Popular Post Goat Posted November 22, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2022 So yeah, pretty into these turds. Saw this come up super cheap on trademe. Reg on hold. Bought it site unseen and had it shipped down to me. Oohwee, what a turd she was: Its an 1988 883 evo sportster. The successor to the Ironhead. It was cheap, and I really like cleaning stuff up. So something to keep me busy between rage quits with the Goldwing, Laverda and my Ironhead. 9 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Goat Posted November 22, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2022 First step was to see what I'd bought and start cleaning it up. It was responding well to some 400 grit and some autosol. Before: After a test patch: It certainly had potential.... Next issue was the frame. It had some goobied up weld on the headstock. So i ground this back and re-welded it. Looked much better: I then proceeded to strip the frame by hand: I got this far then rage quit as it was absolout misery. Dropped it at blasters to be blasted and powdercoated. While that was happening i put the motor on the bench to give a propper cleanup with new gaskets etc. It had wet-sumped and proceeded to go wees on my bench overnight: Was really fun to clean it up and add new seals: Got the frame back from powdercoaters and put the engine in. Looks like brand new! Started to reassemble it whilst trying to not make it look super gross. Got some short rear shocks from a dyna, and some cuttiez in the front g. Also popped some new shinkos onto the cleaned up rims: Love how narrow it is. Ali express rear guard. This is where it currently stands. As soon as my ironhead is off the table i'll get full force back into this. On the home stretch now. Have a whole heap of new bits to go on it. Plan is just to have something cool and reliable as a backup bike or one mates can ride when they're in town. Will hopefully come back with updates in next few weeks. Motivation is high at the moment. 31 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Goat Posted October 17, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 17, 2023 Small update on this. New seat turned up in August. Looks great. Fitted a micro tail light which you can see under the rear ducktail. The bike starts and runs like champ. Starts first pop even after sitting for ages. However the clutch had been stuck. The mechanism works fine, but i assume the plates have stuck/rusted from it sitting for the last 10+ years. I tried freeing it by doing a burnout with the clutch in, but it was proper stuck! So pulled clutch apart. Cleaned, and put back together. Clutch works a charm now! All i need to do now is mount numberplate, and fit a speedo and then its ready for a wof! Just intime for summer. This should be a lot of fun. Its actually a tiny wee bike, should be great for ripping through the wellington hilly streets! 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Gruntfuttock Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 Never realised how much the early chain drive ones resemble the ironhead. Think they all went rubber band around 92...? Would be a fun city bike for sure... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Goat Posted October 18, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 18, 2023 Yeah, primary cover gaskets are the same. I'm sure you could fit the primary cover on a later model ironhead and vice verca. Clutch has alternator behind it (they only did this for the first few years of the evo as it was a bit of a sucky setup). And has a pull release instead of a push. Quite a lot nicer action. And its easy to select neutral when its running! Still havent taken it for a ride yet. But should be a blast. Will do some laps this weekend. Have taken 50mm out of the forks, and dropped the back 50mm too. Feels like a tiny and compact bike. Plus there is nothing to it either. Just an engine and 2 wheels really. I relocated the key to under the battery and cleared all the VOES and other wiring, hid the coil behind the oil tank and setup all the wiring there. To keep it clean under the tank. Will get some propper pics soon. But i actually put in quite a bit of effort doing subtle things to keep it looking as clean as possible, but also looking retaining an OEM look. Want to keep it minimalist too so need to figure out where to tuck the speedo to keep it clean. I've tried to do this build as cheaply as i could. The most expensive thing i have done was getting the frame blasted and powdercoated for $400 and that was worth every cent. The shinko tyres were from a 15% off at motozone, and the seat was spendy at 350nzd landed. The rest of the bike is just elbow grease. This has really been a budget build. Reusing all the fasteners (after wire wheeling them), cutting front springs, 2nd had trademe shocks, and lots of autosol. Pretty happy for how this has turned out. It looks like a very tidy wee bike. Especially considering the condition it started with. Has been a very rewarding journey. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregT Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 Back in the day I knew three guys with the small Evo's. All of them finished up taking them out to 1200. One of them actually sourced Branch's booklet on tuning the Evo - and gave it to me to do his heads. Still got it somewhere here. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goat Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 Can get 1200 kits for them pretty damn cheap from the states. 883 is enough for me at the moment. I've got other bikes for going fast. Not that i can ride fast... hah. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 that is a huge improvement , looks sweet! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOHC Posted October 19, 2023 Share Posted October 19, 2023 The ealy 900 ironhead actually is faster than the later 1000 version Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xsinclairx Posted October 22, 2023 Share Posted October 22, 2023 On 18/10/2023 at 22:53, Goat said: Can get 1200 kits for them pretty damn cheap from the states. 883 is enough for me at the moment. I've got other bikes for going fast. Not that i can ride fast... hah. Shipping is the killer. The likes of revzilla and lowbrow don’t seem to ship to nz (not when I last checked anyway) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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