Hey everyone,
I'm padge, located in the Canadian prairies.
I've been working on my bike more lately and figured I'd start a build thread. I bought the bike about 6 years ago as a fairly clean stock '83 heritage special, and have chipped away at turning it into a cafe/brat type build. I've added shorter bars, exhaust, 2-1 intake + carb, seat, etc so far as you can see in the photo.
Years ago I cleaned up the rear of the bike, bobbing the fender and adding new tail light + signals, and now I'm tackling the front end. I removed the gauge cluster, headlight, etc. and that progressed into me ripping the entire harness out lol. So to start with there will be a lot of re-wiring going on in this thread. As for front-end components, I have a new brake lever + master cylinder, stainless brake line, brake pads and mini gauges to install. I still need to decide on a headlight and signals for the front. Thinking maybe a 5-3/4" bottom-mount bates with some small round signals attached to the bottom triple clamp. I'll be bobbing the front fender as well.
The plan for the wiring is to start with a minimal DIY "chopper harness" for the charging and ignition systems. Once I get the bike running with that configuration, I'll add in the following: headlight, tail light, horn, signals, speedo lights, and maybe starter. I'll be building an electrical tray to mount under the seat.
So yeah, stay tuned for some newbie / budget-minded bike building!
Attached is a pic of the bike right before I ripped off all the front-end electrics (excuse the dirt).
EDIT: Added a before pic.
I'm padge, located in the Canadian prairies.
I've been working on my bike more lately and figured I'd start a build thread. I bought the bike about 6 years ago as a fairly clean stock '83 heritage special, and have chipped away at turning it into a cafe/brat type build. I've added shorter bars, exhaust, 2-1 intake + carb, seat, etc so far as you can see in the photo.
Years ago I cleaned up the rear of the bike, bobbing the fender and adding new tail light + signals, and now I'm tackling the front end. I removed the gauge cluster, headlight, etc. and that progressed into me ripping the entire harness out lol. So to start with there will be a lot of re-wiring going on in this thread. As for front-end components, I have a new brake lever + master cylinder, stainless brake line, brake pads and mini gauges to install. I still need to decide on a headlight and signals for the front. Thinking maybe a 5-3/4" bottom-mount bates with some small round signals attached to the bottom triple clamp. I'll be bobbing the front fender as well.
The plan for the wiring is to start with a minimal DIY "chopper harness" for the charging and ignition systems. Once I get the bike running with that configuration, I'll add in the following: headlight, tail light, horn, signals, speedo lights, and maybe starter. I'll be building an electrical tray to mount under the seat.
So yeah, stay tuned for some newbie / budget-minded bike building!
Attached is a pic of the bike right before I ripped off all the front-end electrics (excuse the dirt).
EDIT: Added a before pic.
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(I can grind away any mess, and I'll be painting it black so should be OK). I'm still not sure if I want the tray so tall (2-3/4"), but I wanted to be sure I had enough room – mostly to fit an AG801 in case I want to keep electric start.
! Good thing I haven't been driving this thing the past 6 years with it like this 
(it's just been sitting mostly, have only ridden it a handful of times). I've got an 11mm brembo mc to put on, along with a stainless line and new pads. We'll see if I'll be rebuilding the caliper or not.
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