Wanted to share a few from my latest black mods. Handle bars are next on list.

 

If you see this before Saturday, head down to the York, PA manufacturing plant..they're having their open house. I managed to get on the Steel Toe Tour yesterday, was pretty awesome, got to see 3 new Lo's being built and thought to myself "One day, those owners may post something here...".. learned a lot about the bikes, too. Every Touring bike, Softail, CVO, and Trike is made there.

Enough to put a hand full of rumors to rest..
1) The fenders are made of sheet steel from Ohio. There was a rumor awhile ago that new fenders are fiberglass or plastic..just not true.

2) All paint is done in-house, EXCEPT for the CVO's.. the CVO's are sent out to an HD contractor, but once those pieces are returned to the plant, they're still inspected the same way for flaws, and if any are found, they're stripped and re-done. Every inch of each painted part is inspected by 1 of about 2 dozen people. Was wild to see how they work and go over every front fender, every rear fender, and every gas tank under a magnifying glass.

3) Every bike is roll-tested, so when you see that 1 mile on the odometer at the dealer, it's because one of 5 guys sat on the bike on a dyno and went through all 6 gears to top speed and made sure everything with the engine and electrical systems is perfect (that's the job i want). If you go to the dealer and see a bike with ~25 miles on it, that bike was selected for an Audit..so it was selected to actually be ridden by an auditor and taken out on the street and made sure it's perfect..and they said if you find one like that, and it passed, you should buy that one rather than one with 1 mile




Tail of the Dragon... mehhhhhh.. honestly, yes it's a nice road; I do NOT understand how so many people crash on it. You have to seriously not be paying attention to lose it there. But in all honesty, I think RT 28 (one of the two roads that gets you there from the North Carolina side, the other is Rt129) is a much better road.

1872 miles total, I wasn't as sore as I thought I would have been, but my ears are still vibrating from listening behind a windshield to my exhaust and my cams turning for endless hours of the day.
Oh, on my 107" with headwork and cams.. worst average mpg was 36mpg going south on the Skyline Drive (which was all uphill), and the best average mpg was 45mpg on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Roanoke, VA and Asheville, NC..but that was because it was downhill most of the way. Still need to get the bike tuned, though.



I also thought this tree was pretty cool..it was the only one standing there, and dead as a doornail.

Also this sign was frickin hilarious....



^^^ that was also about a 1,500 foot drop off the side of that, and after riding for days on end already, my legs were killing me to do that.

Also managed to visit 15 HD dealers, and literally double the size of my shot glass collection..

 

Nice pics Jim. I will try to get some decent pics of NOPI in Atlanta on Sunday. Going to hot rods and harleys today we'll see if it's worth posting pics.

 

That was a very nice trip you've made, Sgt. Jim. Visiting the MoCo plant is one of my future destination. And I'm jealous of your MPGs. Mine averages around 37-38mpg on combined flat freeway and street surfaces, with only stage 1 mods on stock 103" Something's really wrong here. BTW, thank you for sharing your story and pics.

 

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Sorry for the late reply.. But yeah they're 16z 1.5

 

For all of you removing your heel shift. What are you using to fill the void? Or are you just leaving the shaft naked (lol)?

 

Don't feel bad if I dont get on the interestate and put it in 6th I get about 33mpgs. But then again I switch gears at about 5800 with Stage 3.

 

Harley makes a little cover for the splined end of the shifter shaft, Kuryakyn also makes some, or they make spacers so you move the toe shifter out to the end, and a spacer that fills the rest of the gap

 

They make Shifter Shaft Covers. I have the HD one, but here is link to another.

https://www.denniskirk.com/H57010.sk...FctcMgodMRsArA

I need one in black.

 

5800? Dang. That seems awfully high. I'm sure you're motor is built better then mine was when it came from the moco but I'd be afraid it would blow up revving that high.