It's Official I'm Darkside to Infinity!

Ok, Got it slapped together finally, pending final wiring and detail work. Couldn't take the pressure[9 hrs yesterday and today] got the wiring done so she'd start, took it slow down my stone driveway, and in the 1.7 miles it took to get to town for gas, I new this was the best thing EVER I've done to any of my bikes! Left the gas station and rode 11 miles to the next town to power wash her a bit, and it was great. Like everyone says the handling is different, I'd just say slower and more deliberate effort to compensate for the flatter, wider contact patch, but man o man I loved it after 3 miles! On the ride home I couldn't control the urge to do 4, 15 burnouts and one 10 ft 1st gear/15 ft hitting 2 nd gear "souvineers" on old Hwy 131.... To sum it up I LOVE THE DARKSIDE...Got some pics below, sorry for the messy half done stuff, but when I detail her out during the week and weekend[I figure maybe 30 more hrs.] and I'll post the final product. Thanks to all who posted so much good information, it was tremendous help.

congrats, nice tire, glad you like it!

I knew you would. Like it that is. Sweet ride. Is that a 215? Got the 215 on my F. Love it. Gonna buy another later this year.

Sweet looking bike! Congrats and glad you like the darkside.

Alright...I just got to know!!!! What is your muffler, I built my own two into one pipes and looking for an alternate muffler. How does it sound? Did you build your own???


.....................bobby

twin1300 wrote:Sweet looking bike! Congrats and glad you like the darkside.

Alright...I just got to know!!!! What is your muffler, I built my own two into one pipes and looking for an alternate muffler. How does it sound? Did you build your own???


.....................bobby

Bobby,

My "muffler" is a stainless exhaust tip for the tailpipes on a pickup truck. Those are the stock head pipes wrapped in header wrap. I went to a local muffler shop, bought the tip for $20, had the guy at the shop weld about 8" of exhaust pipe to it, then he bumped it up on his machine to match the header pipe. I just sawed two slits in the end of the pipe and slid it on and clamped it. So it's basically a hollow stainless tube. It's very loud [I like loud] sort of high pitched. On full throttle it sort of sounds like a Nascar with the pedal to the metal, on Sunday afternoon Cost me $39 total for the "muffler" with the extra piece and the welding and fitting. I figure I took off about 40-45 lbs from a stock exhaust weight. That stock bracket that holds the muffler must weigh 8 lbs by itself.

Badmoon,
Yep that's a 215/55/16 TR1.
.

Well, I took her in to have a set of Progressive springs put in, new PolyTech fork seals, and 30 wt synthetic oil in the forks. Simply awsome improvement in the handling ...It handles almost as good as any of my crotch rockets. It really makes great use of the CT, just digs in and leans into the curves. I'd highly recommend Progressive springs for anyone with a VTX. Now for the bad news. NEVER and I do mean NEVER take your metric bike to an independent shop if they do mostly HD and are HD "certified" mechanics, unless maybe they let you watch them do the work on your bike whilst holding a .45 in each hand to assure Quality Control.... .....The Knucklehead that "wrenched" [read mangled] my front end used either a 6 point socket, or an adjustable wrench, to take off the fork caps and boogered up the bolt head on both caps. Just got through checking how much they cost....$79.68 ea....AND he put a tiny maybe 1/8 in long scratch on the right fork tube about mid way between the fork sheild and I'm praying it doesn't scar the fork seal into leaking, if it does and needs to be replaced it only costs....$428.30.... ....that just parts, and probably 5 hrs. labor to do the fork and seals... So A word of caution to take for what it's worth..

Anyway the handling is great, Got about 200 miles on the tire and it's disappeared, love it, and buying some black spraypaint to touch up the hard parts I'll be grinding... :cyclops:

Love your attitude Bro, Grind away, I give up trying to cover up the grindings. Hell I gave up trying to wash it too. Just ride the piss outta it. Getting ready to install my 3rd set of wheel bearings in the front end. May go ahead and tear into the front forks too. This thing eats the hell out of front bearings.

See you out there
Smokey

I think you can get caps to cover your caps. Example ---------->http://www.cruisercustomizing.com/detail.cfm?Category_ID=59&manufacturer_ID=45&product_ID=41319&sblid_name=Willie_and_Max_Show_Stopper_Chrome_Fork_Cap_Cover_Set___Universal______mm_Hex&model_id=64

Hack, thanks much for that link for the covers, just ordered a set. Looks like a good, inexpensive fix.

XtremeRoadRipper wrote:Hack, thanks much for that link for the covers, just ordered a set. Looks like a good, inexpensive fix.

No problem, If I messed mine up that's what I'd do!

XtremeRoadRipper wrote: NEVER take your metric bike to an independent shop if they do mostly HD and are HD "certified" mechanics

Welcome Aboard I'd go back to the butcher shop and let them replace damaged parts.

Being an Ind. HD wrench is irrelavent, I've seen plenty of dlrs with factory trained, certified metric muck ups also,
and HD's been using metric (Showa and Kayaba) made in Japan, front forks since the 70's Good Luck

Well, I'm forced into a backpeddle ...I got up early this morning and went back to the shop that did the work, showed the owner everything, and asked him about it.He took a lot of time telling me how they did the work, explained that the right side cap was really torqued on so tight that it was real hard to loosen and that was why the bolt head got munched, he offered to replace it, he said he thought the scratches on the fork tube were from the real world road debre, and described the disassembly work to do the seals, and that he really couldn't have caused it, and I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt on that.He was real reasonable and nice, even spent an hour with my bike hooked up to his laptop to check and readjust my power commander, and just get into a few other recommendations on modifying my exhaust system to help get back some low end torque lost from it.

So I'm gonna have to say, while it seemed to be a real tragedy at first glance, taking the time to talk to him and let him explain things helped resolve the issues.He was professional, and honest, in my opinion and I think I just got too excited in reaction to the visual stuff when I first saw it.

Having time to reason it out, I'm thinking my above comment post was maybe a little on the over reaction edge and needs to be back peddled on.

Anyway it got me up early and I got to put another 150 mi. on the tire and it just gets better all the time. Wish I knew about this 9 years ago I'd probably be on my second tire instead of my tenth.