Looking for some help and ideas

I just bought a 97 Tourer a few months ago after building a few harleys, the last one a fatboy for my wife and they are getting boring for me, so I bought this low mileage Valk and want to build it to suit my vision. Having found your site, I thought that you folks might be able to give me some direction to where I can purchase some of the parts for projects that are floating in my head.
 
Standard stuff I can find, but a raked triple tree to begin the front end stretch, a new front fender to fit the 220 front tire. I've seen pix of other people's customs, s konwing what those folks have done woiuld save me much time and cash.

What I'm also looking for is someone to cut some rear end gears for me. I've read about the supercharger, the belly tank for stretching fuel stops and the 'OVERDRIVE' gear set which only effects 4th and 5th gears, but you have to drop and disassemble the engine to make the swap. One thousand bucks for the gearset and plus the cost of installation is too pricey for saving a few dollars on fuel. For my riding style and experience, the entire gear ratios are too short, from first gear all the way out through 5th. What I want to do is to cut some new rear gears and lower the final drive ratio by 10-15% so that the motor is spinning 500-600 RPMs lower at highway speed which would stretch all the gears as well and would be a whole lot less work, money and time than the gearbox rebuild.
 
There are plenty of other things floating around in my head, but some help with these first few would be excellent if any of you have any ideas.
 
Thanks in advance.

[Raymond in Houma]

Just swap out the rear gear with something else like you can with a mid 80's 750/700 Honda Sabre and install them (with other  work) on V65 Sabre's and Gagnas... You go from a 3.11 gear to a 3.40 gear.... And the V65's have a six (6) speed trans... 5th & 6th gear are overdrives....

[PAValk]

As far as a raked triple tree you might want to call Joe at Kewl Metal http://www.kewlmetal.com/. The Valk and VTX1800 front ends are very similar so he can tell you whether it would work, He has a 3 degree and 6 degree I believe.

Good luck.

[Cycho]

Here is your raked tripple tree and some other good stuff.

http://www.xtremerevolution.com/Store/showproduct.aspx?siteid=6&productid=435

Dan

Thanks for the triple tree info. I found one locally yesterday from a trike conversion shop that has stopped triking Valkyries. What I want to do with the rear end gear ratio thing is to go the other way, ie., go from a 3:11 to a 2:40 for example. Any ideas would be helpful.

thanks again

Hello all... new to the board.  

Just bought a 2000 Valk standard.  

I was also wondering about gearing up the rear end.  I basically have the same question.  Is there anything that can be done to gear up the rear end a little without having to do the overdrive transmission?

[Raymond in Houma]

Originally posted by CajunRider
Hello all... new to the board.  

Just bought a 2000 Valk standard.  

I was also wondering about gearing up the rear end.  I basically have the same question.  Is there anything that can be done to gear up the rear end a little without having to do the overdrive transmission?

No Really...........But, with enought money anything can happen....

Originally posted by Raymond in Houma
No Really...........But, with enought money anything can happen....

I love a shaft drive bike, but this is the biggest problem with them.  

On my KLR, I simply changed the front sproket for $15.  

[Cycho]

I believe the rear gear ratio is 2.833 to one.  All the Wings use the same ratio from 1980 up to 2000.  The 1800 Wing has a different gear but I don't think there is enough difference to make that job worth while.
  Bigger tire?

Dan

The biggest tire I hear of people using is a 205/65-16 car tire.  I think this causes a 200+/- rpm drop at speed???  

The only way I can see of fixing this is the La-Monster overdrive transmission.

But at $1000 for parts and $1000 in labor to rebuild the trans... OUCH!!!

[Valker]

About the only reason I can see to switch ratios is to save on fuel. If you dropped ratios and got an extra 30% better gas mileage (unlikely-I'd guess a 10% boost) it would only save about $3 per tank of gas you ran through it. At that rate, it would take approximately 100-150 tanks of gas (on the highway only as there would be no savings at speeds below about 50 mph) it should pay for itself in about 16,ooo highway miles if it cost about $400. If my 10% number is closer to right, it would take closer to 50,000 miles to get that payback. If you spend the $2000 for the overdrive ratios in the transmission, that would be about a 200,000 miles payback....
For those numbers, I think I will just fill mine and ride. My mileage averages about 32-33 in mixed riding when I ride 75-85 on the road. If I drop my speeds to about 60 mph, I get low to mid 40s. If I stay in the mountains and ride at 45-55 mph, I get high 40s to low 50s.
Then again, if I wanted to save gas, I'd ride my Ninja more since I have to really ride HARD to get under 65 mpg on that one. Gentle mountain riding gets me the mid to high 90s.

[Pistolchamp]

I used to whine for taller gearing also, then finally decided that the excellent performance, highway passing capabilities and silent engine was just fine the way it is.

I rode over 200 miles Saturday to a PGR funeral and both of my riding companions (one on a Victory and another on a Harley Softtail) were whining about sore butts, buzzy hands and feet and going deaf... not me, happy as a pig in mud, no pain in the butt, hands, feet or ears.

You'll soon find that wonderfully quiet engine just isn't a problem at highway speeds and by-the-way we were blasting at 80-85 through the Arkansas part of the trip as it was only 32 degrees and we wanted to get home.

Earlier in the day we had hooked up with some Louisiand Highway Patrol officers going to the same funeral and they were roaring up Interstate 20 at 105+ and I had NO problem running with them... the Victory was okay too, but, the Harley simply could not go that fast so we had to slow down so he could catch up... pitiful!

There are a few reasons I'd like to do the trans mod.  

1) Better mileage means 200+ miles on a tank if running at 55mph or above for the most part.  (At least that's what they claim at La-Monster)

2) Low rpm just sounds cool  (I love the way 5th gear sounds when cruzin at 40 mph.)

3) Lower rpm MAY (and I mean MAY... there's no proof) extend engine life by 10-20%... 200K miles easily before any work is needed.  (But it doesn't cover anything else... JUST the engine.)

I just can't get past that $2000 price tag being I only spent $7500 to buy the bike.  25% more cost for a "cool" sound???  

I can't figure out why Honda put a non-overdrive transmission on an engine that has so much extra torque... especially since you get most of that torque at only 2000 rpm.

By the way... the fact that I can idle in 5th gear (no gas applied at all)... shows that the bike has plenty of torque for a 6th gear overdrive... or able to space out the gears a little more for a 5th gear overdrive.

In any case... I'm just ranting...

I still love the bike as is.  

[Pistolchamp]

If you want to go over 200 miles on a tank of gas get the extra fuel tank that goes under the frame or go to http://www.scootertrailer.net and check out the auxiliary fuel tank that fits on the luggage rack.  That's my company, or it was 'til I sold it last week due to health problems of my own.  That's my bike in the pics and it goes easily 240 miles or a bit more with the auxiliary tank.

The engine will last for over 200,000 miles geared like it is... change the oil and it will go and go.

I happen to agree that it sounds nice at lower rpm... I run through the local park at 15 mph in 5th gear and love the sound of it.

None of us know why Honda does anything... including discontinuing the Valkyrie... some things just don't make sense... or maybe I mean cents.