Installed a new Gremlin Bell over the weekend, which my wife had bought for me the prior weekend at a local Bike Night. Made different treks to Sellersville, Doylestown, and New Hope, all in PA. I didn't cross the metal grate (aka flesh grater) bridge into Lambertville, NJ yet. Just getting to New Hope felt like an accomplishment for me. I'll save that terror for another time.
Ran out of gas on my way up a hill after leaving New Hope. Fumbled a bit getting going again, having forgotten to downshift to 1st after pulling over to switch to reserve fuel. Tried going off my route to find a gas station and for the first time wound up having to go faster than 55mph. I do now know why people claim that these bikes aren't great for freeway riding. That was a misery. I'm still on stock suspension, though, so maybe it would be better with at least air shocks. That's definitely next on my list of upgrades.
I did find it curious how New Hope seems to be the only place so far where other bikers DON'T give you the Biker Wave. Traffic wasn't so dense that I'd expect people to be concentrating too much to notice. It definitely gave the impression that the majority of people that ride there do so purely to Be Seen, rather than for the joy of the ride itself. The moment I got out of town people were friendly again. Beautiful as that area is, and much as I want to ride some of the roads there that I didn't get to this weekend, the "bikers" in New Hope proper can stuff it. I struggle enough with Imposter Syndrome, having won my bike in a raffle rather than buying it outright, but I did much of the work to fix it up myself, and I'm in it for the RIDE, not the image. *shakes head* To each their own, but "posing" seems like a waste.
Here's about the extent of my interest in posing... :P
Try twisting your wrist a bit more! Your Sportster will quite happily scoot along at 70mph without any bother at all and on your flat freeways I would think it would be shear bliss if a bit boring.
Try twisting your wrist a bit more! Your Sportster will quite happily scoot along at 70mph without any bother at all and on your flat freeways I would think it would be shear bliss if a bit boring.
Heh, you misunderstand, though: PA roads are nasty. Very bouncy. Plus, with stock 883 gearing on a rigid-mount Sporty, it starts to vibrate quite a bit as it gets north of 60mph in 5th gear. If I swapped the front belt sprocket for one with more teeth, maybe I could cruise a little better, but I'd definitely need better shocks first, and I'd really rather be on slower, more twisty roads anyway.
My 2005 XL883 Standard has the original OEM shocks and does really well at 70 mph. I keep them on the softest setting because of the bumps in the mountain twisties where I ride and don't need to change anything. Note that I have a solo seat and never ride two-up, so I would probably have to go to the medium setting and add 5 psi air to the rear tire.
The only changes I've made are invisible:
-replaced the spring plate in the clutch plates with stock ones, two steel and one friction
-replaced the stock throw out bearing (radial 8885) with an angular thrust bearing (*** 7200B German made) - stupid automatic edit won't show the brand name which is all cap's, letters that follow E, precede B and follow F.
-crankcase is now vented to the atmosphere to keep the hot oily mist out of my carb intake
-replaced the stock vacuum petcock with a Golan non-vacuum petcock
@boomerguy you may be seeing the benefits of the rubber-mounting then. My shocks are set to the medium setting, which may be the wrong choice for my bulk. Dunno. Haven't messed with preload yet since I don't have the proper wrench, nor do I know what would be appropriate for my weight.
@boomerguy you may be seeing the benefits of the rubber-mounting then. My shocks are set to the medium setting, which may be the wrong choice for my bulk. Dunno. Haven't messed with preload yet since I don't have the proper wrench, nor do I know what would be appropriate for my weight.
The wrench is actually a universal style which I found out by trying my Honda wrench on them and it works perfectly. You can probably find a cheap one on eBay or Amazon. It doesn't have to have the H-D logo. As a matter of fact, my jackets are Harley apparel simply by adding the appropriate patches to them. My shirts are knock-offs from eBay for only $14 each and are very high quality, made in the USA.
As far as the setting for the shocks is concerned, just do trial-and-error like I did. I occasionally bottom out on a pot-hole but 99% of the time it is quite comfortable. Adjusting a shock takes less than 5 minutes. Also, replacing the front fork oil with new oil makes a world of difference because my forks bottomed out all the time until I replaced the fork oil. I found that 10K miles is the life of the fork oil and then it turns to stinky black watery stuff. I use the recommended type E which can be found in many brands (I prefer Amsoil but that doesn't mean it is any better than the rest.). A word of warning, though, once you get the caps off to replace the fluid you will have to rent a gorilla to put them back on. It took me 3 days and several different helpers until I got it back together. I installed these: https://www.jpcycles.com/product/230...tube-top-plugs
so that I never have to remove them again. Now it takes me less than 30 minutes to do both forks. If the seals need replaced, I'm getting a professional to do the job.
...snip...(I prefer Amsoil but that doesn't mean it is any better than the rest.). A word of warning, though, once you get the caps off to replace the fluid you will have to rent a gorilla to put them back on. It took me 3 days and several different helpers until I got it back together. I installed these: https://www.jpcycles.com/product/230...tube-top-plugs
so that I never have to remove them again. Now it takes me less than 30 minutes to do both forks. If the seals need replaced, I'm getting a professional to do the job.
Nah, you can do fork seal kits, they're easy. I also prefer Amsoil ShokTherapy. I used a DIY
tool out of a clamp to ease getting the caps scewed back in. Looks alot like this one:
The wrench is actually a universal style which I found out by trying my Honda wrench on them and it works perfectly. You can probably find a cheap one on eBay or Amazon. It doesn't have to have the H-D logo. As a matter of fact, my jackets are Harley apparel simply by adding the appropriate patches to them. My shirts are knock-offs from eBay for only $14 each and are very high quality, made in the USA.
As far as the setting for the shocks is concerned, just do trial-and-error like I did. I occasionally bottom out on a pot-hole but 99% of the time it is quite comfortable. Adjusting a shock takes less than 5 minutes. Also, replacing the front fork oil with new oil makes a world of difference because my forks bottomed out all the time until I replaced the fork oil. I found that 10K miles is the life of the fork oil and then it turns to stinky black watery stuff. I use the recommended type E which can be found in many brands (I prefer Amsoil but that doesn't mean it is any better than the rest.). A word of warning, though, once you get the caps off to replace the fluid you will have to rent a gorilla to put them back on. It took me 3 days and several different helpers until I got it back together. I installed these: https://www.jpcycles.com/product/230...tube-top-plugs
so that I never have to remove them again. Now it takes me less than 30 minutes to do both forks. If the seals need replaced, I'm getting a professional to do the job.
Interesting... How do you drain the fluid out, do you siphon it out?
09-16-2019, 10:33 AM
