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Hey there sexy thread. I can see... that you're as sexy as I am. Well, not really. 
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Oct 15, 2011 06:48
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Phy posted:Dyna: It has two shocks in the back and a bigger motor. The Dyna also has a really ugly battery box-looking thing whereas the Softail has the cool oil-tank-with-cool-oil-lines thing EDIT: how much could I expect to pay to have the H-D logo on the tank professionally removed / painted-over / whatever on my Softail? I don't really need the whole thing re-painted, but I don't know if just a spot is something that's possible, or if it's just as cheap / expensive to re-paint the whole thing. Schlieren fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Oct 17, 2011 |
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Oct 17, 2011 05:45
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Choom Gangster posted:Yeah. It's a Firestone Deluxe Champion 500 x 16. I was thinking about doing this but the Vredestein that everyone uses is an inch off to fit my current wheel, and the modifications for a different wheel really wouldn't justify the savings on the tire after factoring in the "test pilot" aspect of darksiding. How do you like it?
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Nov 6, 2011 07:44
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Giblet Plus! posted:wouldn't it make more sense to just buy the '12 seat? Not at all, official H-D parts™ are horrifically expensive; the only time one could argue this might make sense is in purchasing plated / coated parts. Harley's plating / coating in my experience has always been superlative. Their seats are just "O.K." You're much better off with something like Lepera, which is also expensive as hell, but it shows up much more in the quality of the item
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Nov 27, 2011 10:08
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Sir Cornelius posted:Holy gently caress. That's a bunch of instruments for a slow V-twin. It's designed to travel hundreds of miles in a straight line for long hours of the day through various terrain, temperatures, elevations and environments. It's a different sort of performance requirement that nonetheless benefits from that insane instrument cluster
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Dec 19, 2011 01:41
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My first motorcycle is my current motorcycle which is a 2004 fuel-injected Softail Deuce and I haven't had any problems gaining confidence in riding it and don't particularly feel like it's "too much bike" or whatever, and honestly never really did. I had avoided motorcycles forever because they scared me since being a kid, but barring days when it rains in Seattle (which seem too unsafe for riding; coming from Southern California, PNW drivers really scare me) it's my daily commuter on a 20-minute freeway ride, whether it's 75 or 30 degrees outside. Maybe my initial fear gave me a healthy respect for it though, who knows? Also, I guess compared to flying single-engine planes, a motorcycle feels less hazardous (even if it's statistically less-safe). So there's that too. I've scraped the exhaust on one side and the kickstand on the other, so like everybody here, eventually you might find the limits of any cruiser and vaguely wish for something sportier. But I suppose even guys on really fast bikes might get that way eventually about what they're riding.
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Jan 5, 2012 01:00
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Scrapez posted:Are they telling you you'll get bored with an 883 because of the low horsepower? Or is that what you're thinking? A problem is that while the Sportster has always been one of the better-looking bikes w/r/t Harley's proportions, they really, really nailed it with this year's 1200 Custom. This after I'd been shopping for 18 months for one that had enough of what I wanted so I wouldn't have to modify it too much. But, I walked into the showroom and it just popped right out at me. I haven't taken a closer look to see if it's possible to modify an older bike to contain similar features, however. It's all subjective anyway, one might find an older Sportster more to one's liking. Certainly the much more reasonable outlay of cash makes it more palatable
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Jan 14, 2012 03:34
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Fkin posted:Not to argue that much but I see road kings sell like mad. That guy re-sells repo'd motorcycles fyi. Real nice guy, might haggle 300 bucks off his asking price if you're lucky but that's about it. He and his partner went separate ways, so there might be two of them in the entire PNW with prices that reasonable.
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Apr 3, 2012 16:49
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:And none of their exhausts will ever wake you up at night. I love waking up my neighbors at night but then again my neighbors are all jerks so they deserve it; I wonder what I'm going to do when I move if I like all my neighbors 
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May 24, 2012 05:41
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Classic Doggles.
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Jun 18, 2012 07:40
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DILLIGAF posted:I am a sportster guy and don't have a lot of love for the big twins, but if I were to buy one, it would be that one... great looking bike! I would ditch the rack and the highway bars if it were mine, but the rest looks pretty drat good as is. I haven't ridden one, only sat on them, but the Crossbones™ by Harley-Davidson™ seems really comfortable, and part of the reason are those bars. Some modest apes also are surprisingly comfortable
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Aug 11, 2012 22:04
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DILLIGAF posted:I was talking about the horrendous crash bars As you can see however the top of them make a great spot for stretching out your legs
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Aug 12, 2012 01:15
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Sagebrush posted:Looks like that baby is gonna be the last of his bloodline. It was probably its appearance on Ally McBeal that sealed the deal
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Aug 31, 2012 15:32
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I ride a Deuce with the stock seat and even with forward controls my knees were around my ears, but at ~6'1" I'm all legs (35" inseam). I bought some of these off eBay for like $150, and even with that it's a little bit uncomfortable. I just bought these things for stretching out on a long ride. My buddy is 5'11" and it fits him perfectly right now. There are so many options for riding configuration alterations with a Sportster, and everything costs less too, so if that's what interests you, I don't think it's going to be a problem, especially if it's around town. Nevertheless, at your height basically any motorcycle isn't going to be scaled for your size.
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Sep 2, 2012 08:18
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Nice post, thanks.Gay Nudist Dad posted:Finally, I get it. I get why people like these. It felt so powerful. quote:The engine vibrations were surprisingly absent - apparently this engine is counter-balanced? quote:Weird! But comfortable.
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Sep 3, 2012 10:54
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Redwinters posted:Pardon the awful instagram, I will get real photos soon. Just put these pipes on the fatboy, Not sure if I am sold on the short look. I think it works without the bags; with the bags, I think what would tie it together would be a chrome-plated swingarm. They're ridiculously expensive and I'd never buy one, but my bike already had it installed when I bought it and it does look nice, if you like that sort of thing. That 2-into-1 would look really good to me if it went way back to the end of the bags, or at least to the beginning of the bags
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Sep 4, 2012 04:49
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thylacine posted:This thread makes me want a HD. I'm sick of spaceship looking bikes (had a R1100gs i traded for my dad's Versys.) I'm going to try and trade straight across for a 883. I'm 6'1", which one do I want? There's always a lot for sale. Mainly customs, how hard is it to put mid-controls on them? Can I still go around a curvy road once in awhile? I hate the way the Versys handles (little wheels front and back.) I liked the way my CX500C and GS handled (bigger wheel in front.) Moving controls around on a Sporty is elementary. There are too many versions out there for me to be able to recommend one but if I had to go back I'd try to get a Shovelhead because that motor just looks cool as heck. There are so many aftermarket parts available - as well as salvage parts - that it's pretty easy to get a bit here, a bit there, both for the cosmetics as well as the performance. If I were you I'd ride a lot of different years / versions to see what suits you best. In my opinion the 2012s and 13s are the best-looking Sportsters in a long time. On my Softail the exhaust limits right turns, on the left the lowest reach of my kickstand is the limit. Its maximums are nowhere near what I could do on a sportbike, but it's well enough over to get the attention of a passenger.
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Sep 25, 2012 06:45
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The Royal Nonesuch posted:The Sportster I picked up a monthish ago currently has V&H 2-2 Big Shot pipes as seen here. After a month of riding, they're a bit loud and I'm not super crazy about the shorty look. I'm looking at getting some V&H Blackout 2-1 as seen here. Some actual muffler action going on, as well as an optional quiet insert to play around with. Sounds great from what I could find on Youtube, and I think they look a bit better visually.  My bike went from 2-1 to a 2-2. Both exhausts had their own individual mounting plate system, hardware included: I wouldn't worry about that part at all. You'll need to remove the old, then buy & install new gaskets for the exhaust flange - head mount. The local Harley dealer had these in stock; the Screamin' Eagle™™™ ones are actually cheaper than the stock ones, and are a little bit beefier. I removed the old ones by spraying in some light petroleum-based lubricant, then carefully sticking a flathead screwdriver into them, then nudging, and they came out in one piece. A little bit of carbon buildup on the head-flange point of contact that I removed as carefully as hell with a straight razor. The 2-1 was two pieces on my Softail - from the head to the mounting plate (mostly the "2" part), then basically a slip-on muffler (the "1" part) joined very tightly with a simple clamp actuated by a bolt / nut combination. Get used to these extremely tight sorts of clearances by the way. The head studs (which are in the head (amazing), and serve to anchor the exhaust pipe's flange to the head) likely are going to be fine thread and very, very rusty, same with the nuts. I'd go very slowly here using Knock-R-Loose or whatever you'd like to use for a few minutes - tapping every once in a while on the stud - before you even attempt to get these nuts out. If you start to need muscle, seriously consider spraying more penetrant and giving it some time and more taps with a deadblow or whatever. To remove and replace these nuts (you WILL go to your local Ace Hardware and buy new nuts) is the biggest challenge you have, because if you have lovely sockets the tool itself will be too thick to fit between the nut and the recesses in the heads, and between the nut and the exhaust pipe (you run into this on performance headers on Chevy small blocks all the time). Also, you'll be using socket extensions and what-not when you go to affix the new nuts + flange + pipes to the heads, which will rob you of any feel when threading, leaving you with a very real possibility of either galling the nut, or the stud, or just plain old cross-threading the whole thing which of course is no fun, because then it's take a motorcycle to a mechanic time for them to extract and replace the studs. When I threaded these nuts, I did it by hand to avoid this possibility. It took me a good three hours or more and a LOT of patience to get this right... you have to remember that the weight of the pipes is, to a certain extent, just sitting there while you try to thread these nuts in a very, very tight space. So you nudge the pipe and the pipe moves the whole thing and the nut falls out of the tips of your fingers. OH and a little magnet grabber. That's going to come in handy when you lose a nut and it drops into some unknown crevice you'd think would never exist on something as porous as a motorcycle. Other than that, absolutely do NOT tighten anything down before anything else; you'll want to get stuff a little bit tight here, then there, then step back and look at the alignment of the pipes and what not, then adjust a bit and tighten a bit more, then step back again, then re-tighten. Either use some reversible LocTite, or the penetrating kind (purple I think) after you get everything where you want it to go, OR ride a few days then go back and re-tighten everything, and repeat maybe a couple weeks later. It's really super-easy, but still harder than you feel like it should be; at least that was my experience. Performance-wise, you'll probably notice a difference in performance, but if anything you'll notice and be grateful for the change of the sound of the bike more.
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Oct 24, 2012 03:05
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As winter descends, the Harley thread grows quiet... 
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Nov 10, 2012 08:27
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Really happy to see that your Sporty doesn't have studs for the exhaust flanges; that probably made installation a billion times easier. Looks like a clean job there, nice work 
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Dec 2, 2012 07:49
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Strife posted:Dear CAHOG, If they hate the sound of Freedom, that's their problem isn't it?   When I swapped out the 2-into-1 that was on my Duece when I bought it for some Bub Sidecutters (not me), and started the motor with them for the first time, I literally laughed out loud at how ridiculously loud it had become. I don't ever use my horn now when someone is pulling out into traffic, I just drop it into neutral and rev it a lil' That being expressed, I'm surprised that your bike performs better, unless you at least did Stage 1 type stuff to it as well. Those shorties rob backpressure
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Mar 12, 2013 22:34
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Scrapez posted:Alternatively, you could get or make some baffles. Might quiet them slightly. I live way up a hill so I kinda have to be loud on the way home (quiet on the way out), but my neighbors are all jerks and were all jerks before I had the bike so I don't feel particularly guilty... every once in a while I'll rev it like once in the garage before killing it, but that's just because it's hilariously loud. Need to clear out those pistons so it starts right up next time! You know, for performance. I wonder, is there a way maybe to make them a little quieter? I wouldn't mind losing a few DB. In my opinion, even with earplugs, constant exhaust noise can sometimes seem as fatiguing as the wind and all that.
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Mar 14, 2013 01:45
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elsanto posted:I want to put a quick release windshield on my Sporty Low. Who makes a good one (besides Harley)? Is National Cycle worth the money? Harley's quick release windshield is more "quick" release than actual quick release
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Apr 12, 2013 02:34
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Strife posted:Anyone downloaded a remap onto their bike? Mine runs like poo poo after doing the exhaust, and until I do some more extensive work, I'm not going to make the effort to have it actually tuned on a dyno. The dealership and a few online forums suggested that a pre-set fuel mapping can be applied to the ECM. This can only be done at the Harley dealer because they are the only ones with the proprietary equipment required to do it. It's like $350 or something ridiculously exorbitant and is one of the reasons I vowed never, ever to have any repair work done at a dealership ever. If anyone has a different idea please let me know because I'd be glad to go somewhere else, but I've got the Harley thing instead of a Power Commander so I'm probably screwed. e: The other incident which led me to this occurred when I forgot to flip off the ignition so my headlight drained my battery. They graciously towed my bike a few blocks to the dealership and then proceeded to try to sell me a new battery and charge me labor for installing it. I pushed that heavy loving bike back to my work, pulled it into the bay in the back, plugged it into my trickle charger over the weekend, started it up the next Monday, and still loving hate those nasty small fuckers who run that place. A different dealership tried to tell me that a 15,000 mile service should cost maybe $300 or so. Yeah, gently caress you Schlieren fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Nov 20, 2013 |
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Nov 20, 2013 04:24
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The knucklehead really is the best-looking of the Harley motors imo. Shovelhead next, too bad the for the AMF stigma really
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Nov 22, 2013 06:19
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The radiator in front looks godawful.
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Jul 22, 2014 06:39
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I was riding to Vancouver BC near Mt. Vernon when quite suddenly the motorcycle sounded like it was dragging a bag of river rocks, especially on-throttle. Coasted a bit, looked down to see if the tire was flat, nope. Hit the throttle again and horrible rocks so I pulled the hell off as soon as possible, which luckily was right then and there. I take a look and it seems the pulley bolts have worked their way out? The swing arm is a little bit chewed but nothing anybody would notice. Near a Harley dealer, but obviously I call around to every other service center in the area because gently caress Harley dealerships. A guy drives out and takes a look -- every pulley bolt has sheared off in the wheel. Everything on this bike is a Harley™ Certified™ Part™. Nobody nearby had a tow so I had the H-D dealership pick me up because they always have a trailer. They want to sell me a new wheel -- $1200 is the estimate for the fix. I call the guy who actually bothered to drive out to me and he's a machinist and can get the bolts out and complete the fix for maybe $250 or so. Arranging for a tow on Tuesday when the dealership opens -- I heard that the management is different there, but the employees are all the same from when they earned their apparent bad reputation. To me that's surprising, because I've never been to a Harley dealership that didn't make me never want to give them a cent, they're all overpriced assholes. One time I left the headlight on for a few hours accidentally on my bike and they wanted to sell me a new battery, AND labor to install it. I pushed my bike a mile back to work, plugged in the trickle charger over the weekend, and was good to go on Monday. H-d dealerships are basically places to avoid. I'm still salty that my bike can only get mapped at a dealership (it's the H-D power commander unit) -- that's like $450 right there if I want to do it ever. Probably never will.
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May 11, 2015 05:32
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Scrapez posted:How did your pulley bolts get that loose? I've never so much as inspected mine and never had a issue. They've never been off the wheel since it was installed. The original owner put a bunch of chrome on the bike -- chrome HD wheel, chrome HD swingarm, chrome HD pulley cover, chrome HD pulley bolt kit, likely right after he bought it. They were installed correctly with Loctite per HD instructions -- which is why there's still bits of them in the wheel still. Somehow they're incorrect... the bike has 20,000 miles on it, 13,000 of them mine. I had a tire swap last August, but they don't touch the pulley for that. The bike gets cleaned regularly, in typical Harley fashion, so I'd like to think I'd have noticed something wrong with a part of the bike so regularly seen / inspected. It's a mystery.
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May 11, 2015 06:13
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Outside Dawg posted:Loctite is your friend. Schlieren posted:They were installed correctly with Loctite per HD instructions -- which is why there's still bits of them in the wheel still
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May 11, 2015 10:06
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Since it's cold this thread in particular hasn't had a post in a month but today I went outside and rode around because it was cold but dry, just like I do on all the other five winter days in Seattle like that. It smelled really nice out there, I recommend it
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Dec 27, 2015 06:55
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Duck_King posted:I avoid the rain because I just don't trust the other drivers around here. It's pretty dry most of the year, so people don't know how to react in fresh rain. I went out for a nice ride in a mild, seasonal shower and the motorcycle was all over the place; I could get the rear to spin out from under me, even at speed, if I gave it too much throttle (too much being "even a somewhat moderate amount"). Promptly said "yeah no thanks", took side streets home @ 25 mph, never to revisit that idea ever again
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Dec 28, 2015 07:12
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The starter on my non-motorcycle busted so I rode all week long on the bike. Contrary to what I thought would happen if subjected to seven days of Seattle rain, it did not melt and all the chrome is still there. Also, it was pretty outside to be out there, even if the rear liked to slide out from under me every once in a while
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Jan 17, 2016 02:12
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Hello thread. So I added some bags mounted with Easy Brackets but kept the yoke for appearance or whatever. My goal of them at least not making the bike look worse was successful imo. In other news holy hell the S3 takes just garbage photos
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Mar 18, 2016 07:50
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Scrapez posted:Easy Brackets are great. Let you remove the bags in seconds. Had a set on my old sportster. The yoke makes getting the key into the lock a two-handed one-finger-only-on-each-hand challenge but that's fine with me, I won't be removing them all that often and if someone finds the key stashed on my bike, yeah good luck figuring THAT out But now I can't put most sissy bars on the thing because that's where they'd mount and then you'd have all sorts of metal beneath that trim piece. I stuck the HD one there that mounts under the seat, because I have actual passengers every once in a while now. Kinda takes from the looks of the bike but whatever
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Apr 22, 2016 09:00
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 Seattle - North Cascades loop through Ellensburg for a U-Tote-Em last Saturday - was on the bike for 12 hours. I'm taking a friend this Saturday, it was beautiful. 
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Aug 19, 2016 15:06
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clutchpuck posted:Blewitt always blows my mind. North to south feels like going downhill the whole way... and then you hit the top of the pass. What? My visor was almost totally occluded with bug smears and there were too many idiots behind me I didn't want near me again, but I knew I was going uphill because of the temperature getting cooler and cooler
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Aug 19, 2016 22:41
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As fall descends, so too the Harley thread, down the pages of the SA forums...
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Sep 15, 2016 05:24
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 11:21 |
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I have dealt with Harley-Davidson the corporation enough in the ten years or so I've owned one of their motorcycles that I feel I can say with a bit of confidence that this organization does not deserve your, or anyone else's money. My '04 FXSTDI is still one of the coolest-looking (and definitely best-sounding) cruisers I've seen anywhere, and I'm glad for that because it's likely going to sell for above its market value, and certainly going to sell above its value insofar as I perceive it.
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Jul 9, 2018 09:05
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