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[sadunbar]

Until you see it in profile.  I'd entirely missed any product description that said the unit was a pod unto itself.  It raises the instrument up and angles it back where the unit will be looking the rider squarely in the face.  That's a good thing.  For a variety of reasons there is benefit there.  But this profile I'm not wild about at all.

Takes the clean line sweeping over the top of the tank and makes it bulbous.  Perhaps will get used to it after seeing it regularly.  But the first impression made me spit up a little in my mouth....

First impressions are usually golden...    


Kind of like your first answer is usually right on those darn standardized grade school tests...   

[Twolanerider]

Got away from the bike all evening working on some new kitchen cabinets for my sister's Christmas.  A nice clearing-of-the-head from the speedometer eyesoar.  With a clear head it's still ugly !

Medallion (the mftr) nor Kuryakyn have a profile pic anywhere in their advertising.  No freaking wonder....  

Can't imagine the engineer who designed that rides or cares what bikes look like.  Was an entirely function over form design.  And damn it's ugly!

No, Neal, we don't have to say nice things about .

Really like the face of the instrument.  Need to see if the inner body of the instrument itself is of a size that would slide against the speedo housing's rubber seal.  Need to see if using the Dremel and cutting away that lower part of the chrome outer body would expose things that shouldn't be exposed.  And if can't see any of it well enough to have a real clue will try to get a sympathetic support person on the phone Monday from the mftr and get a good explanations of what's up inside there.  Screw the warranty.  I just want it to mount and look good.

[Twolanerider]

Before finishing up tonight's projects decided I wanted to see something that looked good and qualified in some way as progress.  So put on the voltage regulator .

[Twolanerider]

And since the gas tank was sitting there to complete the visual field also put on the Ness Suck Bigger (I know, it's just funnier that way) air cleaner.

[Twolanerider]

Not just the backing plate either.  The whole thing....  Red football topped with the rare and oh-so-obsolete-from-Harley OE air cleaner cover for this bike.  

[Spiderman]

That was a choice I considered for quite awhile Brian.  You know the Road King I last had and that in some ways this is homage to that bike.  Lots of cues taken from that bike for this one.  That one had (at least part of the time) wires and wide whites.

More I thought about it the more I couldn't do it on this bike though.  It's all red and chrome.  If it were a solid color bike I'd do the wide whites in a heartbeat.  But the multi-color scheme with all the other powdercoating all over, at least to my mind's eye, really needed a solid black tire between the shiny spoked wheel and the beautiful red fender.  I couldn't make myself see the wide white as a complement in that space.  Would've detracted from the wheels in this combination. 

Might wake up someday and decide I was wrong.  If so that'll just give me an excuse to ride it more and wear out a set of tires .

I understand your mindset completely Don. To bad you can't find the Dunlop raised white letter tires in the correct sizes anymore. Because of NASCAR tires having the lettering, I always think of white letter tires as being racing tires as well as cool looking. The redline tires would be insane but I think you'd have to contact Corky Coker to see if he could do a one off for you on those  - - - -and you gotta know the price would be a killer. Anyway, as I read this thread and see the project come together it reminds me that unlike the bozo's at OCC, we folks here on the site develop our bikes on the fly. We try this or that and some things work, some things don't. You have to have a good eye and of course amigo when it comes to red bikes nobody has a better eye than you for what works and what doesn't. Bottom line is that I know when it's all done it will be perfect. And I'm hoping that it'll be done when I'm headed east to Maine this spring so I can see it in person and of course drool all over the garage floor at the line-up of three incredible red CVO's. Keep on keepin on my friend, you're doin great !

B  B

[Twolanerider]

I understand your mindset completely Don. To bad you can't find the Dunlop raised white letter tires in the correct sizes anymore. Because of NASCAR tires having the lettering, I always think of white letter tires as being racing tires as well as cool looking. The redline tires would be insane but I think you'd have to contact Corky Coker to see if he could do a one off for you on those  - - - -and you gotta know the price would be a killer. Anyway, as I read this thread and see the project come together it reminds me that unlike the bozo's at OCC, we folks here on the site develop our bikes on the fly. We try this or that and some things work, some things don't. You have to have a good eye and of course amigo when it comes to red bikes nobody has a better eye than you for what works and what doesn't. Bottom line is that I know when it's all done it will be perfect. And I'm hoping that it'll be done when I'm headed east to Maine this spring so I can see it in person and of course drool all over the garage floor at the line-up of three incredible red CVO's. Keep on keepin on my friend, you're doin great !

B  B

Buttoned up by spring shouldn't be a problem Brian.  Unless something ugly pops up I'm now planning on miles for this bike this spring. 

It will be "done for now" but it obviously won't be complete when it finishes up "this time."  Will use the saddle as it is until I get it redone.  Still have to get the FLHX rear fascia painted and installed and, along with it, the Bushtec hitch.  But those can go on anytime without disturbing anything else.  Then next winter will do the engine up a bit.  I'm sure riding what will seem to be a comparatively anemic engine won't let me put that off much longer than next winter's project.

"Done for now" doesn't bug me at all though.  Doing it as a work in progress, getting to see it all together and actually ride it will make it all worthwhile.  Come spring you may be the first guy besides me who'll ever have ridden it .

[Twolanerider]

Now know why the ugly speedometer is made the way it is.  Better yet, not for installation or use but for interest, is that it is the way it is because someone else likely screwed up and a manufacturer decided to figure out a cheap way to get around the screw up rather than do a product revision and actually correct for a design error.

First off that growth of an extension is just a slide on piece.  Got it out in good light with my glasses on and could see it just slid over rubber gasket that held it in place.  Came off easily once it was understood how it was in place.

[Twolanerider]

Then you find the isntrument itself is made for the Road King dash.  It's OD with its own gasket are a perfect fit for the housing.  Either one of the travel Gods is named Serendipity or the housing and gasket were designed by someone who had a Road King dash housing sitting next to them.  Fits perfectly.

[Twolanerider]

Fits perfectly, that is, until you set the unit on the bike with its harness installed.  Then you discover that when this necessary interconnect harness is plugged in to the back of the isntrument the harness hits the top of the fuel pump housing.  Not even close.  A standard Road King dash, as opposed to the SERK dash, would have the same problem. 

[Twolanerider]

So rather than use the much smaller connector that HD uses to the speedometer and/or bring it out horizontally rather than vertically in a next product revision some sales wanking number crunch said "we don't need to change the product, we can just add this ugly chrome tumor to make room for the harness."

[Twolanerider]

Even disassembling their instrument connector on their supplied interconnect harness and using just the pins without the big plug wouldn't be an option.  Just the instrument itself, without the harness even installed, has its connector housing  contacting the top of the tank.  With their electrical connection made the way it is for size and orientation there's no way to use this instrument without that ugly cylindrical abortion to good design they added to make it work.

[naitram]

youve gone this far..... if you open it up completley do you think you could rework the plug?

solder on some leads and make your own plug?

[Twolanerider]

youve gone this far..... if you open it up completley do you think you could rework the plug?

solder on some leads and make your own plug?

Have looked very closely at that Neal.  As close as could be done without actually cracking the case on the unit.  Every indication is that it wouldn't be an option.  It's well sealed and the mounting studs out the rear show a chemical bond ring.  Even if got it apart would never get it back together with any integrity against later weather or other intrusions.

At this point it's all still a pristine piece though.  So can at least try to send to back.  Will keep my finger crossed and speak with the vendor tomorrow.

[naitram]

last crazy idear..... can you modify the top of the fuel pump housing to give you the neede space?