Big decision to make...need some advice from the FXR guys

[lucille]

Congrats Blackened ...... Also noted the lack of exhaust mounting. The drivetrain in the FXR's moves around alot, and the pipes have to be mounted to the drivetrain, not the frame.
Your windshield looks like an early SE Lexon Sport shield ..... the bottom brackets (2) aren't on yours. That windshield will vibrate and move around with that mounting.
You have the SE German made forkbrace which you'll come to enjoy.
I have the same seat that's on your bike .......
Upper and lower belt guards are a matter of choice ......
The front signal lights will also mount on the top fork clamp, and will give your bike a different look ....
I think you made the best choice, although the other bikes have an equal charm.
Again, welcome to the 'cult' .......

[Blackened]

Originally Posted by Michael Psycle

I'm happy for you that you got the 94. If the front brake is the same as came on my 92 Superglide, you'll want to replace it, too. I use to call it Harley ABS (before Harley actually came out with an ABS system for some bikes). What I meant by that was that no matter how hard you pulled on the front brake, there was no way you were going to lock up the front tire. The front brake had that little stopping power. I put a PM 4 caliper system on my front and have been satisfied with it since.

I'm looking at swapping lowers from a later model dyna/sportster and using a set of oem 4 piston, possibly go dual disc. Thought about trading up to 13 spoke wheels too, but I'll have to research changing over the speedo drive to see if it's worth the conversion, if not I'll keep it the way it is, and either go jaybrake or PM.

Originally Posted by lucille

Congrats Blackened ......
Again, welcome to the 'cult' .......

thanks lucille, you guys have the BEST kool-aid

[Unca Mike]

To me those pipes look like Cycle Shack one piece muff/headers. If that's the case those are excellent FXR pipes as far as 2into2 pipes go. Performance is not far behind a good 2into1 set. There aren't a lot of choices for FXR pipes available anymore. It also looks to me like there might be header to trans and cam cover clamps holding them in place. Those mounting clamps are essential in keeping the pipes from vibrating loose. You can get the exhaust mounting brackets for those clamps from Drag Specialties thru J&P and other catalogs if they aren't already there.

My favorite 2into1 pipes for FXR are the Supertrapp "high" ones. They aren't true high pipes, they just have a slight up angle to the muffler. They don't list them in any of their catalogs or online but if you call them they'll make you a set. They only come in stainless steel either polished or matt finish. You can get them with or without heat shields. The ST heat shields cost almost as much as the pipes, around $350 a set if I recall correctly.

Have Fun Dude

[Dave_89FXRT]

Good to see you picked one, and a nice one at that, i actually like the bags and windshield hehe utility is always a bonus...FXRs are kinda like eating vegetables...ya can't miss really...all good =D

[chilsam]

Originally Posted by BigPeet

That's impressive. My calculator says you averaged 108.21mph at almost 5000rpm for 56 minutes. I always said those 'ol Shovelheads were tough!

~Pete

P.S. I believe you and I'm trying to be nice...so please don't reply with a negative post.

I THANK-YOU on this point you've GOT to remember that this is 30 yrs ago next summer that I did this "Details are foggy"
...I KNOW I averaged a 100 MPH going thru that NO mans land because the 1st time it took right around an hour n a half and it was BORING.the way I looked at it the bike redlined at 5500 r.p.m's and was still under warranty.

[chilsam]

Originally Posted by Thermodyne

Lets change the subject for just a moment.

You all do know that hemi chambers suck? Right?
Takes dual plugs to make em burn right on a shovel. Or you can cut a big ole fire slot across the piston dome.

Chrysler hemi's make power because of the ports and valve angles, not the chambers. And they knew it at the time. But the only way they could make the big valves and ports work was with hemi chambers. Casting techniques with iron were not what they are today with aluminum. Ford ran into the same issues and ended up with hemi chambers. GM managed to actually make the next step, but it took them several tries to get it right with the mk4's.

Then WHY might I ask did NASCAR outlaw the 426 HEMI?? Y? because Ford COULDN'T beat them with the 427 HUGE tunnel port side oiler "24 hrs of Leman 1,2,3rd finish" or the 429 BOSS and chevy with their 427's Mark IV's "semi hemi's"couldn't either.They said do somthing or Dodge can just race Plymouth and well take our ball and go home.Then they shanked them again with the C.I limit at 355 C.I's chevy 350,ford 351 & Chrysler 340 & 360 THAT's when MA MOPAR said enuff is enuff and QUIT NASCAR.

[Thermodyne]

Originally Posted by chilsam

Then WHY might I ask did NASCAR outlaw the 426 HEMI?? Y? because Ford COULDN'T beat them with the 427 HUGE tunnel port side oiler "24 hrs of Leman 1,2,3rd finish" or the 429 BOSS and chevy with their 427's Mark IV's "semi hemi's"couldn't either.They said do somthing or Dodge can just race Plymouth and well take our ball and go home.Then they shanked them again with the C.I limit at 355 C.I's chevy 350,ford 351 & Chrysler 340 & 360 THAT's when MA MOPAR said enuff is enuff and QUIT NASCAR.

What the F are you talking about? You do know that Ford was able to run right there with the hemi's. And that Mopar only won the Manufactures cup 3 times. Only twice with the hemi alone. The hemi was a good engine, but it was out dated before it saw fame. You also do realize GM was racing with over the counter hardware, no race dollars were being spent by GM, no money to teams, no special hardware. It was probably GM's self imposed ban that emboldened NASCAR to step in. Little did NASCAR know, GM had larger problems at the time. I'll address that at the end.

Two things were happening. All of the big three got sent home to come up with engines that were sold as options in the cars they were racing. This was Nascars last serious attempt to keep stock cars stock. No Hemi's, no Tunnel heads, no more one off mark3's

NASCAR was trying to control costs. Ford had it's cammers as well as a hemi program that was ready to start making horse power. But only sold Hemi's as high end options in a cars not used in NASCAR. Race pieces only went to Ford sponsored teams. GM had running four cam heads for both small and big block engines and what would have been the mk5 was being test cast. But again, only sold these race pieces to a few people tied to the factory by racing. That ended with the self imposed ban. Mopar, was more or less the same deal. But was a little worse about fibbing on production numbers. And, they had all their ducks lined up behind their hemi's in PE cars.

Mopar took the hardest hit because they were winning the most with PE, and had little to fall back on. Mopar did not quit NASCAR that year. They tried to fund a replacement team, but NASCAR would not allow the use of the older max wedge engines which had been too long out of production. There was also some politics with PE being out for the year and not being allowed to get a new team up to speed. In the end Mopar saw it NASCAR way. Mopar was allowed to fulfill it's contracted obligations that year, but never really recovered.

It should also be noted that the factory's were all complaining about the cost of racing, and all three lobbied NASCAR to put some restrictions on it during the early 70's. And I said three, not four, GM was still not officially racing again.

The second thing that was hitting the industry at the time was insurance company pushed safety. They factory's were under pressure to eliminate the factory to public race cars. And at the same time, NASCAR was beginning to field track safety lawsuits. The grand solution that was arrived at was to A) Slow the race cars down with less horse power. And B) come up with a template that the factory's could sell to meet the homoG rules. So we got the 358 rule and as a way to allow for the use of previously purchased engines, we got the restrictor plate. The plate was never intended to slow the field, only make the large inch engines more equal to the small inch engines. It also gave Mopar time to get the 360 into race trim. And as it turned out, the reluctance of insurance companies to insure high horse power cars and latter, the EPA limits on emissions forced NASCAR to turn away from the HomoG rule and instead issue stricter engine guide lines. This all evolved and firmed up as the epa and fuel prices conspired to kill the stock car. The oil embargo of 73 insured that we would never return to stock stock-cars. Detroit was rapidly moving to engines smaller than 358.

This ban on the hemi has been blown out of perspective over the years. Mopar only won the Manufactures Cup 2 years out of the period. 70 and 71. They won another title in 75, but with only 14 wins. That was probably the first "Least bad luck" titles that we see so often these days. More about finishing every race than about winning every race. Ford had won the previous 7 titles. And GM had won 5 straight before the corporate racing ban at the end of 63. Henry Yunick was one of the most intelligent engineers in racing at the time. He always claimed that Mopar kept the hemi "restrictions" in the news because they alone among the American 4 were unprepared for the 70's. He claimed that while they were perfecting the late Hemi, Ford and AMC were already hard at work on smaller engines, having rightly predicted the death of the large engine on the American production line.

IMHO, PE could have won with any of the 4 American factories. And without PE, we would not still be talking about 426 hemi's today. As street engines they were a dismal failure.

Back to my lead in. No one ever mentions the Antitrust problems that GM had during the Ford and Mopar dominance of NASCAR. In 63 GM unfunded factory racing. All performance money was spent on cars for sale to the public. Chevy managed to do some race prep within it's Corvette line, but it was limited. The Feds had warned GM that if their 56-58% of the market became 60%, the government would move to break them up. And at the same time that had the insurance and EPA problems that effected the whole industry. So by the mid 70's when Chevy put up 50% market shares all by themselves GM was really looking for a way to keep GM, not win races. And the string of mid 70's manufactures cup wins is more about costs that it is about quality of equipment. The few new pieces that Chevy offered these years were better casting, developed for the truck lines. And better chamber layouts derived from emissions work. Most of the gains in performance were from teams skirting around that rules that had been set at the beginning of the decade. Relocating spark plugs and such. And there were a lot of titles won by finishing races, building narrow car bodies and using stockpiles of leftover 60 parts.

The truth is that the Nascar screwed PE (Petty Enterprises) Mopar knew that the Hemi had not met HomoG guidelines. The first 6 months of Hemi production had all gone to PE. They had enough engines on hand to run three cars for the season and were actively looking to associate with two more teams by supplying engines. Of note would be that PE's first method of winning the cup had been to run more races, three or four a week. After NASCAR limited the scheduled of points races, they went with have more cars in the field approach. Almost all Mopar race support flowed through PE. Mopar had provided the engines along with cash and expected some return. So PE went drag racing. Dropping out of NASCAR for the year. Some like Smokey would say for years that NASCAR encouraged them to not participate so as to avoid penalizing the cup champion for previous infractions. He claims that the withdrawal of PE and the retirement of 5 NASCAR inspection officials that year was not a coincidence. And that his inability get cars through tech in following years was directly related to his refusal to "buy in on the deal". People also forget that he was a promoter of the smaller engine and in 71 set the high speed mark at Daytona practice with a 305 cui engine. He was re-tecked and not allowed to qualify do to irregularities with the under body. The car was one of 7 Zervakis [sp] chassis in the race and was said to be identical with the others. Smokey spent a lot of years telling insider secrets about NASCAR and anything he is quoted in is usually a good read. A real good read is his version of the first race at Taladega, and how NASCAR had to pay drivers and owners to run the race.

As a point of personal experience, early in the 358 rule I happened to be at a race in Bristol TN. 1975 march race I believe. Jr Johnson's car won with Cale Y###boro [Sp] driving. I'm watching through the fence and they inspect the engine. The head that comes off is Mk3. That's a shock so I manage to get one of the tire changers to talk to me. The head was approved in 61 and never disproved. The lower end is an old 358 y block wedge. Together they met the rules. Two things. In 1975 they could still get away with this kind of one off building. And two, those 1961 mismatched pieces mad more power than what they could buy over the counter at the time in 75. Today you can't run a washer and bolt that is not previously approved by NASCAR. As I think about this and recall the crap cars of the mid to late 70's, I can only wonder what it must have been like trying to field stock cars.

[BigPeet]

Yea! What he said!

~Pete

[Homesick]

Thermodyne, damned interesting. Thanks.

joe

[chilsam]

The only thing they were good for was an imitation of a CHAINSAW ask Danny Ongais and out of proportion ask chrysler what they thought of it AND why did they OUTLAW the HEMI in the Daytona CHARGER and SUPER BIRD "SPECIAL BODIED CARS".YYY Because the TALLESAGAS and Chevelles coudn't run with them.THAT'S what the F I'm talKing about.YES the ins comp did KILL the big blocks off in cars as for NASCAR controlling cost ?? that worked out REAL WELL!As for HEMI'S being a failure on the street they just $ more than a 440 6 PAK and in their DETUNED state the $ of them couldn't be justified.Put in a bigger cam,opened exhaust and steeper gears and THEY WERE the 1's to TRY and beat.

[87Redsled]

Congratulations...welcome to the world of FXR's..You won't be disappointed..Very nice 94, looks well taken care of..Unfortunately in the spring when the snow melts you won't be seeing much of your new house !!!

[Blackened]

Just thought I'd post an update:

Picked her up and brought her home a few days ago (right in time for the cold snap).

The more I dig into it the more I like it. Found a couple small issues - intake leak at the front cyl/manifold joint, and a damn awful tune on the carb. No sweat, I'm putting on a super E so all that's getting ripped out already.

Also those leatherlyke bags, well...let's just say they had the "home depot" install kit, so not only were they not detachable, the p.o. Drilled a couple extra holes in the fender struts & frame tubes to get them on nothing a couple extra button head allens won't fix.

All in all, I'm pretty damn satisfied. No electrical issues, trans shifts sweet, Motor is tight as a drum, all new James gaskets in the top end, and I'd swear the flywheel has been balanced. It has practically no vibration. Going to have my local Indy check it out this spring and see what he thinks, I'm not going to open up a running motor just to satisfy my curiosity lol!
Also scored a deal on a t header from another 94 FXR, and 9 spoke rear wheel, so my project has officially begun

[creepyben71]

Get the 94 ,its a better bike by leaps and bounds. For starters the starter set up is way better than the early bike .Also the front end is better. The transmission is better it has a splined main shaft vs the woodruff key main shaft.And it has a newer evo. Just better all around.

[Michael Psycle]

Originally Posted by Blackened

Just thought I'd post an update:

Picked her up and brought her home a few days ago (right in time for the cold snap).

The more I dig into it the more I like it. Found a couple small issues - intake leak at the front cyl/manifold joint, and a damn awful tune on the carb. No sweat, I'm putting on a super E so all that's getting ripped out already.

Also those leatherlyke bags, well...let's just say they had the "home depot" install kit, so not only were they not detachable, the p.o. Drilled a couple extra holes in the fender struts & frame tubes to get them on nothing a couple extra button head allens won't fix.

All in all, I'm pretty damn satisfied. No electrical issues, trans shifts sweet, Motor is tight as a drum, all new James gaskets in the top end, and I'd swear the flywheel has been balanced. It has practically no vibration. Going to have my local Indy check it out this spring and see what he thinks, I'm not going to open up a running motor just to satisfy my curiosity lol!
Also scored a deal on a t header from another 94 FXR, and 9 spoke rear wheel, so my project has officially begun

Pictures, pictures, we want pictures!!!

[BigPeet]

Originally Posted by creepyben71

Get the 94 ,its a better bike by leaps and bounds. For starters the starter set up is way better than the early bike .Also the front end is better. The transmission is better it has a splined main shaft vs the woodruff key main shaft.And it has a newer evo. Just better all around.

Tighten up there, creepyben71. I believe he bought the bike a month and a half ago. Ya gotta read all the posts.

~Pete