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Harley-Davidson Roadster 1000 discussion forum:1979 Roadster XLS modified 1200 |
| 1979 Roadster XLS modified 1200 |
| Brian Swift said 2007-06-17 04:42 |
| I picked up this bike just over a year ago. A friend of mine owns a choppershop and had been trying to get me on another bike for a couple of years. I had a slip of faith on pea gravel 2 inches deep that stopped me riding for a couple years. I finally saw this 1979 XLS on the rack being worked on and my friend told me he would sell it to me and I got it pretty cheap but parts did add up. The bike has a Super Shorty carb which I do really like, upgraded cylinder and heads to 1200, breaker points(fixes that ignition problem), kickstart, very small 2 gallon gas tank old style sportster tank, drag pipes, really heavy clutch spring(I pulled it and put the stock HD cluch springs in). The bike had sat for 5 to 7 years in a barn. The dust and dirt took some work to clean up. The bike was totally torn down and kick start parts replaced, electric starter replaced. Yet there is still a starter problem which relates to something someone else had asked about in a previous comment. I just replace the start solenoid because the cap was broken and the starter would not hit everytime. It turns out there is a starter button relay solenoid that feeds the starter solenoid. This starter button relay solenoid is mounted under the battery holder/oil tank. It´s a pain to get to, removing rear wheel will give you better access or you can remove the oil tank to get to it on the bottom of the oil tank(just remove the rear wheel). This little relay fires every time but I put a volt meter on the feed to the starter solenoid located right next to the starter itself. The wire was not getting any voltage when the little solenoid fired I would press it repeatedly a few dozen times and finally you would see the voltage build on the output on the relay solenoid. This looks to me like something pretty odd, I do electronics and computers for a living. I´m not looking foward to rewiring the bike, but it might be required as I have replaced a few frayed wires already. I´m tempted to bypass this relay solenoid with a heavy momentary switch wired directly to the battery and to the started solenoid. That would take care of relay soleniod, but I do want to keep the bike old style original. I´m still working on finding a relay soleniod or possibly building my own to replace it. All the modifications to my 1979 XLS roadster are all 1970s and early 80s parts. The replacing the top of the engine to 1200 does give it a bit of power, not that I ever road a 1000. I just replaced the original sprocket gears 20teeth and 51 teeth to 22 teeth and 48 teeth. This has greatly increased my speed. The front sprocket will go to 24 teeth and increase speed alot again but the lower end will notice the loss of power even for a 1200. My cousin has nearly the same bike but 1980 XLS with the 24 and 48 sprockets and he cruises at 70 to 90 mph just above idle in 4th with no problem at all and said he has had it over 120 with more power left to go faster. I myself remember pea gravel and the loss of bravery does keep me a bit slower. I have been getting between 55 to 60 MPG with mixed riding. I like back roads and small towns but I also get on the interstate. And now with the better sprocket gears I can keep up on the interstate without winding up the RPMs. I can go 70MPH in 3rd gear very easily without pushing it too much, and it just puts along nicely in 4th gear. I have had a lot of problems with Tack and Speedometer. I just got a new speedometer off of ebay with a chrome casing. The old speedometer simply stopped working and spun like a propeller all the time. The tack cable kept breaking and so did the speedometer cable. I switched the bases on them and put the speedometer on the right side to accomodate the cable better. plus the tack cable seems to run better. I´m not sure why but the speedometer cable seems really short when on the left side. But finally I have the gages set and working pretty well. But now I need a chrome casing for my tack to match the speedometer. Any one have one give me a message. I do really like the weight and ride of the bike. It does vibrate a bit, but it does handle very nicely. My previous bike was a Yamaha 1986 Radian, 600 4 cyclinder and it did over 145 MPH, 160 on the gage but never went that fast even though it felt like it was gliding on air. But it was top heavy. I do like the Roadster for it´s low weight and very stable riding. I was just reading on the 2004 and newer rubber mounted engines and the weight of the bike is much heavier but no vibrations with new rubber engine mounts. I´ll stick with my 1979 Roadster. I´ll be always watching ebay for old parts. |
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