stage 1

[booty]

i want to do a stage 1 con on my 08 fatboy now the wife is going to the states in the next couple of weeks what would you get if you had the chance of buying it all half price

[Jester]

Rush 1.75 / 2" slip ons OR S&S slip ons, SERT or Thundermax + K&N kit. (haven't researched how the dealers would handle the SERT /Thundermax over here though, especially if they don't get their cut ).

I'd also consider a PCIII, but I don't know enough about how well they work with the later bikes. The PC's do work with 08 bikes, I've just never researched them enough to recommend as I have a 05.

J

[grbrown]

Originally Posted by booty

i want to do a stage 1 con on my 08 fatboy now the wife is going to the states in the next couple of weeks what would you get if you had the chance of buying it all half price

I have taken these words from my 107 inch Mountain Motor thread:

"It is worth remembering that new Harleys suffer a number of problems, partly to do with exhaust emission, but also noise. Fuel mixture is very lean, which to improve performance should be undone, either by remapping the fuel injection or with a carb jet kit. The inlet is seriously restricted by using a very quiet airbox, which should be undone at the same time as the previous mod. Also ignition timing is not optimum, to keep engine noise down at low road speeds, which can also be sorted. Obviously the silencers are very quiet and restrictive. On top of that lot the gearing is very high, to reduce engine speed at noise-metering road speeds."

So when making Stage 1 mods to a standard bike, all the above should be considered. While the exhaust is a tempting thing to replace, start at the inlet end! You can probably make the thing go better most cheaply by changing the crankshaft sprocket, also covered in the same thread, along with the necessary part number.

http://www.harley-davidson-hangout.c...ain-motor.html

[Jester]

Graham, does your view of low gearing apply to earlier 5 speed bikes, such as my 05? I feel the gearing could be a bit lower, but at the expense of poorer fuel consumption which is not what I want at £1.20 a ltr.

Is this a primarily a 6 speed problem?

[Roy]

Booty

If you want to take advantage of your wife being in the states then for a stage 1 I would consider:

1) Replacing the airfilter - one approach is with a K&N kit that replaces the restrictive backplate plus adds in a higher quality air filter element. Or you can go for a new look with something like an S&S teardrop or a Kuryakan hypercharger. S&S and K parts are a lot cheaper in the states so worth going for. Your alos need to 'blank off' the active inlet which is a simple plug on device to plug into the electronic connection to the back of your standard air filter backplate. These are freely avaiable in UK and cost peanuts from places like vtwin mania (please see hordes of previous posts on this point).
2) In replacing the inlet, worth looking at either changing the silencers with something like screaming eagles or going for a new complete exhaust. The advantage to the former is your bike will sound better, the advice with the latter is it removes the restrictive standard downpipes - however from experience and for general road riding this does not make a big difference. So its down to looks and what works for you.
3) In changing the above, your need to do something about the EFI tuning as your standard setup which makes your bike run lean and comply with california emmission rules will now run really lean and cause running and engine longevity problems. One problem with Fuelpacks and PCIIIs bought in the states is they are mapped to stateside supplied bikes which are mapped differently that those exported to the UK. So, your need to factor in the cost of getting your bike dyno tuned, so it can be cost effective just to buy your PCIII or FP from a UK dealer with the HDRC discount (people like fatbyz diner etc).

All this will change the sound and make your bike breathe better which for insurers likes Carole Nashe is not a problemo. If you want to go optimum, then your looking at more detailed advice. Depends on what your going for, for looks and sounds my advice above is sound.

Hope this helps, Roy

[Jester]

Another thumbs up for buying from Fatboyz Diner. Phil and Karen did me a great price on both a PCIII USB and K&N. This just about matched prices from the states, although this included VAT and import taxes. If you buy when you're over there you might not suffer this. I'd think bringing back some pipes would raise a few questions from customs though. The only alternative would be to post them back sans original packaging / receipts. Doubt it would be worth the hassle / risk tbo.

Not true about the mapping of PCIII's in the states though. You can ask for them to be mapped by certain folk like fuelmoto but generally they come with no maps / base map installed. It's the lack of any warranty that might come back to bite you. Anyway you'll want to load your own map based on what your mods are, a 2 second job with access to any computer. For PCIII's a dyno tune is the icing on the cake, but the canned maps you will find are pretty much spot on, this is from those folk I know who have went on to have the bike dyno'd. It just depends on your particular mods how well the canned map will match.

[girlyglide]

Originally Posted by Jester

Another thumbs up for buying from Fatboyz Diner. Phil and Karen did me a great price on both a PCIII USB and K&N. This just about matched prices from the states, although this included VAT and import taxes. If you buy when you're over there you might not suffer this. I'd think bringing back some pipes would raise a few questions from customs though. The only alternative would be to post them back sans original packaging / receipts. Doubt it would be worth the hassle / risk tbo.

Thanks for the recommendation. One other important point is that buying locally you are covered by UK consumer law (much more straightforward than distant selling laws) and only have to deal with someone in this country not 4,000 miles away in the event of a warranty issue or other problem.

[grbrown]

Originally Posted by Jester

Graham, does your view of low gearing apply to earlier 5 speed bikes, such as my 05? I feel the gearing could be a bit lower, but at the expense of poorer fuel consumption which is not what I want at £1.20 a ltr.

Is this a primarily a 6 speed problem?

I am not sure what the overall gearing of a 6-speed is, but my suspicions are that the extra gear is there to further lower engine speed at noise measuring road speeds! So the kit I refer to will probably be even more beneficial.

My wife's bike is a 2003 5-speed model. A reduction from 25 to 21 teeth may seem radical, but the bike does go very well at last! An alternative is to tune the engine to substantially increase torque, to achieve a similar benefit, but that will definitely increase fuel consumption and be expensive.

I owned a V8 Aston Martin for a while. The best advice I received from a specialist, while shopping around to buy one, was not to bother about the fuel consumption, as it is not the greatest cost of running the things!

Applying that tip to Harleys, we routinely spend a fortune on customising them and improving their performance. Some improvements can actually improve fuel consumption, but will generally increase it, so to save fuel either don't use it or sell it!

Changing gearing has not prompted any comment from my wife (she was shocked by its high fuel consumption when it was new), so it seems to be no less economical now, the way she rides it.

Changing gearing may seem an odd thing to do, but with a standard or mildly modified bike it will have a substantial benefit, compared to the low cost of doing it. I will go so far as to suggest it should be the FIRST thing anyone does to a standard recent bike!

[Jester]

Hmmm, as I plan to tour extensively on the bike I'd still like to consider having decent fuel consumption.

Last year I traveled over 25K miles on my bikes, this equates to over £3000 in fuel at todays prices. By all accounts should petrol reach its predicted £1.50 ltr by September and possibly £1.80 ltr by early next year then my bill for fuel would rise to £4000 - £4500 pa, unless I do less miles.

I certainly don't intent to spend this annually on modifying or servicing my Road King although many will. As I have more than one bike it all adds up. Two years of fuel at this rate would practically buy the bike

Selling one of the bikes isn't an option, yet

[Jester]

Not a problem. Now, any word on the pm I sent?

Originally Posted by girlyglide

Thanks for the recommendation. One other important point is that buying locally you are covered by UK consumer law (much more straightforward than distant selling laws) and only have to deal with someone in this country not 4,000 miles away in the event of a warranty issue or other problem.