The Big Doink

            So I got myself another Ironhead. While lurking on Kijiji early November as I went through my regular searches a Sportster pops up. Not just any Sportster, a reasonably priced 1974 Ironhead chopper. Complete with extended springer, Invader wheels and even a king-queen seat. If this isn’t good enough for ya, it turned up not even 10 minutes away. The add was very vague and the pictures were blurry, but I knew I had to take a look. Spoke briefly with a nice older lady on the phone and arranged to meet the next day. I arrived after work and she told me the brief history that she knew of the bike. She explained that it was her late husbands bike, and that when he retired was going to be one of his projects. She also told me that the bike has been sitting as it looked for nearly 15 years, the entire time they have had it and that he had never gotten around to even trying to start it. So I get in the cold garage and peel back the tarp that’s covering her up and there she is, and is she ever crusty. She had to be about 9 feet long. What the pictures in the add were hiding,  I soon discovered. The entire thing was covered in rust and crust. The neck was raked, tank had a leak at some point, the front brake was a death trap, had tons of custom “mods”, coil was somehow split nearly in half and carb was toasted. The wiring consisted of one fuse and 20-30 butt connectors attaching multi coloured wires all together. The rear fender struts also custom, had clearly broken at some point and had been repaired with a big chunky arc weld. Basically it was going to need a full tear down. The good things were the rake job didn't look all that bad, numbers were still there and the motor. The motor looked great, no black wrinkle paint on the case, no crazy aluminum weld repairs, the compression even dry tested good. After some negotiating, the bike would be going home with me. So there I was buying my third Sportster, and I was pumped to have something to work on over the winter. Chris Ness my good friend and neighbour was ready at the first sound of my phone call to come give me a hand loading it up and before I knew it, she in the garage and up on the lift. After a more thorough assessment I found even more “custom” made stuff and parts that had to go. I started right then and there to strip her down. Here’s some photos of how she looked when I got her, and some of the fun/creative/custom things that someone did to her throughout her life. I’ve determined she probably hasn’t been started for close to two decades, so with some love, lots of work and even more luck she’ll be purring by summer. She’s nicknamed The Big Doink, coming in at 9 feet long with a 16+ over front end and a crazy tall stance, she’ll hopefully be bouncing around the neighbourhood soon. I'll try to post some progress updates as I get to her.