Well, its been slow going. I don't get much time to work on it and I was hoping to get it pretty done and maybe even start on body work with the few day off I get after Christmas. But, as luck would have it, my step-daughter is in the hospital awaiting surgery and I'm in the waiting room. I thought I'd take this time to post up some of whats done. I got the Trike trees installed and things put back together. I still have an issue with my wiring. Horn doesn't work and neither does the radio mode/channel selector on the right bar switch. I'll have to tear the switches back apart and hopefully I've got something pinched. These Roland Sands are a bear to run the wiring, especially on the throttle side! They run the uprights 1/2 way into the horizontal handle at the top and bottom making it a bear to run wiring. They should have taken a die grinder to the inside and cleaned it up or I should have after seeing it. It would have made it a bunch easier, but hind sight is always 20/20 isn't it. I'm happy with the engine work. More power than it probably needs. The exhaust looks and sounds awesome, but, I don't know if I'm going to leave it on. The wife and I plan on taking some longer trips this year and I don't know if I want this thing rattling in our ears constantly. I've only gotten to drive it about 10 or 15 miles since I slapped it together. It's supposed to be a high of 55 here tomorrow, so I may make the 60 mile round trip with it to give it a good try. I'm waiting on the Fairing skirt for the trike to come in before I tear it back apart. I did not extent the forks, but may end up doing that when I put the chrome lowers on it.

In hind sight, I wish I had gone with one of the kits to give it a little more rake. I think it could look a lot better. Setting the flop on the front end is not as easy as a stock setup. The combo of additional rake and the big tire didn't allow the same behavior on the front end when setting the tension on the trees. I believe I need to tighten it up a little bit because the front end feels a little too light/responsive when I really get on it at take off. Other than that, I enjoy driving it. The 18/23" wheel combo really lifted the whole thing up. I put a 2"x4" under the kick stand to get some decent pics and it had about the same profile while on the stand as it did from stock so I believe it raised it that much. I'll probably do the Corvette shocks and air ride yet this winter. I'm probably going to wait until next winter to do the rear bags and fender. The exhaust hits the bags I bought. I got the 2" wider and 4" extended bags with 6"x9" lids and I'm going to have to do some fiberglass work to make them work if I keep this exhaust.

 

Did you keep your stock brakes?

 

Looking good so far.

 

Gary,

Looking great, can't wait to see it when it's done...... Hope things goes well for your step-daughters surgery!

 

YEs, stock brakes and rotors. Had some other issues arise and got into my build money, so things got put on the back burner till times get better. I'm keeping the stock brakes and polishing the rotors when I tear down the front end to do the lowers.

 

That is just very very sharp. How's the ride-ability for long trips?

 

No clue yet. I only have about 15 miles on it since I got it back together. I hope to make the 30 mile trip to work on it tomorrow. If I dont get to ride it then, it may be awhile because the bad weather is supposed to be coming in

 

Are those the Roland Sands Convoy bars? Besides the wiring, which is a bear on all these bars, how do you like them? How is the visibility on the faring mirrors?

 

I've wired quite a few bars, nothing like the 1 1/4" apes or even the prime apes! These are 1" bars and they put the uprights into the horizontal pieces both at the top and bottom before they weld them, leaving at most, 2/3rd of that 1" to run wiring, including the throttle by wire. Absolutely CRAP as far as I'm concerned. I almost sent them back when I saw the welds. Splatter and holes prior to chroming. I wouldn't install them on anything I owned ever again! I'm 6" 2" and the height lets me use approximately the top 1/3 of the mirrors over my hands. If I have to tear these bars down because of bare wires, I'm going to purchase a pair of 10" Monkey bagger bars from Paul Yaffe!

 

Thanks for the honest info. I was leery about the smaller diameter, and to then hear about sub-par the welds, a little disappointing for the $. Your ride looks sick, enjoy it.