Turns out my choice of rear sprocket was not so smart.

I chose a 49 tooth chrome sprocket as this was the smallest I could find to fit the Harley wheel, I thought it would be alright, a bit low geared but I’d manage, well I was wrong…..I can only get to about 50mph and it’s so high revving that the handle bars shake so much I find it painfull to hang on.

As you can see there is quite a difference, the standard XS sprocket is 33 tooth, now the problem occurs as you can’t buy an off the shelf solution (there is one available in the US but it’s very pricey) so I’d have to make something fit.  I used the inner of the XS sprocket as a template and marked it out on a bit of 12mm plate I had in stock, set to with the angle grinder and chopped out a rough blank to start work on.

I drilled a hole through the middle and kept drilling until I reached half an inch, this happens to be the same size as a bit of bar I had with a nut already attached, lazy boy.  I then set the bar in the lathe and attached the new blank, then proceeded to shape the outside to fit the XS sprocket.

Next I faced the blank to the same thickness as the XS sprocket, (9.3mm).

I now needed to bore the centre out to 56.4mm so I roughed it out with a Starrett hole saw, the closest I had was 32mm that I used for the frame if you can remember back that far!  I trimmed out the remainder with a boring bar and got a pretty good fit.

Here you can see the fit in the XS sprocket, fits very well.

It also sits well on the Harley wheel.

I would have welded it all up tonight and drilled it but I have ordered a new sprocket from M&P and paid for quick delivery so it should be here Wednesday morning so I can finish, pictures to follow.

———————————————————————————

Well much to my suprise M&P did deliver on time, happy days.

Now armed with my new sprocket and it’s dodgy coating that doesn’t get on with my welder I got stuck in and nailed the two halves together.

I needed to make sure it all ran true so I decided to turn an aly spigot before I drilled the bolt holes, need to get this bit right or it’s all been a bit pointless, fingers crossed…

I drilled through the original chrome sprocket in to my new custom sprocket and it all went well.

Don’t look too bad, I wanted to ditch the Harley bolts as they suck but the bolts I had lined up were too short so Harley bolts it is for now.

I took it out for a test ride Wednesday night and again today and it’s much improved, I can cruise at I guess over 50, maybe even 60, who knows, the speedo is in a drawer in my workshop, probably.