Harley Sundowner

[topherloaf]

so here is the final product minus the backrest.  It's HEAVY duty man.  Hard core steel and aluminum.  Rides great, supports me and my girl.

[topherloaf]

Ok well for some reason my last reply didn't post even though it said it did.  Anyway, just in case it didn't post here it is again.....

<ahem>

So....here's the final mock up of the seat on the bike, installed actually.  The frame work has tack welds just for trial and error sake.  Rode it, it's solid, and the wheel doesn't hit.  As you can see, the new $75 saddle bags will actually cover much of the frame in the rear.  Now all that's left is final welding, powdercoating, a back rest for my lady, and probably some cosmetic work to hide the gap between the seat and the bike frame. As far as comfort, I sit up a little closer to the handle bars which makes it a bit more comfortable.  Should be nice for a longer trip.

[drifter1946]

Thanks, maby you can make some Piture 
This is my work, the Pipes has a diameter 60 mm and its a hard work 

[topherloaf]

The exhaust to the left is quite simple but it was hard to mock up. We just took a bunch of stainless steel pipe and tried and tried and tried with a pipe bender until we got it like we wanted it.  Alot of spot welding and heavy duty hose clamps help hold it all together.  We get alot of stainless at swapmeets around the DFW area because it's easy to work with.  After all the bending and fitting we take a bigger diameter stainless and do the same thing (except under the bike) to cover the smaller pipe that will be brazed and discolored.  On the footbrake side we just reused the original heat shields since it was a two-into-one system to begin with.  The pipes are some Harley's pipes that we drilled the baffles through.  These particular pipes are interesting because the baffles are set in with a pair of screws.  I took them out once but that was honestly too loud.  The funny thing about Harley stuff....it's in abundance and easier to find that alot of Kawasaki stuff and when you go to swapmeets, when people literally don't want something they'll typically cut a pretty good deal for it.  Car rims, exhaust, sundowner seats, saddle bags, etc. I don't have photos of the details about the pipes at the moment but I will try and get some up. 

[drifter1946]

Hello,
nice Bike, for me verry interesting, how you do the Exhaust to the left, you have pitures ?
Regards Reiner

[topherloaf]

here are some preliminary photos and mock up of the brackets.  They still need to be bent some more and molded a bit better but the hard part (cutting them out) is done.  Let me know what you think!!!!  Thanks!! 

[cochise]

Great to see the creativity Toperloaf. Before my 800 Drifter I was still riding my 75, 650 Yamaha for 35 yrs. I belonged to a on line club for the 650 and these guys customized their bikes from the mild to the wild.Mine was as stock as the day I got it ( just personalized ) and although some weren"t my taste I gave them all credit. I customize my cars and bikes but not out of a catalog , from imagination and ingenuity. When I was looking through the Drifter pics on the site there was a photo of a bike that the seat was crafted like a horse saddle. Thats what customizing is all about.

[topherloaf]

will do!!!

[chief]

Good deal and good luck. Take some pics and let us know how it turns out.

[topherloaf]

I got a Road King Sundowner seat for $50 and I'm going to weld some brackets to make it fit on my 800.  The dang front seat is the same size as the drifter solo.  How cuh-razy!!!!!