Seems like every set of letter designations has a name, FXE is the Superglide, FXS is the Lowrider etc etc. What is the FXR known as or just FXR? I'll try not to be a pest but I do have some more quesitons. The cover for the pipe between the front and rear exhaust pipes is wrinkle finish. Is this correct for a stock FXR (1982)? The side covers are painted gloss black, is this correct also? Thanks again, TH:dunno:
go to a all harley drag race and you can see many fxr in different states of build. from stock to wild! i wish i could buy one stock and do a frame up with performance sospension, brakes, and a mild evo. it would be my daily driver!
I still own the 1990 FXRS-SP Conv. that I purchased 24 years ago.
In addition to the FXRS, H-D made a sport model with front air forks and taller rear shocks. They built the FXRS-SP Conv. on this platform and then added easy-off windshield and saddlebags.
From a guy that bought one of the first fxrs's made, new. The crossover was chrome. The FXR and FXRS, were not named, in late 1983 the super glide II name was first used. All the other names are just like every other Harley model line. Different names, and strings of letters, all begenning with fxr,,,,for different looks.
The FXR may have been in full development in 1981, the first FXR'S were seen by the public in Daytona spring of 1982, I think I still have a copy of the enthusiast magazine. It was a 2 page spread of a beautiful twisty road, with no bike on it, proclaiming the introduction of the most revolutionary bike Harley has ever built to be seen in Daytona 82. And coincided with the purchase of HD by the board of directors as the first new model.
I'm not saying you are wrong about your FXRS coming with a chrome crossover pipe, but they certainly didn't all come with chrome. Every picture I've ever seen with a Shovel FXR, they had black. I'm probably wrong but I thought the chrome came out in '84 for the blinged out FXRDG and they used it on some but not all of the other models.
The Dec 1981 issue of Cycle Guide magazine has a article on the new "Harley-Davidson FXRS Super Glide II".
I have the original paperwork from when the PO bought my bike new from the moco and its's listed as a 1990 FXRP Low Rider Police. Does that make sense?
The FXR was a hard sell in my area back in '82. Mine was still on the "floor" in '84, and so was less expensive by then. I don't think H-D made much Effort in "naming" the FXR's.
My '82 was Proclaimed a Low Rider by the Dealership, in spite of the fact that the FXSB was indeed a Low Rider. I think they called it a Low Rider to get people to even look at it...tho it was the Tallest Harley in the Place. Being an FXRS it should have had Mag wheels, but the Dealership put Chrome Spokers on it [again trying to make it Traditional enough to sell it] I know cause the Mags Came with it!!! Crossover tube???? I don't recall...but all the Shovelhead ones I've seen are Black.
BTW the insurance company at the time declared it a "police" bike...Can't for the Life of me Where they got that from???? VIN says FXRS
Edit; I would think that whatever the VIN decodes as, would be what it is...But...?????
Edit again; This is as good an explaination as I've found...and Seems accurate...
Like I posted this is definitive for me. On page 20 of that "text" the SuperGlide II was the FXR and [probably why my dealer insisted My FXRS was a Low Rider] the FXRS was termed "Low Glide". Tho, Again, It was the Tallest Harley I had ever seen!!!
Edit to add that the Text on page 21 says Volumes!!!!!
My father in law works for the local county in the sign shop. After being both told, and asked, if / that it was a Sportster, and being flat out told by the so called "president" of an MC that it was a Dyna ( shouldn't be prez if he didn't no **** about what he was looking at) he went ahead and made his own sticker :
No it's not a Sportster, No it's not a Dyna
ITS AN FXR! Now get the F*ck away from my bike!
OH!!!
**** I read "addiction"..LOL
May not have been abdication....I don't think I had much "position" and Felt Zero sense of "duty" back then...I had my Discharge [Honorable] by then..and was Relatively Warm and Happy....Another Story I'll share with ya some Day!!!!