I had gathered a few things to install on my Road Glide Ultra (JDsRoad).  Two of the items involved wiring power so I decided to use the Accessory switch connector under the saddle to either directly power or trigger the power for them.  This connector has a ground pin and two 12V power pins.  To get 12V power at either pin requires the ignition to be in either the on or the accessory position.  One of the power pins also goes through the Accessory switch that is to the right of the cruise control switch.  I needed to route wiring from the area under the saddle to the front of the bike.  That required removing the fuel tank so I could run them with all the stock wiring in the wiring tunnel under the tank.

I purchased a GPS mount from IronAcesSpeedshop.com. I already had a Garmin Zumo 550 that I use on Brutus, my R1200GS.  I picked up another Zumo mount that I would use on JDsRoad.  The instructions were very complete and there was a template provided for drilling the holes in the instrument cluster. 

With the template in place a center punch was used to scribe the hole positions.  A pilot hole is drilled with a 3/32” drill bit and the final hole is drilled with a 5/32” drill bit .

The instructions say to remove the gauges from the bike but I just did the mod in place.   I purchased the Tall Boy version of the Iron Aces GPS Mount.  It is a nicely crafted piece of aluminum.  It seemed like a shame to cover it up with an ugly GPS mount but such is life. 

The kit came with a couple different sized spacers to allow any type of device mount to clear the lip of the gauge bezel.   The shorter spacers were all that was needed for the Zumo 550 mount.  I installed the Zumo mount and routed the power lead back to the battery area.   I wired the GPS directly to the power pin that is not switched by the Accessory switch so the GPS would be powered as soon as the ignition was turned on.

I picked up a set of brand new brake caliper mounted Motolights on eBay. 

It was originally purchased to be installed on a BMW.  Before I bid on them I checked with Motolight to see what I would need to install them on a 2012 Road Glide. 

It turns out that all I need was two spacers and two caliper bolts that would cost less than $20.  

The Motolight kit comes with a wiring loom, 12V relay, fuse and a switch that can be mounted on the bike. 

I didn’t need the switch so I cut the switch connector  off and wired the lead that went to the relay trigger to the power pin that is switched by the Accessory switch.  

That way I could turn the Motolights off when starting  the bike or when the bike is not running for some reason and I want to leave the ignition or accessory power on.   

I got so intent on the installation that I didn’t take a lot of pictures along the way.  

I pretty much had completed the installation, all the wire routing and wiring the accessory power plug before I thought about pictures again.

Next up was a set of locks and liners for the upper fairing glove boxes.  I had seen some positive reviews about  a kit from eGlideGoodies.com from several different forums.

I ordered the GL-1 lock kit and the GBL-3 liners.  Again I was provided with a good set of instructions.  I think they were for an earlier model because they said the doors could be taken off by removing the hinge screws.  Mine do not have hinge screws unless they are in the inside of the fairing.  

They also refer to reinforcing ribs on the under side of the doors which again mine do not have. 

But they also said the installation could be done in place which is what I did.

A template would have been nice but otherwise things went pretty well. 

The last thing that went on was the Sancho Wings.  I got a really good deal on RoadGlide.org.  Sancho is a supporting vendor and I got a set of smoked wings for about half price.  They are supposed to have some kind of blemish but I couldn’t see what it was.  They went on in about 15 minutes so the installation was easy.  I got out and rode about a hundred miles on Saturday.  I can honestly say that the Sancho Wings reduced some of the helmet buffeting I was still getting after I installed the Cee Glide windshield.  The Cee Glide helped a lot when compared to the stock shield.  The Sancho Wings just put the icing on the cake.

All the picture taken during this mod session can be viewed HERE.

I didn’t write up an article at the time but the first changes I made to JDsRoad was to install:

A Cee Bailey’s Cee Glide windshield in Light Gray,

Custom Dynamics LED smoked front turn signals,

Custom Dynamics smoked rear turn signals and brake light with the Street Magic Triple Play run/brake/turn module,

and Kuryakyn Magnum Plus mirrors.

I took pictures after this mod session and they can be viewed HERE.

I took the opportunity to snap some pictures with my Nikon D70s. 

Our yard did not escape totally unscathed.  We have a small long needle pine that the top broke out of during an ice storm almost ten years ago.   What little that had recovered broke off last night.  We will probably need to take it out now.

We have been pretty luck here with only about five inches of snow accumulation.  Other areas have gotten well over a foot with very low temperature and high winds drifting snow even higher. 

The temperature has been steady here at 28 degrees F. and it has rained light to moderately for over ten hours.  We have about 1/2” or more of ice covering everything.  A couple hours ago it started snowing again.

All the pictures  that were taken can be viewed in a gallery located HERE.

It was a cool day with a high of about 40F.   I was checking my e-mail when I looked up and all I could see was red sky out the window.   So I grabbed the camera and went out to the back deck.

The sunset pictures from this evening can be viewed in THIS GALLERY.

 I purchased a set of Bub 7 Stealth Slip-on Mufflers for JDsRoad, my 2012 Road Glide Ultra, back in early October.  Unfortunately they were in the middle of a redesign of the muffler tips so they were not immediately available. 

Later that month I decided to upgrade my shocks and after some research decided to go with a set of Ohlins model #3-#4 from MotorcycleMetal.com.  Howard Messner was extremely helpful in helping me determine what length to order and sent me installation and setup document via e-mail.  The Ohlins were delivered long before the Stealths were shipped.  I’ve seen Ohlins on BMWs so I knew they would be well built and high quality.  I wasn’t disappointed with these when I examined them.

I have been recovering from back problems so I decided to wait until the Stealths showed up and install both at the same time.   In the interim I ordered some smaller stuff for some other modifications I wanted to do.  But those will need to wait a bit to be installed.

The Stealths arrived late on January 4th so I got  set up to start the installation the next day.  I moved the bike in position and set up my Eazy Rizer Big Blue Lift.

The next morning I raised the bike on the lift and gathered parts and instructions.   I removed the saddle bags and the saddle to get to the areas I would need access.  To remove the stock mufflers I needed a 1/2” socket for the muffler hanger bolts and a 9/16” socket for the muffler clamps.  The muffler on the left side pulled off easily but the right side took considerably more wiggling and tugging.   The catalytic converter is just in front of the right side  muffler clamp so the right side gets a lot more heat .   This left a pretty much wide open work space to remove the OEM air shocks and to install the new Ohlins.

I removed the air lines from the compression fittings on both  shocks.  I used an allen socket to remove the air valve and it’s mounting bracket from the left side fender rail then reinstalled and torqued (40-50 in-lbs) the allen bolt.  I fished the air lines out from the area under the saddle and put them aside. 

A breaker bar and 3/4” socket made quick work of loosening the two shock mounting bolts on both sides.  It only took about five minutes to remove the air shock system. 

Following the instructions provided by Howard I inserted a metric to SAE converter sleeve into the lower bolt hole of the right shock and inserted the mounting bolt and washer.  I held the shock in place and tightened the lower bolt until it was snug.  I rotated the shock so the upper bolt hole aligned with the upper mounting hole.  I held it position without applying inward force to see how much space there would be between the shock head and the upper shock mount.  They were nearly perfectly mated so I didn’t need any of the shim washers that were provided with the Ohlins shocks.  I installed  the upper metric to SAE converter sleeve, mounting bolt and washer.  The bolt was just tightened finger tight.

I followed the same procedure on the left side but there was a gap remaining between the shock head and the upper shock mount.  One shim washer  wasn’t quite enough but two would have been too much.  The remaining gap with one shim held in place was less than half the width of a shim washer so I only used one.  I applied a little medium thread lock on the top bolt before installing it finger tight.  I then worked my way back through the other three bolts and did the same thing before applying torque (35-40 ft-lbs) to all of them.

I should note that these shocks are adjustable in length.  The length can be set from 13 7/32”to 13 21/32”.  The stock shocks are 13” in length.  The shocks were installed at their minimum length of 13 7/32”.  I was a little concerned that the larger diameter mufflers and correctly configured shocks might create a clearance problem in cornering and other situations.  Many people order the Ohlins #3-#3 from MortorcycleMetal and the rear of the bike will be a little lower than stock.  If I do have any issues I can still raise the height by as much as 14/32”.

I unpacked the Stealth mufflers.  They were packed so well I don’t think FedEx could have damaged them in shipment.   I  had ordered the chrome  mufflers with black tips so I was eager to see how they looked.  I initially ordered  chrome tips but the chrome tip models wouldn’t start shipping for another two or more weeks.  I had seen a set of Bub 7 shocks with black tips and I liked that look too so I decided to change my order to get them sooner. 

There were very solid feeling but didn’t weight as much as the stock shocks.  The workmanship, fit and finish all looked excellent.  I read through the instructions but of course there wasn’t much to it other then getting the torque values right.  About the only decision to make is if you want to mount the muffler with the tips slash up  or slash down.  I went with the slash down so the muffler tips were at the same angle as the back of the saddlebags.  

The OEM mufflers have a bracket welded to the them as spacers for the muffler hanger on the bike.  The Stealth mufflers have flush mounted nuts and they use machined chrome spacers between the muffler hanger and the muffler.  It all gets buried under the saddlebags but it is still a nice touch.  They have nice big exhaust holes at the back but if you look further inside you can see the baffle system.  I guess I won’t need to be as fussy about carbon build up as I would if they were chrome.

There were some differences between the recommended torque values for the muffler hanger bolts and the exhaust clamps.  The HD service manual calls out 96-144 in-lbs and 38-43 ft-lbs.  The Bub instructions were 13-15 ft-lbs (144-180 in-lbs) and 45-60 ft-lbs.  I used the Bub numbers because they should know best what kind of torque their mufflers are designed for.

I measured the distance between the outside flats of the top and bottom bolt heads on the right shock.  This measurement is to establish a baseline fully extended (unloaded) suspension length for the pre-load adjustment that I needed to do.  I used a 24” caliper that I purchased from Harbor Freight for $9.99 .  My measurement was  356.4 mm.

I put the saddle back on and lowered the bike to the ground.  Even with a little difficulty removing the right muffler the installation didn’t take much more than an hour. 

I  have an Eazy Rizer Bike Grab Wheel Chock that I used to hold the bike upright.  The fully loaded sag is recommended to be set at one third of the total stroke length of the suspension.   The stroke length of the Ohlins I have is 77 mm.  One third of 77 mm is approximately 25.66 mm.  So my target fully loaded (sag) length would be my unloaded length minus 25.66 mm or approximately 330.74 mm.  So I set my caliper to this length.

I have saddlebag liners so it was easy to put all the crap I normally drag around with me in the trunk.  I sat on the bike and measured the length.  The shocks were compressed too far so I increased the spring pre-load on both shocks by the same number of turns.  I repeated this process until the fully loaded sag length was correct.

The weather was nice this weekend so I was able to ride about 220 miles.  I am very pleased with both the Ohlins and the Stealths. 

The Ohlins feel great. Even without playing with the damping controls I have a much smoother and more comfortable ride over a variety of road conditions.  They are not jumping , topping or bottoming out on rough road or potholes.  If they can be tuned better than they are now I will be really impressed.  Kudos to Howard for providing a great product along with excellent customer service.

The Bub 7 Stealth mufflers are also keepers.  I was looking for better sound, but not necessarily greater volume, along with some modest performance improvement.  This will be one of my touring machines and I would just as soon minimize my sound induced headaches.

The exhaust tone is deeper than stock.  It doesn’t have what I considered to be the tinny sound of the stock mufflers.   They are a low rumble at idle and sound off nicely under hard throttle but not enough to be a discomfort to my ears.  At cruising  speeds they are a deep tone only slightly noticeable above the wind and engine noise.  I think they sound particular nice when decelerating at lower speeds and coming to a stop.  They also thunder up tunnels and underpasses adequately enough for me.  If they are significantly louder than the stock mufflers the lower exhaust tone more than makes up for it.  The seat of the pants seemed to detect some mild mid to high RPM improvement so they seem to perform as advertized. 

I’m sure they would be dissed by the Thunderheader, drag pipe or other ear splitting exhaust system crowd and probably  others.  If I want to risk a headache I will take JDsHog out and listen to my 2:1 Supertrap SuperMeg.  Yes I know that they are pretty tame relative to some, but to each their own.  Harleys are the Burger King of motorcycles and I can have it my way.    

All the pictures I took during the installations can be seen HERE.

FU was the first person in line when the chow bell rang,  Not surprisingly he was first for seconds as well.   I ended up at spot a little less conspicuous.  Pretty much in the middle of the line  in spite of my picture taking activities.  There was plenty to go around though I think that a few folks who arrived late missed out on the mashed  potatoes and possible the cranberry sauce.  There was more desserts than we could eat.  My wife and I ended up taking home one of the two pumpkin pies that we brought.

After everyone had eaten, but before we had an opportunity to fall asleep , everyone gathered for the random gift exchange.  We all drew a number and the unwrapping and gift stealing began.  Though I wasn’t first in line for dinner I did have the highest number in the gift exchange.    I had a lot of nice things to choose from.  I ended up stealing a gift certificate for Anthony’s  Restaurant that Iceman had in his possession.  He ended up getting it after FU stole his carved wooden buffalo.  You know how crazy gift exchange games can get.  I did receive an appropriate amount of boos and razzing.  Why would I want to waste what is possibly the only time I will ever be the last person to pick?  My daddy didn’t raise any dummies.    The hilarious thing that happened is that there was still the last gift on the table that Iceman would get.  Inside of it was another gift certificate to Anthony’s Restaurant. 

After the gift exchange a jolly fellow in red arrived, direct from an engagement at the North Pole.  He spread joy and cheer and had a little gift for everyone.  He made a real impression on the youngest person at the party. 

Many thanks to Wild Duck and Becky for hosting the party. 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

All the pictures I took at the party can be viewed HERE.