A1RDY

2013

Harley Davidson

Sportster XL883L

Bonneville Pearl White

None

Imported new from Australia, it's lived all it's life here in New Zealand. It's had three previous owners (none of whom seemed to have taken any care of it). A standard Sportster Superlow with HD forward controls.

Stock.

Stock, and thankfully in reasonably good condition. However, the sprocket and timing covers are strangely dull, with a mottled tarnish all over them.

I changed to forward controls and that has made the bike much more comfortable to ride by reducing the bend angle of my knees. Still considering a seat upgrade.

There is corrosion on most of the fasteners: the "white salt" corrosion I read in one of the posts, plus good old ferrous oxide. There are parts of the powder coating on the frame underside that have been chipped off and the frame is rusting at that point.

Stock.

Stock. Some work required to repair damage from prior owners. I have cleaned up the chrome somewhat but melted material still remains on upper rear heat shield. Have replaced corroded heat shield clamps. I think the damage reported here was due to the removal of the wear pegs, allowing the rider to bank the machine past it's design limits. I have now installed new wear pegs.

I keep scraping the flanged bolts that hold the front muffler to the interconnect bracket. The roads are a little uneven over here so it's easy to catch the underside when cornering. I have lost few of these flanged bolts too because the angle they contact the road produces an anti-clockwise force on the bolt, thereby loosening it. So I just put a spanner on each of these bolts before heading out to make sure all is secure.

The fork slider tubes have a kind of spotty corrosion on them - I was told it resulted from road tar but it won't budge with any of the usual removers. I'm thinking of painting them gloss black.

Update: I ended up stripping the clear coat from the slider tubes, then using a progression of wet-dry sand paper from 800 - 2000 grit to remove the embedded corrosion and bring the surface to a dull shine, then Autosol Aluminum Polish to finish. I did not replace the adhesive reflective strips on the lower end of the fork sliders.

Stock.