The last week has been the most frustrating build week. The only issues I have ever had with the 1200 has been caused by Harley mechanics and their undying love for Loctite. Like guys, you only need one drop, there is no need to bathe the bolts in Loctite for weeks on end before installing them.

So yes, the latest frustration is the rear wheel. As you saw last time I bent my socket bar just trying to release the axle nut, but that would turn out to be the easiest part. I needed to remove the belt pulley and the brake disc from the old wheel and put them on the new one. Easy? Right?

Nope, not easy at all. I tried everything to get the bolts for the pulley off and I just didn’t have the strength or leverage. So thankfully a buddy let me use his air powered Ugger Dugger, which did the job. But only on the pulley. When it can to the brake disc, there was no luck. What there was, was multiple snapped torx bits. We tried fire, we tried ice, we tried heat guns, on the bolts and the hub. Nothing! Those bolts are held in place like Excalibur in the rock.

The wheel has been sent off to some other buddies with a lot more experience than me and hopefully they will have some luck releasing the disc.

Things went down a little bit more, Saturday was the perfect day for ride. So the 883 got wheeled out, I got all kitted up, so did the kid, and the bike went Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! So she got wheeled back into the garage, and we pulled the cage out, loaded the doggo in and off we went. Nowhere near as great in a car, but a rad day out anyway. We popped in at Old Town Motorcycles for a cheeky beer and breakfast and then headed off to the Market in Philadelphia.

On Sunday I got stuck into the 1200 again. Polishing up some of the copper pieces ready for paint. But, before I did that, I had a crazy idea to see what blueing solution would do to copper. Would it bring out all those beautiful blue and purple colours? No. Just dull crappy brown. So that piece was polished up again and a some clear coat was applied to all. I did have a moment of excitement while polishing at the buffing wheel, the headlight rim caught and pulled and at the same time the wire wheel of death decided to fly free and bounce around the workshop, looking for something to kill.

Monday I decided to do the fuel cap. After testing on the blade a few weeks ago, I had the stencil idea working great. So it got a good polish, covered in tape, stencil lasered and then coated with blueing solution. It came out great! Things went a little wonky on the clear coat, so I may need to strip that and do it again, but hey, these things happen I guess.

And then lastly, the 883 got a little bling…