Just finished installing the Cycle House soft tail kit on my X, actually it's about the 10th time I put it on because I kept missing little things or not mounting something correctly so I had to disassemble and re-install.
First, for anyone else on this board who maybe thinking of this mod you should know that the kit will have no instructions, guidelines, or helpful hints included with it in any form. With that said, I would like to thank Big Joe, Hal, and Lamont who all answered my questions in regards to what exactly I was supposed to be removing, relocating, and installing in what fashion.
A couple of things that would have been nice to know going in are:
1) You will remove and discard your radiator res. The front of the shocks and your rectifier mount will take the place it used to be. I only got to ride for about 25 minutes, but my bike is still puking antifreeze out the hose at this point. I am hopeful it will stop before the rad is running out of coolant, but so far this is an unanswered question I have.
2) Oil filter access will be effected as near as I can tell. The front shock mount replaces the stock engine mounts and ends up sitting pretty close to the oil filter. I thought I read somewhere that with this kit it was take one bolt out and the whole front drops away for filter access, but I must have been mistaken or mounted mine incorrectly.
3) This will require complete removal or your swing arm. Plan on it.
I was a little paranoid that it was going to raise my bike up from the 11" Progressives that I had on it prior, so I set the initial ride height as low as I could. This ended up dropping the rear about another inch. Very low. Too low. I will be raising it up ASAP.
I went with the standard soft tail shocks for $199 before committing the $$$ to an air ride kit from Kewl Metal just to see how the kit was. I am pretty sure you can adjust the preload on these shocks, but haven't looked into the procedure just yet though I need to. The ride is too soft and combined with the lowered ride I scraped some metal a couple of times going in a straight line.
Overall the parts included in the kit are of very high quality and once I got everything where it was supposed to go it fit very well. It is more of a project then I initially thought it was going to be, but so are many things.
Anyway, if anyone else tackles this, please feel free to contact me as I think I did everything back wards the first attempt so I can tell you exactly what not to do
Thanks again to Big Joe, Hal, and Lamont. By the way guys, the rad will stop puking won't it :?:
First, for anyone else on this board who maybe thinking of this mod you should know that the kit will have no instructions, guidelines, or helpful hints included with it in any form. With that said, I would like to thank Big Joe, Hal, and Lamont who all answered my questions in regards to what exactly I was supposed to be removing, relocating, and installing in what fashion.
A couple of things that would have been nice to know going in are:
1) You will remove and discard your radiator res. The front of the shocks and your rectifier mount will take the place it used to be. I only got to ride for about 25 minutes, but my bike is still puking antifreeze out the hose at this point. I am hopeful it will stop before the rad is running out of coolant, but so far this is an unanswered question I have.
2) Oil filter access will be effected as near as I can tell. The front shock mount replaces the stock engine mounts and ends up sitting pretty close to the oil filter. I thought I read somewhere that with this kit it was take one bolt out and the whole front drops away for filter access, but I must have been mistaken or mounted mine incorrectly.
3) This will require complete removal or your swing arm. Plan on it.
I was a little paranoid that it was going to raise my bike up from the 11" Progressives that I had on it prior, so I set the initial ride height as low as I could. This ended up dropping the rear about another inch. Very low. Too low. I will be raising it up ASAP.
I went with the standard soft tail shocks for $199 before committing the $$$ to an air ride kit from Kewl Metal just to see how the kit was. I am pretty sure you can adjust the preload on these shocks, but haven't looked into the procedure just yet though I need to. The ride is too soft and combined with the lowered ride I scraped some metal a couple of times going in a straight line.
Overall the parts included in the kit are of very high quality and once I got everything where it was supposed to go it fit very well. It is more of a project then I initially thought it was going to be, but so are many things.
Anyway, if anyone else tackles this, please feel free to contact me as I think I did everything back wards the first attempt so I can tell you exactly what not to do
Thanks again to Big Joe, Hal, and Lamont. By the way guys, the rad will stop puking won't it :?:
