1978flh10

1978 H-D FLH BUILD: PAGE 10

Now the bike is home and ready to hit the dusty trail. While mockup gives you the ability to define a bikes looks, until its done you just cant be sure about how it will ride. This bike ran great from day one. Of course doing the proper break-in you don't get the opportunity to run it out and see all it can do but you do get some ideas. As the break-in period came to an end it was time to put on the bags, windshield and tour pack. I did not want the extra wind resistence an weight straining the engine while babying it around on break-in. After a little time of the bike settling into the extra resistence it was time to load it down and hit the open road. First thing I discovered was a little adjustment made to the preload, stiffness, and rebound on the rear shocks. They were perfect during breakin but once i loaded it down for trips, it tended to bottom out when I hit potholes at speed or speed bumps a little fast. It ran very strong but the ol lady rides a 2007 Roadking with a 96" engine, stage one facotry moco pipes, stage one air cleaner and fuel injection. The extra 16" of engine, fuel injection and the race tune had me dragging up the rear and basically the guy in the back o da pack. This was untennable.

ALL IT NEEDS ARE BAGS AND A WINDSHIELD

At 5k thier were enough miles to start changing and modifying parts. I horodded the carb and the breather but did not do what I wanted. I pulled the carb and added an S&S E model, adjustible push rods and Crane EV 27 cams. I rode those another thousand miles to break them in and went to dyno tweaking. With a minimually modified 80 c.i. Evolution engine, I have 93 horse power and 97 ft./lbs. of torque at the rear wheel as tested by the local Harley dealership. Not a drag bike by any means but it will get up and go. Fully loaded for a long tour with tourpak, saddle bags, crap strapped on everywhere I can it will cruise down the highway at triple digits for as long as you want to hold it there. In fact, I have seen the factory 120 m.p.h. speedo buried past its last numbers pointing straight down at the odometer with a maximum load. Of course this was on a closed course where I was not breaking any traffic laws. At least thats my story and ama sticking to it.

BAGS & TOURPAK MOUNTED AND ON THE ROAD

So where did the name "Dreamsickle" come to be? First its about the color of an orange creamsickle. Next it is my dream bike, add to that it is totally sick, and its a motorcycle. Put it all together Dream+Sick+motorcycle=Dreamsickle. Call it goofy, weird or whatever, the name stuck with the ol lady and once she makes up her mind its a done deal.

This is the ultimate bike for my personality that God gifted me with the cash to buy the parts, friends to help find each little item I wanted no matter how rare or hard to source, the skills and tools to do each task with to perfection, not just one shop but three ultimate shops to work out of, the best help available for each task on the entire planet. There may be some bikes as nice, but none nicer. This is the ultimate custom bagger. It sits low, looks sharp, rides like a dream and is dependable. All routine maintenance can be done with factory MoCo parts so if you need to change out brake pads, sprocket, chain or such on a roadtrip you not parked waiting for some odd custom part to be shipped. Best part is I personally know every part, bolt, screw and wire on the bike. When it needs a little tweak, don't need a shop manual or such, this entire bike is in my head and heart.

DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 1 DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 2

DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 3 DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 4

DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 5 DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 6

DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 7 DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 8

DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 9 DREAMSICKLE BUILD PAGE 10

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