Did someone tell you shotgun shocks are awesome. Great bike and pics champ.

Its been a while since ive been on here ! Cruising through all the awesome new bikes in this thread and realised id not put my bike in here after the mods... Just took a few pics. The lights not real good and its only with the phone but here they are.

 

 

 That's awesome love the paint.

 

Very nice oOBenOo ... do you have any before and after pics .

 Hey there Ben, now I remember your bike, and the transformation you were doing to it. That is one sweet looking softail mate, great job.  I'd go with the pipes you had in the before pic, they would make it look heaps better.  BTW, if you don't mind me asking, how much has it cost you to get it to this stage?

Cheers.

ahhh... its a 2012 model..... bike was just under 30 new. Ive thrown probably another 30 at it all up id reckon.... close to anyway.

Thanks for the compliments too guys.

Like o6 Softail said ... I also now remember your ride ... again great job ... I used to be one of those bike riders that said some of these Harley guys with their custom jobs would have a hard time justifying the cost of their projects ... but after doing mine I can easily see where the money goes , Lol .

I have mates that say why waste so much money , it`s only a bike and you will never get your money back ... well they may be right up to a point but for me I get a shit load of enjoyment out of building the beast and then riding her and also I say it is all relevant ... one of these mates is way into 4 wheel driving and camping and I say good on ya but what about all the money you spend on trailers and 4 wheel drive stuff and you only get out a couple of times a year ... at least I ride near on every week ... he never seems to have a answer to that argument .

For me it is every one to their own as long as you aren't depriving the family of food or missing rent / mortgage payments or borrowing ridiculous amounts of money ... I readily admit to having giving up the wacky tabacky some years back now due to the ass holes at work bringing in random Drug and Alcohol test .. { oh how I miss a night of mellowing out , Lol } .. but in it`s place I have found a habit that isn`t as frowned upon as much ... well sometimes it`s not frowned upon ... the media is always trying to do it`s best to tar us all with the same brush as some who can't seem to help themselves but fight their own kind .

Anyhow I try and live by the creed of ... Leave me alone and I will leave you alone ... sometimes works , sometimes doesn't ... but we have to live by some sort of creed , I reckon ... happy riding all and again great job there oOBenOo .

Tim .

Thanks TJ. In ever saw myself spending this kind of cash on a bike. Until I bought this one.

Moll

Talk about big shoes to fill...... tough gig following oobies softail, that's a real nice rig mate....... glad to see it gets ridden too.

I had the exact same thought as oobie above me , some pics of the recent "additions" I did a couple of months ago ( seems like an eternity ago now!) so I have dropped in some pics, ( big sorry about the size of them, I dont know how to resize them for upload)

Started with this.

As I picked it up from the dealer.

A one owner,pre loved, Aus delivered 2000 model Fatboy with 80 000 on the clock .

Yea its a few k's but it was the only one in my stingy price bracket) and it had really been well looked after, thats what sold me on it as I'm not that taken with the Fatboy  "droopy" look and was looking for a FXSTC or similar. Then I saw this.................

I knew from the moment i bought it that I would be ditching the guards and  after a couple of months of collecting parts did the chop on the rear.

sizing the chain up before cutting it ( Learnt a long time ago to ALWAYS of measure twice , cut once .it will save you money and embarrasment)

 

 

 

When I took the primary case off to get to the front sprocket , I found the cause of the weeping oil issue that was pissing me off ( cause I could see the source of it but couldnt get to it) Twas a cracked case that had been dodgeyed by someone . ( I have good reason to think it wasnt the previous owner)

 

Sooooooooo I took my time and thought about repalcing it with a belt drive. It took about 10 seconds to convince myself that it was the best decision I had come up with in the project so far!

Despite A LOT of industry people telling me it couldnt be done ( converting to a 200 wide tyre in a std 150 wide swing arm) I did it without too much fuss. There was a bit of dicking around with axle spacers so I mocked it all up with electrical conduit ( real easy to skim of a fraction with a grinder) then gave them to a machine shop to fabricate in Stainless

Another minor headache was lining the rear brake up. I couldnt get it to work and still have the wheel centred in the guard so I ditched the whole thing, cut the brake mount of the swing arm and went for a PM sprotor ( or sprockster) same same. That really cleaned up the RHS and pulls up the bike OK. Its stopping power is comparable to the std set up. Nothing fantastic but does the job.

I did a bunch of other mundane stuff that .s not worthy of putting in here but was required to finish the project ( rewireing, fabrication work, seat mount etc) Added a 23 front rim with a wrapper guard .

so this is what it finished up as

pps ,

sorry bout th

dunno how I slipped a pic of me nanna in the nick.

Ohhh the shame.............

Real colour this time

 

I tried to add a small video of the new cams sound but nearly lost the entire post when i tried to upload it. managed  to salvage most of it back ( thank F ... for that!)

Any hoo , I hope you like it

thats it so far...........................................

 

Matt

Hi,

Pretty neat Matt,
Thanks
Robots

neat looking ride

can I ask what brand of fender struts & guards you used

regards
Rod

 Hi Rod

thanks mate.

I used a rigid guard that I got from VPW and cut it down to suit.

Struts and seat are Roland Sands Design that I got from Rollies .It was the last one on the shelf and I don't think they import them any more but I'm sure you could get them from the states directly if you hunted around.

the front guard is a Arlen Ness fibreglass one I got of eBay 2nd hand but never used and I fabbed up some mounts to adapt the guard to the std mount points . Finding a guard ( and adapters) to suit a 23" front wheel was near impossible. The very few that I found must have been made of solid gold with unobtanium inserts cause they were all ridiculously overpriced.

cheers 

matt

That's a work of art Matt. Looks awesome !

Hey Fat Matt ... if you find that therapy group let me know ... seeing all the fantastic work guys like you and oOBenOo get done just wants me to strive for more ... I see you had the same problem I had when trying to find a easy cure to fitting up the front wheel ... where you went for the 23" , I went for the 21 x 3.5 wide ... is yours a 3.5 wide rim as well .

I ended up adapting the original front guard by drilling out the standard mounting holes so I could lift the guard as much as possible ... has done the job and given it the effect of the front guard being very close to the tyre but just far enough away to be safe .. I Hope , Lol .

Love the chain look ... your old Nanna scared the shit out of me though , Lol ... are your forward controls a extended set and if so does the side stand being further forward change anything in regards to the way the bike sits when lent on it`s stand ... am going to be asking this question in the workshop section but was curious if you had any thoughts .

Tim .

Thanks Matt ... know what you mean about being relative as 2 of my mates have 3" extended controls and I am at full stretch to reach them , very uncomfortable but I have 2" dog bone type of set up on mine at the moment and feel I can reach out at least another inch or more even ... the big difference of course is the seats ... both of there`s are more or less standard where mine is a Mustang that has the built in back support style which seems to have the added advantage of pushing me further forward which of course lets me reach that bit more .

Thanks anyhow Matt .

Nice job on that bike Matt

It will be interesting to see the western`s back on ... nice job so far ... allways have prefered the wide low look .

Tim .

 

o0ben0o - very slick 

Was mine big project but now gone..... check the parts in the for sale section for original parts...some chromed, some custom stuff...  CHEAP !!!!