I typically rely on my hands on/ trial and error/ figure it out for myself method to doing things, but I knew when I got my bike last year this winter was gonna be full of frustration...confusion...and a good time getting to know my bike. My father is a career mechanic with his own business which I work at but I don't turn wrenches, but I wanted to limit going to him for help or with all the ?'s I wanted answered, and only go to him for the serious issues. But I use forums for a lot of stuff I do and HDForum is one of the better forums I've used, and I'm glad I found it.

So thanks for the forum and all the members who are here to answer questions, and be helpful....you guys are doing a great job.

But thanks to the forum and some long cold nights spent in the garage I've gotten to know my bike pretty well, I started about month and a half ago when we a had a half way decent Saturday, which my only plan for that day was to change my oil, but I had the whole day and decided to start breaking the bike down, which I needed a new rear tire, I had new rear turn signals to mount and wire up, which was my excuse to spend the day and half the night(it got pretty cold and around midnight 1am my hands were getting harder to use, lol) out in the garage, so I got my fender off which I was having issues with the tire rubbing the wiring cutting out my L turn signal and as soon as I got the fender off I seen the issue, but I had to replace it all anyway, and I did that in the basement a couple nights later, but then I got my shocks off and realized the wheel wasn't coming off that day which was fine the tire hadn't come in yet anyway, and I spent the next couple hours just looking around, at the same time I was taking off odds and ends, and then I went to take the tank off and there wasn't to much gas in it and I tried to drain it from the peatcock, to no avail tho, I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong or not but I had to drain it from the crossover and made a little mess in the process but I got the tank off and then I followed wires for awhile just to see how everything ran threw the bike and what went where, the original owner installed a tack which I removed, I never looked at it nor needed it so I cut her loss, but since that night ive replaced the rear tire, and mounting the rear tire again was a hell of a night, issues with the spacers, the brake pads not wanting to stay separated, leaving the bike jacked up to high....but I got her on there, I've done a lot of little ****, cleaned my air filter, had to bleed my rear brakes, wired the new turn signals, installed a new lay down tag mount, got new shift linkage cause the stock linkage end where the ball end if the stud goes in got worn out and was being held on to the shifter arm by zip ties, relocated my front turn signals, tried out a new handle bar set up that got removed fairly quickly, did the oil change, new grips, but even tho I really didn't really do anything big or extravagant.....I learned a few things about my bike, taught myself a lot, added some more tools to my box, overall this winter worked out pretty good, there was some PowderCoat and paint planned for this winter but it's getting pushed off till next winter and I have a couple ideas for some other upgrades too, I wanna get the motor out and rebuild it, she runs amazing...sounds amazing...but it's only one year away from 20yrs old with 50grand on her so it sounds like the right thing to do for her, and I want to tune it when I do, and either cut down the drag pipes I got now to some shorties or just buy a new exhaust and I'm sure I'll come up with a couple more things to do. If you read this whole post then I might of bored ya....if not then thanx for reading it's time to get ready for work

 

You are so right. The knowledge base on these forums is pretty broad. Sure has help me a lot to.

 

I really like how they can answer most question illustrating it with photos as well, some people are book mechanics = they can read how to perform a task and then do it, others are what I call Look and Learn mechanics= we see how it is done and then we can do it. I have learned far more from this Forum that I think I ever had without it.

 

HDForums is absolutely the best and most active HD messageboard. There are quite a few others (notably one who kicks u off for minor cuss words, weird) but this one is the one I check every day.

 

Yep, I have found a ton of useful information on this site. It's the best Harley forum on the net!

 

one who kicks u off for minor cuss words

They did it to me--I considered it an honor!

 

Yah, they put me on "time out" a couple of times. Kind of funny, a Biker forum that worries about that sort of thing. I will only go there (and other Harley web sites) if I don't find the answer here. But that's not very often!

 

OP Quote:

I know a feller' that had over 87,000 miles on his early to mid-eighties Softail when he, being a mechanic by trade, did the only major engine work he's ever performed on his scoot: cam/lifter/push rod work (which I attributed to him running the absolute dogshit out his bike too many times over the years).

I haven't seen him in a while, but I'd bet he's already passed the 90k miles mark on that bike now.

Like the old adage says: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

 

Are we allowed to SAY" DOGSHIT " on HDF? BWAAAAAAAAAAAA!