Yep I hear ya- Used to race as well, mostly 600 and 750 class stock. long time ago though hah. Sure, the RT gold valves will give you the same good results. The only single reason I chose the ricor's over the RT dampers is ease of installation. the RT dampers require pulling the stock HD dampers and drilling them out. I can tell you that trying to remove the bottom fork damper bolt and then again trying to tighten / torque it up is not an easy task. the ricor's make it simple in half the time. I'm sure you can get RT to do the install for you right??

Not knocking the RT valves at all, this thread is designed for the DIY person at home with common tools. or if taking to a local shop, it will be less costly due to less labor involved.

You're going to be stoked after the fork upgrade. also change those crappy dunlop tires to Pirellis- no kidding. huge difference. Being a racer, take a second hard look at the F/R dunlops. Look how bad their profile is. Front tire is too wide for the rim and poor apex, back tire is too flat on the face / no apex. really bad tires.

 

yea could take to the rt headquarters in san diego,corona or have my buddie dustin they are ohlins/race tech certified..but yes if i was doin it myself i would definitely go the other way...plus ill get the rt stuff for cost or free so that always helps...great info my man!and great write up!

 

thx man- yeh free is always good with HD parts! lol.

Here is another good, inexpensive mod- swap the rear 66T pulley for the 68T sportster pulley 44404-07 - plug-n-play, use the same belt. best time to do it is if you are going to swap tires. the ultimate swap is a 30t front trans pulley but you have to take the primary off to get to it. essentially these bikes do a lot better with a shorter gear ratio. they are geared way too tall from factory. Parts, pictures here:

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...l#post13955941

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...l#post13996959

 

this is why i love these forums...what would we do w/o them!...we can all lose our wives/girlfriends together!

 

no kidding right? thank goodness my sweetie is ok with my excessive bike spending habit. hah. BTW if you do the pulley swap you'll set your speedometer correction to 2232 or 2252 pulse per km. use either one and see which is more spot on. mine is set to 2232 and off by maybe 1-2 mph.

Whatever you do, stay away from the thunderbike.de or Walz Hardcore Cycles websites. otherwise you'll want to buy some expensive really cool stuff. ;p

 

yea mines ok with it too,but i know many from the ducati forums/superduke 1290 forum that withered away because of it..lol.....and yea too late i ran into walzwerk/thunderbike along time ago...definitetly like that chin spoiler that thunderbike has for our bikes

 

@la dog where did you get the bc 49mm short gaiters?

 

This is the part you need, search internet or ebay / amazon. BTW I just cut mine off. I didn't like how they looked after awhile. that and they start collecting crap behind them - I do not want trapped moisture / dirt to mess up the finish on the fork tubes or top of sliders.

Fork boot gaiters:
Bikers Choice 48-8791 (49mm diameter short length for 49mm Dyna Street / Fat Bob / Breakout)
Extended length = 6.5”, Collapsed length = 3.0”

 

LA DOG,

Did you have the rear tail lights and fender struts powder coated?

 

fender struts are powdercoated

bolt heads for struts are painted with semi-gloss black enamel

for the tail lights, i carefully taped them off, sanded the chrome off with 400 grit, applied 2 coats of self-etch primer and then 5 coats of semi-gloss lacquer. let cure for 48hrs then buffed with polishing compound. Removing the rear turn signals is a pain so to me this was the easiest approach.

I also picked up some clear turn signal lenses from HD, they are honeycombed and work better with red LED bulbs.

Also a lot of the bolt heads have been similarly painted with semi-gloss black enamel.