I guess I have two questions:

Custom guys: How do you decide on a theme for baggers? What goes into making that decision, is money a factor or not?

Regular non-professional builders: Motor mods on a bike seem like it is pretty much a black and white, seems like the 1st thing is stage one, then from there it can go on and on to tweak the bike to achieve its maximum performence.
I have seen some pretty sweet rides on here and they all, for the most part seem to look great!! Now I know there are guys that are against changing anything, and that is fine, NO OFFENSE, but you do not have to post if your of the stock philosophy. I do not mean this in a bad way.
But for the guys that are making their rides truly custom, How do make a decision about parts? How do you know you will be happy with the scoot after you add something to it. Paying big bucks for something and then deciding Naw I dont like it. Custom buliders can, I guess, just turn around and build another bike, for those guys that cant do that, what goes into make the call for you.

I'm not talking about becuase I like it I put in on my bike sort of thing, I am trying to get a true opinion as to what do you take into consideration as far as making the call on anything from paint, chrome parts to themed parts. Liking is a part of it of course, but do you think about lines, do you think about resale, What goes into to making your decision form taking your stock bike and making it one off?

 

Can only speak for me,my theme has always been old school bagger,with all aluminum polished.Money is always a consideration,been doing it for a lot of years,knowing a lot of tricks.
Always get the best possible parts for reliabilty and the time spent searching is worth every minute.I use Ebay for most of the parts,and local shops for the rest.
Engines and drive trains come from many years of trial and error.You have to know what you need for performance and how to get it.My needs come from many years of drag racing,the bikes I build reflect that.Big inch motors,beefed up trans and clutches are all done in my shop because of needing know that everything is on the money,and perfectionizm is what drives me.Do a lot of the work yourself and it needs not having to take a second mortgage to go very fast.Good Luck

 

Yeh, I hear yeh. I was looking at the Hypercharger from Kury asked a few questions on this forum about it and my mind was changed. I got some pros and cons, but the cons far out numbered the pros if you know what I mean.
I still think they look baad ***, but like you say if your going to drop dough on the bike, it better be a good quality part. I also like the S&S tuned induction with the two airfilters, did some research and the only thing I could find negative were the comments on the price of the system. Turns out it would not fit my bike with the fairing lowers and I just dropped some dough on converting them into speakers, so I'm frenched in that area. Research, research.
I guess that is half the battle. Going with the Doherty big sucker so I can leave the football on the bike, I like it, and the increase is even with the S&S, Fuel moto headers, and 4" slips are on. PCV for the fuel. Contrast cut HD stuff for the rest.
On a side note. Love your state!!! Lived there from 93-99 in Machias and Sullivan. GOt to love riding there!!! thanks for the comment. I would love to see a pic of one of your drag bikes. You got to have your chit sewn up tight to take one of those bad boys down the stretch.

 

TimmyB,
You already got a sweet ride in that Limited. But I know where you come from on this... "stock sucks"! Bolt-ons and stage one stuff is easy to "change-up" if you decide you don't like it after it goes on. Relatively inexpensive to change around, and you can always recover some of the costs in the classified section. I would even say that bumping up to "off-the-shelf" motor builds like Fuelmoto's 107" kit is pretty safe. Where I would exercise caution is getting into "high compression motor builds", "excessive lowering" of the suspension compounded with "large diameter front tires" (23"+), and "raked bagger frames". I think it's easy to "build yourself out of a bike" when you get into those things. For example... I took a perfectly good ford truck, threw 6" of lift on it with some 37" diameter wheels. It was an awesome looking truck! But trying to live with that thing on a daily basis became pretty uncomfortable, so I ended-up selling it. Same thing with my Mustang GT... Built the motor so hot, with a 4000 rpm stall converter, took out the sway bars, big *** headers, etc and so on. Turned out, I had to buy another car as a daily driver and the Stang ended up as a weekend Street/Strip car. Same thing on some of these bikes I've seen... Dudes start getting into modding stuff... next thing you know their bagger is slammed with a 26" front wheel, raked front end, and that 124" high compression motor. Yeah its bad looking, but it ain't going to be too comfortable to ride for very long. Same thing I see with these Dudes and their sport bikes. You lower a sportbike and throw a stretched swingarm on it... it ain't no fun to ride anymore. Of course, if you own more than one bike, then pick one a go all-out. But if your a true rider thats laying down hard miles every year... your not going to want to stray too far from that Limited you got there (being your only bike). It is a sickness though... "tweek'n stuff". You have to be carefull or you might wake-up one day and realize you need to buy a whole nuther bike you can ride!

 

I don't do mods to make my bike different. I do them for power,safety & comfort. You see the same aftermarket parts on the same bikes any place you go. That's the way it's been & will always be. You could paint it a different color. But someone will still have some of the same stuff you have. For me that' not "DIFFERENT" That's just my 2 cents. I'm sure we'll all keep spending the $$$$