Hoping to get some ideas from the Evo side of the house on this one too. Rather than repeat myself, and keep any replies in the same thread, though I'd cross-post this here.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...ggestions.html

No suggestions are bad, looking for a brain-storming session from the group here.

Thanks for looking

 

Hey TurkeyRun:

I read through the thread you referenced, and there are a lot of good ideas there. You asked for suggestions, so here are my thoughts. They are just opinions, and you know what people say about opinions!

In a nutshell: to me the bike, while it's pretty, looks as if it's fighting for an identity... as if it doesn't really know what it wants to be.

Some of the things on it don't go together well - such as the modern stretched bags and paint job, and the old school fishtails. The big old school whitewalls (and I LOVE whitewalls, as you can see) don't go with the modern fenders and the general modern look either. If you wanted to keep the modern look, an 18" or larger chrome front wheel with a slimmer blackwall tires (or maybe a skinny whitewall) would help a lot... the old fat stocker 16" cast wheels/whitewalls don't look as if they belong on the bike as it is now.

I personally don't like apes on a bagger - more identity conflict - they look great on Dynas or Softails, but not on baggers IMHO. And I don't care for rotor covers at all - unless they are on a full dresser dripping with chrome, where they go better with the general full dresser theme. NAH - I STILL don't like 'em! I don't like things covered up - to me, the "Harley look" is everything exposed and sticking out there in the wind - not all covered up like a Gold Wing.

The two-up seat doesn't look right to me either - the rear seat seems to be just hanging out there over the big stretched rear fender, and the seat is too traditional-looking for the general modern look of the bike. The rear seat needs to have at least a small sissy bar or something behind it, if it's going to be there at all - looks like the passenger could just fall right off the back as it is. I also don't care for that big fairing over the headlight, nor for the mustache engine guard (I don't like them in general on any bike), nor for the V-shaped A/C.

You say you like old school... I do too. There are a lot of things you could do to make it old school, but a LOT of stuff on the bike would need to be changed to do that - regular bags or RKC leather bags, chrome spoke wheels/whitewalls, traditional fenders, different paint, different or solo seat, and stripping off some of the accessories like the rotor covers and headlight fairing, etc. I wouldn't go with Heritage-style leather bags - I don't think they look at home on a touring model... more identity conflict. I can't really say if I like that paint job or not - but it definitely is NOT old school in any way. If you want the old school look, that paint would have to go.

I guess you're faced with a decision point here... make the bike what you want, if you like to work on bikes (and it WILL cost money to do)... or just sell it and use the proceeds to buy something that's closer to what you really want. If you do the former you can make the bike whatever you want it to be, and if you do the latter you'll have more time to spend riding.

Bertha, my bike, was a pretty plain-looking FLHTP when we bought her, and I've spent a lot of time and $$$ to make her look the way she does now. A LOT of time and a LOT of $$$... more than we spent on her originally. I've added, replaced, and re-replaced a lot of stuff on her - and frankly her look just sort of evolved over time more than me planning out what it was eventually going to be. To me that's all part of the fun, because I enjoy tinkering - but that route isn't for everyone, and it got really expensive and time-consuming (but tons of fun and satisfaction!)

I'm sure you'll get a lot of other ideas here on the Evo forum. That's what's nice about older Evos... you can tear into them and do things that you wouldn't dream of doing to a $20,000 late-model twinkie, and there are a lot of guys on here who have done tons of stuff to Evos.

Good luck!
NGH

 

i know just the look you are after, and to me, this bike is the way to go. the newer "twinkies" as i see them called here, just dont look right as an old-school bike. the motor just doesnt look right. now an Evo.....they look right. if you are truely conflicted, you can just ship that bike right over to my garage .............id be glad to take it off yer hands. i would bet it wouldnt take me a month to have it looking just like you want, and then id ride the !!!!!!!! out of it!. if you can do the work, it wouldnt take long, or alot of money.

 

My personal input is that the bike has too much equipment that needs de-identified to make it old schooled, I also agree with others that the bike needs an identity. A solo seat with your current bike would do it justice.
The problem with trying to sell the current tins is the 1996 tank is different, 1997 goes deep into twinkee years and more of a buying market, the fenders, bags should be the same but the paint set would be limited to buyers but still might be a hard to get item for the older bagger owners as fuel tanks are becoming rare and is a nice paint set.

If you can or have friends that paint cheap and do your own parts swapping, you have the option of trying to sell the tins and possibly have enough money to buy used tins and old school paint scheme them, lower the bike and do some dechroming or make what you have work but put that solo seat on first and take a look.

 

Thanks for looking and taking the time to reply guys.

As I said over in the Touring group, I guess my real options at this point are to finished the modern look that the previous owner started, swap the tins (at least the rear) and paint, or sell/trade it.

I guess I have some thinking to do......

 

Get rid of the apes as suggested and the fishtails they don't do it with the stretched bags. Sissy bar another good idea. Again get rid of the hubcap and monster H/L. Also get get rid of the medallion on the F/fender. My 2 cents.