On your mark.. Get set..

 What really get's us going? Is it going out to the garage to see that sinister two wheeled machine waiting to be throttled? Or is it putting on your Harley Davidson tshirt and riding to the local bar, sporting your skid lid with the ever so popular DILLIGAF sticker, hoping you'll find a bunch of other toads there wearing the same damn thing (hopefully not)? Or is it the obvious for the FXR sickness.. getting on your FXR hoping you'll get to smoke some yuppie at the light straddling a chromed out Harley garage ornament. Yep thats it!

 But then comes the next question, does the ol' girl have it in her to beat that 2012 ,103 cubic inch Christmas tree idling next to me? Then reality sets in, probably not. I could run the shit out of this Shovel or Evo and hope it pulls through and if lucks on my side, my ego won't be crushed when that 103 walks past me. What do I do? I love this FXR to death and my Evo IS bullet proof, but that damn CEO next to me just has a bigger wallet. Screw that dude! I'm running it! Who knows the outcome? Chances are, if your like me, you'll run it, but not too hard for fear you might get dusted. The solution...

                                                                 MORE MOTOR!!!


What should I do? Save up my lunch money and buy a CAM? Ask my wife for an early birthday and Christmas gift and see if she'll buy me an exhaust?

Answer: You begin the painstaking process of doing your homework, talking to educated buddies that have built motors and searching PLENTY of motor forums. That's when you realize "Damn this engine thing is a bit more complicated than I thought". Adding parts to a motor or building a motor isn't as easy as just going to the accessory catalog and picking out which horsepower level to run with. I found I was getting different advice from each person I talked to. One person would say I should run an Ev 51 Cam another would say I should run an EV 27 Cam.  A lot of guys recommended the Crane ignition, and one dude swore they were junk! That same guy recommended a TwinTech ignition, but another would say they were cheap.. You need face reality when building a motor.. someone out there is always going to have a bigger and faster motor than you! So what next? For me I had to decide the following:

1. Do I plan on making a hot rod or sleeper that I'll ride hard every once in a while?
2. Do I want longevity in my motor or just raw power?
3. WHAT LEVEL CAM TO USE?
4. Bare FXR, FXRP, FXRT or Mad Max?

My answer "Yes".. Ha! So to cut to the chase heres where my FXR stood upon purchasing it:

• Stock 80 inch EVo
• Drag Pipes
• S&S Super G carb
• Thunder Jet

I had a small accident in February where I almost totaled it, and in repair I replaced those horrid drag pipes with a Thunderheader!!! Man, I can't say enough about how much that bad ass Thunderheader woke up that sleeping Evo! If you've got an Evo, do yourself a favor and put a Thunderheader on it, you WILL TOTALLY NOTICE IT!!

I am happy to say that the FXR is currently in tear down status and awaiting to take on Phoenix status! Here's where my FXR will stand in a few days:

• Branch stage 4 heads
• Crane Hi-4e single fire ignition
• New pistons and cylinders
• Andrews EV 35 Cam
• Screamin Eagle pushrods

I decided to use the mentioned parts because truthfully, I just had to decide.. Sure I could have used a set of paired Branch pistons with my Branch heads, but then I would have had to have my cylinders board. I could've used an Andrews EV 51 cam, but whose to say I would have really ran my motor hard enough to appreciate when the power came on.. This is the FXR sickness!! It never ends.

So if I happen across that same toad on I-95 sporting his 2012 satin black, 103 inch Fat Boy with a forced air induction system on his fuel injected Twin Cam (retard!) and neon orange Screaming Eagle plug wires and he happens to see me coming up on his left, I might just give him a run for his money with my old ass 1989 stock looking slow 80 inch motor! Ha! 

FXR Evolution.. get with the sickness-      GO!!!