Hello Dyna forum, first post and happy to be here. I tried to write a quick intro but it turned out a bit long winded, so I'll save that for the New Member thread instead. For now I'll say that I went from knowing nothing about Harleys to buying one in about a month or so. I knew I wanted a Dyna, and knew that I liked that ducktail rear fender. I thought the front tire being more similar in size to the rear would make it handle better in turns, but that opinion was based on a few things I had read, rather than any actual knowledge. I could be wrong about that, I don't know yet. I didn't like the drag bars, but they were a lot closer to what I wanted than anything else I could see on other Dynas so I figured I could live with them for a while until I found something custom. I didn't like the forward controls, but I was willing to give them a shot to be sure.

Foot Controls
At the time I had no idea how much was involved with going to mid-controls on this engine. Now that I know about the cases, is there a better way to go about getting the right inner and outer primary covers and linkages than just buying them on eBay and then selling mine afterwards?. Since I have the version that more people are looking for, it shouldn't be too hard to find someone to swap cases with me, but I'm leery of how much down time would be involved in making that happen at this time of year. Unless someone was local, I suppose, but even then. I've missed two seasons now, and I really don't think I have it in me to miss a third. I've read and watched instructions on how to take the cases off, and I think I could manage to get it done. Are there any special tools to buy, or things outside the realm of typical DIY? I rebuilt the front end and put in new steering bearings on this Fat Bob, is it on a level with that?

Seat
Once I get my feet under me, I'm going to look for a taller seat. I really like the look of the seats on the 2014 and later Fat Bobs. The current favourite is the Saddlemen Step Up Seat, but it depends on how much the other things cost at this point. Review says it puts you up a bit taller, which is what I want. On my old Virago I remade the seat by building it up much taller with dense foam, and I really liked it.

Handlebars
Asking about risers and handlebars is what made me finally join this forum. I've been reading for months and I chose this one based on the results that came up when I googled for problems and ideas. I finally tracked down what I want based on a few seconds of youtube footage, and lots of looking. Turns out it's tracker bars and tall risers. I want the tracker bars because the ergonomics of a drag bar are pretty terrible in my opinion. They're probably great for going in a straight line for 10 seconds, I guess. The problem for me is how they put your wrists, and I'm looking for something that keeps them in a more neutral posture, so that's how I ended up with tracker bars. Right now I'm looking at the Lucky Daves Riser bars or Biltwell Tracker bars, depending on which riser I go with.

Risers
I really like the Hardcase Performance tracker risers. I love the look of them, and I like how they're just straight. I don't like the look of pullbacks at all. So here's my dilemma, and where I hope to get some help. Going by position and looks, I would get the 9" or 7" risers with the bars that have very little rise. That was great until I realized how goofy that will look: a wide glide front end, lots of beef and width down low with two beanpoles sticking up off the top of it. So that brought me Zombi Bars and a very low risers, which I think would look really good on a Fat Bob, but they're nowhere near where I want my hands to be. Low risers with bars the same width as the wide forks looks awesome. The other option I thought of was to go with 4" risers, and the same Tracker bar, but the version with 4" of rise instead. That might break up the beanpole look. The last option would be a fairing. The only reason I wouldn't want to do this is just how big this project is getting, and limited selection. I've only been able to find two fairings for the dual headlights, but I could live with the beanpoles temporarily if I was doing this. I can't decide if I love or hate the dual headlights, so going to a single isn't out of the question, especially if I want to put a Daymaker light on it. The duals seem to be dual the price.

I bought the bike at the end of last season, and barely got to ride it. I've been out on it for two big days so far this year, and now I know for sure that I can't have this set up the way it is now. I've got 2" riser extensions which help, but it's not enough. I'm making these changes to bring the bike more in line with how I actually use it. I like being on country roads linking turns all day long and right now I can't do that very well. Thanks for reading this long post.

 

welcome to the forum!

 

First off welcome to the forum and the best resource for how to tips and tricks. Did you buy a manual? A manual is essential to do work on a Harley yourself. Best money you will spend besides the bike itself. Now to address your areas of concern: For reference I have an 09 FatBob and I changed everything (and then some) that you are looking to change.
Seat. I put on a '14 stock FatBob seat and find it to be just what I needed. No expensive aftermarket seat for me. I've talked to other FatBob owners with this seat and we are all in agreement how good it is for a stock seat. I've cranked out just shy of 1000km days on this seat and I'm happy with it.
Mid-controls. two words. DO IT! It is so worth the time and searching and buying the inner and outer primary just to get the next level of control and then comfort as the next plus. I did the swap myself and by following the procedure, torque sequence and values in the manual it's not a bad job. A lift certainly helps in this. Later on I had a chance to try further forward mid-controls and that sent me on a quest to find a pair which I did and that's what I'm sticking with(FatBobs should come stock with these. Harley needed to get their brains out of the "cruiser" mindset long ago. forwards are not for the Dyna lineup.

Handlebars: I too didn't like the bend or how low the stock drag bars were and ended up trying some 2" risers for a season and that didn't cut it so I went for the best feeling bar I tried( couple buddies let me sit on their bike and just see how their handlebars felt to me) ended up with 10" Tbars. Stiff for better control and the height works for me( if I was to do it again I'd go 12" bars) and my wrists are super comfortable. I bought Drag Specialties 1.5" buffalo bars but again if I was doing it over I'd spend a bit more and get Wild 1 Chubbys Tbars. Just overall build quality and better openings for internal wiring. Along with the bars I converted to a single LED headlight and a rifle fairing to take the wind off my chest for the above mentioned 1000km days. There ya go man, by far the best mod is the Mid-controls.

sorry for the lengthy post but wanted to get the point across that your on the right path, just go for it.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the welcome. cdndiesel that was a great post, and exactly what I was looking for so thank you. It got me thinking about a few things, for sure. I always worry that my posts are too long for people to want to read, so I do my best to tighten it up.

I do have a service manual, and a parts manual for my bike. They were the first things I bought for it after a new battery. Coming from old Japanese bikes, it's really impressive how much better the documentation is from Harley. The parts book is so good, I would recommend it to anyone working on their own bike. The extra indexes at the back are great. Hardware is indexed by part number, and lists dimensions and grade. Might not sound like much until you need it. There's an index for all parts by part number listing the page in the book. There's even an index for which year certain parts were introduced. The fact that parts for common maintenance jobs are rounded up into kits that have their own part numbers is pretty great, too. Worth every penny. A PDF version should come with it, but isn't available for either book.

Foot Controls
Yeah there's no doubt I want mid-controls, for several reasons. The job seems to be within the realm of reason for where my skills and tools are right now, so I'm going to price it out. I wanted to find someone to trade cases with me, but today something I learned made me realize that that will be harder to arrange than I thought. I knew more people generally want forwards than mids, but what I didn't realize was that people going from mids to forwards usually just plug up the holes. They don't normally go and get different cases like I'm doing for obvious reasons. So unless I can find someone who's looking to trade their current mids for my forwards, for no real benefit over just plugging the holes, I don't see it happening. Someone who would want to pay for that cleaner look on the case, probably would want a case that's in better shape than mine, so that probably won't work either. I mean, it might, but I won't know until I commit to a trade situation and I run the risk of waiting all summer for a match.

If I do it myself, I'll replace the shifter shaft oil seal while I'm in there since the bike has 40,000 km (25,000 miles) on it and from what I gather it eventually needs to be done. I would probably also upgrade the clutch spring while I'm in there as well, but that needs more research and is easier to get to later just removing the outer cover. How do you know the correct angle at which to put the shifter arm onto the shifter shaft? As far as I know, the angles for the forward and mid versions of that arm are different, and I won't have anything to reference. The bearing (part 9231) where the transmission shaft comes through the inner primary, should I replace that as well? If I do this myself it will be with a used inner primary so I won't know its condition, and I might as well while I have it off is what I'm thinking.

Seat
According to the prices I found today, the Saddlemen would be $210 CAD more than the 2014 Fat Bob seat. If I could find a coupon or discount I would probably order it tomorrow because it's exactly what I've been looking for. I don't like ordering things directly from the US because you can get a customs bill weeks later and have no clue ahead of time what the charge will be. The Canadian site that I usually order aftermarket parts from has the Step-Up seat but not in Tuck&Roll so I don't know. I was thinking of calling them to see if they could make one that's a bit taller for me, but even just typing that I'm sure it'll cost a fortune because the cover would have to be special made, as well.

Handlebars
I had ruled out T-Bars because of the beanpole look, so thanks for reminding me about them because if I'm gonna do a fairing down the road, they're back on the table. Right now I'm on the stock risers plus 2" extensions, so that should be 7.5". When I rode it, I liked the height pretty good, but there's no way to know how I would like them if they were even taller. I could mock something up in the garage to place my hands, but until I ride it, I won't know. I could see 10" or 12" looking really nice, and being comfortable on the highway, but how do they actually handle in fast turns? Can you still countersteer and take turns well? It feels to me like the best height for that would be with your hands a bit below shoulder height. I know a stock Dyna doesn't exactly handle great, but that's what I want out of it. It'll take me a few years to get the suspension upgrades, but in the meantime I still want to enjoy being out in the middle of nowhere.

 

I'm too new here to be able to tell if this is just boring for people or if I'm being impatient. It's on page two so that can't be good. Is it too long?

 

Update

I just got my bike back the other day with the mid-controls finally done. It took a long time, but a lot of that was waiting to see if a trade could happen. Unfortunately I must not have read past the first post in the other thread about the conversion because if I had, I would've saved myself about two months of waiting. In the second post I noticed that he didn't have a new inner primary listed as a needed part. It turns out that the forward and mid versions of the inner are made from the same casting (I think). The one I have can be machined to allow for mid-controls, so once I learned that, it's what I went with. I had been waiting for a trade because the inner primary wasn't available (it was back-ordered) so this was a nice bit of luck that got things moving again.

So the conversion is finally done and I'm pretty happy with the results. This was just the first step in the process of getting the overall position I want, though. People were right that it was going to be a bit cramped going to mids at my height. Feels a bit like riding a tricycle with my knees around my ears. I'm hoping that the saddlemen seat comes soon and that it helps with the extra height. Someone said it raises you an inch and also puts you either forward or back an inch. I hope it was back but I can't remember. I'm also going to do the Further Forward Mid-Control Kit as they call it: https://www.harley-davidson.com/stor...id-control-kit

I wanted it in black but that version comes with a lot more parts for some reason, I don't need all that. Hopefully I'll be able to update with the saddlemen seat soon.

 

Post up some updates as you go. I've had my 16' FXDF for about a year now and it had the HD floorboards on it already. At first I was like ehh ok, then rode home 4.5hrs and was way stoked!

I love them and will never go back to pegs, I'm 6'2 and can stretch a bit, move and re-position as I ride, best thing ever. I'm queued in on that 14' seat revelation now too....

 

Btw, here's an Online PARTS book (NOT a Service Manual "Mods" ) from Harley

You can Save/"Print to" PDF if you want, but you'll probably lose the interactive/linking that is available while online

https://serviceinfo.harley-davidson....view?id=272982

 

What's that?

That's awesome, thank you. Just what I was looking for.


Update

Foot Controls
Mid controls are installed. Only got to try them for one full day, and I love them, even while being cramped as I was. That'll get better with other changes so I'm not worried (yet). I rounded over the ends of the rubber footpeg covers to make it slightly easier to get my boot onto it. Olfa blade followed by twisted wire wheel for shaping and texture.

I ordered the further forward mid set from Harley. Does anyone know if there is fitment problems with the exhaust pipe in this combination? I've seen other bikes have the tommygun headers so does anyone have that plus further forwards? The pedal touches at full travel as it is, and if the new one is just 2" straight forward it won't even fit. Possible solution would be to get the part number for the pedal and get a second-hand one, and shave off that corner. I don't know if how that part is cast would allow that or not. A better solution would be a new exhaust. I've been wanting to get the Lowbrow Customs 2 into 1 SuperMeg for a while now, and I'm wondering if that will work.

Seat
Saddlmen Step-Up in Tuck and Roll is in transit somewhere on its way.

Handlebars
At this stage, I'm hoping that the changes to the pegs, seat, and shocks will allow me to use my current setup for now. It's the stock bars on 2" riser extensions. I really like the look of the Zombi bars and will see about those maybe next year.

Shocks
Today I ordered a set of Bitubo Twin Adjustable Performance Rear Shocks from DK Custom Products. LINK HERE
I originally wanted 14" but the longest these go is 13".


2011 FXDF with mid-controls. Outter primary case is new OEM.



2011 FXDF with mid controls. Stock head pipes, V&H slipons.

 

The exhaust arrived very quickly, and the footpegs arrived on Friday so I started to remove the stock exhaust. I got the exhaust stripped off yesterday. Today I started by plugging the exhaust ports and degreasing the engine. I used excessive amounts of WD-40 to clean and rinse the grime from the engine. I used brushes and wooden picks to scrub and a rage to wipe as much as I could off. I used some Windex next because I read somewhere here that it was good for the wrinkle black, but it likely could've been skipped. Next I used hot water with dish soap to rinse, using the rag to mop as much water as I could up onto the engine. I rinsed it off and did the wheels while I was at it. The pictures are from when I pulled it in, but before I dried it. The wood is my to not having to buy a new style of jack for this bike.