-Storm heads & there's enough "meat" in 883 heads to machine them into T-Storms. Bigger valves too - stock 1200 valves won't fit 883 heads (stem length is different), but you can get larger valves that will fit - with machine work. That setup uses domed T-Storm 1200 pistons too, but the heads have a "squish band" machined so the 11:1 compression setup doesn't "ping". Setup designed to work with HQ "Whipperstick" cams makes 95 HP @ the rear wheel with a CV carb - a well tuned "tax paid" 883 makes 53.

You can hit 100 HP with an 883>1200 Sportster engine & even more, but to go much past 75 you get into giving away low-end torque to get top-end HP. With Hellboy's stock cams, low-to-mid 70's HP & torque being nearly equal is possible (been done many times), but with more cam, etc., he'd be giving away stoplight-to-stoplight torque for top-end HP. Where, when & how one actually rides is the key factor.

Used Buells are a HECK of a deal for a "sporty" type rider !! If my old body could fit the riding position for any length of time I'd love to have one & they will scoot !! The new ones are even better, but you sure can pick up a used one for cheap. They don't hold their value like a Harley does, but that's not because there's anything wrong with the bike, it's because the perception is if you want that type of bike, you have to go Japanese, Ducati, etc.

Those bikes are faster on the top end, but a Buell has a lot more torque, is quick enough to scare most riders & will lean over farther than they'll ever try. Same tuning as a Sportster too & most of the engine/trans parts are identical or interchangeable. I'm thinking of one older tube-frame 1200 Buell in particular that I've seen on the dyno & at Bonneville that was (barely) street-legal. Even had the stock belt-drive instead of being converted to chain. 120 HP @ the rear wheel & top speed a tick over 153 mph.

Cams way too much for stoplight-to-stoplight riding & the engine didn't like low rpms @ all, but the point is that an 883 is easily converted to a 1200 & it doesn't cost a lot to make an 883>1200 out-perform a new 1200. The changes made in '04 cut the cost/benefit ratio, but what was very popular was to buy an 883 Standard then modify it to your liking. Convert to 1200, get quality slip-on mufflers, the SE air-cleaner, re-jet the carb, get a different seat, shocks, fork springs & other stuff you liked better than stock & have $$$ left over compared to the cost of a stock 1200.

But again, it comes down to where, when, how you ride & what you personally like - there most assuredly is not a "one size fits all" Harley.

Art, thanks for taking so much time to clarify those points. I'll take a closer look at all these possibilities after the summer//fall riding season.

I think I've gotten the Carb issue worked out. I no longer have black fouled plugs and they actually look pretty clean, Thanx for all the help on that. I'll post a pic and give more details on what I did. I still have a low rpm miss and it seems to really show while doing 35 mph in 3rd gear. The bike does run alot better now but I'm focusing on this last issue which I'm thinking may be electrical. I've put in a new battery, helped my starter issue and also seems to run a little better too, and replace spark plugs. The plug wires are accel 8.8mm and look pretty new, and I have receipts from previous owner that the voes and coil were replaced last year. I looked at the Module and its a screaming eagle that may also have been a recent replacement but not sure. Strength of spark and timming got me curious. The book talks of a cam position sensor, timer & pickup. Tried to look up more on this and couldn't find anything yet. Was real curious what you guys may think. Upgrading to a Vespa was scratched off the list, I've owned one as a kid and wasn't real impressed, LOL.