I was recently told that my forks are only 2" over. The previous owner told me that they're 8" over. I'm not sure that it makes a lot of difference for the build. I'm going to use them anyway because I remember liking the way it looked when it was on the road 25 years ago. (the previous owner was my neighbor)

I measured from the axle to the top of the tubes to be 34" off the bike and un-compressed. The stock length for a 1983 FXWG is listed at 24.75" but I'm not sure where that's measured from. Can anyone shed some light on this?

edit: I found another measuring diagram on a google search. This one says that the standard for fork measurement is the distance from the base of the frame neck to the centerline of the axle. In that case, mine are 29.5". That's 4.75" over stock.

 

Actually...your FXWG fork...If Stock is Maybe 4 over the stock Shovelhead FLH Fork...which is 2 Over the Stock FX Shovelhead fork..
If they were 8Over anything you wouldn't be touching ground at rest, unless yer a Tall Scoundrel...
Are you after a Stock measurement?? 29.5 sounds right...but I can go measure for you!!!

And Yes Tubes are Measure by length of the Tube...Forks are measured Mounted..bottom of bearing [Which should correspond to the Bottom of the Stem] to Axle...

 

I've looked at several reference charts. All of them show stock length for a 1983 FXWG at 24.75". The stock length for the same year FL is 20.75".

The only part of the measuring standard that I haven't found a definite answer to is whether the measurement should be taken "at squat" or uncompressed. If the measurement is on the ground with bike weight, 2" over sounds pretty close to what I'm running. That will have to wait until after powder coating to determine. I'm not going to do a complete assemble for dry fitting.

 

Sounds correct for the tube measurement...don't got all that much to do with the mounted..running length...the dampers are different also.
length mounted [from base of bottom tree to axle, is measured unladen[extended].