Fresh from Suffolk, UK
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2nd Gear
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
From: Sudbury, Uk
Fresh from Suffolk, UK
Hi
Everyone calls me Baff. I've ridden bikes for the past 35 years. Love to get out to rallies, but camping's just a necessary evil to allow me to go out partying with mates.
I've been riding Harleys for 6 years or so, after my wife bought me 24 hours and unlimited mileage on a Fatboy for one of my birthdays.
I'd always wanted a Harley, from way back when and I was riding Jap Crap. My poor old Mum's death meant I got a (very) few thousand unexpectedly in my pocket, and as I'd already had the 400 mile day out riding the Fatboy, I knew where I wanted to spend my dosh. Mum always liked having my mates around the house, and the street outside lined with their bikes, so I'm sure she'd appreciate my use of the money I'd got from her estate.
I couldn't ride a Fatboy all the while. The one day riding it had clicked; lovely sound, great feel, but it grounded out far too easily, even going onto roundabouts meant copious scrapping of its nether regions. I found a tricked up FXR on Fleabay and took a very knowledgeable mate with me to look it over. We both agreed it had been breathed upon by someone who'd had money to spend with no particular object in mind.
It had a 96" S&S motor, with Edelbroke heads & twin carbs, big Andrews cams, 2 into 1 Supertrapp, USD forks, box section swinging arm, Performance machine 6 pot brakes (six of the blighters) and wheels, sweet black paintjob, Ness bars, lights and pretty-pretty bits. A lot of money had been spent on it. It looked great (I'd post a picture, but dunno how).
But it had only covered a couple of thousand miles in 8 years. It was easy to see why. Fuel fumes poured out of the zorsts, it did 20 miles per gallon (that's a bigger Imperial gallon, not your little US version), you couldn't twist the fully chromed throttle all the way as your knuckles caught the inside of the brake lever, the front brakes were operated by a single disc-sized reservoir. Yes, lots of money thrown at it, but never in a cohesive way, and made the bike unrideable. I use to plan my rides by calculating how far it was to the next petrol station.
My mate said to give it a miss, but I wanted it, I was smitten. The deal was done, we trailered it back to his gaff, and mods were made. I rode it for a year, suffering many electrical problems; 2 x starters, each more meaty than the last, 2 batteries (yes, regulator/rectifiers going west can screw with batteries), coils.... it seemed never ending.
Through having the FXR, I met and joined the HDRCGB (Harley-Davidson Riders of Great Britain), mostly as nice a bunch of reprobates as you could wish to meet, and a club which has a big, geographically-spread rally section. It's nice to know wherever I go to party, I'll meet some mates and make plenty of new'uns too.
I finally admitted to myself Shaun had been right, even though I'd loved riding it, so I sold it on, and bought an almost bog-stock '05 Superglide, 2 years old but only 1134 miles under her tyres. Four years later, she's covered 60k miles, with barely a clean, nary a polish, and only a month off the road last winter to replace the camchain tensioners and oil pump. I'd intended to give her a makeover then, but after taking her out to check the pump and tensioners had been sorted, I couldn't take her off the road again. She only got new shocks in the form of blacked-out stainless steel Hagons, and heavier weight fork oil.
Leads me to November this year. Winter's here in England are wet. That's wet with a capital W. And cold. Often both at the same time. Did I mention windy yet? Or that the roads have carpets of very slippery leaves all over them? Or that daylight lasts from 8:30 to 3:00. So I decided to revisit my plans to do some cosmetic work. Took her off the road
late November.
Now she sits, a bare frame, shocks & swinging arm. I'd decided to remove most chrome, so the engine was removed for cleaning and painting. A couple of people suggested that as she was going to be stripped down so far, why not do some headwork, flowed and new valves to replace the pissy little versions stuck into the '05s? How about new cams? Bigbore kit? Shaun checked the deckheight - 0.000". He'd checked the crank run out last year, and it was barely a thou. Looks like I've got one engine they put together well.
*sigh*. So had a think about it, decided first that I was happy with how she ran already, but then that horny little devil on my left shoulder started in on me too, and I've succumbed to a 98" kit, Andrews 26 cams, and PCIII. More low down grunt rather than high rev power. I prefer riding through the twisties to a main road blat, and the Dyna's handling is okay for my level of ability.
The parts have nearly all arrived. The chromed Thunderstar wheels and belt rotor have been stripped, and powder coated gloss black. The front will slot into gloss black forks. The 'guards have been stripped & repainted: dontcha think modern-day Harley paintwork is often crap? The engine cases now sport a fine covering of matt black. Stainless steel bolts will add highlights, and maybe one or two chrome bolt covers will be purchased. The barrels and heads should reappear late next week, so they'll then need cleaning and painting too. Just waiting on new engine mounts so we can start reassembling her.
It's costing me far more than I'd budgeted, but if I have only half the fun I've had in the past six years, then it's been worth more it. I'll probably still not do much cleaning, but hopefully the new paint will be of good enough quality that it won't matter too much.
Sorry for the missive, but it did say introduce yourself (although I see I joined this forum back in '07).
Everyone calls me Baff. I've ridden bikes for the past 35 years. Love to get out to rallies, but camping's just a necessary evil to allow me to go out partying with mates.
I've been riding Harleys for 6 years or so, after my wife bought me 24 hours and unlimited mileage on a Fatboy for one of my birthdays.
I'd always wanted a Harley, from way back when and I was riding Jap Crap. My poor old Mum's death meant I got a (very) few thousand unexpectedly in my pocket, and as I'd already had the 400 mile day out riding the Fatboy, I knew where I wanted to spend my dosh. Mum always liked having my mates around the house, and the street outside lined with their bikes, so I'm sure she'd appreciate my use of the money I'd got from her estate.
I couldn't ride a Fatboy all the while. The one day riding it had clicked; lovely sound, great feel, but it grounded out far too easily, even going onto roundabouts meant copious scrapping of its nether regions. I found a tricked up FXR on Fleabay and took a very knowledgeable mate with me to look it over. We both agreed it had been breathed upon by someone who'd had money to spend with no particular object in mind.
It had a 96" S&S motor, with Edelbroke heads & twin carbs, big Andrews cams, 2 into 1 Supertrapp, USD forks, box section swinging arm, Performance machine 6 pot brakes (six of the blighters) and wheels, sweet black paintjob, Ness bars, lights and pretty-pretty bits. A lot of money had been spent on it. It looked great (I'd post a picture, but dunno how).
But it had only covered a couple of thousand miles in 8 years. It was easy to see why. Fuel fumes poured out of the zorsts, it did 20 miles per gallon (that's a bigger Imperial gallon, not your little US version), you couldn't twist the fully chromed throttle all the way as your knuckles caught the inside of the brake lever, the front brakes were operated by a single disc-sized reservoir. Yes, lots of money thrown at it, but never in a cohesive way, and made the bike unrideable. I use to plan my rides by calculating how far it was to the next petrol station.
My mate said to give it a miss, but I wanted it, I was smitten. The deal was done, we trailered it back to his gaff, and mods were made. I rode it for a year, suffering many electrical problems; 2 x starters, each more meaty than the last, 2 batteries (yes, regulator/rectifiers going west can screw with batteries), coils.... it seemed never ending.
Through having the FXR, I met and joined the HDRCGB (Harley-Davidson Riders of Great Britain), mostly as nice a bunch of reprobates as you could wish to meet, and a club which has a big, geographically-spread rally section. It's nice to know wherever I go to party, I'll meet some mates and make plenty of new'uns too.
I finally admitted to myself Shaun had been right, even though I'd loved riding it, so I sold it on, and bought an almost bog-stock '05 Superglide, 2 years old but only 1134 miles under her tyres. Four years later, she's covered 60k miles, with barely a clean, nary a polish, and only a month off the road last winter to replace the camchain tensioners and oil pump. I'd intended to give her a makeover then, but after taking her out to check the pump and tensioners had been sorted, I couldn't take her off the road again. She only got new shocks in the form of blacked-out stainless steel Hagons, and heavier weight fork oil.
Leads me to November this year. Winter's here in England are wet. That's wet with a capital W. And cold. Often both at the same time. Did I mention windy yet? Or that the roads have carpets of very slippery leaves all over them? Or that daylight lasts from 8:30 to 3:00. So I decided to revisit my plans to do some cosmetic work. Took her off the road
late November.
Now she sits, a bare frame, shocks & swinging arm. I'd decided to remove most chrome, so the engine was removed for cleaning and painting. A couple of people suggested that as she was going to be stripped down so far, why not do some headwork, flowed and new valves to replace the pissy little versions stuck into the '05s? How about new cams? Bigbore kit? Shaun checked the deckheight - 0.000". He'd checked the crank run out last year, and it was barely a thou. Looks like I've got one engine they put together well.
*sigh*. So had a think about it, decided first that I was happy with how she ran already, but then that horny little devil on my left shoulder started in on me too, and I've succumbed to a 98" kit, Andrews 26 cams, and PCIII. More low down grunt rather than high rev power. I prefer riding through the twisties to a main road blat, and the Dyna's handling is okay for my level of ability.
The parts have nearly all arrived. The chromed Thunderstar wheels and belt rotor have been stripped, and powder coated gloss black. The front will slot into gloss black forks. The 'guards have been stripped & repainted: dontcha think modern-day Harley paintwork is often crap? The engine cases now sport a fine covering of matt black. Stainless steel bolts will add highlights, and maybe one or two chrome bolt covers will be purchased. The barrels and heads should reappear late next week, so they'll then need cleaning and painting too. Just waiting on new engine mounts so we can start reassembling her.
It's costing me far more than I'd budgeted, but if I have only half the fun I've had in the past six years, then it's been worth more it. I'll probably still not do much cleaning, but hopefully the new paint will be of good enough quality that it won't matter too much.
Sorry for the missive, but it did say introduce yourself (although I see I joined this forum back in '07).
Club Member
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 45,429
Likes: 2,898
From: Bedford UK
Hello old chap, from just down the road and welcome to HDF.
It is truly wet over here, for those of you not in the UK, with vast swathes of water where it shouldn't oughta be. Not a nice build up to Xmas! Not decent riding weather either! Ah well, big day tomorrow.
It is truly wet over here, for those of you not in the UK, with vast swathes of water where it shouldn't oughta be. Not a nice build up to Xmas! Not decent riding weather either! Ah well, big day tomorrow.
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