Tech

Being part of the Hamsters for 30+ years and building custom bikes, I never thought of owning a Trike. One night 10 years ago, as we were admiring all the custom one-of-a-kind bikes at Sturgis, a buddy says to me, “You know what the next big thing is going to be……. Trikes”. I’m like what? […]

  Lil’ Ruby is what I have named her, but this came after I bought her from the original builder this Summer. You see, Lil’ Ruby started life as a 2002 Sportster that my son-in-law bought in 2015. He bought the bike from another young man who needed cash more than he needed a Sporty,

Okay, so here’s the confession. When I build bobbers or choppers, I try to keep everything simple and super reliable. For instance, electric start circuits, which involve starter relays, buttons, handlebar switches, you name it. Maybe Billy from Spyke came up with this system that eliminates almost everything. They are the shit for reliable, no

It all started in the center of an odd South Dakota winter, 2022 and a hunt for a running Knucklehead engine. I found myself talking to several knowledgeable brothers in the industry and the price for Knucklehead engines climbed spectacularly. Hell, shit, piss, way beyond spectacular. While, discussing some vintage parts with Steve Massicot at

DIFFERENT KINDS OF MOTORBIKE BATTERY REVIEW & BUYING GUIDE Editor’s Note: We found ourselves in the battery market again recently. We ran into a couple of issues. First, trying to fit a battery into an almost stock 1948 center oil tank. Lowbrow has an option, but it involved a very small anti-gravity lithium battery. Unfortunately,

A brother from Long Beach, California can’t leave his 1950 Chevy truck alone and somehow it involved a Sportster gas tank. On top of that he’s been helping other Sportster riders with their clutch lever pull problems. “I told a friend of mine,” Zack said, “I had his car (1952 Chevy Style line Deluxe), and

No matter how old we get, we keep daydreaming. It’s these hopeful visions of what’s possible that help fuel the proliferation of the barn find trend. So, let’s all close our eyes and ponder: What you would do if you opened that random garage door and found a 1928 first year of the Harley Flathead

  A garage requires different fire extinguishers for oil, electrical and chemical fires. What you see in an office may not be right “class” of fire extinguisher in your workshop. If you work with metals only, you are still of course using electrical lighting and electrical tools. Maybe even printed manuals! Similarly, if you store

Have you ever wondered what the difference between motorcycle and car tires is and why you can’t just use them interchangeably? Do you want to know more about them? When most people think about tires, they think about the rubber that sits underneath their car or motorcycle. They might not give a lot of thought

  The garage fridge is not a tool. It does not actively assist in the completion of a project. If anything, the cooler in the corner often conspires to defeat productivity. For me, recently, it did just the opposite. The faux-woodgrain insulated box doesn’t hold parts—it contains exactly what you think it does—and yet it

My grandson, Frank Ball Jr. and I made the run to Sturgis with a Kendon two-bike trailer, our 1928 Shovelhead and the 5-Ball Racing Crazy Horse powered mascot bike. Both quirky, flat-side tank bikes. We jammed out and rode around the rally and had a blast. Of course, he got the bug and had to

The sound…potato-potato, a rumble from within, these are all one in the same: this is Harley-Davidson. Whether young or old, once you have heard it, I believe, you will never forget it. Even more gripping is the emotion that “the sound” brings to anyone who has thrown a leg over the famous cycle and spent

    It’s easy to become complacent with shop safety, especially when the effects of letting your guard down are not always immediate. Fact is, working on cars and motorcycles can be dangerous. I was personally reminded of this truth a few weeks ago, when I put a coat of primer on my cleaned-up winter

    Looking back through photos on the computer, I have come torealize how much a man is influenced by the environment he allows himself to besubmerged into. I say this from my own experience as I am currently lookingback at the multi-faceted photo sharing sites and currently going through allthe pictures I have saved

BIKERNET BATTERY TENDER INVESTIGATION—How to use battery tenders? We are on the hunt. A friend kept his bike on a tender 24/7. But when he rode to his girl’s house and spent the night, the bike was dead in the morning. So, what’s the proper way to use a tender. Many folks recommend keeping their

          I get to ride all over the country and in all kinds of weather. I have made many changes to my 2009 FLHTC over the years and one of them was to install a Saddlemen Heated Seat. The seat was very comfortable and allowed me to ride more miles in a

  The garage is a strange place. Some projects you tackle with all the time in the world, and others are on a deadline tighter than ten-year-old denim. Anyone that has rushed to wrap up a project understands the stress and frustration that accompanies a time crunch. That’s why I decided to share some tips

I have 2019 Street Glide Special, I love the look of my cruiser and whenever I get a chance to add something that gives it that custom touch, I go for it. Well, Klock Werks has created a simple yet effective part to accent the vent in the Harley-Davidson 2014-2020 FLH “batwing” style fairing. And

Right in the middle of our move operation to South Dakota Jeremiah strips his rear belt of all its teeth. This is not the first time. I just checked all the forums and didn’t find anything conclusive. Is he too hard on his belt with hole-shots and excessive acceleration? Did he adjust the belt too

Recently in Hagerty News, Davin (that’s pronounced Dave-in) walked through the basics of cutting new threads in stock materials. That is all but necessary for fabricating new parts and pieces for a project, but what about threaded holes that already exist in parts you need to salvage? Then it’s time to talk about chasing threads.

The latest additive is ethanol, which — without getting into the political and environmental debates about its efficacy — is fine for use in fuel-injected vehicles that are run regularly and designed to use up to 10% ethanol (85% in flex-fuel vehicles). On the other hand, ethanol-oxygenated fuel is not so great for any vehicles

I have had my 2019 Harley-Davidson Street Glide for a little while now and the one thing I wanted to change was the sound of the audio. Since I bought the bike, I had my eye on upgrading the fairing and saddlebag lids with Harley’s flagship Stage II Boom Audio speakers and amps.   I upgraded

The unsung hero of the automotive world is the threaded fastener. Most people only think about the bolts and screws of their machines when they have to, when the components are stripped, seized, or broken off. That dismissive attitude, however, may cause these components to strip, seize, or break in the first place. For instance,

  I have had my 2019 Harley-Davidson Street Glide for a while now, and the one thing I wanted to change was the sound of the audio. Cruising around at city speeds the stock speaker system is not bad. But when cruising highway speeds, even all the way cranked up it, the road noise became