The '84 FXR

          Here's an overall shot of the FXR as it appears at the moment. It'll stay pretty much like this until this winter, when I'll pull all of it apart for a complete cleaning, molding, repainting and reassembly. The engine will be pulled apart down to the cases, and checked; and the gearbox needs some attention  —  I suspect the spacers need to be replaced, since it's having trouble shifting into fifth at more than 3,000 RPM.

          This view gives you a good look at the Harley-Davidson saddle bags, which (as I mention elsewhere) I do find very well made. They need some decoration, though; maybe some studs, maybe some chain, or something else to relieve all that plain black leather.

          I really dislike those front fork lower unit reflectors, too  —  and this winter, they are getting ground off; the lower units will be polished, but not chromed. (Yes, I like polished aluminum.) (smiling)

          From the right side, you can get a good look at the Alley Custom air cleaner setup, the CCI pipe set, and again the Harley bags. I'm pretty happy with how the engine area is looking now  —  but the tank/seat intersection needs some work! Notice that ugly sort of "bump" in the upper line, where the seat meets the tank.

          Maybe part of the answer might be a stretched tank; there are vendors who make extensions for the tanks, which require only welding on and grinding smooth. That would smooth out the line from the front of the tank, to the lowest part of the seat, and make it a nice, compound curve.

          Of course, the exact amount of stretch and the exact angle of stretch will have to wait until a new seat comes in  —  once it's here, I can put it on, and do mock-up studies to find just the right tank extension curves.

          Another area that looks awkward is the series of angles formed by the pullback bars, the windshield, and the front forks  —  they're all going in different directions. (laughing) Normally, I'd want the windshield line to follow the front fork angle; but on this bike that isn't going to happen. So I think what I'll do is pull it into the center of the angle formed by the forks and the lower section of the handlebars. This may be another area where I'll have to do some mockup work in order to find the "right" angle (no pun intended!) for best visual appeal.

          Which leads me to a point that I'll probably write about, later  —  doing mock-ups when you need to see what you want to do. I strongly recommend doing a mockup whenever you aren't exactly sure what you want to do. It will save endless hours of reworking your bike. In the case of this machine, I had a clear idea from the start, about what I wanted; but I'm still going to do at least one mock-up because I'm not sure about the tank/seat area.