{"id":2610,"date":"2009-10-14T18:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-14T18:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotbike.local\/basic_content\/2004-harley-davidson-xl-1200c-bobster\/"},"modified":"2022-01-02T17:27:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T17:27:38","slug":"2004-harley-davidson-xl-1200c-bobster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/2004-harley-davidson-xl-1200c-bobster\/","title":{"rendered":"2004 Harley-Davidson XL 1200C – Bobster"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here’s how Dave’s Sporty looked before he bombed it out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dave did a damn good job with the fine textured powdercoat on the carb. Check the old oven in the background.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Here at HOT BIKE, we get a lot of rides-Harleys, hogs, whatever you want to call them-submitted by our readers. Pick of the Pen is an opportunity to dedicate a few pages to our favorite readers-submitted bike each month. This month’s pick of the pen comes to us from David Walden of West Virginia.<\/p>\n

My father-in-law said to me, “go ahead take her for spin.” That’s how it all started for me with the Harley bug. I would go over every chance I had to “visit” with them and take his Sporty out for a quick jaunt. In the fall of 2003 I bought a brand new ’04 Sportster 1200 Custom in Vivid Black. I rode the bike stock for quite some time and logged several thousand miles before I decided it was time for change. Like a lot of others, I added some chrome doodads here and there and changed the pipes and seat.<\/p>\n

Eventually I grew tired of its look, it was the same as any other Sportster on the road. With the help of the Sportster community (xlforums.net) I was able to research a lot of ideas. First I sent the lower fork legs out to be powdercoated black and reinstalled them with a 1-inch lowering kit from Progressive and replaced the rear suspension with Progressive’s 11-inch black shocks. It was that little bit of black that really got me motivated to black out the entire bike and go for an old school bobber look. I picked up a powdercoat gun for cheap and decided to see how difficult it would be to powdercoat a few smaller pieces myself.<\/p>\n

First I powderdcoated the stock headlight and used a cheap toaster oven to cure it. It turned out so well that I picked up a used kitchen oven from a friend, plugged it into the garage and began powdercoating anything I could fit into the oven. I sold all of the chrome covers and purchased used stock aluminum ones from eBay to powdercoat. The engine covers were all coated with a fine black texture that matches close to what the factory uses. I even took the carburetor apart to powdercoat it along with the intake. The stock 4.5-gallon tank was sold and I bought a 3.5-gallon tank that I painted with John Deere Blitz Black,-a lot of hot rodders use this for a cheap flat paint. I cut the rear fender and mounted a side mount license and taillight which I also powdercoated. I had a local guy hand letter and pinstripe the tank along with the rear fender. The pegs are a BMX bicycle style setup that I think really looks trick. To clean the top area, I moved the speedo to the left side of the tank. I used scotch-brite to scuff the chrome Harley Screamin’ Eagle exhaust, and then painted with a high temperature paint used on wood burning stoves which has held up remarkably well and is easy to repair if nicked. This was a budget build, nothing fancy, that overall I am very pleased with and gets plenty of questions and comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
SPECS<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year\/Model<\/td>\n’04\/XL1200C<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Builder\/Assembly<\/td>\nDavid Walden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Engine Size<\/td>\n1200cc<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pipes<\/td>\nH-D Screamin’ Eagle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gas Tank<\/td>\nH-D<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pin Striper<\/td>\nJack Hendricks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Front Fender<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rear Fender<\/td>\nH-D Chopped<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Front Suspension<\/td>\nProgressive Suspension<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rear<\/td>\nProgressive Suspension<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wheels<\/td>\nH-D<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tires<\/td>\nAvon Venom<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Handle Bars<\/td>\nH-D<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Seat West<\/td>\nEagle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s how Dave’s Sporty looked before he bombed it out. Dave did a damn good job with the fine textured powdercoat on the carb. Check the old oven in the background. Here at HOT BIKE, we get a lot of rides-Harleys, hogs, whatever you want to call them-submitted by our readers. Pick of the Pen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":50010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"motorcycle_parts":[],"motorcycle_models":[],"motorcycle_builders":[],"motorcycle_gear":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2610"},{"taxonomy":"motorcycle_parts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motorcycle_parts?post=2610"},{"taxonomy":"motorcycle_models","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motorcycle_models?post=2610"},{"taxonomy":"motorcycle_builders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motorcycle_builders?post=2610"},{"taxonomy":"motorcycle_gear","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotbike.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motorcycle_gear?post=2610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}