85FXRS
New Member
Hello all I am new to this forum and the the world of Harley Davidson. I have lurked and reviewed many sites in effort to try to answer my question and now I post here to ask in a FXR specific forum. Please bear with me as I am a bit conflicted with my recent purchase and am wondering if I should be or not. So here it goes a real long post.... Being new to riding a motorcycle I had done my research on the best handling Harley I could find which came up in many places as the FXR. I started a search looking for a bike that had not been extremely altered and came across an online ad. After many emails I made a 4 hour trip to go look at what seemed to be an all original 85 FXRS owned by a senior. I purchased this bike for less than what a sportster sells for in my area, in fact for what a parts project bike sells for. Once loaded up the seller wanted to talk to me in private and told me he didn't want to sell but has had lost his license after having cancer treatments and didn't think he would ever get his license back again car or bike. So now on to the bike... Well with that info I was unsure what to think so I checked the bikes previous history and noted 2 owners both for roughly 15 years. On looking at the bike it comes across as very clean with factory original paint and it shows the pride of ownership. EVERYTHING on the bike has Harley on it aside from the Screaming Eagle baloney cut mufflers and race only ignition module. The owner gave me everything from new, owners manual, factory repair manual, original mufflers and carb jets. He told me he hopes I love it as well as he did. With the bike in my posession and looking it over it needs nothing, no leaks, it runs great, lots of power and I was told the motor has never been opened up. It has 70000 km ( 43500 miles) on it but does not look it. I am not a fan of the original buckhorns and have substituted a 2003 softail handle bar . I have removed the only non original part a pair of soft saddle bags and substituted them with a set of Harley slant bags with proper fxr yoke and period correct supports. I also have acquired a Harley quarter fairing and installed it after removing the previous owner equipped slip streamer wind screen. I have no further changes as of yet I wish to make aside from a set of smoke signal lenses. So this leads to my question for advice and that is... Because this bike is so clean and original am I wrecking it by these small changes? Should I leave it totally stock as I received it? What rough value does an average bike in this form have and am I wasting my time fretting over it? Perhaps I would not worry so had the previous owners not been so fussy with it. Lastly how rare is a bike like this in the condition I have mentioned? I would like a bike that I can be proud of, I love the fact it is not all chrome and in my opinion stands out amongst other Harleys in my area. Harley Canada researched as 1 of 920 being black with factory gold striping. Any advice and opinion would be appreciated. Cheers
