Dan.1977P
Active Member
Sorry, I got kind of long winded.
I had a chance to do some upgrades to the Fatty before riding season really sets in. I'm really happy with most of the things, but I didn't get the enhanced braking I was expecting and when slowing down now, I feel like there is a rub on one of the tires' sidewall.
Changed stock front brake line to a Russel stainless since it has a smoked look and I'm trying to not add any more chrome up there as the reflections kill me. Looks great but it didn't firm up the lever pull any.
New Lyndall Z-Plus Brake Pads for the front. After 40 miles, they don't feel any different than the stock pads that were on the bike that had very little wear after about 8k miles. I was really hoping they would grab the disc better.
Obviously had to change out the brake fluid. I put a whole bottle through it to fill the line and flush the caliper just to make sure it was as fresh as possible. I doubt very seriously there is any air in there at all. Braking just isn't any better from the lever feel to the pad traction on the disc.
Changed fork oil and it was horrible. I'm at 19k miles so it was time anyway. Went with 7w Belray fork oil and it works great. Fork is still softer than I want but it was my fault for not getting heavier weight. Wanted to see how well the new stuff worked before messing with drastic changes in weight.
Added Mutazu HL series 'hard' bags. Made of molded plastic, look great and are already more useful than the hacked throwovers I had mounted but durability is questionable. Will have to add some reinforcement and probably different mounting brackets entirely if I want to get rid of the wobble.
Swapped the OE Dunlops for Mich. Commander II's. HOLY CRAP what a difference. It's like my bike wants to corner now. They do look to be a bit bigger and have a smaller tolerance with the fenders but on the stand and rolling in and out of the garage, they don't rub.
The guy I had mount the tires only charged me $30 for mounting both front and rear and the purchase of 16oz of dyna beads. Great deal so I didn't have to wrestle with the mounting myself. Seems like a huge amount of beads, though. I'm wondering if he used that much because of the disc wheels or he is of the more is more camp. I'm also wondering if it's the beads settling when slowing that is causing me to think there is a rubbing that I can only feel at low speed on or off the brakes.
Changed to an Easy Brackets Chrome Laid Down License Plate / Turnsignal Relocation Kit and it does look better than before. At some point I will want to redo all the lighting but this is a good stand-in that allowed me to mount the hardbags. Bit pricey for what it ended up being but it saved me time trying to get someone to fab one up for me.
Installed some Smartpartz Hard Kore Quiet Baffles for Vance & Hines Big Radius and they make a tremendous difference in volume. They didn't come with instructions so I actually pulled out my stock baffles and installed these in their place and it wasn't as harsh but they didn't feel right. Read the website and saw you needed to install them with the stock baffles and they sound way better (a bit quiet now) and the bike feels (probably psychological) like it's pulling a bit harder than before. They don't really fit well with only one mounting boss so I'm going to end up taking both baffles out and welding them together to seal up the gap between the new and old baffles so all gasses run out the back. If they stay too quiet after that, I'll start poking holes in the end until I get the sound I want. At least now I can run highway speeds without ear plugs. The other thing I was trying to solve was the decel popping. I was adding about 20 points to 0% throttle above 2k rpm in the PCIII as that was the only adjustment I could do and at least I can now go -10 but it's still backfiring. At least now the baffles are keeping it from actually popping but it's still not right. I'm sure a proper tune will fix it but I don't want to waste $400 on a dyno run for pipes I'm going to get rid of in the next year anyway.
I think that's it. If anyone has any ideas on the issues I'm seeing, I'd be up for suggestions.
Now that all that's done, I can do some small time things like moving my horn to the left swingarm and coil back to the horn spot and think about the next steps. Probably low profile recurved windshield, progressive shocks and a 2:1 exhaust. After the exhaust I'll see if the indy guy who did my tires can talk me into the race download he has for his 06 RoadGlide or take the bike to Salt Lake and get it dyno'd since I have a PCIII already.
Then real good hardbags, quality seat, paint, new handlebars and controls, LED's, etc... A boy can dream, right?
I had a chance to do some upgrades to the Fatty before riding season really sets in. I'm really happy with most of the things, but I didn't get the enhanced braking I was expecting and when slowing down now, I feel like there is a rub on one of the tires' sidewall.
Changed stock front brake line to a Russel stainless since it has a smoked look and I'm trying to not add any more chrome up there as the reflections kill me. Looks great but it didn't firm up the lever pull any.
New Lyndall Z-Plus Brake Pads for the front. After 40 miles, they don't feel any different than the stock pads that were on the bike that had very little wear after about 8k miles. I was really hoping they would grab the disc better.
Obviously had to change out the brake fluid. I put a whole bottle through it to fill the line and flush the caliper just to make sure it was as fresh as possible. I doubt very seriously there is any air in there at all. Braking just isn't any better from the lever feel to the pad traction on the disc.
Changed fork oil and it was horrible. I'm at 19k miles so it was time anyway. Went with 7w Belray fork oil and it works great. Fork is still softer than I want but it was my fault for not getting heavier weight. Wanted to see how well the new stuff worked before messing with drastic changes in weight.
Added Mutazu HL series 'hard' bags. Made of molded plastic, look great and are already more useful than the hacked throwovers I had mounted but durability is questionable. Will have to add some reinforcement and probably different mounting brackets entirely if I want to get rid of the wobble.
Swapped the OE Dunlops for Mich. Commander II's. HOLY CRAP what a difference. It's like my bike wants to corner now. They do look to be a bit bigger and have a smaller tolerance with the fenders but on the stand and rolling in and out of the garage, they don't rub.
The guy I had mount the tires only charged me $30 for mounting both front and rear and the purchase of 16oz of dyna beads. Great deal so I didn't have to wrestle with the mounting myself. Seems like a huge amount of beads, though. I'm wondering if he used that much because of the disc wheels or he is of the more is more camp. I'm also wondering if it's the beads settling when slowing that is causing me to think there is a rubbing that I can only feel at low speed on or off the brakes.
Changed to an Easy Brackets Chrome Laid Down License Plate / Turnsignal Relocation Kit and it does look better than before. At some point I will want to redo all the lighting but this is a good stand-in that allowed me to mount the hardbags. Bit pricey for what it ended up being but it saved me time trying to get someone to fab one up for me.
Installed some Smartpartz Hard Kore Quiet Baffles for Vance & Hines Big Radius and they make a tremendous difference in volume. They didn't come with instructions so I actually pulled out my stock baffles and installed these in their place and it wasn't as harsh but they didn't feel right. Read the website and saw you needed to install them with the stock baffles and they sound way better (a bit quiet now) and the bike feels (probably psychological) like it's pulling a bit harder than before. They don't really fit well with only one mounting boss so I'm going to end up taking both baffles out and welding them together to seal up the gap between the new and old baffles so all gasses run out the back. If they stay too quiet after that, I'll start poking holes in the end until I get the sound I want. At least now I can run highway speeds without ear plugs. The other thing I was trying to solve was the decel popping. I was adding about 20 points to 0% throttle above 2k rpm in the PCIII as that was the only adjustment I could do and at least I can now go -10 but it's still backfiring. At least now the baffles are keeping it from actually popping but it's still not right. I'm sure a proper tune will fix it but I don't want to waste $400 on a dyno run for pipes I'm going to get rid of in the next year anyway.
I think that's it. If anyone has any ideas on the issues I'm seeing, I'd be up for suggestions.
Now that all that's done, I can do some small time things like moving my horn to the left swingarm and coil back to the horn spot and think about the next steps. Probably low profile recurved windshield, progressive shocks and a 2:1 exhaust. After the exhaust I'll see if the indy guy who did my tires can talk me into the race download he has for his 06 RoadGlide or take the bike to Salt Lake and get it dyno'd since I have a PCIII already.
Then real good hardbags, quality seat, paint, new handlebars and controls, LED's, etc... A boy can dream, right?
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