The Story Of My Harley Tune Up It all started off on the 9th of the October when I got the brand new Harley Davidson XL 1200 Nightster.
I started working on my kustom nightster getting tips from all the famous tune ups around the world.most of my research is from the web and I definitely need to thank John from Harley Service USA for providing some good tips. Stage 1
The First Mod I started on was the Exhaust system,The stock exhaust of the Sportsters are Quiet. I have done some research around on different systems available,of them the first and foremost is from the Harley itself "Screaming Eagle Exhaust" which is a slip on and it does provide some great note.I looked up online and found out most of the harleys "sportster" in and around usa are hooked up with full exhausts like vance & hines , bassani , bub and lot of other custom makes.
There are mainly two types of exhausts as i have understood, either the shotshorts(Shorter Exhaust pipes) or the (big shots) long exhaust pipes.As per the performance the bigshots or the longer exhausts are best and as for the great sound the shotshorts or the smaller exhausts are great to go with.
I some how liked the way the shotshorts looked and also for the sound i preferred those.most people online recomended me to go with vance & hines and also most sportsters i have come across had those.i have checked out a lot of videos ,heard different exhausts online before making the decession,but trust me what you hear online and later in real can be so different,coz after we installed the exhaust and fired up its way too loud to imagine and simply awsome,just no words to explain.
To perform a complete exhaust mod, the bike needs to have a Stage 1 Air Cleaner (Air Filter) + the Fuel Management System ( harley can do a custom map or can buy a piggy back ecu).so i have got the screaming eagle stage 1 air cleaner and have gone with the vance and hines fuel pack.there is an option for power commander as well but again people recommended me to stick with vance and hines.I have imported the parts from a Harley Dealer in Ohio.Paid the 26.8% Customs Duty,It was done in different stages.
The First set of mods have the Vance & Hines ShotShorts Exhaust + Screaming Eagle Stage 1 Air Cleaner + Vance & Hines Fuel Pack.
My Kustom Nightster is basically designed on the lines of harley bobbers and cafe racer concepts.borrowed some tips from the RSD Roland Sands Design. Stage 2
The Second Stage of Mods are a Harley Rear Seat,Silencer Style Grips,the Paint job and Local Fab stuff.
I have the original seat and got the rear seat if ever I need to ride with a pillion,which i hardly do.I liked the silencer style grips from the Harley,they have a complete set(foot pegs,shifter peg).I wanted to Paint my Head,Push Rods,Disc Calipers,Air Filter Cover,Rear Pulley and the Engine Covers.I have decided to go with the matt black finish on the covers, the heads and the rest with the harley orange.This is a tough job to find the right painter and also the heads and covers require heat resitant paint and the heads/pulley are chrome finish,so they had to sand blast it and paint it back,luckyly i have found a good one around in Hyd with the help of harley people.
The fab work consited of a custom number plate, drilling of the exhaust cover, drilling in the levers to get a raw look to match the hand grips.everything was done locally here in hyd and i am quite impressed with the quality of work. Stage 3
The Third Stage of Mods are to move the Speedo below the Fuel tank and to raise the fuel tank about 2 inches to give that tall look and move the ignition coils and wiring to the left.I liked the drag bars,i went with the broomstick type with stock risers initially,but it went too low and not so comfortable to ride long distances ,so i got a 3.5 inch risers which are more comfortable now.i liked the solo spring seat from the harley so got the solo spring seat and the spring seat kit as well,i really felt that customising harleys can be real expensive than customising any jap bikes.i have also moved the front signal lights to the fork and got clear lense with visors.the mirrors are mounted under the bars just like the harley forty – eight , i feel they are pretty cool.The mods are performed in the harley workshop (Hyderabad) by their technicians with my guidance.They have been amazing,the work is quite outstanding.we have sent it to the Harley USA and they have been impressed.
Those are the mod's for now and the stage 4 mods to come are the custom paint job,lower rear shocks,change the front forks to have dual disk brakes.change the headlight mounting to the fork,change to 5 3/4th billet head light.
Here are the Stock vs Final Pictures after all the Mods |