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Dyna Development

Seeing Ive been nowhere and done nothing for a few months, and Ive got a day off, thought Id finally do a bit on my own bike.

In case ya new to the site theres a lot of small and big bits about what Ive done over the years here

Bought it new in 1994 after selling my beloved fxr to raise some cash to survive a few more weeks waiting for work.....

FXR at Purga, many moons ago...

First thing I did after changing the bars for wide glide ones, was put on forward controls and a two into one exhaust, a Supertrapp copy ,made in Melbourne. cant find any better shots than this one....

Then a mate on the Gold Coast had some cheap 103" s&s engines, so I bought one and stuck that in. Dyno'ed it at the show and got 119.6hp with octane booster and the baffle out.

Dragged it at Canberra a couple of times, and also at Purga where it got Best American waaay back in '94... Bout this time it started cracking the inner primary frequently...Bought a Carlini Torque arm, and had the case welded again, and that fixed it

Rode that happily till  1999 when I had an altercation with a  right turning drunk who put me in hospital for 11 days.

Wiped the front end right off the bike, twisted the frame, dinged the tank and exhaust etc, so a rebuild was in order.

Had the frame straightened by supposedly the best in Sydney who sent it back with the fender struts at least 2" out of straight. Hired some oxy and bashed em straight myself. However it never really handled good after that. Bought a new wideglide front end with chrome lower legs off the internet, as well as the peripherals such as new headlight, indicators etc, and reassembled.

Bikes next incarnation...

Seemed ok for a while, though the frame being still bent had me pretty cautious in the corners....

While away on a run in about 2002,after a couple of top end rebuilds on the 103",  the bottom end started making a loud knocking sound.....Had quotes of up to 5k to fix it, so seeing a 124" on Bikernet for $8k odd decided to go for that....Shit myself for 6 weeks till it turned up...in case it didnt.

Seeing the engine was coming out anyway I decided to do a full rebuild, and stripped it down to the bare frame, for raking and straightening.

Got 5deg, bringing it up to 37deg rake, and put 6over legs on to bring it back to level.

Got a 3 piece torque arm from Natlis, which worked out well, as the 124" is 10mm wider on the RHS than a stocker, so was able to get a 10mm plate made to fit between two of the torque arm pieces so it worked fine.

Bought 7 US gallon tanks from the States to up my range a bit, as the 103" only used to get 200kms from a tank, and it was a bloody nuisance...

Halfway through rebuild...Rebuild story here

Tried painting it all myself.....the frame worked out ok, but christ did I have trouble with the tanks, paint just wouldnt dry, or at least the 2 pak clear coat I bought.....eventually gave up after 3 or 4 goes,  and had it resprayed up the central coast, where Id moved during the build, for $300.

I hate being without saddle bags in Sydney. I can guarantee if I go without wet weather gear Ill get pissed on, so I bought  a set of saddle bags off the net for about $300 to replace the ones my mate had made 10yrs earlier...

They worked well till they caught fire.....and I eventually got the ones on it now for $35 brand new ! Had to make my own brackets to keep em in place and off the caliper...

SSaddlebags and bald head!

Due to my injuries, moving my leg to the rear brake pedal became a bit of a task, as well as keeping my leg on the foot peg at speed. There we'd be, 140k's into a turn and my right leg would fly off and bang and bounce  into the ground behind me, setting up a nice wobble, and scaring shit out of myself and everyone around me....Went to floorboards and adjusted the brake lever by cutting and welding to make reaching it easier. Id also found I had trouble under hard acceleration selecting 2nd gear. The length of travel of the lever seemed to be partly the cause, so I took a few inches out of the middle of it.

Makes it slightly more effort, but a lot less movement required. Due to the width of the tanks, both the foot controls were also extended out a couple of inches so I could each em.

Aadjusted brake lever

shortened gear lever, wooden shifter, homemade floorboard covers

My mate gave me a screen a couple of years ago, and having resisted putting one on for years, so's not to look like an old man too soon, ( aaah too late!!)decided to try it for a Brisbane run in what was likely to be shithouse weather. Course most of the brackets had been lost so I had to fab some new ones....What a revelation! 150kms/hr like 80! No more sore shoulders and hanging on for grim death at high speed... Still not too keen on the look, so when a smoked cheapy, slightly smaller came up on ebay ,I grabbed it.

windscreen on...

Black wrap on the pipes, for looks only, helps hide the dents!

Homemade tank panel out of alloy checkerplate, to cover wider gap due to Dyna frame, gotta redo it, not 100%

lRHS shot

Late model Road King indicators off eBay

Stock seat recovered, progressive shocks

LHS shot, cant see it, but compu fire single fire ignition there somewhere

  Damo seeing if Im dead yet, so he can take the big bike...

The pleasing thing is now the bike handles as well if not better than stock.

Interestingly, Ive still got the original stock clutch plates in,( with a Screaming Eagle pressure plate) altho the rest of the clutch has been replaced, along with a couple of primary chains and alternators.