A soft-tail motor means using a Harley engine from the Softail family in another Harley. People do it for different power/feel, but it usually takes extra work to make everything fit and run correctly.
A mono shock is a motorcycle rear suspension upgrade that uses one shock instead of two. It can change how the bike rides and is also a popular style choice for custom builds.
“Seat and exhaust” are two common upgrades on motorcycles. The seat changes comfort, and the exhaust changes sound and sometimes performance—so they’re often part of the first spending spree after buying a bike.
Swap meets are informal parts markets where people buy and sell used components. The host mentions “hammering swap meets” as a strategy to find parts cheaply for older bikes, but it’s also portrayed as a gamble compared to buying from a known-good source.
“Baseline” means getting the bike back to a solid, dependable starting point. Instead of just patching one problem, you fix the important stuff so it runs right long-term.
The charging system is what keeps the battery charged while the bike is running. If it breaks, the bike can act like it has a dead battery even if the battery is new.
The battery is the part that provides electricity to start the bike and run its electrical stuff. If the bike’s charging system is failing, even a new battery might not last.
Brake fluid is what makes the brakes work by transferring your brake input to the brake parts. If it’s not in good condition, the brakes can feel weak or inconsistent.
Starter fluid is a quick-start spray that can temporarily help an engine catch. The point here is that it can mask the real issue, so you might end up with bigger problems later.
“Rolling the dice” means taking a chance without knowing what’s really going on. Here, it’s the risk of assuming the bike is fine when you haven’t checked the important parts.
The clutch is what lets you smoothly engage and disengage power from the engine to the gearbox. If it’s worn out or damaged, the bike can shift poorly or not work right.
Concept
tearing it all the way down to the frame
That means taking the bike apart completely, all the way down to the frame, and rebuilding it. It’s the “do it right” option when you want the bike to be dependable for years.
Here, “parts” means replacement pieces you install to fix up an older bike. The idea is that people find their dad’s old FXR and then get the right parts to get it running again.
A fairing is the outer shell on the front of a motorcycle that shapes airflow. Here, they’re talking about using a specific “T sport” style fairing as part of a front-end upgrade.
“Full front” here means replacing the whole front section with the T sport version, not just a small part. The goal is usually better fit/finish and improved front-end behavior.
Match paint refers to repainting or refinishing so the new parts blend visually with the existing bodywork in color and finish. It’s a common custom-shop goal when mixing components from different sources or generations.
Horsepower is how much power the engine makes. They’re saying the FXR can handle big power upgrades without the bike getting unstable or breaking mounts.
The chassis is the main frame/structure of the motorcycle. They’re saying the FXR frame is strong enough that adding power won’t cause it to twist or flex in a bad way.
The master cylinder is the part that makes your brake pedal actually create braking pressure. It pushes brake fluid through the brake lines so the brakes can clamp down.
Fuel injection is how a motorcycle sends fuel into the engine using electronic controls. It usually makes the bike easier to tune and can help it run smoother when you change parts.
A Thundermax tuner is a device you add to a motorcycle to help the engine run better. It changes how the bike controls fuel and timing so it can make more power and run cleaner with upgrades.
A dyno is a testing machine that measures how much power your engine makes. People use it to fine-tune the bike so it runs right and makes the best power.
Sturgis is a huge motorcycle event where lots of riders and companies show up. Here, it’s mentioned as the place where they’ll install the tuning devices for people.
Black Hills Harley-Davidson is a local motorcycle dealership. They’re mentioned because the tuning company will be set up there to install parts during the event.
RNS motorcycles is a company that builds custom motorcycles. The host is saying it’s where you go for upgrades that look good and aim to improve how the bike rides.
A Wake Stabilizer is an aerodynamic feature on a helmet intended to manage airflow around the rider’s head. The goal is to reduce turbulence and improve high-speed stability.
MIPS is a safety feature that helps reduce twisting forces in some crashes. It lets the helmet move a little compared to your head to lower the chance of brain injury from rotation.
Term
ACT tech
ACT tech is Kabuto’s specific helmet safety construction. The idea is to help the helmet handle crash forces better so they’re spread out more safely.
A full-face helmet protects your whole head, including your chin. A MotoGP-style race helmet is designed for fast riding and racing, with features meant to stay stable at speed.
Topic
FXR side
“FXR side” means they’re switching to talk about the FXR bikes. It’s a cue that the next part of the conversation is about that model line.
“Drag a knee” means the rider’s knee touches the road while turning. It usually indicates the bike is leaned over a lot and the rider is riding aggressively.
A “Shovelhead” is a Harley engine family. “Big inch” means it’s been bored/stroked to be larger than stock, so it usually makes more low-end torque for pulling power.
Term
generator shovel
“Generator shovel” is a type of Harley Shovelhead setup that uses a generator for charging. It’s the charging system style used on some older engine configurations.
A “bagger” is a touring motorcycle with side storage bags. “Performance bagger” means it’s been tuned or upgraded to feel quicker and more exciting than a standard touring bike.
“Road Glides” are a specific kind of touring motorcycle. The point here is that having two of the same style doesn’t feel as different as having one touring bike and one with a different setup.
The drivetrain is how the engine’s power gets to the wheels. A sport bike drivetrain is set up for stronger, more performance-focused acceleration and control.
“Bells and whistles” means extra features. In this sentence, it means the bike has more added features than the simplest version.
Car
Pan America
The Pan America is Harley-Davidson’s adventure motorcycle. It’s designed to handle longer trips and mixed roads, and in this discussion they’re saying it feels different from a sportier bike because of how the engine delivers power.
Torque is the engine’s pulling strength. The host is saying Harleys feel especially strong at low speeds because they make a lot of that low-end pull.
Term
twin shit
A “twin” engine has two cylinders. The speaker is talking about the big Harley-style twin, which usually has a strong, distinctive feel and sound compared with smaller or multi-cylinder engines.
“Chop” is the rough, uneven sound and feel some engines make. The speaker is saying that even if the numbers weren’t huge, the engine still had that gritty character.
Term
taller bars
“Taller bars” are handlebars that sit higher up. That changes how you sit and reach, which can make the bike feel more comfortable and less cramped than a typical sport-bike position.
“Six speed” means the bike has six gears. More gears can help the engine run at a better speed for cruising, but it can also feel wrong depending on the bike’s gearing and how you ride.
Term
gas stops
“Gas stops” are when you pull over to refuel during a ride. How often you need them changes the pace of the whole trip.
“Tib Fib” refers to the two bones in your lower leg. A compound fracture is a serious break where the injury can involve an open wound, which increases infection risk.
“Hardware installed” means surgeons put in metal parts to hold the broken bone in place. If there’s an infection, those parts may need to be removed and dealt with again.
Term
change the fluids
“Fluids” means the liquids that keep the bike working—like oil and coolant. Swapping them out helps the engine stay lubricated and cool.
Term
kickstart it
Kickstarting is starting the motorcycle by using your foot to turn the engine over until it starts. Some bikes do this even if they also have electric start.
An open-face helmet protects the top and sides of your head but leaves your face uncovered. It’s cooler and lighter than a full-face helmet, but it doesn’t protect your face as much.
On a motorcycle, the swing arm is the part that holds the back wheel and lets it move up and down. If it feels loose or wobbly, something in the mounting or pivot is probably worn or not tight.
The transmission is the gearbox that helps the engine deliver power to the wheels in the right gear. On a custom bike, the way it’s mounted can change how the bike feels and handles.
Push-button start means you start the bike by pressing a button. It’s a modern convenience that some custom motorcycles add so they’re easier to start.
Car
pans
“Pans” is a nickname for an older Harley engine type called the Panhead. The host is listing classic Harley bikes and saying they were all running.
Car
shovel heads
“Shovel heads” is a nickname for a classic Harley engine type. The speaker is basically saying they rode with guys on older Harley bikes and they were all running.
A power slide is when you intentionally make the rear tire lose grip and slide sideways while still controlling the bike. Riders usually use throttle and steering to keep it going.
“Rear brake only” means you’re stopping using the back brake and not the front brake. That can make the bike behave differently, especially when traction is limited.
Term
TwinCamp swap
They’re talking about a specific upgrade/parts change called a “TwinCamp swap.” It’s basically a conversion where you replace certain components so the bike works better with newer setups.
Term
pivot thing from the front
They mention removing a small front-end part that pivots. It’s likely part of the bike’s front setup, and removing it is part of how they’re changing the bike’s feel or setup.
A steering stabilizer is a part that helps stop the handlebars from shaking. It makes the bike feel more stable and easier to control.
Term
49 millimeter front
“49 millimeter front” refers to a front-end component size—most likely the fork diameter or related front suspension hardware measured in millimeters. Changing front-end dimensions can affect steering feel, stability, and how well the bike responds to damping from parts like a steering stabilizer.
In motorcycle terms, the neck is the steering head area where the fork pivots. Neck geometry (like rake and trail) affects steering stability and how easily the bike turns versus how prone it is to wobble.
Term
side plates
Side plates are aftermarket or replacement mounting panels/brackets used on some motorcycle builds. Depending on the kit, they can help position components correctly and support the installation of other parts on the frame or front end.
Company
Arnell
Arnell is mentioned as the company that made the kit they installed. That kit provides parts to modify the bike’s setup.
They’re saying the kickstand uses two springs to help it move the right way and come back correctly. If you only have one spring (or use the wrong one), the kickstand can feel floppy.
That “lug” is a small part that helps hold the spring in the right place and keeps tension on it. If it’s wrong or missing, the kickstand can feel loose.
A “frame swap” here means changing the bike’s frame so it can fit the Milwaukee-Eight engine. It usually involves custom work, so it’s not something you do casually.
A “twin cam swap” means changing a Harley to use the Twin Cam engine. They’re saying the Milwaukee-Eight conversion is different and likely more complicated than that.
Term
M8, combination
They’re talking about the specific Milwaukee-Eight + FXR build setup. The important part is that every bike ends up being different, so the work can vary a lot.
The backbone is the main structural part of the frame that everything is built around. It’s like the car’s central support, and it can have a lot of internal structure.
A motor mount is what holds the engine to the car’s frame. The center motor mount is the one positioned near the middle, helping keep the engine stable.
A top motor mount is the engine’s support point near the top of the mounting area. It can be tricky to fit around other parts like the throttle and fuel lines.
A stabilizer link helps control how the suspension moves when you turn. A secondary rear link means there’s an extra connection at the back to help the car stay more stable.
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It's a genre thing, too.
Like on the FXR side,
those bikes were originally built to compete with the the import market,
cruisers and stuff like that.
So they were supposed to handle and still be comfortable and like cruisers, you know.
So it's just expanded on that.
Now they're now they're high performance cruisers,
you know, where you can go across country and and hit canyon passes
and if you're if you're good enough, you could drag a knee and come out of it,
looking fucking like a rock star, you know, and then fucking.
Yeah, it's a different cool. Yeah, it's a different cool.
And and that's the thing with on the torch side.
It's it's there's a lot more style and there's a lot more.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's.
I mean, it's just like going to
like the FXR is more form and like more function, maybe.
Oh, yeah. I don't even I mean, even even some of the the the torch stuff
and everything now, especially with the way things are now,
there there's performance aspects to it, where it it you're not getting your
ass kicked as much as he says you're getting your ass kicked.
Like there's six speed transmissions.
And the big thing is, is like on all the newer stuff, you can go fast.
They're sleek, but they all have fairings and stuff like that breaks up the
wind, which is a huge difference when you're going long distance, you know.
Yeah. Some of the motors that we're using on the torch build stuff
for our big inch shovel head and generator shovel stuff that can keep up
with a big inch Evo or or like a stock M8 kind of ish.
But there's no fairing.
There's nothing to break up the wind.
Yeah. So you're just taking it all in and and it's and it's a lot more rigid.
Well, it's like riding the bike like that.
I would want to ride it at the pace that those kind of bikes ride at.
Right. You know what I mean?
Like riding the chop out here on 10 when I had to do stretches on 10,
fucking miserable, like trying to just not be a burden to the other fucking
vehicles that are doing 90 and I'm sitting here putting them along at 70.
It just sucks.
But then as soon as I get off on one of the roads heading here,
and it's just me and nothing in anywhere, you just like settle in.
Like I don't have anywhere to be anywhere.
Like this feels really good right here.
And so I feel like these type of bikes, like once you ride them,
like if you jump on a chopper,
then you go ride with all your performance backer buddies.
Like that's not going to work out too well.
Yeah. Well, and he's he's one of the very few people
that is going to get on a bike that, you know, is it just like an in town cruiser?
Like you can go to the bar, you can go to a picnic, you can go to
like a low rider show or whatever on your torch bike and be totally fine.
But he's a fucking idiot and he wants to go on tours.
Yeah. You know, and try to keep up with guys that have, you know,
100 and 5100 and 6100 and seventy
horsepower motors. Yeah. You know, and there's a hey, you got to be
at this point at this particular time, you know,
and he's the only one on a bike that no.
He makes his own he just makes his own schedule.
He tries to keep up. Yeah. No, it's all good.
As they came out bitching, you know, you know, I mean, yeah.
I mean, I say they're all my favorites, but as soon as you finish,
but I definitely use.
One of. But you're going to remember, too.
Yeah, you're going to remember that.
That's that's that's the thing of it is like you're going to see those
at like in a line of every other bike that bike is going to stick out.
No matter where you're at.
Well, I think that's also like maybe
maybe a testament to the fact that like.
Now that like when you go to a hot bike tour or an FXR tour
or any of the type of shows that we usually kind of end up seeing each other at.
Finding a way to do something that's not the normal thing there is kind of like
maybe the move, maybe, I don't know.
And maybe like that's why I feel like so many people are getting
like interested in other styles of bikes that exist within this realm of,
you know, Harley Davidson or whatnot, you know, I don't know.
It's a I mean, it's it's.
I think it's going
giving back more towards like a custom bike.
Yeah, right.
We've gotten so far away from like the area that we came in on.
Yeah, where everything was handmade.
It was all about custom bikes, whether they're one off.
Yeah, like, you know, old style choppers or fat side, fat tire choppers or whatever.
Like all of the emphasis was on one off shit.
And what, you know, such and such builder made by hand or did that was
what all the emphasis was on.
And we've gotten to the point of through a number of years now where it's
how much money can you spend on the coolest shit to bolt onto your bike?
How fast does it go?
How well?
While is your pain?
How crazy are the colors on your power code?
Yeah, I think it's starting to
as we talked about, like everything goes and then in cycles and ebbs and flows.
You know, I think we're not to work towards the end of it.
Yeah, saying that the performance thing is over because I think it's got
a pretty good hold in like a lot of us at this age are like,
but we're you know, we're also to the point where you're for two bikes.
Yeah, a lot of the people from our generation, how we can afford to buy.
So I can have a road bike that I can jump on a performance bag or wherever.
And I can also have a torch bike that or old chopper or an original
bandana or whatever.
And I can have that experience in that field as well.
So it's I think we're getting to maybe a balance point
into where both are appreciated and both respect.
Which I'm happy to see.
I can agree.
Yeah, as individuals that we like to make as much as we can
and we pride ourselves on the custom making aspect of it.
And just that whole that whole one offside of it.
Yeah, that's the stuff that we I want to be appreciated.
I wanted to get back to a point where people don't just walk past
the hand to go to one has a sharing of shit on them.
But we can find out a happy.
We can coexist.
I think what a lot of the newer the guys that maybe came into the culture
on performance baggers like that was kind of like the thing
that inspired them to want to get into this.
Maybe the hope is that they start to like, you know, let their eyes
wander into other styles of bikes and they'll find an appreciation for it.
Right. Or like what I always what I've been trying to tell a lot of people is
like.
Fine, have a second bike that offers a different experience than the other bike.
Like two road glides doesn't make a lot of sense.
You know, I mean, you got it, right?
But.
You know, like I have a gold FXR chopper
and then I have a traditional Evo five speed to the Nines
FXR. So those are two different riding bikes in a way.
But, you know,
now, I just wondered what you guys thought.
What do you think is going to happen when the fuel comes out?
Or is it out yet?
It's out. It's out. Yeah.
I mean.
I don't really know.
It's a it's a fucking amazing motorcycle.
It's fast as shit.
It rides great.
We're working on some parts for we've had one for a while now.
It's been a slower moving process.
We wanted just because of a lot of other stuff we got going on.
But we do have you are building a decent part of our parts line for it.
That will be.
Available soon later.
Yeah, it's all right now in the works.
Like we have parts that are 90 percent finished for the Buells.
We have a number of other parts designed that just need to be finished at
the machine shop. Yeah.
We have a couple other ideas that, you know, we're working on.
We're working on custom exhaust stuff, just stuff that's not out there.
Yeah.
That's like that's it's a good solid crossover bike,
you know, because you're it's basically a
a cruiser bike with a sport bike chassis or a sport bike drivetrain.
Yeah. You know, we're looking out.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Stand at the Buell.
Well, I think, yeah, it'd be interesting to see how like
something you had said it on the like I said, on the way out here,
I was in my AirPods listening to the podcast he did with Law Tigers
and a lot of great stuff in that podcast.
You had mentioned that like, well, you know,
to some to the effect of like, well, if dudes want an FXR and they spend twenty
five grand, they can have a pretty nice FXR.
So it's like kind of, you know, if you want to buy this
because it has an FXR aesthetic with all the bells and whistles,
you have that option here, right?
So for sure. And it's I mean,
it doesn't need much.
To.
Probably be a better bike than that 25000 more.
I'm sorry.
And by much, I mean, like it doesn't really need to mechanically
it needs some stuff like you're on a set of set of.
To breathe to the point of looking as good as that 25
thousand or so.
So now, I mean, obviously, that's like the base price point on the bike.
So we can keep more than that.
But for less than you can go in and buy it in the UST
or about this, maybe about the same price you want to buy the UST,
you can be pretty close to having a.
Yeah.
Pretty comparable motorcycle.
But it's it's again, it's another thing to it's kind of hard to compare.
It's similar to when people ask
we are a common question.
We've got no real assing.
We use this robot or
then our version of the Pan America is completely different motorcycle.
It's kind of hard to compare because this is more the fuel is more sport bike.
Based. Yeah.
So it's a high RPM bike there.
Like it doesn't have any torque on the low end.
It's a very different fuel.
Yeah. So it's it's very it's hard to compare the two motorcycles.
So to ask is the wheel better than the XR or vice versa.
They're completely different motorcycle,
but it depends on what you want that fuel because the bike has a completely different feel to it.
Yeah.
Do you think maybe sometimes people like don't realize how much torque plays into
what it feels like to ride a Harley?
Like maybe they focus on one of these or like you ride a Pan America
and you understand that the first time the first couple of times I rode a Pan America,
I stalled it like it's stop lights or stop signs or whatever.
Just roll up because I would just lower RPM just more broken, try to go out of it.
He just dies.
What the fuck?
Or the thing is that you've got to get you can't be delighted.
1502000 RPM and they just pulls itself.
You've got to be delighted.
4001 Yeah.
It's like, OK, so yeah, like it's.
And those bikes are are happy at like
6500 RPM and higher.
Yeah. You know, that's where they're really alive
and and doing what they're supposed to do.
Whereas you're those RPMs on a on a Harley
or a big twin and that thing is screaming at you to kill the fuck out.
You know, but yeah, that that torque is on the Harley.
There's that's what really makes those bikes, you know,
just having that low end sit down and just
pull you feel, you know, is I mean, there's nothing like it.
Yeah, I just I bring it up just because I really wonder what it's going to like
how the if younger generations that find Harley Davidson
or these these style of bikes like that becomes an option.
Like are they're not married to the way that Harley feels to like me.
Like I need that as opposed to I could ride that.
I don't know if it's something I would buy.
And not to not to those shade at it or anything, but just like it doesn't appeal to me.
Same way a Pan American doesn't feel to me.
Yeah, yeah, I think that's where like generational shit's going to come into play, too.
It's because we all cut our teeth on on.
Turkey, big twin shit.
Yeah, even if it was only 50 horsepower or whatever,
it was still there.
That chop was there that that grunt of that motor was always there.
You know, so newer guys coming in to having these options
and never really experiencing what we got to experience.
So we have something to compare it to.
They don't really have that to compare to.
So even the guys that are coming from sport bikes, that's a great platform
because you're used to a sport bike, but you want to hardly feel.
Yeah, like as far as like the steel
way you sit, sitting position, you know, taller bars.
Yeah, this is essentially a sport bike in sport bike motor in an FXR frame.
So you're kind of you're melting those together.
Or is the person who wants more than one bike, they want to do the different bikes.
You can have your road bike and you can have this.
Like it's a great second bike.
It's not like I don't know that I want to ride it across country.
At least not with the way it is now.
Yeah, not to worry about it.
Varying it into bags and stuff is another thing we're working on.
Which is what we were talking about earlier is like
that's a nice thing about like all the newer bikes and like the performance bikes
is you have that wind to break up.
Whereas on a chopper or a torch built bike.
You know, you don't have that.
So you're going to you're really going to be taking it all in.
It's not going to be today.
It's going to be a totally different ride.
Yeah. Yeah, I would say that like if I was riding my chopper,
the way I ride my FXRs or my baggers, then wind would be an issue.
But we hadn't mentioned it earlier.
It's like when you jump on a chopper, like that full face just doesn't fit.
And I just feel like that becomes like a bigger thing in the wind versus
like that little three quarter or little, you know, bucket like helps
minimalize like that wind, you know, catching whatever the fuck.
But is that is that the jitter?
Is that just like a hey, I look like I look fucking goofy as fuck
with a a Simpson helmet on this chopper.
But I mean, I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, I'm a completely right now.
No, I think that it just like.
I don't know, man, like there's definitely a level of probably
some cosplay involved in that.
Like when you get on the on a chopper or when I get on mine, like I still,
you know, feel like I dress the same way.
But I try to wear darker clothes now
because they're all fucking stained in oil.
Like there's a there's a little skid mark down the left side of my fucking body
on everything that I own that.
Oh, I've worn that on the chopper.
It's marked everything.
All right. So there's a certain aspect that kind of starts to go into play
where it's like, all right, well, that those are chopper clothes,
because I don't want to fuck about another pair of nice jeans or whatever.
But when it comes to the helmet, when you're moving on like 50,
55, 65, 70 miles an hour, that wind on your face isn't fucking blowing
your cheeks back and putting your beard in your nose.
So it's like this feels good, right?
Pushing my chop up to 80, 85.
You know, yeah, then you start cheeks are flapping in the wind.
Fucking then it's not good.
So maybe if I didn't have, you know, maybe getting a six
speed is not the move on a chopper and I could keep it.
Last year's top like two on the torch bill.
It was a 93 inch SMS and a bigger six speed.
So like that bike gets through the long 85 wing, but it wasn't super comfortable.
So like I could keep up with everybody and like you get a lot of number of times
got the gas stops people thought I think ribs.
It does grow.
It's not it's not sustainable.
Yeah.
I'm not doing that for hundreds of miles.
Yeah.
You're 94 a little bit.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Do a little bit of the bike and handle it.
But physically, it's physically.
It's just super.
Yeah.
Well, I guess it goes back to what we were saying is that it like it needs to be
you need to ride the chopper as a chopper and not as a performance bike.
Right.
You know, because if you if you try to ride these performance bikes,
these big ass motors at 55 miles an hour, it's like,
do what the fuck are you doing?
Like, well, take me home.
It's not what I signed up for.
My road like six gears, the use is for.
Yeah.
Like 9099 right around there is one.
When I put six years, yeah,
you know, about 100 and fifteen is where it is.
Very few things to be absolutely happy.
I'm at, you know, 3600 RPM.
Just a scoop.
Fucking.
Yeah, but that's another thing, too, is like, like you see a pack full of
of performance bikes, whether they're FXRs, baggers, whatever.
You'll look at them.
But if you see a pack of choppers, like old panhead, knucklehead,
shovelhead, choppers all riding together, that's like,
like you're going to pay more attention to that whole pack
and and watch them on their journey than you are.
These dudes that are just all you know,
you'd be like, fuck, dude, those things are badass because they're just nostalgia.
I think that.
But also like you can actually witness it.
You could see dudes.
Folks riding together and you can kind of witness like that camaraderie
of what a bike can do and not as like throwing shade towards
like performance bikes where you're just zooming through.
Yeah. But to your point, like it's you're not really capturing that
that moment the same way.
And dude, just a completely different feel to do this again.
It gets it against that.
It's a two bikes with completely different soil.
Yeah.
But I mean, to stop what I'm doing to watch this pack of old bikes.
Yeah.
Through because there's just this ambiance coming out.
But I mean, I assume you guys have been a part of that pack before.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It fucking feels sick, dude.
It really does.
Like I mean, I like I think any time you're you're in a group
or even with a couple of your buddies riding, it feels great.
Doesn't matter what fucking bike you're on.
Yeah. You know, you're it's two wheel time fucking winning your your your face.
You know, no matter whether you got a full face helmet on or not, you know,
you're still on two wheels with your buddies doing your thing, chopper or not.
You know, yeah, it's nice having performance bikes because then you just
it gives a different level to the experience because you're not
you're not the whole time you're riding, you're not listening to your motor.
You're not like like worried about, man, is something going to fucking fall off
or is is is that a fucking lifter tick I hear is my valve fucking clanking
because I'm pushing this thing too hard or whatever.
Because when you're on a chopper, that's what you do.
Yeah. Like anybody who has a chopper, they just the whole time
you're just listening to your fucking bike.
I mean, so I'm having like an open face helmet is probably kind of nice
because you're not going to want to have air pods in or anything like that
because you're going to want to be listening to what's going on on your bike.
You know, yeah. Then I say about the performance bikes is you don't have to
worry about that. You just, hey, I'm going to get from here to here
and I can enjoy the ride. I can haul ass if I want.
I can relax if I want. I can listen to fucking whoever I want.
And my in my music and where my helmet and and be good to go.
Yeah, I'm with you on the mail.
I get I'm just right now, I'm like so horny for the chopper.
So it's like maybe I'm trying to justify a lot of things.
About it, it's probably like maybe after this trip, I'm going to be like,
yeah, that wasn't that sick.
I felt sick in the time and I wanted it to be sick because I've made an expectation
in my head for it to be sick. But, you know, you're getting a whole different
experience than most people are, though, too, because you're doing it solo.
You know, like most of this trip you're doing all by yourself.
If you had a couple of other dudes that were on choppers and you guys were like
sharing that experience, I think your perspective would be totally different.
You know, yeah, I mean, I there is an aspect where I want to have that feeling
as well of traveling a longer distance with somebody else on a chopper
and like going through this stuff with them.
But I mean, I just needed to get this out of my system or at least this part of it.
I needed to do this experience, you know, building the bike with Corey
and then finally having it done, learning how to fucking start it,
which was its own process changes.
Everybody. Yeah, the changes when you fucking change a jet.
You know, so it's like, you know, learning all these aspects has been like
a rite of passage for myself that that I'm, you know, I'm very like stoked about.
And I I would like to say that I think everybody should go through this
experience because I think it makes you appreciate all bikes a little bit differently.
You know, it's like it's really easy to appreciate the convenience
of what these modern baggers and low rider Estes can do when you come
from that world as opposed to the opposite here, where I come from this world
going backwards, you know, I'm hoping that I'm appreciating appreciating
the simplicity of a chopper and the simplicity of a ride.
And the the lack of things like you said a while ago, like you're listening to your bike.
So you're smelling, listening, feeling it as opposed to when you ride that,
there's a screen that tells you fucking everything in the world.
It's probably even tells you what the weather is in Chicago.
It's like it's too much information at some points for me, at least at this point in time.
So I've struggled with that, that when I go jump on the road, you know,
and I'm like, man, like, I wish I could turn the screen off, you know,
because it's that big now, you know, but on those branches, I don't know.
I'm not I don't I'm not sharing these thoughts and these like kind of, you know,
in the moment, opinions about these experiences, sounds like I think for
listeners would probably sound like I'm like, shit, none, newer bikes, I'm not.
It's just I'm trying to paint the picture of what it feels like riding something
old and what it's felt like riding something new for the last, you know, 15 years of my life.
So and I mean, as soon as I get home from this trip, I'm going to finish the road
glide and that's going to be Sturgis fucking, you know, Glacier Park,
National Park and a whole journey of itself.
You know what I mean? So I'm looking forward to that, but I needed to get this
out of my system, you know, and fuck, I might, you know, it might be staying here.
We'll see how the weather treats in the next two days.
I'll be catching a little Southwest Airlines flat on hit the road.
Glad to come back to board for you.
It's really cool. Yeah.
Dude, I was, you know, of course, you jump it on this trip.
I definitely that was definitely on my thoughts like, OK.
You know, every every gas stop, you know, shit, fuck.
Damn, further, further.
And then I think it's when you get comfortable, like you stop worrying is
when it starts fucking up.
So I'm trying to keep worrying about it.
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Maybe.
I don't know.
Hey, what do you say?
No, it's just it's a completely different experience.
Unless you've done both.
Yeah.
You can't really compare both.
Yeah.
It's like most things in life.
You can tell somebody about it to you.
Move in the face.
But until they actually experience it, they don't understand it.
Yeah.
And the way that we started, we started on choppers.
Yeah.
You know, everything was, you know, four speed, kick only, no suspension,
whatsoever rigid, you know, you're, you're lucky to make a hundred miles or
135 miles to a gas stop.
You're lucky to not have to pull over on the way there because somebody's
bike's doing some fucked up thing and, you know, you all pull over to, to, to
kind of help them figure it out, you know?
Yeah.
So.
Yeah.
So what, I mean, you pulling out the survivor we were talking about earlier.
Yeah.
So what, what prompted that feeling of dust and net thing off?
I mean, like you said, like I've had a crazy last two years, you know, I had a
major motorcycle accident where I went down and, and compound fractured my
Tib Fib and had ended up having multiple surgeries and getting infected and having
hardware installed, removed, installed, and then retaken out was like the last
surgery because of the infection.
And then just my whole life changing because of like the effect it had on my
body over the last two years and stuff like that.
And then riding and stuff like that.
It's just, it's just been different.
And that was one of my, that was, I mean, every bike that I did during the
founding Moto days, I loved, but that was the one that I always knew I was going
to keep.
And it was just time, you know, it was just time to pull it out and, and change
the fluids and put a battery in it and get it going and fucking kickstart it and
watch all the fucking rat shit and everything shoot out of the exhaust.
You know.
Yeah, that's going to go into YouTube video throughout this.
So I got a good angle of that.
I actually think I got fucking hit by some acorns.
Yeah.
When I, when I finally fired up when I realized the key was off.
Yeah.
Got some prime kicks in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But that, that like that bike, like after it fired up and it shut off, like that's
always been like a one or two kick bike.
For real.
You know, and that was a brand new carburetor and everything that was on there.
So I knew it was going to take a little bit like I was, I was happy that, that
after we shut it down, that it only took one or two kicks and it fired right back
up, you know, so I'm really looking forward to riding it.
It'll be, and I am busting out my, my open face, matching fucking chopper,
chopper guy helmet for it too.
Survived.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You like you value your life too much.
If you do that, that's not, that's not chopper at all.
That's not chopper.
You gotta look, you don't look so tough as to wear no helmet, but.
Yeah.
I guess riding performance motorcycles in general and getting so familiar wearing
it a full face, like even like the little times here and there, I'd like rip
the chopper like from my house to the shop, like an unaware helmet.
It feels off like some.
It feels off.
It feels sketchy.
It feels sketchy.
I'm at real bread and your bikes and stuff.
So you always had your helmet on.
So anytime that I didn't have a helmet on, even like in the early days, like
chopper shit, my power to pull for helmets, I still just always fell.
Yeah.
And you were in something to do.
We got, you know, then it came into the, into the open face helmets and that they
met these, they were all just novelty.
Yeah.
You couldn't even, you could really find it.
You that were the DOT.
Yeah.
None of them are.
It made you feel a little, a little warmer.
Yeah.
But it wasn't, it wasn't doing shit.
You get the graphic was going to split open and fall off your face.
So he might.
Yeah.
Well, hopefully you just like hit the ground and slide and then it'll just
slide on the issue.
Yeah.
Hopefully you just don't hit the ground.
Yeah.
That's all the.
Yeah.
That's the goal.
Not go down.
What's up?
What's up with the FXR chop over there?
What's that for?
The M8 fucking to the.
That's a, that's a friend and customer of ours decided that, you know, he had to
have one and, and he was willing and, and, and trusting us to, to give him
exactly what he wants and.
Is that a gintume owner?
No.
No.
Are you all going to do the old lines over the top?
You're going to do them in a different way.
Yeah.
Oil tank, oil cooler will be for transmission in the back.
Oh, that's why it's so open back there.
Yeah.
So you got to play all drawn up and designed to cut out.
Yeah, we're going to.
We're going to have a little collusion around and we'll have some, let's hit some
little pins and.
Yeah.
Dreads, mayor.
Yeah.
Just clean it up with some nice.
Just really being eight up because it's eight up and it's, it's an inch and a half
out, but that's just, that's the minimal that we could do to keep the, the down to
the same angle without smashing.
You can't because obviously you have to give some when you do that in order to not
get the motor or local goofy tone around that happens to it.
So it's eight up and let you half out stock rake, but it looks so good.
And the frame without any oil cooler there and there's so much frame there that
if you were to try to put in a little cooler there, it would just.
It was like off.
Yeah.
Like, like not filling the whole thing.
Not like, unfortunately, at least like on a factory bike, especially like now
with legal these days, we were on the soft soft.
Soft soft.
The bagger went down low because it just looks a lot better and it fits in the
frame better, but there's only a few minutes above it.
And it's usually like tucked under the triple trees and probably a fairy.
You don't really see it.
Yeah.
It's like having so much down to, but there's no way we could do that.
Yeah.
I had to, I had those things.
And it would pull away from the whole chopper.
Yeah.
Feel.
Yeah.
That's definitely the thing on that is to try to strip it down with it still
being fuel injected and everything.
It's a wild balance trying to mix the two.
Yeah.
The chopper.
I mean, you know, you've done already trying to mix the performance FXR with a
chopper.
It's kind of a, it's a, it's a challenge for sure.
Trying to find that, that balance of all touching on both, but not having it look
ridiculous.
It's been a little bit of a.
Yeah.
I mean, because when your tanks in the air, then they expose the fuel pump and
there's not really a lot of space and I don't even know how is external fuel pumps
even a thing really?
Yeah.
We looked into this.
Like talking with this, we did, there was something else we were doing.
You get this fuel injected.
Oh, yeah.
I was trying to figure out like all the time in America, I was trying to figure
out not putting the fuel pump in the tank just to have that much more fuel.
And then I have to worry about it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I looked and like the all of the smallest external one you
can find is this huge two that has the creates enough PSI and that was three or
four years ago.
Maybe there's something magical.
Who knows?
It changes day by day these days, but there was, there was nothing that we could
come back with, but on that one with the tank, we didn't want to mount with
it being eight up.
We didn't want to mount it, the tank directly on top of the back falling.
So we had to take it and it's always a internal battle of do we just make a
whole tank and scratch or do we find something that already works because we
used a so street opting.
Street opting.
Oh, is that the one that's over there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
It already has the pump plate and everything already integrated into it.
And it had a nice shape to it.
It's got a kind of a chopper feel.
It looked ridiculous in like completely stock form, but from a side view,
it's like, oh yeah, and just from a rear view too, but it looked, it looked really
awkward, but besides it looked awkward.
So we cut it, we cut the whole center section out of it, made a whole new
center section tunnel and everything dropped it down because the other challenge
was trying to feel, feel some of that, that negative space to make it feel not
like it's eight inches up, like it's a more balanced stretch.
So we brought it down to basically just cutting the tank in half and just
holding it up there.
So it's like, all right, that looks good.
Let's figure out making the center section tunnel section and then
planning also to a dash for it.
It is kind of FxR-ish with a fuel gauge in it.
Just a compliment.
How do you need the fuel gauge in there?
Oh, does the other?
Well, it has, you see the tank, it has the back open area is kind of
something down with the tunnel area, rather, is something down on the top side.
So it's got the three quarters of an inch or so.
Excuse me, a couple of times.
Okay.
Three quarters of an inch or so.
Got a channel in there.
Yeah.
That will have plenty of room in there to mount.
But then the dash to the FxR-ish, so it's going to stick up a little.
So let me point you in the six or wide.
So it'll kind of give it also like a chopper feel with the dash.
It's sitting lower.
It'll take up some of the space and then the dash on top will give it
some of that height.
So it'll still have kind of that nice chopper look to it.
What about, what's, you know, like a, taking like an evil dino, right?
And doing something like that.
Is it possible to just like, I mean, it's fabrication, right?
Just like hard mount the swing arm to the frame, like through that backbone
or that down, that rear down tube and like.
On the dino?
Yeah.
Like maybe moving the aspect that they're going through the motor.
You know what I mean?
I don't know.
Because it seems like those, those evil diners are cheap as fuck.
And you could easily, I've seen someone did one recently.
It looks pretty damn good.
Like.
We finished one off.
Is that my, might be the one I'm thinking about.
Chrome frame, like the tank is blue with black funny ticket machine.
Yeah.
Black flames on it.
It was, it's pretty, it's got a pretty hot grill.
It's eight inches up.
Buddy Frank Flurkin did all the fab and everything on the frame wise.
And then it came here and we just finished some of the fab on it.
And not a, the tank is already mounted on it with exhaust.
See, yeah.
Motor transmission, swing arm.
And there'll be a simple to show the most part.
Forget, leave it that thing.
Like they didn't have the top motor behind it.
The one point, Chris came over like you're at the motor and just.
Yeah.
Like fucking like just.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because it's one little links out of the top of it.
And the swing arm is fucking flopping around too.
Because of just that crazy design where the motor mount and the.
Transmission and the swing arm are all.
They all play off of each other, you know, on those dinos.
So yeah, it's sad.
Just I don't know, I feel like I'm seeing more of this.
And I think it's a it's a good gateway drug to like real in depth,
custom chopper-ish side bikes.
I feel like it does having all the modern amenities of what you would want.
You know, to push button start, get up and go.
But also like it's got an aesthetic, right?
Because I feel like that for myself, that that's what it was.
The FXR chop was.
All right, it's a chopper, you know, swing arm chop, whatever you want to call it.
But it's like it has everything.
And then I went and rode with all these fucking dudes on old knuckles, pans and
shovel heads and all their shit was they all had their bikes were starting.
They were running.
We were running around like like if they can do it, I can do it.
Not as a dig at them, but just being a man.
Like if they can fucking do this, I can.
Right.
What I'm getting at with a lot of people asking me is like, well,
I want to do a chopper, but I want to do everything that's like hard about it.
They don't want to do that.
And to be fair, I didn't either at first.
I wanted this to look and I think it's like the gateway drug into like a deeper
like shittier bike experience.
I don't know.
I would say that don't be a pussy.
Just go do heroin.
Just skip.
Skitway drugs are for pussy.
Skip weed.
Really hard shit.
Yeah.
No, it's wild.
So I mean, Chris, since you've been back, like how has like how long were you out?
Out like.
I don't know.
I mean, because yeah, it was just a roller coaster.
I think the first time it was like 88 maybe 12 weeks.
I mean, I was popping in and I was still doing a lot of stuff at home
mobily and and Justin and the guys were were picking up the slack here.
And my wife would come in and she'd help and and she dragged my ass down here and and what not.
But it was just yeah, I was just a roller coaster because every time that I finally got
cleared to start walking or whatever, then something would happen.
Like the first the first two surgeries was to repair.
And then I was clear to start walking and then it just wasn't healing right.
And it happened in in another state.
And so I had to come back here and find a specialist here.
And then then they had to go re break everything and take all the hardware out and then put
all new hardware in on another surgery.
And then once I started healing from that and I was more involved because I ended
up cutting open my knee and fucking driving a big ass rod down my leg and then plating
up the other part and having to re break both bones to get everything to sit right.
So like I had a bunch of knee pain and screws in my knee and more in my ankle and all that
other stuff. And then right after I started being able to walk from that,
like I came to the shop and I was working one day and I just felt like I had the flu
or something. I just pushed through it all day and then got home, passed out.
But just fell asleep, woke up the next day and I had this like pain in my groin area.
I thought I was like a limb node or something like that.
Actually, I thought it might be a blood clot.
So I went to the hospital.
It turned out that my leg was infected.
So they immediately admitted me to the hospital and I spent a week in there where
like one surgery, they went in and cleaned out all the infection and took out some of
the hardware. And then the other surgery, they went in and took the rod out of my my
tibia. And and I mean, that was shitty.
Yeah, just because you figured that, you know, if you ever watch those surgeries, they fucking
Yeah, it's pretty much sledgehammer that thing into your leg in the first place.
And the only way they can get it out is they have to have like a slide hammer to fucking
yank that thing out. So I woke up from that surgery just in a lot of pain.
And then like any pressure on my knee and all that other stuff, it was just it was a longer
recovery. Like I'm up and walking now and everything like that.
But my ankle and stuff is just kind of destroyed.
And like I deal with swell.
And what caused the wreck up there and started to see member?
We were in a group of guys riding and we just we'd all accelerated.
And then I was kind of mid or toward the back of the group and somebody I didn't see
there was a car in front of all of us.
And they stopped all of a sudden.
So all I saw was a bunch of red lights and I fucking jammed on the break and either I jammed
on the break and forgot that I was jammed on the break or or it was sticking.
But all the bike wasn't stopping.
And then I just kept fucking sliding.
I was trying to control the slide.
And I just kept getting closer to the group and this car started to turn left.
And I just figured, fuck, I don't want to go into anybody.
I'm going to fucking try and lay it down and I just instinctually put my foot down.
And I guess just try to hop off the bike instead of fucking laying it down.
I just slam me to the ground and fracture my collarbone and most of my ribs on my left side, too.
It was it the.
Huh? It was never I catching up to the back.
Yeah. You're fucking fast.
So remember you.
Where do we was at the FXR show?
Did you come to the house?
The house party and tell me about it.
Because you told me about it that.
Yeah, it was probably the house party was.
For every.
Power.
Did you did you go to the house party?
The we know you've been though.
Yeah, I went I went during that.
Yeah, we don't even look for a 40.
Oh, yeah.
We flew in.
Yeah, let's have to that.
We had we had two or our bikes were already there.
And then.
Yeah, we were just coming out just to have a couple of beans and
river out a little bit and then come home.
It was like a kind of a last minute quick meal.
Just mostly just based off the meetings that it like you guys.
Yeah, yeah, we can go over some stuff or whatever.
So we just like our public goods could play to group.
We get out there and then yeah, you got there.
I customer that had two or vice and so like, yeah, just come stay at the house
for advice or whatever.
I said we'd only been there for a week before we had one meeting.
And then hung out that night next morning.
We all got up to go for a ride.
So for a ride and then like maybe.
Thirty minutes after we left the house is going to happen.
Yeah, yeah, we just got gas and everything like that.
And yeah, who knows what it was.
I don't know because the bike had traveled if who knows.
Yeah, could have been mechanical.
It could have been my.
The shit happened and a lot of shit going on.
Yeah, and I mean, that's hard.
It just did stop and went to make a left turn to there was nowhere.
Yes, I was on the Pan America.
So it's much like a bike and fucking stops faster.
But even I was like, like, all I did.
Yeah, he had an ABS.
I didn't have any ABS.
I don't attribute that to anything because like riding choppers.
That was our thing, too, is like we'd fucking haul ass up to the light
and just power slide, you know, no front brake, rear brake only.
Just fucking slide in there.
This was just totally something different.
Yeah, yeah.
And like it's just the cost of doing business here on a motorcycle.
You just take that risk.
Yeah, you know, but it can happen in anything.
A car, fucking e-bike of whatever, dude, you know.
Yeah, what do you you guys got?
A lot of parts coming out.
Or as you said, they are out.
You just haven't really posted about them.
Yeah, that's usually our style.
Well, I got to shout you guys out because I can sound this FXR bill
that I just wrapped up.
The primary situation is the game changer, my opinion.
I think that the primary service that you guys offer to have
make controls, drills ready to go on the modern bikes because not a lot of people have.
You don't need them on the older ones
because the older like TwinCamps have the have the windows, right?
But I I'm an advocate for the modern six speed transmissions,
oh, nine and up transmissions and drive trains.
I think is, you know, like good shit.
It all seems pretty similar to what is still on the bikes today.
And doing that TwinCamp swap, using that service, essentially.
And, you know, also removing the little fucking pivot thing from the front.
Solid and the price point like you can't beat it.
The I see what else that we use from you.
We we y'all see design from Saddleman, the y'all co brand.
We use that seat.
We did the since we did the 49 millimeter front, and we did the steering stabilizer.
Yeah, I've never ridden a bike with a Harley with a stabilizer on it.
It's not hard to see.
No, no, just in general, like, like with the stabilized like front in on it.
And it's kind of one of those weird things where like we were talking
about earlier about having the drive trainer line before you do anything else.
I think it's a line, but I wonder if this thing right here is
solving all the problems in the front, at least is what it felt like.
Can't. Yeah. Some other bikes will be built before some
experimental bikes, I guess. Yeah.
It was having some issues, but we didn't really know it
because the steering stabilizer was taken care of a lot of it.
Yeah. And then when the steering stabilizer comes off,
comes off a little or just turned way down, it's a fucking death trap.
So it seems like a good I mean for Dynas.
I mean, because I said we adapted it so it would work on the FXR frame
and the neck the way it works.
But as like a solving issue for like a 49 millimeter Dynas
for Dynaproblems, it seems like it's a fucking solid little deal.
You know, let's see what else fucking.
You use the side plates, right?
No, I use I'm used all side plates on my FXRs, but this
I did the kit from Arnell that does like a model gadget setup.
And so he came with some side plates that were aluminum and nice.
They worked out well.
Fucking y'all's well nuts, the Jossel fucking the battery tie down,
which is crazy how many FXRs don't have tie downs like a little.
Yeah. You know, it's just that's like one of those parts of like over the years,
guys will just take it off and fuck stick the battery in and forget.
Yeah. You know, same.
There's some kickstand parts that we make too for the 91 and laders that
you'd be surprised how many 91 and laders are missing.
They run two springs.
There's like a secondary arm.
There's like a little lug that puts tension on one of the springs that there's you'd be surprised
how many 91 and laders are just one spring and guys are trying to figure out why their kickstands
are floppy or whatever. And it's a long spring. There's two long springs and they're trying to
run a short spring like on the 90 and earlier.
Yeah. So it's back to your point about these FXRs, depending on
what and whose hands they've been on will depend on whether or not you need to get it back to baseline
before you start messing with it. And with you guys having all these products to solve even
those basic like issues, like, I mean, I've seen it on the walls in there, you know,
but at the same time being on the website, just kind of, you know, going down the list.
All right, we need this. We need this. This is only 15 bucks. Why not? You know what I mean?
Yeah.
It becomes one of those situations.
Can't remember if there was anything else like specifically that I was running off of the website,
but I, you know, I'd ask them, I was like, Hey, do y'all do that service for the primaries for the
inmates as well? Because to me, I feel like that's, that's the way to go. I'm like,
all of our M8 FXRs are done like that. We've, we've sent them out for shops and Harley dealerships and
other people that we know that are doing M8 FXRs, you know, they've reached out to us and
we have a few that are done for customer builds. But yeah, that's, that's another part that we
just need to get on the site to, to put out there.
Yeah. And then what else was it? How many, like y'all still read it, like do quite a bit of M8
swap frames for people like on the regular?
It always seems to be in waves. Yeah.
You know, a bunch of them, and then it kind of chills out and you know, it would be a, you know,
up a wave of them and then it chills out. So I think probably right now, because there's,
there's a lot of people doing it. There's more people doing it than, you know,
a lot of people taking it on themselves. But you know, with that side of it,
you don't know how much work it is until you do one.
Yeah. Or until you get yourself into one. And it's not, it's not a, a entry level.
No. Yeah.
Entry level endeavor. You need to be, I can't get, can people do it that are not entry level?
Yeah. But it's, it's maybe sketchy.
It's not a twin cam swap.
It's not a twin cam swap. No. And that's like what people ask us over the years, like, oh,
you guys are going to do a kit. We're going to do a kit. You're going to do a kit.
For me, I don't see it. We've done probably 40, 50 frames.
I would say.
Yeah. Twin cam, M8, combination.
We've done quite a bit.
To, to do like a, a photo clip kit, they're all so different because Harley-Tonuses have never
been great. So every one of them, like if we were going to give you any kind of like plate to try
to do it, like I, at one point we tried to, to make, you know, I made a template. We drew everything
up. Like we have a, we have a table, a sheet table we cut everything out on. And we made a whole
template and it fit the frame perfect. And then we, you know, immediately after that,
cut the same plate out. They didn't fucking fit at all. So to give you something that's going to
work from frame to frame to frame, it's going to have to be so wide. It's universal that what I'm
not saving you any time, you can just go buy a piece of sheet metal and turn it out. You know,
they cut it out yourself and make yourself a paper template. Like I'm just, I'm selling you
something that is, to me is, is useless. So it's taking away for no reason. And it's, again, it's,
it's something that is, is so labor intensive to be able to cut all that stuff out because one
thing people don't understand until you do it, either is there's so many layer on the inside
of that backbone. There's so many layers of tubes, round tubes, square tube, flat plate,
that are all coming together. Like webbing, there's some webbing under there too.
And then there's like, it's fucking, it'll take you a whole day just to, just to cut it out,
eight to 10 hour day, just to cut all the shit out of the way, get in there and grind and clean,
and you know, and get everything removed before you can even move forward on the top.
Can you do those? Are y'all, do you still retain the center motor mount, top motor mount, or do
you go to the front? The problem with the, with retaining the top motor mount is with the throttle
body and all the fuel injection stuff, the fuel rail is right there in the way. So it's to do any
kind of straight over the link. Yeah, it doesn't work. You like some kind of job or something,
something weird like that. So it just makes more sense to use the front. Yeah. And then we have a
secondary rear stabilizer link that we put on, like all the twin cam and M8 frames too, that
there's a space on the transmission where you can, you can pretty much bolt another stabilizer to
come off and we have a provision on the frame that you can tie that to, to give extra stability to
that drivetrain. But yeah, every single one of them has been different frame wise though.
To like even just like setting it up, it's not, because there's no, it's not like a twin cam swap
or a factory Evo setup to where if you get something with it off, you can make the adjustment
to do the drive on adjust, drive on alignment. You can't do that on E-Main stuff because it just
captures in the front, rear. So if you're putting all that stuff together,
if you're not square, you're not, you don't center the bike, your drivetrain's going to
crooked. So they make these kids, oh, you bolt this little piece in, you do this, but what are you
using for fishery? What do you have figured out to make sure that that thing is true? It's, it's
plum, it's square in the frame, that it's not sitting a little bit off in the front, it's not
leaning the one side to the whole ass end of the bike is, is one way or the other. There's a lot
more that goes into it rather than just you have to cut this scallop out, you weld these pieces in
and then you bolt this shite in the back. For me, it's not a, it's not a kid. Yeah.
That's the situation. In theory, could you typically, or could you maybe have solid mount rear bushings?
We use, we use those on the mono shock stuff because you still have to capture
the transmission on there. So, but you don't want it to move because otherwise that mono
shock would dip to the side. If you have a rubber, any sort of rubber isolator in there,
there, you're going to get some sort of movement and vibration in there. So we use solid ones for
the rear. I've heard of guys using like solid mounting their swing arms and stuff like that
on a rubber mounted bike, but then you're just, you have a rubber mounted front. I say to use that
for the initial setup to square the transmission and then like, you know, twin cams and M8s, like
they, you know, you can, but we have, that's part of what we use for part of our fixture,
but you know, it involves doing all the measurements, machining all the pieces,
and then having those for setup. That's going to add hundreds of dollars to protocol for kit
to be able to set this stuff up. So it's not, you know, it's not, it's not just to cut the shite out
of the way to publish it back in. You have to, you have to set everything up and you have to
measure it and make sure that it's a motor grill. And we have a motor and a transmission that we
use every single time just to make sure that alignment is, is on point. I'm going to ask these
questions because I'm possibly going to end up doing one. So this is how I get my free knowledge
right over here. So do you do this or yeah. Yeah. No, I'm, I'm sure you'll be making some phone
calls. Oh dude, I had to call him on the twin cam. We just to make sure I, I guess you got,
you got Corey there too. Corey's a great reference. Corey, Corey's been invaluable or
is invaluable a good way. Invaluable? He's just been a very valuable asset. Yeah.
Value. Exactly. But I did have to FaceTime Justin about, there was like a, I know that it is, it's,
I was like, where is the baseline that kicks, that cross and where is it typically supposed to be?
And I struggled with it because where I wanted to put it would have, it actually where I wanted
to put it would have been better off like in a lot of aspects, but because it was my first one,
I went with the specs that you kind of laid out that was what typically happened, but I was dealing
with the oil lines coming out of the fucking, you know, twin cam motor, which because you had the
SNS and you had to do it out. Yeah. And that, so you had to space the motor up like higher on the
front motor mount and like clock it a little bit higher because otherwise.
Like dish the, you have to dish that cross. Yeah. That's how we really, really use that.
No, that's what, yeah, that's what we talked about is that like we're lucky because we have
Nick Trask and those guys here. And so when we get the 07 and later SNS motors, we just take it
over there. They have a fixture plate and they'll pull the cam and bore the holes so that you can
just marry right up to an 09 and later transmission without any issue. Yeah. Instead of having to
fuck around with a $500 kit and all the time and using their little schematic thing to
fucking drill it and then having to worry about clearance issues like you had to run into. Yeah,
that was the only kind of issue there. And then, you know, the, like if I was able to move the,
I probably had like an inch, not maybe three quarters of an inch between
the edge, the front edge of the cross member and the M8 motor, lower part of the case.
But I feel like that would have also solved. I had a lot of issues with the primary wanting to
touch the main control on the left side. But I'd left to where it was and just
clearanced everything else and then had it all powder coated and everything. But if I would
have moved it forward because what happened is like one of the bottom bolt holes for the primary
was right where, so if I was just like a quarter inch forward, we would have cleared the whole thing.
So that was where I was like, well, I should just do this. That was my first judgment thing. But
like I said, I was concerned about, it's always better to just to have the direction in it and then
go help. Well, that's kind of what I was doing. But I still, like I said, I, because I haven't done
this a lot, I shouldn't have felt me. One of the workarounds though that Justin's figured out is,
I think we did it on the police. I mean, he ran like a new style soft tail kickstand up in the front.
So I heard of people doing that. Made a tab so that it bolted right up. And then that
kickstand just lived right under the primary. And so there was no clearance issue whatsoever.
You just grabbed it like you would grab on a low rider ST or whatever. And you don't have that crazy
gangster lean issue that you have going on and all that other stuff too. So when I do, I want to
redo my FX art shop, I want to do version 2.0 of it. And like I said, I want to do the primary
setup with you guys. But I was trying to figure out what I'm going to do with this kickstand thing
because Frank from speed dealers is not making those kickstands he used to make anymore. The,
I think they're kind of like the way the West Coast shoppers ones were back in the day where
they had the tab. Yeah. Yeah. If I'm wrong, Frank, I'm sorry I got the wrong information,
but I was under depression and he's not going to run those anymore. So I got to fix the frame that
TPJ helped solve when I was on my trip last two years ago. But I need to take it apart, fix all
that stuff. Dude, I didn't even know if you knew how to turn this fucking welder on. We got there.
I was like, I've had a Miller 200 sinker wave. Yeah, dude, I did fucking slap it a couple times.
But yeah, I want to figure out a kickstand situation that kind of works and is aesthetically
kind of pleasing in that area. So just off the kickstand is nice. Nice. I think it hides
up on a beat the primary know how all that shit came off the bottom. Yeah. It's like a dynamic kickstand
but cross member and all that stuff. It absolutely solves the problem of the FXR kickstand.
But since that there's better technology. So I will say that it's more it's more work to do
the soft tail one than it is to do that. Okay. Cross member because it comes it's already set up.
You want the cross member and get the pieces like it's a green setup. Yeah. But I mean, if you're
doing you have to need you're doing all this inmate swap, should you're doing all this stuff and
you're you're you know skilled enough to do all that. Absolutely. Yeah. Figure out a tab
to weld onto the frame. It's a lot easier to service because when you're doing the dinosaur
stuff, you always install that kickstand first and then everything goes in over that with the soft
tail stuff. It's bolted to the to the frame outside. Yeah. So you can just unbolt it right there and
do whatever servicing issue you need to do. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely looking at that
because that sounds like a much better situation. But yeah, that's kind of the thing is like, you
know, the the twin cam swap stuff was a that wasn't as hard like I was telling him when I was
clear to say everything for the wider rear fender. I didn't brace anything. So I just went to town
weld and all the shit up and then I got the quarries. It's all fucking crooked. And that's
shit shrinks and moves and everything every time you fuck weld in it. That's another thing when
modifying those frames is like you can't just sit there and put a bunch of heat to it and then
keep going. You know, there's a process where it's well, a little here, there,
let it cool, well, a little here, there, let it cool. You know, so
so I thought I was doing that. But I guess I need to like have some kind of real
like gauge of what what is still need to have some sort of fixture. Yeah,
but even the fixture, like it's a welded part. So all you're doing with fixture is trying to
mitigate with that as much as you can. Yeah, keep to a minimum, because it's going to move. It doesn't
matter what you're doing. It's a welded part that's going with the whole purpose of any kind of
fixture and you still hold it as in place as possible. And then even after that, you still
go back measure everything, make sure that it's working. Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to judge my the
amount of heat I'm putting into something just by how what did you call it? Like when you the heat?
Yeah, so I notice changes to you depending on what you're welding. Yeah, yeah, how thick it is and
things like that. And also like, you know, like in that situation, we were talking about
where you're welding the plate into the half piece of tube. We don't, there's not a whole
lot of surface area. So if you're welding here, like it's going to wrap around a little further
than it would on something else. Yeah, one side of it and you go the other side of it.
You put it on to come around and touch and hold it to the purple zone. It's a balance.
I'm fucking numb in for it, man. I'm interested in all that shit. Yeah, the
fuck I was in the hot like, you know, maybe I don't know how much you guys have followed this,
but I haven't really either much, but since we're all we're all pretty Harley people here,
you all seen all the Indian slander coming at Harley?
I saw some what the hell was that?
There's somebody talking about a video. I haven't seen one of somebody talking about
all the back on the new CEO and our CEO, whatever. Yeah.
Yeah, I didn't. I haven't, I haven't even watched the video that they put out,
but that whatever. But I have been reached out by a lot of people about what do you think,
you know, and I'd really, I've been trying to get this fucking bike dialed,
dead one gone. So I haven't been able to pay attention to any of it.
Trying to pay too much attention to that shit most of the time. It's got somebody said to
me, you know, like, no, okay, yeah, yeah, it's good not to be on it.
Yeah, I don't know. I just brought it up. Somebody somebody on this trip is like,
dude, I'm so glad you asked me that. Somebody. Yeah. I mean,
doesn't really have doesn't really affect us. Yeah. I hope it has a positive effect and
by way of competition, I think Indian existing and then pushing hard and continue to grow or,
you know, whatever the chapter is, if they're able to be
more free flowing, make changes quicker than hardly can because we all know hardly can take
quick changes. It's too big of a machine. It's too cumbersome for you to make quick turns.
I hope that allows them to become a better brand and push for there for hardly to be better.
Yeah. Right. I think the biggest thing like I was wondering about is
like, they don't it doesn't seem I don't know about Indian, but it seems like lately all the CEOs
on the motor company side, none of them have anything to do with motorcycles.
They don't ride. They haven't been around motorcycles. They've managed and and and
and built other companies that have nothing to do with the motorcycle industry. So it's like,
that's my only thing is like trying to understand how you're trying to grow
an industry that's that's a lifestyle industry that's been around for a hundred and some years.
And people are into it because it's Harley Davidson and and like the American motorcycle
company, etc. But you have people running it that have nothing or knowledge about motorcycles.
Yeah. You know, you know, that's that's the hot take. That's I think one of the things that I think
is being brought up a lot. I think that was initial, you know, gotcha or slander or whatever
that was stolen from Indian. And a lot of the takes are like, you know, the lot of the pro
Harley stuff, which, you know, we've both worked with Harley and stuff like that.
A lot of people are saying, well, that's the CEO's job is to turn the business around not
so much the product as opposed to, you know, how do you turn around? I do agree with you that like,
actually, I would just say this, like, I wonder what, like, how do you fucking fix
Harley? Do you is it broken really? I don't think it's broken because I mean, look at these cool ass
bikes are coming out. I mean, I think it's it's it's individually opinion based. Yeah, I mean,
if you're I think they have a great product, everybody wishes about the price point. I think
the hard thing, the hard thing to really wish about the price point is everything's fucking
expensive. Well, now, so how like, how can you really say that that's a crazy price when you're
looking at, you know, old trucks, while you swapping old four drive trucks, for example,
five years ago, which you could give for five grand for a fixer up for the kind of runs,
you're gonna pay 20 grand for now. So why does that if that's the case, then why is it as a,
you know, a fucking base model road like $35,000? Why is that that crazy for a brand new
you know, motorcycle, because you're gonna go into a dealership for a car. And if you want,
unless you're trying to get a fucking Kia Sorento, or you know, something like that,
super baseball, fucking pace, you know, baseball is going to be 60 G 70 G's to go in and buy a
fucking diesel truck. They have $100,000. Yeah. But in the fucking mid 2000s, their maxes are
$25,000, fucking 200,000 miles on. Yeah. We're, if we're, if we're being like, I guess,
relatively comparative about it, is it really that expensive for everything's out right now?
And fucking a base model home here that 56 years ago was $100,000 is now 450. Yeah. So
it's everything is jumped up. So why would you expect them to be able to build a base model
or an entry level bike that's under $10,000 unless you like the bikes that are coming from India,
China and shit like that, like that too. I know that understand that's most people's
comparison like, well, I can go buy a Royal infield for $7,000.
That's not really compared to apples to apples. Yeah. And I think that's the point right there.
It's it 100%. Why like, you can't compare that. It's like, you're not good. There's no
Royal infield lifestyle. There's no Royal infield world that you're becoming a part of.
And all the people that aren't really a part of this, they can't put a price tag on it
or justify spending the money to get into a culture. You know,
that is part of it because you're not just buying the motorcycle, you're buying a brand
that comes with the lifestyle, which is what we've all, well, I mean, like, for instance, you know,
on paper, Indian has built a bike, the challenger, and they
started it out. It's got all the stats in the world that on paper, we should go buy that. If it was
a house and a house, and we just looked at the paper instead of that ain't the house I want
because you how it looks. Yeah, you're getting a lot for your money. And this you're not. But then
you go look at the things that you're buying, you're like, yo, like, I'm drawn to this. Right.
And so that aesthetic checks all the boxes, but there's no yard. This is missing a few things,
but it's on an acre. I can work because this one's customizable. This one, you're stuck.
Yeah. Right. It's not much you can do to it. Yeah.
But it kind of goes back to the whole conversation of like, we're from a generation or an era
of I want to make this mine, maybe not to the degree of like this roguelite right here,
but I got to do something. It's got to be I got to make this feel like mine.
That's I feel like ingrained in whatever they were feeding us back in the 80s and 90s. But
younger people may not might not have that like I want to make it mine kind of feel.
And older people seem to kind of like be hit or miss with it. Right. So
I personally like leaving a little bit of room on the plate to add whatever I want to the bite.
I like that. I don't want it to be a done product because it was a done product.
You won't have an aftermarket. And aftermarket is what creates the culture.
We all talk to you about hardly falling short and really being at 90% with their finished product.
But if there wasn't that 10% none of us would be sitting on these houses talking about this right now.
We need that. We need them to fall short in order for us to have a life.
Or yeah we need them to have whatever rules and stipulations that they have to
fit into the box. So that they can't make it so that we can't.
10% really isn't in their control. Yeah.
But I think the the the Indian versus Harley argument other than them being both you know
American companies it's the same thing as comparing a Harley to a Bokeh.
If I wanted a bike that was everything that I wanted to be off the showroom yeah I'll go
by a Golden or go by an Indian. But I want it to be if you say customizable. It's not it's again
it's not we're not I don't think we're comparing apples to apples. I guess it's a way better maybe
it's a way better performing bike off of the showroom. But aesthetically it falls
definitely falls short. That was hard. Oh yeah and that that's my whole
gripe you know like when I got to go do the Indian you know release for last year.
I mean dude the people that work there solid like really good people you know
rode the bike it's fucking sick. But I even asked them I even talked to them while we were at the
still is like you know like I appreciate you guys bringing me out you guys know I'm a huge
hater of this brand. Gotta give you respect for asking me to come right. But I told them I was like
I still do not. I don't know what it is but like there's nothing drawing me to walk into an Indian
dealership. And I guess like the reason I have it like I don't want to make a public statement but
I'll you know in this conversation everything the Indian needs to be what Harley is is what they
don't understand about Harley and the dude that's now the CEO there was from Harley right. So it's
like if you don't understand the culture of this that's what you want but you can't build culture
overnight. You can't you can't spec a bike out and expect it to be a culture like what's the resell
value of these Indians. You know do they is there a resell market. Is there you know how much are
they supporting like Forever Rad Kyle and and the Kerry Hart's and the people that are making
products for these bikes because those are the guys they're going to create the culture for them.
Right. Yeah I think they've done well by by aligning themselves with you know like Hart and the guys
like that. They're trying to go after some of the other guys in that same vein. Gary and Brian
definitely being the main two in the most important ones. I think that they've aligned themselves
very very smart people on their part. But again it's like I don't have any issue with India as a
brand. Yeah like as a brand is an aesthetic and everything about it like it's got look it's got
cool feel you know just some of the things they do are cool. I just I don't love the product.
That's the issue with it. If they had a killer looking bike.
I like motorcycles. Yeah. So like they don't primarily hardly shit but again I just like
motorcycles. They had a fucking awesome bike. Yeah. I just have to buy an Indian.
Yeah that's that's just the thing is that how many times has India been sold you know. Yeah.
I wanted to make this statement of like well I'm sorry guys I'm out here on my 1977 Harley Davidson.
I'm sorry I can't say that about my Indian. Yeah. You know. But I wanted to like double
check to make sure that that wasn't one of the few years they came back for like a couple weeks.
You know what I'm saying. Yeah. But you know essentially get the point. And then again aesthetically
it's there's like the earlier Indians like the early 1900 ones and shit like that. Those are
fucking bitching. But there's been nothing since then. I mean even all through the 60s and 70s
and 80s and whatever guys weren't chopping up Indians. Yeah. And Triumph has a bigger state like a
closer relationship to the custom motorcycle world than Indian does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Hey man this is an opportunity. Indian what's happening. You guys need us to come into the
design room. Come on. Ready. You know all we need is hard to be money.
That's not a I think that like that's a smart thing for I mean that's what they should have
been doing from the jump because ultimately it comes down to that. You know I think that the
you can be you know great bike on paper. Cool. You did all the things but I don't like the way
the bike looks. I'm sorry. It just doesn't you know maybe I'm also very biased because I'm so
ingrained to what a Harley looks like that when I see something that's kind of like a Harley not
implying that they are their copy just it's an American made cruiser. So it's going to have
a similar aesthetic than as Harley. It just looks off the same way in some ways that looks off to me
when I'm comparing it to an FXR. You know so it's like when it's its own thing and whatever
that is I mean that's got to be the hardest thing in the world. So I have a sympathy for Indian to
figure out how to go up against such a legacy brand like Harley but I also don't really have a lot of
respect for the way they decided to attack it and if they're winning on the track and that's
cool then that's all you really got to do you know but when you go out and you start poking fun at
you know things like that to it's like a Trump move kind of thing. Yeah I was just going to say
that it's a pretty popular move in our parent culture for sure. It's to just shit off people and
whatever it is. I can't tell you whether it was right or wrong. I'm not. Yeah I've never bought
a bike from anybody any brand that I've ever and actually knew who the fuck the CEO was and gave a
fuck what they did. Yeah you're not buying it because of the CEO. Yeah I'm not buying yeah like
honestly short of like I mean nowadays like all this shit's politicized so where you like we know
behind these curtains of what this brand is and that brand does and they support this and like
that's all corporate shit that's on another fucking playing field that I don't think that we
fuck around on you know. I can tell you that we met the last CEO and the new CEO and both
polite, sugar hands. Where is it? Face to face. Yeah. There were dicks there were nothing else.
I don't think that's about it. I mean I just I agreed I think that like the products that are
coming out the the the new road glides all this stuff like they're fucking bitch and they're really
really great products. They're way almost to the point where like maybe there's only five percent
now that needs on these bikes to kind of like fully be yours. That new road glide that 26 like
since I've had it I threw bars, seat, exhaust, air cleaner. It's really all it fucking needs man
and that's just so that I can hear this motor going and the air cleaner I don't even know if it
actually does anything it just looks better and then the bars and the seat are just for comfort
you know so it's like you don't need to do much to them to do to have like a fun bike to ride.
You know but I don't know man it's just I just brought it up because like I said it's been
something that keeps popping up and I have no real form of opinion on it and honestly whatever
opinion I have it's probably biased because I'm you know I'm in love with this brand. You're never
going to compete with you know 100 out of 121 use now of continuous production and continuous
branding, marketing, that lifestyle that's built around it. It's going to take you a long time
to compete with that and then in its last this last iteration of it which is you know I would
still consider this as a continuity where it's at now it's a continuation of that so that was what
16?
Uh 16 around there?
What when you?
When they when they when it came back as when Polaris.
Oh yeah no it was early in the next member uh the member when Dirty Bird and them were all
trying to make long stretch side covers and all that shit. Okay. That was like 12, 13.
Okay okay so I think they were running side by side with um victory for a while.
Well it was the same yeah it was the same brand. Yeah.
Polaris versus both and then they they swashed the victory after only a couple years but yeah I mean
that's it's going to take years to continue to do that.
Maybe they should just stop trying to compete.
So be their own thing. Yeah.
Why are you trying to compete? The only reason you're competing is because you're both
you're both you know heritage American brands and but your heritage is chopped up
yeah throughout so maybe you just say you know what then we're not
they stand over there we stand over here but that's a better marketing play.
Yeah I will say they like on the Harley side of it with the the new CEO coming in like
I know that they budget cut a lot of things and you know had to figure some things out but
I think it's very important for them to continue to support the the events and stuff that they've
had their hands on the born freeze and you know party at the pens or whatever these
events are because you know like that's that's where the culture is that lives you know what I'm
saying and you know a lot of these events you know Danger Dan said it really good we were talking
to the day he goes well it's not good for you to build an event and Harley jumps in originally
and helps you grow it but if you can start an event and get it going and Harley can come in and
help it that's good. Born Free was running for a long time before Harley came along and started
offering to help out with you know investing in it you know as a sponsor things like that.
And them jumping in has made that event even better because you know what Harley's doing is
they're they're taking new builders fresh builders like people that some people might not even know
about giving them bikes and saying hey here's a canvas we're not putting any stipulations on you
do exactly what you think you want to do with it make it yours bring it back to the show and show
everybody what you can do with your Harley Davidson. Well how awesome is that too because
most of us remember the days where like Harley wouldn't want anybody other than Harley to touch
it right? Yeah. What did that happen all the way up until 2018? Yeah. Yeah so I'm saying yeah 2018 was
the pivotal moment in the turning then you know because there was such disdain for
getting rid of Adyna and going to the much better soft tail format because like everybody knows now
after riding them that there are a thousand times better than Adyna like I always tell people that
FXRs were dyna killers and chopper killers you know but the new soft tail format is
it's an FXR killer like FXRs are they're classic they've got style they're not made anymore so
that's a bike that you it's gonna have nostalgia but if you want to jump on a bike that'll out
perform that bike just right off of the showroom floor even with the fucking gay exhaust that you
can't even hear and shit like that yeah a new soft tail is gonna do it yeah you know and like we've
done big dollar FXR builds for people just EVO FXR builds and you could get a brand new soft tail
for far less than what it costs to do a ground up FXR build right. Then that also plays into the
idea of like well you know not exactly but kind of like just buying it off the showroom floor and
not really having much of a connection to it versus what it's like to actually build or have a bike
build and it's like yours and personal and you know kind of it's a different feeling that I think
that you can't yeah there's all kinds of factors involved it's like do you want to be able to get
into something right now yeah and and fucking join the party or do you want to like have to save up
your pennies and and and buy this clapped out fucking bike and then and then build it you know
up to to where you want it to be and it's going to take the six or eight months or however long
it's going to take to build you know that you're not going to be able to do anything yeah you know
well like you said it's like the it's the second bike thing so your first time duty you got the credit
and you can go there and you know sign the name drop a deposit roll out and be at bike night that
night yeah 100 you can't beat that or if you're just a dude like hey you know what I want to build a
bike but also new road gladness tits I kind of just want to have that just as a you know me and
the wife or if I just need to go around like make sense you know much happier in the back of that
road that you in the back of the benefits for sure my wife is just happier in the car all in all
together so that happens too yeah I think it's um you know again it's really important that Harley
doesn't take their finger off the cultural pole pulse um and you know I feel like a lot of things
they've been doing like I've actually heard from a lot of dealerships that they the last CEO was
really not dealership centric like he really caused a lot of problems for a lot of dealerships to
try to like do what they need to do and I think the new CEO is more dealership pro dealership I
think like really trying to get them back on their feet and help and I think that's why they're
all very optimistic about the new CEO um I just hope that they don't like I haven't met them yet
and I you know other than like the same people that you guys know that the mats and the tailors and
those that's really all I know so I just hope that they don't pull the plug on the what they built
since 2018 with working with the actual people involved in not just youtubers yeah the only
way I think they're going to survive is they just got to keep supporting the people that are
supporting them yeah you know the the blue collar guy or the the whoever goes to the born freeze and
the party at the pans or or the Harley-Davidson bike night or yeah or whatever you know you support
those people the hog chapter yeah you don't you don't try to jump into any other bullshit out there
you support the people that are constantly going to be there for you and supporting your brand and
giving you money and and touring the country on your product you know who gives a fuck about anybody
else to fuck the one or two percent people out there that you're trying to target that are never
going to fucking own your motorcycle stick to stick to your base keep your base happy and they're
going to keep you happy that's that's typical like boardroom corporate meeting type shit where they
wonder why that little gray area over there is not being tapped into and they want to resource
everything over there and take away from what they already have and that's like again to the point of
like not knowing culture like this Harley's not a brand the same way it's a product it is a product
it is a lot of other things but no other brand out there other than maybe jeep maybe jeep has
like this kind of a cultural like thing you know what i'm saying i mean it's not the same it's not
the same no you know i'm the little ducks or whatever the fuck they do yeah that's easy start
music fast like ducks be the red light i got a g baby i'll put it in my secret i don't know if you're
allowed to do your grand Cherokee though it has to be like a wrangler or something like that but yeah
it's just it's a unique thing i mean and think about the also i would say you know i wish harley
lean into the culture that really made they really cemented it into the call into the world which is
that 60s and 70s you know i'd like to have been doing that a lot more in the last half of years i
am disappointed they don't have anything from david man in the museum yeah yeah but it's not a
bullshit for sure you know walk into anybody shop in america that loves this shit you're gonna find
on the wall somewhere it's yeah right there yeah ghost rider that's a puzzle fuck that's sick
yeah so i don't know i love it all but
fucking is what it is i guess yeah and they gotta continue with it i think you know i know they had
some some changes and then the people that were marketing people and stuff like that but i know
like miranda did a lot of stuff that helped bring back that getting involved in yeah
you know a lot of stuff which like party to pin i think and a lot of those types of things and i'm
hoping that uh some of the like taylor taylor and some of the other ones that were still there
are able to keep that going they allowed them to keep that going because again i think that is a
massive a massive thing just connecting the you know the big motor company to all of us little
yeah hasn't stopped here doing all this shit it it shortens that that gap because you can go you
go to all these events and yes harley is a brand sponsoring there but also you have people from
harley davidson there it's not like oh yeah we threw a couple bucks to to and let up with the logo
on it like you have people from yeah harley there and you're mingling with the same the these people
that work at the motor company and you know it's yeah it's it's massive i think it's the same thing
is like you know from getting getting bike builders together as well and like we're all the same
fucking people yeah we're all the same people so we just we need to to cohesively just be on the
same plane and nobody's fucking better than anybody else and we're all here to do the same
shit that we all need to work together we support each other yeah i understand that they're a massive
machine it takes more for them to be able to support and do things but yeah again i you know
maranda was a huge part of like connecting a lot like a lot of the builders that you know hadn't
really had an opportunity to do um you know the born free build you know things like that just
yeah bringing people together in great ways and find ways to do shit you know it she did a lot and
i mean it seems like taylor and uh and madden are all still like you know carrying her ethos in the
brand and whatnot and i think for people out there that don't know about like because if you watch
these youtubers that sit in their garage and they just like bitch about whatever you know chat gpt
write up of whatever the quartered four earnings are that's like clickbait shit yeah it is but like
they they they harp on like ideas or things that are being said but they're it's just like
it's just like creating more negative things that aren't really it's not that big of a it's
i'm gonna say it's that big of a deal it doesn't matter to us you know like it's also not a
conversation it's just that they continue like got you shit yeah yeah but i also don't like i just
don't want them to like shit on all these people that actually have done a lot of great things for
this this culture and the brand because they might not be tuned into that they might be looking at
just their hog chapter stuff or whatever the case may be and you know it's just unfortunate but you
know i don't know i just i love the brand i i fucking i'm stoked to be able to work with them
finally uh i don't want to see the progress that's been made over the last 78 years now uh
don't end the win for some new ideas and be alienated again from this brand that's like you
know we've all been working around it would be nice if it balanced out a little bit because
it's been almost 10 years since the first time that we worked with hardly and there's been three
or four guard changes since then it's like how do you continue that's been the hardest thing is like
how do you continue the relationship like this last you know the current individuals that are there
have been probably the longest yeah um so you know we have a good relationship with them but then
would they go away or if they go away or if they don't know that they're able to maintain and
everything works out and i think it's on both sides of people you know sometimes the voter company just
when you see yo comes in she just happened whatever like and they don't care they don't
understand what these people the the reasons people put down the groundwork and the relationships
that they have and they just clean house and start over and also i think it has to do with
those individuals they get tired of dealing with this big corporate machine always being in the way
and then they they leave so you know maybe some some uh balance over there as well so we can we
can continue these relationships yeah with new people coming in they may or may not even know
much about the culture either yeah and they don't know who the players are or who they
should shine a spotlight on and will shine a spotlight on random people that you know sometimes
the people that are really good at talking are not the ones you need to have in there running the
show yeah it just it influence her doesn't mean that you you know if you have any substance within
the culture yeah like look for people that have substance that have something to contribute
they're continually trying to better the the life better the industry you know not just people
that are that are hot at the moment yeah i agree well guys you're ready i'm hungry are you still
awake oh why do we as soon as i get some dirants in the bourbon
okay did you keep some of that money or all that it's our turn buddy they took me to
Durant a couple years ago and i said i got stakes when they come to texas but i was gonna take them
to texas roadhouse so you're gonna go by yourself all right guys i appreciate everything and uh let
me hang out here i'll dig in the way it's fun watching them kick over a bike you did a lot
better than i did i was i thought i was gonna have to help you for a minute i was like
i was like in my head i'm like wait i want to see because you've been doing this longer than i have
i was like fucking fucking popped off real quick god damn so no that's awesome all right cool thanks
guys yeah i want to thank you guys for listening and i want to apologize once again for not getting
the audio recorded correctly and doing a better job of that whole side of the podcast i apologize
but hopefully if you did listen to this point then you got some good insight from it it was
good catching up with big chris and justin really enjoyed my time in phoenix with them and can't
thank them enough for that got a lot of cool stuff coming from those guys so follow them on the
gram and um you know stay up with what they got going on guys if you enjoy these podcasts please
don't hesitate to check out our sponsors in the description below and if you want to support the
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our patreon which is also a link down in the description below we got a good one coming
for you guys next week we got the boys from thrash and coming on so you know till then you
guys have a good one and we'll see you then all right peace
About this episode
FXR Division #469 swings between culture and wrenching: the hosts kick off with the “M8 FXR craze” and Harley/Indian chatter, then zoom into why FXRs become “forever bikes” through baseline refreshes, not quick fixes. They break down how an “affordable” FXR build turns into real spending, and why steering stability, correct hardware, and careful fitment matter. The conversation also covers tasteful customization, tuning with Thundermax, and how brand lifestyle, sponsorship, and events keep the scene alive.
Big Chris & Justin are two driving forces behind FXR-Division, and in today's episode we're talking the M8-FXR craze and catching up on the past few years of pumping out amazing motorcycles!
