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Originally Posted by Gorpet
Hi CW, Thanks sharing and what brand and type bike do you ride? These days i don't ride far from home 20 or so miles out and back and when i do its by myself. Maybe later this summer when it gets safer to go on trips again the wife and i will ride up to St. Augustine Fl. We used to ride the bike up there and spend the weekend every couple months when i first bought it and always had a great time. Enjoy life when you can ya never know when something like Covid will come along and change it forever.
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Hey there Gorpet. You are more than welcome regarding the Dyna picture. I wanted people to see what a beautiful motorcycle the Dyna's are. A good friend of mine has one. He became sick with appendicitis on a ride and asked me to retrieve his Dyna some 70 miles away. The flat beds were being used and he instead asked me to ride it back. Some 20 miles into the ride, I decided he wasn't getting his bike back.
I asked him to sell it to me but he won't part with it. I got him another tank and fenders. We didn't want to repaint his and ruin it's value. I painted the tank and fenders with an antique white / teal color in a crinkle finish and it's stunning.
In my humble opinion, The Dyna, with the Sportster front end, may well be the best motorcycle that Harley ever made. It's light, nimble and with a powerful engine and 66 inch wheel base, is a comfortable cruiser for an all day ride. If the Dyna's are properly re-jetted and with a screaming eagle setup and free flowing exhaust, The Dyna's are easily pushing 75hp and about 84-ft-lbs of torque. That qualifies the Dyna as a legitimate power cruiser. I never see Dyna's for sale unless they are thrashed out in need of a total rebuild. People who ride Dyna's know what a great bike they have.
Jeff had mentioned His Triumph SpeedMaster and how great it is / was. That's hardly a surprise as Triumph always made great bikes, just ask Keanu Reeves. I almost purchased a Triumph Rocket that had been wrecked. It's a 3 cylinder with the cylinders located down the long axis of the bike. It made for a very powerful and balanced cruiser.
As for me, I have been buying and selling bikes after restoration and I'm down to 3. One is an 86 Honda Shadow 700 with 11,000 miles on the clock. It had 8300 miles on the clock when I bought it a few years ago on the cheap and it needed nothing except a good cleaning. It had lived a comfortable life tucked away in a heated garage. The Shadow, at highway speeds,gets 61MPGg and pumps out 62-66 horsepower and easily keeps up or outruns motorcycles in the 1500 cc class. Sadly the extreme angle of the seat and short 60 inch wheel base ruins what is an otherwise superior motorcycle. For whatever reason, Japan started to make motorcycles with a single crank pin to make them sound like Harley's. I don't understand the correlation but it lowered similar displacement bikes and engines from 62hp to 45 hp with a corresponding drop in the torque ratings as well.
I also purchased a 2004 Kawasaki Vulcan 750. It came with Vance and Hines pipes, Corbin premium seat with backrest and high end highway pegs. While it looks like new cosmetically, it's in serious need of mechanical work. It also has what I call " short leg syndrome. " At 65 mph / 104 Kph, it's at 4500 RPM !! By contrast, the Shadow is at 3150 RPM at the same speed. The Vulcan's also had chronic Stator issues necessitating complete removal of the engine from the chassis for replacement
I had planned on stripping the bike down including removal of the engine and doing a mock up and welding new motor mounts including rubber isolators with to install a Shadow 750 engine. I may also put a sportser 1200 engine in. I haven't decided. I also have a 5 gallon Harley Ultra Classic tank left over from a project I did. I planned on using it as well if it looks okay which would give the new bike and configuration a 300 mile/ 482 Kilometer range. It would be something of an oddball bike and not something I could easily resell unless someone understood the value of the re-engineering. Still, after all that work, I wouldn't sell it anyhow. With a 63 inch wheelbase and floorboards, It should be a comfy ride and look a lot like your Dyna although it will never be one.
My apologies for the long narrative. I'm just anxious to get back out and ride.
Stay safe my friend on your rides. I'm glad you are in line for the Covid inoculation. Hopefully, we can all get out and enjoy the spring and summer this year and renew old acquaintances. Next year, you can visit Daytona, secure in the knowledge that you and your lady are fully protected from Covid.