New Owner Looking to Make A Solid Track Bike

Ah man thank you so much, everyone has answered a couple of my research questions! 😁

@Seamus I was looking into the shock risers and saw they can make it a little more responsive by adjusting the rake/trail too? Definitely something I'm considering.

@Shackman I was thinking I'd only be able to afford a 17" front CF wheel, did you notice some more stability? I think the stock wheel is 16"? The HD bags also have a towel, boardshorts, and dive goggle to sneak off to some ocean diving when I can 🥽.

@Chipmaker thanks for the thread ,digging through right now to check out all the details.

I'm also switching to a sportster drag bar because the stockers are a little wide and I barely clipped a mirror splitting the other day


I'm going to check out Harley today and see if they can get the drag specialties.

Slowmo said:

Ah man thank you so much, everyone has answered a couple of my research questions! 😁

@Seamus I was looking into the shock risers and saw they can make it a little more responsive by adjusting the rake/trail too? Definitely something I'm considering.

@Shackman I was thinking I'd only be able to afford a 17" front CF wheel, did you notice some more stability? I think the stock wheel is 16"? The HD bags also have a towel, boardshorts, and dive goggle to sneak off to some ocean diving when I can 🥽.

@Chipmaker thanks for the thread ,digging through right now to check out all the details.

I'm also switching to a sportster drag bar because the stockers are a little wide and I barely clipped a mirror splitting the other day

Sportster Drag Bar | Harley-Davidson USA

Find Sportster Drag Bar at Harley-Davidson.com. Free shipping on orders $50+ and free returns.

www.harley-davidson.com

I'm going to check out Harley today and see if they can get the drag specialties.

Click to expand...

Just a quick response in answer to your Q's.

1. In fact I expect a cf 17" option to be the most expensive compared to the alloy 17's from PVM/Dymag/Marchesini. I got mine a few years ago in the classifieds here at a knock down price of $1,000 USD. It was NOS, manufactured by BST (South Africa) in about 2011 and never installed on a bike by the PO. Still in the original box actually. When new back then it was about $1500 USD. Not sure about new price for these now, but more for sure. Check the manufacturer's websites.

2. End result of going 17" in front is actually less stability not more. However, that's a plus. The standard chassis geometry of an XR is still somewhat slow steering, although improved over an XL. As Chipmaker point out you can drop the front end through the forks to sharpen and improve the final steering head angle. I think his figure of 1/8th of an inch might be a typo- that's only 3 mm whereas I dropped my triple clamps 20mm through the forks with pleasing results well before getting my BST rim.

3. Yes, you'll have less ground clearance. Not that I ever found ground clearance to be a major issue in daily riding of my XR. Bear in mind that a simple fix is to install aftermarket rider's pegs, if you can still get them. My alloy Sato pegs are at least an inch shorter on each side than than the stockers and I expect other aftermarket pegs to be similar. If ever ground clearance is likely to be a problem that should fix it. And if it doesn't, you're a much, much braver man than me.

3. Roger on the wide stock bars. I lane split every day and absolutely needed narrower bars. I ended up with a pair of Biltwell moustache bars which have a litttle 2" step up welded into them off the upper triple clamp mount and are about 3" shorter each side. Works for me in traffic and allows me to go through my standard width back gate easily without gymnastics. But rear vision then becomes an issue with the stock mirrors, which I solved by going with HD Long Stem mirrors.

OK, hope that helps. Good luck with it, everyone refashions their XR to their own preference.

J.

Wobble seemed exceptional today, I'm going to take the windscreen off and see if that is catching in the turns and kinda waggles the bars into a wicked head shake. I got into the 11*s today on a nice curvy straight and sure enough the front wheel was all over the place.

I pushed forward on the bars a little and it almost seemed to help stability while cruising in the 9*s, but it could just be in my head. So I'm thinking I need to get out of the newly wed phase and start looking at numbers

I'm going to check the preload position on the rear tomorrow. Two options seem good; "Position 2" - 165-195lbs or "Position 3" - 195-225lbs. I'm about 170.

I'm also going to check the rebound dampening on the rear and may increase it a little as I feel some sharp bottoming out in deep bumps at speed.

I talked to the dealer and the Drag Specialty motor mounts were $300 in total vs $150 for Harley's own. That's going to take a while to accrue after this purchase so I'm stuck for now.

Also if I kind of fought to hold the right line with the handlebars in the turns, for example instead of just push super hard on a long fast right turn, I used my left to push into the turn to balance the front wheel it started to become sane. But it was a lot of work. I guess that's the extra hundred pounds and the rake 🏋️‍♂️

Superb to cruise and flick into turns though 💨💨💨 I have a pretty long ride planned in 2 weeks hopefully to Idyllwild which has really fun turns and beautiful views, then maybe Ortega, and off to Santiago canyon.