How many miles to you ride, and how many bikes?

I have kept a log on mileage and maintenance for each of my bikes since beginning to ride regularly almost ten years ago.  My mileage total goes up in fits-some years I've ridden over 10,000 miles both commuting and riding around, but other years have been low due to work travel and deployments.  I also reached an interesting milestone yesterday!

My main bike for many years, if not my only bike, was my first dependable one: a Yamaha V-Star Classic 650.  It was a great starter bike for a then cruiser-only guy:  classic styling, comfortable position, shaft drive, simple layout and features.  I rode that bike, customized that bike, sold it, bought it back, rode it some more, then finally sold it for good.  I ended up totaling 24,616 miles on the V-Star.

Since 2006, my main bike has been a Harley-Davidson Sporster, although I have always owned at least one other running bike the whole time I've had it.  There have been periods where I rode every day, and one long deployment in 2008 when the mileage ridden dropped to zero.  Well, last night when I parked the Sporster, I had ridden it exactly 24,616 miles!  Until I leave in a few minutes, I will have TWO top mileage bikes with exactly the same number of miles ridden on each one-how odd is that?

Ride safe and far my friends-

Giving credit where credit is due: Cycle Gear San Marcos CA

Thursday night I had the face shield on my Bilt 3/4 helmet come unattached on the right side.  Fun ride home after bailing out on Mira Mesa Bike Night (MMBN).  What I didn't know was the face shield and all it's hardware is held on by tiny allen bolts.  One of mine is somewhere loose out there, all alone and unafraid.  No wonder the shield moved around too easily-it was never properly installed.

Yesterday I went back to the San Marcos Cycle Gear where I had bought the helmet a while ago, and Lauren, one of their long-time associates helped me out.  She offered to swap the helmet one for one, despite the fact I have used this helmet quite a bit, my dog ate the slider on the bag, and had no paperwork.  She even went and got a second replacement helmet when the first one had some glue and a small scrape on it!  She's always friendly and helpful as are the whole staff at this Cycle Gear.

Off to break in the new helmet!

Replacing a Harley-Davidson Sportster oil tank (pre-2004)

The Sportster has been leaking oil from the oil tank for a while now, and after just putting up with it I decided to finally fix it.  I got a take off tank from eBay and sanded and painted it.  Yesterday I had some time to replace it so gathered everything up and went to work.

Bike with improvised sidebag

Hey, that's an empty garage!  "Millie's Garage" is full of all the stuff that used to be in this garage so I moved back over to the house we are about to sell instead of using my future bike shop that is one big storage unit right now.  But I didn't bring over either lift as getting them out would have taken longer than this project.



Battery and accessories removed

 I started by pulling the battery, which I've done a few times and gotten pretty good at.  This time I knew I was completely removing it, so I labeled the repositioned coil wires and pulled the chrome cover, coil and battery all as one piece.  Much easier than wedging it back together.  I also had to pull the repositioned ignition switch before removing the battery box.

There was oil everywhere, as expected since the leak was coming out of the top battery box-oil tank mount.

Sportster battery box and oil tank removed

 Here's what everything looked like once I got the battery box and the oil tank out.  See the wiring loom?  Lots of oil on it, and didn't feel like completely pulling the wiring harness off and cleaning it for hours.  Frame was coated in oil and grit, so that got cleaned up too.  And yes, there are more wires, switches and relays than I think are needed for a fairly basic bike.  Thanks DOT, EPA, and CARB!

Notice the rear mounting tab for the oil tank?  It's for a nylon nut that has less clearance to the rear fender than most tools will fit, and no way to turn an open end wrench more than a quarter turn.  I think this is the same for all the Evolution Sportster oil tanks through 2003, but I may be wrong as they changed oil tanks once or twice during the run.  A claw foot wrench might work, but I finally wedged a 7/16th socket in there with an extension and made it work.  Have fun when you do this project!

 Back together and home before the rain started.  Short ride but no big leaks (have blown an oil line right after an oil change before!) and a longer ride today with no leaks either.

Let's see if there is a puddle anymore.  Not yet.  Sweet.

All in all, a pretty straightforward project well within my confidence and skill level as an average mechanic.  Cleaning the bike took about 1/3 the time, so if I had caught this earlier it might have been quick, but still only  took about 3.5 hours.  Probably could do it in 2 to 2.5 hours next time.


I didn't post the pic, but the bottom mount had already been brazed on the oil tank at least once already.  Seems like leaking Sportster oil tanks are a common occurance, especially when fasteners have vibrated off.  As one shop advised me, might as well replace it and braze the old Sportster oil tank as a friend or I will need to do this again if we keep riding any real mileage on these bikes.

EDIT/UPDATE:  This is my most searched and viewed post!  If you find it helpful working on your oil tank, please comment and share any tips you learned.  Thank you-