Hey guys,

I'm new to the forums, never been one to really use them. And I already messed up and posted this in the wrong section. But I feel this information needs to get out there!

I bought a 2003 Road King for my first bike, and then started riding with a club a little after. My bike was lowered, chromed out, and had 22" apes on it with true dual exhaust and Vance and Hines Pro-Pipes. The motor was bone stock. It was basically about the worst club bike you could imagine. It was slow, couldn't turn, and had terrible handling characteristics with a crazy wobble when leaning into soft turns at about 80 mph.

I ended up wrecking the bike when I got pinched between two trucks while splitting lanes. Because of the sentimental value, I just couldn't let the insurance take it, so I kept it. (bad financial move) The frame was straight, and the motor turned over with no leaks. I removed the nacelle, since it was trashed, replaced the neck bearings, and mounted a dyna headlight with a ghetto, homemade triple tree clamp and headlight block. Factory 47 actually saw the accident, and gave me a set of Evil T bars for free! So I made a trip to Oakland and also to just south of Yosemite like that.

Then I had a lifter collapse. So it went under the knife. I removed the front fender, bars, saddlebags and supports, exhaust, rear turn signal bar, and rear shocks. I chopped the rear fender down to just under the tail light, chopped the side covers to match the "V" shape of the frame (essentially made my own FXR style side covers, installed 18" West Coast T Bars MX bars, JD Fabs coffin cut handguards, HD LED turn signal mirrors, Progressive 13.5" rear shocks, Progressive heavy duty fork springs, a custom sissy bar, and Joker Machine MX floorboards.

I then tore the motor down with a brother of mine, and took the time to do an S&S 97" big bore kit with an HD gear drive kit and Screamin Eagle cams. I was looking for an exhaust that would mount to the transmission instead of the saddlebag support, as I did not have those anymore, and all I could find were $1700 tig welded pipes. As I said before, this is my club bike, and I ride about 40k miles a year on it, so spending a quarter of the worth of the bike on a pipe did not make sense. I ended up going with an 'El Cheap-o" Dan Moto pipe in black. It ran me $300 shipped, I get great torque out of it, and it sounds healthy. The coating on the pipe is cheap, and has chips in it, and it does not have heat shields, so it gets hot as a mother. So far, 8,000 miles later, I am more than happy with the purchase.

So I rode it around as is, looking like an FXR and a bagger had a baby, and I was stoked on it. People called it ugly, but it would outrun dynas and I could still ride it 1500 miles without needing to do anything to it. But I kept coming across articles from people who said they would like to see a road king turned into an FXRT, but only a couple of people did them, and they didn't go all the way; only putting the fairing on a bagger and calling it done. I figured I had the perfect donor.

So I got in touch with Joe from Deviant Fabrications and ordered a kit with the fairing, lowers, headlight cover (black), and the brackets. The fairing and lowers are injection molded, and come black.

Drilling is required to mount the fairing to the bracket, as well as to mount the headlight, windshield, lowers, and headlight cover. The bracket provided is a good base, as it fits perfectly to the neck, but it sits the fairing too low, as the triple tree on the touring models sits lower than the dynas. Its two pieces that bolt together, but I ended up relocating the fairing, so I welded it together (and cut it apart, and rewelded it, and cut it apart again, and rewelded it since it was a trial and error experiment). The opening in the bottom of the fairing where the fork legs would go was insufficient for using a stock touring front end, so I had to cut it open bigger to allow me to turn the bars to full lock without touching the fairing. The windshield provided sucked, and I shattered it installing it (I'm also no master fabricator, and I have the dexterity of a toddler), so for now I don't run one. In the future, I'd like a Klockwerx windshield, but I'm a broke college student, so my bank account looks like the stock market in '08. All in all, for $1575 SHIPPED, it was a heck of a purchase, and I would recommend it again.

As of right now, it looks mean, blocks the wind, handles like a champ, runs like a raped ape, and is big enough for a 270lbs chubby guy to be comfortable and look good with all the pretty little dynas. I did all this with basic tools, a little help from a mechanic, a welder, and an ****-retentive business owner who kept me on track when I wanted to take too many smoke breaks. I feel anyone with friends like the above and a basic set of tools can accomplish this build. All together, I'm in it about $3500, plus beer, by sourcing a lot of the parts used.

 

interesting- I gotta laugh at the helmet and shorts!

but I've been known to spin around the block in shorts after washing it



I have an fxrp, most of the cop stuff fell off 25 years ago.

I put a wideglide on it for a little while but back to lowered 39mm with fork brace



those of us who know, know that the fxr was probably the best HD effort ever


mike

 

Hey now, the shorts add 5 horsepower... Hahaha! I love your bike, btw.

 

VERY cool bike. How is the fairing?

 

Well, that is quite a story. Interesting looking, but I need my man purses (bags and tour pack)
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Thanks! Its a trip getting used to the fixed fairing at first, but it's so light that I don't even notice it. And the quality is great!

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to run a set of t sport bags while having the shock mounted so far back on the swing arm. For now I'm using a backpack bungee'd to my sissy bar. Hahaha

 

Leather Pro makes copies of T-Sport bags, which may be worth a look. I have a set on my Sporty.

 

Of all the attempts to make a bagless bagger, you nailed it Big Matt! Great job!

 

the only issue with any of it is that the touring bikes have a shock that mounts in the middle of the strut and the rear of axel, which would sit right in the middle of the bag. The only bags I know work for sure are the stock bags, which have a cutout on the backside for the shock, or fxdp bags of you space them out from the bike to allow room for the shock.