Alain- Brah? LOL you teasing me about my Hawaiian roots now eh? sorry can't help but bust out the pidgin language with another local. ;p

There's really NOTHING to contemplate with the suspension mod. It is effing FANTASTIC times 100. I'm dead serious it is the first mod any current FXS/FXD owner should do to their bike, you get so much back from it and it's a relatively inexpensive, medium level DIY. Should be cake for you maybe 1-2 beers max.

The Pirelli tires have also been just amazing, I'm not sure how the stock tires are on the Rocker but the BO, man, it is just plain wrong in so many ways with those factory dunlops. Completely different bike now with these two changes.

Today had some old F8ck pull right out in front of me across a four-lane and I was going about 50. I jammed on the front brake, put a bit of bite on the rear, and she hunkered right down and stopped under full control. with enough time, even, to flip the old bastard the big finger as I swerved around. there is NO WAY I could have done that with the stock setup. I was locking rear tire at 35 with medium force, and bouncing the front forks off their stops with a full grab. that was bad.

 

I can only imagine how much better the handling is gonna be with your setup man.

The thing for me to figure out is what to throw money at first. Looks/comfort or the suspension setup......Or a new Challenger Hellcat.

Right now the Hellcat is in the lead lol.

 

LOL!! well yes I suppose you have to balance your toys. - I got rid of all my 4-wheel toys except the truck. So now I just have the off road bikes and two v-twins to work on. just got too spread out on things because I have to upgrade / mod everything I own. Although I do miss the Carrera S convertible on nice sunny weekends, but I don't miss waxing it all the time or worrying about a door ding. hell you think HD mods are expensive.. oy!

The suspension mod is as much about comfort and safety as doubling your riding fun. you'll find you can push the bike a lot more and get more out of it. I'd say it's sort of a synergistic component to the other things you've already done.

 

BTW took the Big Dog out for a spin today. I forget how wickedly scary fun that bike is- a few smokey off the line runs and shifting 1st through 4th off the rev limiter at 6k, will wake you up right quick.

I find myself riding the Breakout a lot more though - I'm getting too used to that plushy B motor, smooth baby. the Big Dog is fast and furious but you do feel it after an hour ride with that cammed up motor. when you're in the power band it's really smooth but low rpm and idle you really feel it pulse. I see the benefit now of using a compensator motor sprocket so I'm gonna find one for the Big Dog's SS motor. should help smooth things out.

 

some quick pics of the "beast" today up on Mulholland Drive. I like scaring the tour buss passengers (vans with the tops cut off packed full of camera-happy tourists) :P
Had a fellow HD rider pull up to me at a light on a new 48 iron, and he said "Nice- is that a 2014 model HD?" LOL!!

 

nice looking Big Dog. I like your Breakout more.

 

That was me! I didn't recognize you. Lol

 

Alain uh who's bike is that........yours?

 

Went up to the Harley dealer again today... sat on another Breakout.. need one. I know it's not the same as riding it, but with the advice with the Intiminators and changing the pegs, I think I'll be happy.

Looking for stage 1 performance advice.. kind of set on the Bassani Road Rage 2 into 1 black pipes, what should I do for an air cleaner? I'd probably have the dealer do the stage one stuff before I even take the bike home.

 

Bassani makes decent pipes, depends on whether you like the look of it on your bike. For an intake breather it doesn't matter a whole lot. they will all flow about the same and your motor won't be able to take advantage of a super high flow breather anyway- you've got a 46mm TB and 3.9 g injectors, so there is a limit on how much HP that setup can actually support- somewhere around 80hp.

So I'd say go with whatever pipes and intake you think looks the best on your bike, and sounds the best to you. they will all give you about equal gain with a correct stage 1 tune (not a canned map, but one that has been properly tweaked). if you get a PV2 tuner I can help you with the tune file.

The best 'stage 1' you can do in terms of boosting pokey stock performance is change the tall gearing. put on a 30T front pulley and 68T rear pulley, same belt, your bike will feel a lot faster because it will be. With the suspension upgrade, stage1, properly tuned, and the gearing change you won't need to do much else unless you just want to go for bigger HP/TQ with a cam, 107 kit, heads etc.

BTW- you can safely ride with stage1 pipes and intake, and the stock tune - the idle, low load, medium load and idle ranges are all under closed loop ECM operation anyway. Not good for WOT or heavy load, but, you will be breaking the bike in and avoiding those operations anyway. The ECM will maintain proper AFR albeit a bit lean. But the HD stage1 maps are also lean and "EPA friendly", and you'll have to buy the SE tuner from the dealer, which is a bit limited in function. get the PV2 tuner and put a good tune on it yourself.