Tech Tip #1; how to apply your current registration sticker. I know many of you have often wondered how to tackle this daunting task and I hope this sheds some light on the process for you.
1) Clean off surface of old sticker (bloody fingers, optional).
2) Remove backings from new sticker and apply over prior year’s sticker.
3) Ta da!
1) Clean off surface of old sticker (bloody fingers, optional).
2) Remove backings from new sticker and apply over prior year’s sticker.
3) Ta da!
Tech Tip #2: installing crash bars
I’d taken the bike out for a bit of a spin yesterday and arrived back home to find Flex’s truck in my driveway. Hmmm, maybe he’s come to get his bike? (It resided in my basement for the winter.) Nope; he’s brought his new crash bars and we’re going to install them. Cool, we haven’t done anything tech-related for a while and this will be a simple one. Sweet!
First thing we gotta do is make some room to move. Hey look, it’s a convoy of motorcycles. And what’s that in the back? Why, it’s a Fatboy! And it’s still for sale!
I figured I’d offer it one more time to Flex, since he was there. Here’s how the conversation went;
Me: Flex, can I interest you in this lovely Fatboy?
Flex: Maybe…but it’d have to have 71,000 miles on it.
Me: Why, believe it or not, it does!
Flex: And it’d have to have been punched into a tree…
Me:– Yes, it has been!
Flex: And the front fender would need to have the paint all scuffed up…
Me: Holy crap, is this your lucky day!
He said he’d need some time to think about it, so we set to work on the crash bars.
Said crash bars; neat and clean in their wrapper…
Here’s our work area – notice the framing of the walls is still on-going…
First, we gotta remove the Gremlin bell, which is currently attached on the center down-tube brace. Flex took the opportunity to polish it up and I figured the little guy would like to see things from where the real action is. Setting him up on the seat, he was ready to hit the highways…
Here’s a shot of the highway pegs that are currently on the bike. Those have to come off to give us the clearance (Clarence) for the crash bars.
To remove those, the rubber floor mats on the floorboards need to come up, exposing the two mounting bolts.
Removed those bolts and the highway peg drops right off.
Flex broke the polish out again and cleaned the chrome up something fierce. Look at how nice and shiny that is!
Now we install the rubber back onto the floorboard, covering up the nice shiny chrome so that no one will see it (shhh, it’ll be our little secret). Then we did the same process on the other side, (again being sure to polish the chrome that no one will see).
Next, we lined up the new crash bars to see how they’d fit in; the top mounts against that down tube brace (1 bolt), and the bottoms mount on the insides of the floorboard brackets (1 bolt each).
Here’s an action photo! Flex; applying some loctite…
And that’s that! Crash bars are installed. Not bad at all – He'll have to pick up some mounting hardware to put the highway pegs up on the sides of the crash bar, but that’s a tech tip for another day.
After that, we reinstalled the Gremlin bell, and we were done.
Here’s the new profile, looking from the seat…
Here’s the happy owner. Hey, that’s a sharp lookin’ bike you got there, Mister…
After that, we turned the bike around (requiring a formidable 37 point turn), stuck its ass-end out the cellar door and fired her up. She came right to life, bringing an even bigger smile to Flex’s face. He’s hoping to come back for it this week sometime. The weather looks like it’ll be cooperating, so with any luck, he’ll be back on the road quite soon...and I’ll have a bit more working room in my cellar.
So we shut her down, rolled her back in and turned her around again (requiring yet another formidable turning process). When she cooled a bit, we threw the cover back on her, cleaned up the tools and headed for the stairs.
As Flex was walking out, he turned and said “Ya know…I sure hope that bike fits out the door now…”
Ride Hard, Take Chances
I’d taken the bike out for a bit of a spin yesterday and arrived back home to find Flex’s truck in my driveway. Hmmm, maybe he’s come to get his bike? (It resided in my basement for the winter.) Nope; he’s brought his new crash bars and we’re going to install them. Cool, we haven’t done anything tech-related for a while and this will be a simple one. Sweet!
First thing we gotta do is make some room to move. Hey look, it’s a convoy of motorcycles. And what’s that in the back? Why, it’s a Fatboy! And it’s still for sale!
I figured I’d offer it one more time to Flex, since he was there. Here’s how the conversation went;
Me: Flex, can I interest you in this lovely Fatboy?
Flex: Maybe…but it’d have to have 71,000 miles on it.
Me: Why, believe it or not, it does!
Flex: And it’d have to have been punched into a tree…
Me:– Yes, it has been!
Flex: And the front fender would need to have the paint all scuffed up…
Me: Holy crap, is this your lucky day!
He said he’d need some time to think about it, so we set to work on the crash bars.
Said crash bars; neat and clean in their wrapper…
Here’s our work area – notice the framing of the walls is still on-going…
First, we gotta remove the Gremlin bell, which is currently attached on the center down-tube brace. Flex took the opportunity to polish it up and I figured the little guy would like to see things from where the real action is. Setting him up on the seat, he was ready to hit the highways…
Here’s a shot of the highway pegs that are currently on the bike. Those have to come off to give us the clearance (Clarence) for the crash bars.
To remove those, the rubber floor mats on the floorboards need to come up, exposing the two mounting bolts.
Removed those bolts and the highway peg drops right off.
Flex broke the polish out again and cleaned the chrome up something fierce. Look at how nice and shiny that is!
Now we install the rubber back onto the floorboard, covering up the nice shiny chrome so that no one will see it (shhh, it’ll be our little secret). Then we did the same process on the other side, (again being sure to polish the chrome that no one will see).
Next, we lined up the new crash bars to see how they’d fit in; the top mounts against that down tube brace (1 bolt), and the bottoms mount on the insides of the floorboard brackets (1 bolt each).
Here’s an action photo! Flex; applying some loctite…
And that’s that! Crash bars are installed. Not bad at all – He'll have to pick up some mounting hardware to put the highway pegs up on the sides of the crash bar, but that’s a tech tip for another day.
After that, we reinstalled the Gremlin bell, and we were done.
Here’s the new profile, looking from the seat…
Here’s the happy owner. Hey, that’s a sharp lookin’ bike you got there, Mister…
After that, we turned the bike around (requiring a formidable 37 point turn), stuck its ass-end out the cellar door and fired her up. She came right to life, bringing an even bigger smile to Flex’s face. He’s hoping to come back for it this week sometime. The weather looks like it’ll be cooperating, so with any luck, he’ll be back on the road quite soon...and I’ll have a bit more working room in my cellar.
So we shut her down, rolled her back in and turned her around again (requiring yet another formidable turning process). When she cooled a bit, we threw the cover back on her, cleaned up the tools and headed for the stairs.
As Flex was walking out, he turned and said “Ya know…I sure hope that bike fits out the door now…”
Ride Hard, Take Chances
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