Street Glide Special First Impressions

[JohnnyV]

This weekend's "I'm bored and don't know what more to do" project. Some think they're tacky, I don't really give a shit I think they look cool as hell at night with all the chrome. Oh and Jay, I'm catching up to ya mileage-wise. currently at 2,500 miles since registering it on June 5th haha.

[Stoneman]

Attaboy! I didn't get much riding in this weekend - it was a drinking weekend for me instead.

I did manage to get the LED headlight installed. Pretty simple, fit right in and they include a couple extra pigtails. I really haven't tested it out at night yet though. We shall see.

[01xj]

Woof, my shocks arrived the day we leave for vacation! Early last week I got a tracking number from ohlins but wasn't sure what to expect. Pete said he was pretty sure on an end of September ship date. Having them arrive 3 months early is fine by me.

[Stoneman]

Attaboy!
I did manage to get the LED headlight installed. Pretty simple, fit right in and they include a couple extra pigtails. I really haven't tested it out at night yet though. We shall see.

Still haven't really tested it out in complete darkness. But have any of you that switched to LED headlights had to re-aim them? Like I said, I still don't know exactly where they project so I can't be certain one way or another how they're aimed. It's just something that occurred to me on my way in this morning.

[JohnnyV]

Still haven't really tested it out in complete darkness. But have any of you that switched to LED headlights had to re-aim them? Like I said, I still don't know exactly where they project so I can't be certain one way or another how they're aimed. It's just something that occurred to me on my way in this morning.

Yea I adjusted mine after install. It was pointing fairly low, brought the top edge of the beam up a bit(park in front of a garage door or something similar a few feet away from it and you'll see the sharp horizontal edge of the beam fairly well.

[Stoneman]

Finally got a chance to use the LED's in darkness. While they're a shitfuck better than the stocks, I think I still gotta aim 'em a bit higher. I've never been a big fan of riding at night in big part to the lackluster headlights on most of the bikes I've owned. Add to that my poor eyesight and all the fuckin' critters up our way and it's just something I've never really gotten into much. That's most likely going to change with this pig though.

Did a nice 200 mile jaunt Saturday, retracing the notorious ride that I crashed on some twenty years ago, albeit from the opposite direction (route 153 up to No. Conway, 112 (the Kanc) over to Lincoln, route 3 down to route 132 down to Tilton). Stopped on the Kanc to cool off in the Swift River, then hit our secret spot on the Pemi on our way home before stopping for vittles at the Sunset Grill in Campton (HIGHLY recommended).

Got the worse ever mileage on this ride. Barely a tick over 200 miles on the tank. But I was leading and getting a bit spirited and found myself having to slow up for the other couple to catch up quite a bit (they were on a trike), and we hit a couple small areas of congestion. I managed to get into it with a kid on a sportbike when we were crossing the Kanc. He didn't seem to much like the idea of some fat old guy on a Harley chasing him through the twisties. I'm sure if he knew what the hell he was doing he could've smoked me, but after a while of him taking some pretty shaky lines, I backed off. Well, that and Big Shirl wasn't too impressed.

I haven't checked yet, but I should be up around 3700-3800 miles. I'll hit 4000 before the weekend.

[01xj]

What LED did you get? Just the bulb or the housing as well? I did drop in LED's on my Triumph and I know everyone motherfucks them because blinding people, but they were aimed pretty well and had a good cutoff for being plug and play. I was really happy with them, got them from superbrightled's.

My shocks going in tomorrow as well as an oil change.

I think the next area to address will be a full brake upgrade. Gafler rotors, lines, pads and new fluid.

[Stoneman]

What LED did you get? Just the bulb or the housing as well? I did drop in LED's on my Triumph and I know everyone motherfucks them because blinding people, but they were aimed pretty well and had a good cutoff for being plug and play. I was really happy with them, got them from superbrightled's.

My shocks going in tomorrow as well as an oil change.

I think the next area to address will be a full brake upgrade. Gafler rotors, lines, pads and new fluid.

I got the whole housing. Just some Amazon cheapie. I figure I can go through eight of those and still spend less than the HD or Hogwerks or Custom Dynamic headlights. I'll be ordering the 3-bar taillight/brake light combo from Custom Dynamics today though...

I'm incredibly grateful mine came with the upgraded suspension & brakes.

[JohnnyV]

I really find the brakes to be pretty decent. Just did pads front and rear a couple weeks ago, and new rotors on the front when I did the Enforcer wheel. Next will be a full brake fluid flush.

Suspension is also on my list, I'm just not sure what to do. Thinking the basic Progressive shocks on the rear and the drop in kit for the front. Can't see myself spending the $7k for the full Ohliins front conversion haha

[01xj]

It's a Christmas miracle. CT dmv just called me to register the bike. I used their paperwork drop off service back in, ehh.... End of May? Maybe a few days into June. Thought for sure they'd lose my paperwork and I'd end up engaged in some huge battle given that they had the title. I was most worried about missing their phone call since spam calls spoof the 860 prefix in CT. Ran my card over the phone and were all set, 550$ later.

[Stoneman]

It's a Christmas miracle. CT dmv just called me to register the bike. I used their paperwork drop off service back in, ehh.... End of May? Maybe a few days into June. Thought for sure they'd lose my paperwork and I'd end up engaged in some huge battle given that they had the title. I was most worried about missing their phone call since spam calls spoof the 860 prefix in CT. Ran my card over the phone and were all set, 550$ later.

$550??? Tell me again what you registered. Holy fahk! Mine was only a few hundred beans!

[JohnnyV]

$550??? Tell me again what you registered. Holy fahk! Mine was only a few hundred beans!

Mine was about that. Title and reg are like $140 then sales tax on top($405)

[01xj]

2004 road king.

New plate fee
Tax on nada value

The rest is something like:
Clean air fee
State park fee
Boy scouts fee
Fix potholes fee
Bridge repair fee

[Stoneman]

Holy shit! Mine was around $360, and that was for an extra month! March to March instead of April to March. I thought NH's registration prices were high. DAYUMN!

Mine will go down every year until it bottoms out (my Corvette has been $110 for as long as I can remember). Do yours go down each year?

[01xj]

The re registration fee is considerably less. I think it's every 2 years. Last time I had to renew everything it was all done at once though. In March my triumph, Silverado and Mazda 3 cost me 330$ to renew.

We also pay town tax on our vehicles based off the mill rate. Not sure if that's a thing up in NH or VT. That was 180$ for all 3 listed before plus a 6x10 trailer.

[sveesix]

I really want a cruiser.

[Stoneman]

The re registration fee is considerably less. I think it's every 2 years. Last time I had to renew everything it was all done at once though. In March my triumph, Silverado and Mazda 3 cost me 330$ to renew.

We also pay town tax on our vehicles based off the mill rate. Not sure if that's a thing up in NH or VT. That was 180$ for all 3 listed before plus a 6x10 trailer.

We have a state and town portion. The prices I have were for total.

[Stoneman]

I really want a cruiser.

I *STILL* can't believe you're not a chick!

But...I couldn't be happier with my choice so far. This thing has FAR exceeded my expectations. Granted, I've only got +/- 4000 miles on it and I didn't set my expectations TOO high. But it's long surpassed what I had hoped for. I couldn't be happier with my choice.

[Stoneman]

[loudbeard]

Mine will go down every year until it bottoms out (my Corvette has been $110 for as long as I can remember). Do yours go down each year?

In MA the tax is calculated at $25 per $1,000 of the vehicles MSRP then you pay a percentage of that base on how new it is.

New 90%
Second year 60%
Third year 40%
Fourth year 25%
Fifth year and more 10%

I've been finding myself really wanting a Lowrider S. I know this is the bagger thread but it's also kind of the HD thread at this point.

[Stoneman]

I tried my hand with one of those snow foam jobbies. I cheaped out and opted for the hose type, not the pressure washer type. Not sure how I feel about using a pressure washer on this thing with all the electronics and whatnots. I didn't go through the hassle of polishing it. Just a quick wash & chamois was about all I wanted to put into it. Used a leaf blower to get the water out of all the nooks & crannies, then hit it again with the chamois.

I guess the snow foam does a decent job. Basically, instead of rinsing the vehicle down you soak it down with the snow foam and let it sit & work it's magic. I soaked it down with the foam a couple times before I hit it with a wash rag. I waited until the first coat of foam looked like it was finally running off the bike - about 10 minutes. Then I hit it again and let it sit for about five minutes before putting the rag to it. Seemed to do a good enough job. I put more effort into drying it off.

[01xj]

I've had a foam set up for a year. Use it about once every two weeks. Works awesome. If your interested I can post what I use.

I'm not sure how I feel about foaming a bike. I've hand washed every bike I've owned so far.

[Stoneman]

I've had a foam set up for a year. Use it about once every two weeks. Works awesome. If your interested I can post what I use.

I'm not sure how I feel about foaming a bike. I've hand washed every bike I've owned so far.

Yeah - like I said, I only use the hose type. I'm not up for hitting the bike with a pressure washer!

The hose ones are pretty gentle, but they don't foam nearly as well as the pressure washer ones.

[JohnnyV]

Yeah - like I said, I only use the hose type. I'm not up for hitting the bike with a pressure washer!

The hose ones are pretty gentle, but they don't foam nearly as well as the pressure washer ones.

I hand wash once and a while if it gets really filthy or if I get caught in the rain which immediately makes the bike a fucking mess with road grime. Otherwise I do quick touch up cleaning with Honda Polish and a soft cloth to knock the bugs and shit off and works great.

[Stoneman]

I really want a cruiser.

I *STILL* can't believe you're not a chick!

But...I couldn't be happier with my choice so far. This thing has FAR exceeded my expectations. Granted, I've only got +/- 4000 miles on it and I didn't set my expectations TOO high. But it's long surpassed what I had hoped for. I couldn't be happier with my choice.

Also meant to say that when we started to look into upgrading the Low Rider, I got a hard-on for the Sport Glide in the two-tone orange/silver.