Under mounting peer-group pressure, well to be truthful, Beemervet, here is my first toe in the water of installing this kit. I've known about it for some years, but news that the 2014 'Rushmore' Touring Harleys have at long last got improved forks prompted me to take a closer look and eventually invest. Reports indicated that the latest top tree (plus 49mm forks) was a great improvement to ride and handling, so I decided to have a go. Yes, this is on top of everything else I have been messing around with!

So what does a Custom Cycle Engineering Tour Trac Trees kit do for us? A great deal, in fact. It does away with the bl**dy awful top tree design of our Touring bikes. Fanfare of trumpets!

Anyone familiar with other brands of bikes will know that our dressers have a different top tree to probably all other bikes. The fork tube stops short at the underside of the top tree and, instead of extending into it, has a top-hat shaped top nut, that bolts up into a small hole in the top tree. The fit is loose and this arrangement means the top tree contributes little useful torsional stiffness to the two fork legs. As a result the front wheel is not as well supported, or as stable, as it could and should be, under steering loads or when hitting a bump/pothole.

The photo shows my kit, which includes:

1. a new billet top tree to replace the stock one,
2. new longer fork tubes,
3. new top nuts, and
4. spring spacers.

The kits can be bought in a variety of configurations, to suit all models up to 2013, and I found it worth phoning CCE to talk through details of my own bike, to finalise details with them.

The longer tubes are simply built up using stock fork components (your current sliders and internals, etc), using the spacers to compensate for increased fork length and to keep spring preload unchanged. The stock top tree is replaced with the new one and the front end rebuilt. Final assembled appearance is unchanged from stock. The new top tree is 2" deep where it clamps onto the top of the fork tubes, which gives substantially greater support and must significantly improve front end stability and ride quality. There are a couple of recent threads about them over in Touring.

I will also be replacing the head bearings and internal fork components (bushings and seals), as well as installing Race Tech springs and fabrik8r's modified Ricor Intiminators, as a thorough upgrade of the front end. My ambition is the expectation of enhancing the ride up front, to match up with my rear end improvements.

 

I've also been waiting for you to get around to it,
looking forward to the updates on the install, and the results.

 

Outstanding! This is an upgrade I did to my R90 and R100S BMWs. There was no need for longer tubes on them, but the upper clamp mated with a fork brace made a major improvement.
CCE makes great products and yes they are very helpful on the phone. I admire your mods Graham, and you are building the bike HD should have. I'm looking forward to hearing your first impressions after install......... no pressure, really.
#1 on the 2015 mods list.

 

I had a San Jose fork brace on the first of my R100RSs, the original version, and that transformed the bike. I can't see an easy way of introducing a lower fork brace on a dresser, thanks to the deep fender.

I'm nursing a strained back at present, so as our weather improves for the first time in ages, I fear I may not be fit enough to get out in the garage, to dismantle the front end. I had rebuilt it with the springs and Intiminators I mentioned above, before the rush of blood that resulted in the CCE kit.

 

Well, that explains it!
Take care of that back.

Here is a write-up....... http://www.bikernet.com/pages/Stabil...ront_Ends.aspx

 

Doc is pretty darn excited about them:

"But let’s cut to the chase here and let me make another statement: The Custom Cycle Engineering FLH Touring model billet aluminium top triple tree will improve the handling of pre-2009 models by 100 percent, and that of post-2009 models by 20-30 percent, in my estimation."

 

As an engineer I'm always amused by claims like that, after all there is no straight forward way of measuring improvement in a tangible and unambiguous manner. I have made significant improvements to ride and comfort with my rear end mods (True-Track kit, Ohlins shocks, etc) and expect the front end to be a jolly sight better too! We shall see.......

 

........ indeed! One of the reasons I have made no visible progress is that my Harrison front brakes, which cost me a fortune to buy, are frankly knackered, well the floating rotors are. While I have had the calipers serviced and they are fine, replacement rotors cost a thousand dollars! I've already replaced them once and decided this is the end of the road for them, which in turn has left me mulling over what to replace them with.

The outcome of my deliberations is that I am going to install recent sliders with Brembo calipers, an SG front wheel and, probably, Lyndall composite rotors. The Harley parts are all in transit as I write, courtesy US Ebay. It'll be a while before that lot arrives, from the four points of North America, when I can finally and at long last commit to building my CCE fork legs. More in due course!

Everything else is on hold, while I finalise and complete the 'chassis' works. I begin to see the mist clearing just a little.......

 

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I'm buckling under the strain! The engine in that bike looks like a Wankel rotary, is it?!