Pluto's Revenge: Veronica Slips Into Something More...Comfortable.

In March 2006, I bought a 2006 Harley Davidson XL883R Sportster. I named her Veronica. I was still in the Air Force, so I could still afford her. She was pretty. Soon, I found myself out of the Air Force but still in Alaska with a dwindling bank account. I got a job and saved some money to head down to Arizona before the snow hit for one of Alaska's infamous 23-year winters.

What else would I do sitting on a motorcycle?

I got a flat trailer and mounted her on it. I wrapped a tarp tightly around her, packed all my shit and headed south. Unfortunately, winter started in Canada a month before Alaska. When I say 'winter', I really mean 'white-out'. Most of the time, I drove at 30-40 mph. The wind drove faster. And sideways.

When I got to Tucson, she was ruined. The tarp had torn and mercilessly whipped at her paint. The dirt and road grime seemed to stain her hard-to-clean places. I was bewildered. But she still ran.

When I moved to Seattle, she still ran. There were some times that I had problems keeping her running. I couldn't figure out if it was an electrical or fuel problem. The dealer mechanics could never find anything wrong. The last time I rode her, it was 2009. Since then she's been sitting at my work garage. Next to my desk. Sleeping.

A couple weeks ago, something in my head clicked. I figured out that I'm almost done paying her off. I immediately started cleaning her up and tried figuring out her running problem. While looking for a discrepancy, I kept removing parts and cleaning the dirty sections that I found. Soon, I just decided that now is the time for a rebirth.

It's a girl!

Took off her fenders and smaller parts that were marred from the movings. Painted them flat black. I keep looking at her and getting ideas. Big ideas. Expensive ideas. I also figure that since I'm gonna be doing most of the work myself, I could save a few bucks on certain things.

Today, I took off her handlebars and ordered new ones and a low-profile taillight. I plan on chopping her rear fender. We're on our way...

Dreaming naked...

17 March 2011


      Yesterday I received my taillight and handlebars. A Snake Eye Taillight Kit and 29.5" 15 degree chrome drag bars from Debrix.com. My plan is to chop the rear fender and mount the tail light in between the fender and tire. Of course, I'll have to either mount the fender to the swingarm or get some struts and make it a hard tail. As the bars, I'm gonna sand them down and powdercoat them flat black.

18 March 2011

      Today I ordered some new exhaust mount bolts because I broke the right hand forward one. Sonuvabitch. I just wanted those crappy OEM silencers off of her.

Fuct.

The other mount stud came out with the nut still on it. Watch that corrosion fellas. It'll fuck up your day. I'm leaving this for another day when I'm not so pissed.

21 March 2011

Today my boss who's been helping me in the tool dept. brought in a 20% off coupon from Harbor Freight. Fuck. Yes. I've been wanting to get a cycle lift and they have a good, cheap one. Road trip!

22 March 2011

So I got the lift and took off the tires and rear shocks today. It's looking like Veronica will be become a hardtail. I just kept running the idea of having a springer seat in my head.


A hot mess.

23 March 2011

      Ordered grips from J&P along with new turn signal lenses. The old ones were all scratched up. Thinking about relocating all the turn signals.

24 March 2011

      Started trying to get the broken exhaust stud out today. First, started off trying to turn it with vice-grips and pre-lubed with Aerokroil. Fail. By the way, that stuff is excellent. I used to use it when I was working on the big planes. Next, I tried hammering a 12-point 1/4" socket onto it to create splines and then tried turning it. Fail. Shit. As far as I'm concerned, I do not want to drill and try an EZ Out. That's last resort. Next is welding a nut onto it and turning it that way. Failed. Twice. My boss swears he can get it out by drilling. I don't wanna look. Oh well, the upside is that if he fucks up the jug, then I have to get the 1200 upgrade kit. But I'm poor. That's the downside. To be continued...

28 March 2011

      So I decided to hold off on the stud extraction and buy a powder coater. A 20% off coupon from American Iron magazine for Harbor Freight saved me quite a few clams and got me very intrigued about the whole process. I wanted to paint my fenders, tank and handlebars flat black and maybe later paint some broad stripes on them. The drag bars I bought were chrome, so I got started sanding them down for the powder coat. Using 120 grit, I got most of the chrome scratched up (the knurls stayed chrome).
The powder coater is pretty sweet. I bought 2 containers of matte black powder with it. They were pretty cheap. About 4 bucks each. Using a piece of 3/4" conduit, I hung the bars from the side and hooked up 20psi to the coater.

Never mind the spray paint.

It didn't take long to get the bars coated. I coated everything but left end of the bars. Looking up the cure heat and times on the internet led me nowhere. Its almost as if the forums were trying to lead me astray. Anyway, I found out that I should bake the bars @ 400f for 15 min. My oven is tiny, so no-go there. Instead I used a heat gun on HIGH and watched the magic show. I admit, it takes quite a while to get the powder to melt but it's pretty sweet watching it. Afterwards I let it cool for about an hour. I figured this would be sort of a test paint. I scratched the bars with my fingernail and it came off. I wasn't surprised. Plus the coating was too shiny for my taste. So I got on eastwood.com and ordered some real flat black powder. While looking around, I found some metallic finish powder coats. I'm picturing either red or violet racing stripes. Also, fucking PINSTRIPING!!! And the fact that I can do this shit by myself gives me bike chub.

29 March 2011

So I mentioned that I threw Veronica on the back of a flat bed trailer in order to escape Alaska. And I mentioned that the tarp that she was wrapped in tore and marred up all of her paint, chrome and aluminum pieces. Jesus fuck what a mess. I was pretty much convinced that I would have to replace everything that damaged. Until I found myself with an enormous amount of time and the knowledge that my boss owns a Dremel tool. So I went to the hardware store and acquired some polishing clay for aluminum. If you find yourself in the same predicament, use the green or gray stuff. I'm using gray.

Her brake lever. All of the aluminum on her looks like this. Tragic, I know.

But with the amazing Dremel tool, I would no longer have to look at such filthy tarnish!

"I lost 50 lbs. in 30 min!"

Amazing.


Formerly dull.

Looking at this fork piece, I realized that I could etch things into it. Words maybe. Flying demon burritos, probably.

22 January 2012

So I'm back from a very long internet siesta. And I wanted to finish this thing. There won't be a whole lot of words. Just pics and captions for you busy types. Here we go...