Star of the Month

Tanith

Owner Rob Hart, ISRA #11825

The story of how I came to acquire my Dragstar is quite an involved one. Back in 1997, I put my Kawasaki sports bike through the back of a car on the freeway and totaled it. On the way back from the hospital, I promised my wife I would not own another road bike until I could afford a Harley Davidson (something which I had always wanted).

For a few years, I kept strictly off road but as time went by, the urge to hit the road again (not literally, once was enough !) got stronger and stronger. I began looking around for a suitable Harley and came to the realization that although I identified with the spirit of riding a cruiser, a Harley wasn't what I was looking for. I found them to be way overpriced and way under-engineered.

I started looking at other makes of cruiser and, after a lot shopping around, I came to the conclusion that I definitely wanted a V-twin, as opposed to a boxer like a BMW or a parallel twin like a Triumph, and after messing about with MX bikes, I was tired of chains and chain lube and definitely wanted a shafty--a Dragstar fit the bill perfectly.

I originally found a Dragstar 400 Custom with a wild flame paint job but a mate of mine, the late Doug Joyce from Smokey's Custom, said I was mad as "it couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding."

One day a guy walked into Doug's shop asking if he knew of anyone who wanted to buy his Dragstar 1100. A few nights later, Doug introduced us over a bottle of Klipdrift Brandy, and in my drunken state, I agreed to buy it without even riding it as it was love at first sight.

When I came home and told my lady wife, she of course hit the roof. But, a few days later when she dropped me off to collect the bike she said, "Is this your bike? I had no idea. It really is lovely." Problem solved.

As all the work was carried out by the bike's previous owner, Mike Barris, I don't have details as to the origin of many of the custom parts fitted. Although I do know that he had Wildcat make three sets of custom pipes before he was happy with the look and sound. He also seemed to change the paint a lot. As far as I'm aware, the metallic black is her third different spray job.

By the way, everybody asks me what the girl on the tank's name is. I asked Mike, the previous owner, and he said she didn't have one, so my children have christened her Tanith, which with time, has also become the bike's name.

Specs: 1999 XVS1100 Dragstar Custom
At purchase in October 2003:

Paint: Custom Creations, frame metallic burgundy with metallic black body work (and gold brackets, calipers, etc.--go figure)
Pipes: Wildcat
Pegs: Highway Hawk with stock brackets painted
Bars: T-bar custom
Mirrors: Custom
Grips: Star Yamaha Accessories rails
Belly pan: Custom
Air cleaner: Stock with "Eagle Spirit" logo
Flashers: Custom
Rear fender: Standard chopped and reshaped
Brake light: Cateye
Side mount number plate: Custom
Brake rotors and calipers painted
Drive shaft hub painted
Engine mounts and all brackets painted
Seat: Standard but remodeled, extended, and covered in leather--no pillion seat

December 2003

Seat: Yamaha Genuine Accessories Stiletto solo seat by Corbin
Show Chrome Accessories chrome cable covers
Side mount number plate: Re-made by me!
Rear pegs: Made by me!
Forward controls: Billet aluminum by Smokey's

August 2004

At first I took a shine to bikes that Marcus Walz (http://www.walz-hardcore-cycles.com) produces. I thought a Dragstar's basic layout would really suit the "German industrial" look that his bikes have. Lately, after a steady diet of Hotbike, V-Twin, and Easyriders magazines, I am tending towards the pro-street look that is so popular in the States. So, after living with Mike's idea of custom bike heaven for just short of 2 years, I am ready to take the plunge and turn my pride 'n joy into my dream bike.

I have been uhming and ahhing about getting on with the ground-up rebuild of my bike (there always seemed to be another ride I just couldn't miss). It took a friend's accident to actually start the ball rolling. My friends Chris and Ann dumped their Dragstar 1100 and bashed up the left side. Their insurance company gave them a new tank for their bike and I traded them a case of beer for the old one. This suited my rebuild plans as I really wanted to keep my original tank--the graphics are too good to just sand away. I brought it in to work where the accident damage was repaired and a plate was welded over the hole where the instrument cluster fits in. The standard gas cap then looked so big and ugly all alone on the tank, so I ordered a weld-in popup Harley gas cap from Tolle in Sweden (ah, the Internet is a wonderful thing).

October 2004

The 1st of October was our national "commute on your scoot" day--as good a day as any to ride to work and start the rebuild. I'd decided to do the job at my business premises to keep my garage at home free and to keep little fingers from fiddling with daddy's stuff whilst he was at work. Also, working at an auto-body repair shop means I have access to a lot of equipment that I don't have at home. After reading and hearing about horror stories from other people's rebuilds, I decided I was going to take the bike apart the intelligent way. I took a lot of digital pictures before I took things apart and placed every assembly in its own sealed, labeled box. I turned a couple of beer trays upside down, punched holes in them, and put all the bolts and screws in the holes with labels to say what they were. This really helped when reassembly started, and I believe it's the only sane way to take a bike apart.

I also downloaded the service manual from the Internet, so I had all the torque settings for the bolts for reassembly and also which ones needed Loctite and what oils and greases to use. This was also invaluable in ensuring that all the spacers and washers and things got put back in the right order (sometimes the digital photos weren't so clear).

The work took exactly 2.5 months to complete. A large portion of that time was waiting for parts. It would also have been a lot quicker if the chromers had not messed up their work orders and chromed the driveshaft hub instead of just show polishing it--this effectively destroyed all the bearings and seals inside the hub, meaning that these parts had to be sourced and the hub had to be rebuilt.

I finished the major stuff, loaded the bike up, and took it off to be dyno'ed. Collected it a couple of days later, worked on it until 10:30 p.m. that night, and left on our club's annual road trip at 6 a.m. the next morning. I did think it was perhaps a bit of a leap of faith at the time, but the bike made it through all 1600 km of the trip okay--all I lost were two small bolts and a mirror on which the shaft snapped (I put this down to a manufacturing flaw).

After this, I've decided that you shouldn't turn a wrench near your bike unless you have the service manual close to hand. When the manual says torque to 90 Nm, the printers must've left out the word "slowly." Keep the easy-out close at hand and fit the part with an original bolt first, and then when you know its going to go back together, use a new shiny chromed one--no point in damaging the new bolts. In the future, I will not attempt a rebuild without a bike lift. I had the frame balanced on a car tire, which meant all assembly was done bent double--my back was finished.

Specs as of December 2004

Frame: Powder coated, welds smoothed, and helmet holder and rear brake master cylinder bracket shaved
Paint: Flash red
Exhausts: Modified Wildcats, trimmed down, brackets repositioned and re-chromed
Tolle pop up gas cap
Gas tank instrument cluster shaved and filled
Sigma digital odometer and speedo/computer mounted on triple clamp
Top triple clamp polished
Custom rear fender with Frenched-in Küryakyn lighted license plate holder
Küryakyn Hypercharger kit with K and N filter
Küryakyn Phantom rear axle covers
Küryakyn ISO grips with stiletto end caps and red anodized accent rings
Show Chrome Accessories chrome oil filler cap
Barons custom oil filter cover (no Yamaha logo)
Barons custom lowering kit
Barons custom radius drag bars
Doss Diamond mirrors
Control boxes and levers polished
Supreme Legends forward controls with built-in master cylinder
Brake rotors powder coated
Brake calipers and brackets chromed
Braided, clear-coated stainless-steel brake lines
Drive shaft hub chromed
All engine mountings chromed
Side stand bracket chromed
All bolts custom made with domed Allen heads and chrome plated
Yamaha logos removed from side covers

Thanks to:

Chris and Ann for the donor tank
Eddie, Wikliph, Themba, Ray, and Solly at RT for lots and lots of help and advice and lending me tools
Kyle and the crew at Cruiser Customising for all the luvverly bolt-on goodies and especially for organizing the fantastic forward controls and replacing the hypercharger that got lost in the post
The gang on the ISRA forum for their online help and advice
Andre at Joe's Paint for the polished triple clamp
Gerald at JG Powder coating
Quentin at Custom Worx for the free advice and sealing the inside of my tank
Allan at Reliable Bolt
Josie at Jennings Motor Engineering
Charles at Linex Yamaha
Pete, my friend and president of Classic Cruisers Motorcycle Club, for letting me ride pillion and lending me his precious Suzuki Marauder for the Toy Run
And lastly, Colin--my dad and also my boss--for letting me have a little corner of work all to myself and letting me get on with it during work time.
Next up:

I'm saving for some beautiful RC components alloy wheels and Tricky Air suspension.