These forks are pretty sought after, so although it would have been much cheaper to replace with another front end, we decided to persevere and get them repaired.
Before the front end was sent away for chrome I grabbed one of our DIY fender mount kits and made up a fork brace for the 33.4mm K model forks. We needed to stiffen these forks up and have them rebuild to make it rideable. Apart from the chrome being rusted, I turned the wheel pushing it through the shop and the axle popped out from the forks flexing so much. When working on the front end we discovered some pretty bad signs that these forks we’re in rough shape. This gives you a heap more room up front and looks pretty wild. I sourced a set of Dogbone risers and fabbed up a mount to bolt onto the top yoke.
1980 sportster chopper plus#
The Ironhead sportster, this set up, the 8” over forks plus a king and queen leaves little to no room for the rider. Tyson had fitted up a set of 5” risers and a set of pullback bars. The tins got sent down to Mitch Bailey for a brand new, 50 year old paint job (his specialty) black, simple white pinstripe and an old HD logo plastered on the side for good measure. Mounting it high on the back bone, I turned up an outlet for a rear petcock set up and that finished it up.
Luckily a mate, Camren from Sydney, linked me up with a king sporty tank in a bit better shape, I just had to cut the filler cap from the old tank, weld it in and we were good to go. With that done we turned out attention to the tank, after a clean down we found holes big enough to fit out thump through along the bottom sheet metal joins…. We got some Stainless Steel brush finish buttons and he went at it making a chesterfield style seat cover. After some Haggling with Jamo from Timeless, I got him to agree to doing some pin cushion style upholstery on the seat. Something different I’ve wanted to try for a while and this bike seemed to suit it well. I used a set of Hollowtip LED lights recessed into the back of the seat. Shaping the King and Queen base out of aluminium sheet, and grafting in some tail lights. When building the seat pan we used the front pivot mount on the frame, and the top of the sissy bar for mounting points. I chose to replace it with some Tasmanian Burl timber, hand shaped to suit the handle and finished with some nice brass pins I made. The timber on the handle was falling apart. The Chrome Struts on the Ironheads rear fender were used as a base to build from with a tall sissy being shaped to reach just higher than the bars. Supplied with the bike was a WW2 Bayonet, so the obvious choice was to work that into the sissy bar. That gave us the basis to start building the sissy bar and seat. The bike came with a fender that we trimmed up, re-mounted and sorted out some spacers for. It’s a whole different way of thinking I was keen to explore. Choppers however are a little more reckless, featuring fab work and wild ways of getting the job done just because. I always enjoyed looking at the vintage choppers that get around the Gold Coast, a lot of the bikes we build are simplified and stripped down to create a smooth and clean aesthetic. So that gave me a jump off point to get fabricating. With an 8” over front end, trimmed fender, Tall Sissy bar leaned back and a big King/Queen Seat. Tyson had a pretty good idea of what he wanted. Now I knew the engine was in decent shape, I could start the process of building the bike. We also went ahead with an S&S Super E carb and air cleaner set up on it, trying to milk a little more reliability out of the 1972 V-twin. He checked it over, repaired the Kicker gear and replaced the clutch among a few other things. Creatively named “Dan’s Workshop” he’s quickly developed a name for being the guy to see about old Harley engines. The first thing I did was take it down to a mate, Dan Headons workshop.
The bike was in completely unknown condition, I noticed right from the get go the kickstarter had a strange issue and didn’t seem to engage. I took the job because I was interested to learn about about these vintage Harleys, having never worked on one at all. Drum brake front and rear, laced up to a set of ally rims 19” front and 16” rear. As it rolled into the shop it had good bones and a fresh set of rebuilt wheels. thrown in a container and shipped to Aus. It was moved from a backyard in Compton L.A. Tyson’s Ironhead Chop came to us as a bit of a wreck.
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