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Hand control conversion

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Old Dec 7, 2009 | 09:12 AM
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Default Hand control conversion

I really liked switches on my '06 before I wrecked her, and I was wondering, does anyone think it would be that hard of a deal to wire them up to my ironhead? Also, if anyone has any tips for making my kicker start the bike in less than twenty minutes I'd love ot hear it, because I have found every thread with the word kicker in it but the one that tells you how to tune your bike to make it kickstart easier.
 

Last edited by EvilWayz; Dec 7, 2009 at 10:04 AM.
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Old Dec 7, 2009 | 10:52 AM
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Originally Posted by EvilWayz
I really liked switches on my '06 before I wrecked her, and I was wondering, does anyone think it would be that hard of a deal to wire them up to my ironhead? Also, if anyone has any tips for making my kicker start the bike in less than twenty minutes I'd love ot hear it, because I have found every thread with the word kicker in it but the one that tells you how to tune your bike to make it kickstart easier.
That is a very simple fix.
Just buy a Mikuni VM38 carb.
It will start with one kick. Two at the most.
It may take 3 kicks in the dead of winter, but no more that that.
It will also run better and smoother that any thing you have ever seen.
The drawback? It makes an ironhead sound like a BSA instead of a Harley.
pg
 
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Old Dec 7, 2009 | 10:55 AM
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I've got two sitting here in front of me, I guess I'll rebuild the nicer of the two and try that. Thanks PG.
 
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Old Dec 7, 2009 | 11:00 AM
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Originally Posted by EvilWayz
I've got two sitting here in front of me, I guess I'll rebuild the nicer of the two and try that. Thanks PG.
That is going to do the trick. Be sure to put the needle clip into the middle notch of the needle.
There are 5 notches and you want to use the 3rd from the top or 3rd from the bottom for the clip location.

pg
 
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Old Dec 7, 2009 | 11:18 AM
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I'm not actually old enough to know what a BSA sounded like, is it noticeably different from an ironhead with a stock carb?
 
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Old Dec 7, 2009 | 12:10 PM
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Originally Posted by EvilWayz
I'm not actually old enough to know what a BSA sounded like, is it noticeably different from an ironhead with a stock carb?
The BSA (and Triumph, Ariel etc) are English bikes that idle smoothly.
A Harley does not idle smoothly. It lopes and has the sound like it is stumbling and ready to die, when indeed it is not. Of course we like the sound of a Harley!

Putting a Mikuni on a Sportster makes the bike start easy, idle smoothly and run smoothly. It does change the sound of it (in my opinion anyway) to a machine more like the English bikes.
The Mikuni is probably the best carb you can put on a Sporster for easy starting and smooth running. You are going to lose that HD lope sound however.
pg
 
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Old Dec 7, 2009 | 05:50 PM
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# 1 on that!
 
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Old Dec 9, 2009 | 07:29 PM
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you can wire up new hand controls on your ironhead.i use them on mine.you will need a little modification though.you will have to keep your thumb on the switch in order for it to work since you dont have a computer on your ironhead.......you may/should be albe to wire in the computer and whatever else you may need to make itcancel themselves but ive never done that and dunno that its worth it.-----everyone said i would get use to it and slowly i am.
 
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Old Dec 9, 2009 | 08:02 PM
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There's these people that make custom harnesses and they said they can wire in the module that does auto cancel. I might do it on the one I'm building, I'm leaving Roxie the way she is. if anyone has any hints on how to tighten up the shift on forward controls let me know, i have to do this crazy up and back thing to shift, when it was nmid shift it worked fine without any play. I'll try and post pics, the throw is weird, if I dont put the lever really high I can't downshift.
 
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