Just bought my first Harley a week ago, a Softail Slim. I have been riding Ducati's with the occasional track days for years and as such enjoy leaning into my turns. I have been scraping the floorboards quite a bit already and to be honest am not sure if I'm sold on the floorboards instead of pegs. My question is would adding forward controls help with the low clearance that the softails have? I enjoy the low ride of the slim but don't want to be chewing up the boards constantly, especially because I would like to lower it even more with the shotgun shock thus possibly creating even more drag. I can adapt but just curious if this might help a bit.

 

Losing the floorboards and going to regular pegs will help some but forward extensions don't move then up any just forward.

 

I actually switch my floor boards to Forward control on the slim. It's a pain in the *** to switch because you have the take off the brake line from the master cyliender. You definitely get a little more ground clearance. I didn't scrape at all with the pegs at the time. But I also didn't want to scape my new PM pegs. The one thing I noticed the forward control doesn't give you an extra leg room. Plus you feel the vibration more on your feet on longer rides. I ended up going back to the floor board and don't mind the scraping.

BTW STOP Leaning and ride too aggressive into the turn as much, it will cost you cash. My experience on my slim I have scrape the bottom of my outer primary cover and my 2 into 2 v&H exhaust. I learn to stop and relax on the turn. I don't feel like wasting money on replacing parts. Safe Riding.

 

So, you're having problems scraping through turns you say...

Congrats on coming over to the dark side & on the new Slim! Now, quit leaning that bitch so far over!!!

 

I swapped the boards for forwards on my Fatboy for this very reason. The boards had no more lower corner edge. Wore em out.
Much more clearance!

 

Sorry not a sport bike. Change it as you will, it will never lean as such.

Deal with it, you bought a cruiser. Now just go out and cruise.

 

^^ or that...

 

Thanks for all the responses, guess I'll just have to learn to relax the turn a bit haha. Who knows, maybe down the road I'll try out the pegs as I have problems leaving anything alone.

 

g boards is one thing, but if you go to forward controls the low point in a turn is your heel. Dragging your feet in a turn is much scarier than the boards.

 

Aegis,

I feel your pain. I recently moved on from a 2005 Suzuki Hayabusa to a my first Harley, a 2014 Breakout. The first time I dragged my foot pegs scared the crap out of me. I'm used to leaning the bike over at a good pace through all my turns. Now I seem to drag my pegs through even the slightest turns. Even on a freeway onramp...come'on! I wish there was a way to get a little more clearance too since the bike can handle it and leaning is the best part of riding. I'm wondering if switching to a different peg will give me a little more clearance, but likely only and inch or two on each side.

I guess I will have to take everyone's advice and just slow the hell down in my turns!