Hi guys,

I am going to turn my roadie into a bobber, de horn the frame and put on a solo springer seat, peanut tank, springer front end, 21 inch front, 18 on the rear, chain conversion etc etc, but what I wanted to find out is just how much electrics and other stuff can i take off the motor to make it look more basic and clean? There seems to be a million fuses and little boxes and wiring all over the place, I am going to need to hide all the wiring and the more I can take off the motor the better it will look. It is not going to be a show bike but I have seen roadstar based show bikes that the motors seem to be only the cylinders, heads and case and nothing more! I think some of them even get rid of the transmission and run a chain from the right hand side? but I am more concerned with everything I can take off the motor to clean it right up. Am also going to go with a machined oil case cover (to get rid of that tall spout filler neck that is located under the seat) and would like to move the battery somewhere hidden and clean out all that area under the seat of the electricals there.

I also posted a question once before under my other username roadstar99 which I can no longer access for some reason about making a kick start for the bike and I think I had a reply with some information on that but cant find it on here if anyone remembers that information could they let me know.

Another thing I wanted to work out is how do i know what length the springer front end needs to be with a 21 inch front wheel to keep the bike sitting right? I think I saw one with a 2 inch under DNA springer front end that sat about right?

Any info or help on any of these topics would be appreciated thanks.

Sorry... Can't answer any of your questions, but I'd love to see the results!

Be sure to keep us posted with lots of photos of the progress... I know I'm not the only one who'd want to follow.

Best of luck and if anyone has the answers, it'm sure they're here.

I remember that original post and personally didn’t think you would make much headway with the thought/project.

Its a bit over ambitious, why not buy an old harley and work from there instead of chopping a Roadstar apart and putting it back together as an outdated under engineered bike ?

roadie99 wrote:
Hi guys,

I am going to turn my roadie into a bobber, de horn the frame and put on a solo springer seat, peanut tank, springer front end, 21 inch front, 18 on the rear, chain conversion etc etc, but what I wanted to find out is just how much electrics and other stuff can i take off the motor to make it look more basic and clean? There seems to be a million fuses and little boxes and wiring all over the place, I am going to need to hide all the wiring and the more I can take off the motor the better it will look. It is not going to be a show bike but I have seen roadstar based show bikes that the motors seem to be only the cylinders, heads and case and nothing more! I think some of them even get rid of the transmission and run a chain from the right hand side? but I am more concerned with everything I can take off the motor to clean it right up. Am also going to go with a machined oil case cover (to get rid of that tall spout filler neck that is located under the seat) and would like to move the battery somewhere hidden and clean out all that area under the seat of the electricals there.

I also posted a question once before under my other username roadstar99 which I can no longer access for some reason about making a kick start for the bike and I think I had a reply with some information on that but cant find it on here if anyone remembers that information could they let me know.

Another thing I wanted to work out is how do i know what length the springer front end needs to be with a 21 inch front wheel to keep the bike sitting right? I think I saw one with a 2 inch under DNA springer front end that sat about right?

Any info or help on any of these topics would be appreciated thanks.

Take these at YOUR OWN RISK. A former member of Delphi Roadstar Riders, used these on his Roadstar. He made them, he drew them... he engineered them.

BE WARNED THESE ARE FOR REFERENCE ONLY. TOMMY USED THEM, BUT MAY BLOW UP YOU BIKE. I HAVE ZERO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SCREW UP, SHOULD IT HAPPEN.

Here is the logical schematic for the ignition. (Click picture for larger version)

Here is the completely stripped down version. (Click picture for larger version)

Thanks for the wiring diagrams Iwill look into them and give it a go it looks like what I was after. Yes the project is ambitious but not overly - that's the point of it to give me something to work on problem solving. The reason I do not buy an old Harley and do it is because I like the roadstar and it will give me the look I want along with reliability plus over here in Australia Harley is not cheap even for old beat up bikes. There are plenty of Harley choppers and bobbers but not many yamaha ones and even less based on the roadstar.

Having been part of the chopper scene back when loooonnnnggg springers were the rage I can tell you that you need to know your math on rake and trail and how springers really work. Go here first:

http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/rakeandtrail.html

Then buy a springer from Sugar Bear, the best there is, and he will nail it so that your chop will handle. Don't buy some cheap ass DNA springer or a knock off of some kind.

Also you should know that one of our tricks was to use the smallest diameter front wheel possible, 16's in most cases. That helps you a lot when you have a heavily raked chop. Do the math on a 21" versus a 16" and you will see what I mean.

takehikes wrote:
Having been part of the chopper scene back when loooonnnnggg springers were the rage I can tell you that you need to know your math on rake and trail and how springers really work. Go here first:

http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/rakeandtrail.html

Then buy a springer from Sugar Bear, the best there is, and he will nail it so that your chop will handle. Don't buy some cheap ass DNA springer or a knock off of some kind.

Also you should know that one of our tricks was to use the smallest diameter front wheel possible, 16's in most cases. That helps you a lot when you have a heavily raked chop. Do the math on a 21" versus a 16" and you will see what I mean.

Thanks for the link it is interesting to see just how careful you need to be with those mods to get it handling right - In this case though as I am going for more of a bobber look rather then a chopper I am not changing the rake or anything, Just want the same as it is only to swap the forks out for a set of springers and a larger front tyre. I hear also what you are saying about the quality of the front end and I was not going for a DNA springer just saying that I saw one in a post on here that was 2 inch under with a 21 that had a nice look ( and hopefully good handling ) So i didnt know if I can get any brand of front end the same measurements to make it work - I will however be spending as much as my budget will allow to get the best quality that I can. I think it will be a bit hard for me to buy from over there in USA as I would like to be able to inspect the springers before purchase but I will look into it and the shipping costs involved anyway as I dont want the motorcycle to be unsafe my life is not worth skimping on cheap bike parts.