I finally completed putting the bike back together on Saturday morning, so I took it for a first ride. It was barely 50 degrees but it felt good to be on two wheels again after the long winter.
I cranked the starter several times with the plugs out until the oil light came off to push plenty of oil everywhere before starting it. Then reconnected the fuel line and after a few turns and a couple of coughs she fired right up. A lot of valve clatter for the first minute or two but once the lifters were pressurized it was running smoothly.
The Krome Werks mufflers are plenty loud for me (who rides with earplugs anyway), and not obnoxious at idle. Deep rather than raspy. The TW-6 cams and the tune from Fuel Moto seem to be nicely matched, with very good throttle response, and definitely plenty more power and torque than stock.
Dialed one turn of preload on the 422 shocks and it seems to balance well with the now much firmer front end cartridges (I was running 15 weight fork oil on the stock springs, which was already better than the mushy feel of the 15 year old stinky stuff I drained when I bought the bike). It probably will be just right once the springs break in. The rear is up about one inch, giving me a few degrees of extra lean angle, and that is much appreciated. The ride feels firm and very well balanced on uneven pavement, with good dampening. I haven't tried on high speed roads yet.
The 14 inch bars are quite different, and feel weird, but with time I hope to get used to them. The riding position feels comfortable, with my wrists about shoulder height.
I was itching to go out, so did not attached the bags or windshield. Did about 60 miles and it felt really good. I am quite happy with all the upgrades - worth the money and had plenty of winter pastime wrenching on the bike. Now let's ride!
In keeping with my yearly tradition for the first ride of the season, I took a picture of the bike by a still frozen Lake Minnetonka...