Today I got to go out in the garage and wrench on my bike. I bought a few things for it recently and I finally got the chance to install the stuff.
I bought highway pegs for it from Harley. They’re just the mounts, not the pegs themselves, so I used the rear pegs for the front highway pegs. I have a solo seat and never carry a passenger so it seemed like a reasonable choice. They went on without any real problems and I think they’ll be comfortable on a long ride.
I also put on a new derby cover. It’s pretty simple — ‘Harley Davidson Motor Co.” written in black block letters on chrome, but it looks better than the stock cover and it was pretty cheap.
The real piece of eye candy has to be the layback license plate frame from H-D. I put it on and it’s really nice! It really cleans up the rear fender — the license plate no longer sticks straight up, but rather more closely follows the curve of the fender. It’s one of those things that makes you wonder why H-D didn’t do it like that from the factory…
The only downside to the evening’s wrenching is that I scratched my rear muffler taking the rear footpeg mounts off of the swingarm. The wrench slipped. I knew it could happen because I looked at it and thought, “That could scratch my muffler” but didn’t do anything about it. Shoulda listened to myself…
In non-motorcycle news, I had tires put on the Bravada. I had checked with TireRack on the tires I wanted (Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza in 235/70-15, the stock size) and having a local installer do the work would be a total of a bit over $600. I called Ken Towery right down the road from work (they put the tires on the Blazer) and they quoted me $111 each installed. I jumped at it. The total, with taxes and Road Hazard, was $533, which is $67 less than my estimate. Very nice! They certainly ride better than the Mastercraft tires that were on it.
I also finally ordered some stuff from Summit. I bought Taylor plug wires for the Bravada. It has a bit of roughness in Drive at idle, which I think is telling me it wants a tune-up. It still has the original wires on it, so I’m thinking the new wires may help bring the fuel economy up some (it’s lower than the EPA thinks it should be) by helping getting it back in tune. I need to do the rest of the stuff, too — plugs, PCV valve (and hose, which I think may be causing it to buzz at idle), and fuel filter.
I also bought a few things for the Blazer. I bought a full set of carpet for it, as well as Edelbrock headers with their ceramic coating. I really like the ones on my truck, and hope these are as nice on the Blazer. I also bought a Hurst shifter for the truck. I don’t need it — the shifter on the truck is decent — but I’ve always wanted one, and I think it will help make shifting a bit more fun. Shortening the shifter in my Z24 certainly helped.