BratmanXj

I put a Stratoliner S polished 18" wheel on the front of my bike. Found it on eBay for $200 shipped with the floating front rotors.

Never had seat time in the Seca but have done time on a Turbo as well as Supercharged bikes. Like Wizard said once the turbo hits it takes everything you have to keep control; they were not "street-able" bikes with the way the power curve hit. If you were mid-corner and accidentally gave even a slight twitch of the throttle the bike would walk out from underneath you. Turbo Lag is awesome in a car where you have the seat to contain your butt but not so cool when there's nothing holding you down.

ABS Plumbing glue works on MOST motorcycle plastics. I've repaired a crack in my lower caused by a stray bird and still holding strong 2 yrs later. Just fixed the side covers on a friends '85 Suzuki Madura as well.

I picked up a bag of 30 from McMaster Carr last go round....shoot me a PM and I'll gladly throw a few in an envelope for you.

Large syringe like you would use when injecting a marinade into meat. Most have a screw-in needle that you wouldn't need in this instance, as the "tip" alone should be small enough to fit inside the schrader valve.

As it's on the throttle side it might have something to do with compensating for the rotational forces of the drive shaft on the clutch side of the bike. I removed the covers when I was still running the stock front wheel and did not notice anything odd with the way the bike handled or tracked. I have since switched to the 18" wheel of a Stratoliner that came with floating rotors and a smaller "insert" weight rather than the disk/cover. I did install the weight on the 18" but yet again did not notice anything significantly different.

1. A mighty-vac can be had from Harbor Freight or Amazon for $40 2. You can rig up a tube and funnel system to feed into the schrader valve, but that's going to be a slow process.

I went to 10 weight BelRay Synthetic. I used a might-vac with the collection cup to refill my front forks. Put the lower bolt back in and pull the schrader valve. Hook up the Vac pump and fill the (measured) collection cup. Pull 2 psi of vacuum, invert the cup and slowly release the pressure and it will suck the oil into the front forks. I figure if the front forks can handle 7psi of pressure it shouldn't have and issue with 2 psi of vacuum, seals are still good 2 yrs later.

With out a doubt DO THE SWAP. I went from "grab a handful" on the stock front brakes to sport-bike 2-finger braking after, absolute night and day difference. Before you mount the calipers do your self a favor and clean the brake dust off the pistons and make sure all 4 pots per caliper are moving smoothly. $300 Total...I think I did my Roadstar Warrior calipers & Master with new pads, and new "stock" rear pads for under $200.

You couldn't have posted this a few days ago, I just ordered some parts to fix the cruise control on one of the cars! But...there were some "toys" I wanted to order so I'm sure it will go to good use.

Look up Truck-Lite brands on Amazon and eBay...they make the Kuryakyn and can be had for $350 for a 3 piece set (7" headlight and 2 - 4.5" spot lamps) which still isn't cheap but is much more palatable than $700-800.

I agree that the heat was never much of an issue to me unless you were stuck in traffic and sitting over a heat-pump in 90 deg+ heat. Now I used the bike to commute through Chicago so I did have a few of those "why am I sitting on this rocking potato baker" moments. As for the water cooling, they were able to cool the valve train (and not the whole engine as you did point out) and build the heads to tighter tolerances and NOT have to deal with the wide range of operating temperatures and metal expansion rates. This in turn made the engine more efficient as well as helped with fuel injection tuning for a specific operating temperature. Like Porsche with the air cooled boxer engines and BMW with the 1200cc boxer, they hit the limits of metallurgy and engine performance without sacrificing longevity.

I haven't dealt with the newer HDs that have catalytics, but both HD's I've owned were night and day difference with new head pipes, mufflers, intake and tuner. One thing I did hear in passing is some guys swapping the cat-in-pipe for later model cat-in-muffler head pipes and getting relief from the heat. I'm lucky, I grew up next to a WELL KNOWN engine builder in the Chicago area...my last bike ('03 Road King) was far from stock just off spare parts he gave me. He builds strong RELIABLE motors and stands by a 2-into-1 will wake up a HD Motor. Just throwing that out there, but everyone wants true duals cause the sound cool. I missed the black lowers in that picture, its early and I didn't have my coffee yet! The sift linkage issue - do you have a stock linkage with the "captured ball" ends or does your bike have an after market linkage with heim joints? You can swap the original captured ball ends to heim joints from McMaster Carr for a fraction of the cost of HD Accessory linkage. It removed the slack in the linkage for a much more positive shifter feeling and you can shift while barely lifting your foot. The $5 radio shack buzzer on the factory alarm vs the $100 HD buzzer. There is a lot of "common sense" substitutions on that forum where someone has already done the leg work for you.

Looping through the 3 pages I have a few comments: 1. '13 did not (and the photo does not show) LED headlights. The kuryakyn LED headlights are made by TruckLite and can be had for 1/2 the price under that name. I haven't found who produces the HD LEDs yet. 2. In regards to the heat of the engines. Doing a Full stage 1 (intake, exhaust, and tuner) solves 50% off that issue. On a bike that HAS lower deflectors like and Ultra the heat is a bigger issue, if you ever decide to put lowers on make sure to purchase the VENTED lowers. 3. FuelMoto puts together some pretty nice, cost effective Stage 1 packages with Rush mufflers. If you're looking to make power ALWAYS GO WITH A 2 into 1 headpipe. 4. HD Forums has a touring section with a thread specifically to "cheap" fixes...upgrading your shift linkage for $20, bolting in the saddle bags vs the dzus clips, $5 radio shack alarm

There are Ethanol Specific stabilizers on the market

I'm with you on that one, but unfortunately with the year I've had around here I think I'm on my 3rd set of 3...

Live and commute through Chicago daily....its good and its bad when you know the rush hours and how to avoid it, but there's ALWAYS an alternate route. Now, last time I was in Muskegon we got delayed over 2 hrs by traffic (and a random boat with no trailer on the shoulder of 31???) and construction on Business 31.

The Ural one... http://imz-ural.com/dark-force.html

ZG1000...I had a '97 with 40k that I bought for $1,200. I'm 6'2" 250 and the bike was CRAMPED for me; used set of 1-1/2" riser blocks, used 1" offset peg brackets, and a DIY repading of the seat make it an EXCELLENT commuter bike all for an extra $100. But most sport-tourers have enough aftermarket support to swing the ergo's either towards sport or towards touring. Lowering brackets for the pegs, riser blocks or heli-bars, and saddles can really open up the seating position.

I assume the bike was reasonably stock before this intake and exhaust modification? The added more air flow so you will need to adjust the fuel flow as well, the bike is now running lean. Short term rideability issues and long term scorched plugs and a hot running engine. I'm not 100% certain on the carb setup on the 1100 if you can get away with shimming the needle or if new jets are required. I don't think the Thunder MFG "stage 3" is an absolute requirement when the jets are usually sold for a few dollars a piece. If you do a quick Google search for "Rejetting a V-Star 1100" there is a very nice guide on the VStar1100 forum that pops up.

LED still have a service life, but it is more than 1 year. The biggest issue I see is under the saddle bags is prone to road debris and water splash as well as more susceptible to moisture from washing the bike than mounting under the fuel tank.

Erik heading over to Victory that ACTUALLY wants to design bikes and not just "parts engineer" every new bike they make....Oooooooo!!!

Read somewhere with the acquisition of Brammo electric & the efforts in the Zero-TT that Victory would be redeveloped into a performance brand and Indian would become the cruiser brand.

I have not installed any of those automatic clutches but from what I'm reading on the website it is a direct swap for the factory diagram spring. I have done the "Double-D" spring on my venture as well as Barnett pressure plate on many Road Stars & Warriors (same clutch system as our ventures). The pressure plate swap is pretty easy with simple hand tools and a little patience. Read through the attached thread showing the Barnett installation but at step 7 you'd substitute the Barnett pressure plate for the AutoClutch of your choice. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?491-Barnett-Clutch-Installation

My favorite because you can download GPS files for route planning in Garmin, Tomtom, etc... http://www.sundaymorningrides.com/