Hi Fellas,

Ever since I read Scouser's post on this forum in 2011 about the front end suspension modifcation on his 48 called the 'Oldman Conversion', I have wanted to do it. As I am a bigger dude I really felt my 48 was washy on the front end, hard braking the front end would dive and general riding made the forksnear bottom out.  Anyway I bought myself some Progressive springs and the Dyna Damper tubes as recommended. I have not had experience with disassembling forks so I got them fitted today and I gotta say it really is an amazing improvement.  I already have the XR caliper on so can now brake hard with confidence and the handling has improved outta sight.

Thanks for the great tip Scouser and Oldman.

I also got some HD drag bars fitted, love the new riding position. Also put on some Softail rear indicator stand offsas they are a bit smaller than the originals and now don't look like wings. Brings the indicators back in line with the bike rather than sitting ouside of the rear springs.

See ya.....

Got any pictures of the bike mate? i'm interested in seeing how the front end looks and how much higher it is..... Also do you have part numbers for the Softail rear indicator standoffs ? and pictures of those as well...

Regards - T1

Hey T1, The part# for the softail standoff is 69933-08. I will get some pics tomorrow and put them up.

cool, thanks mate.

T1

Here are some pics.... The pipes are a fairly new addition as well, Bassani Firesweep, awesome sound and quality.....got em from Walka at VPW.  Wouldn't mind tryin' out a different seat, maybe a LePera Bare Bones.....I don't think moddin' a Harley is ever a done deal, part of the enjoyment of owning one. 

 

 

Nice ride maachine. Hope to see you around town.

thanks for the pictures mate, i have the lepera barebones seat and love it, i have been looking into a springer seat......

With the front shockers, it looks to be the same height off the ground or is it just the pictures, Whats the difference in parts (length)??? are the lower fork sliders shorter ??

T1

No worries man. The original 48 dampers are 175mm and the Dyna dampers are 250mm. Even though there is a 75mm difference in the dampers I reckon the height of the forks is about 50mm extra. Not really noticeable to look at but very noticeable in rideability, much better ride, I am sure the Progressive springs have alot to do with it as well.

I ordered the dampers from the States and ended up with 4 pairs of dampers instead of 1 pair (don't ask). Anyway, if anyone is keen on doing this mod I will send you a pair of the dampers if you want. All you have to do is pay for the postage, I am not looking at making a profit on the dampers so I don't want any cashola for them. PM me if you want a pair, first in and you got em'.

Maachine, i'll take the dampers mate, pm me your details.

Scouser, is it really worth doing the XR caliper on an Iron, as i use 2 fingers for braking and im able to lock up the wheel if need be on stock brakes.....maybe the skinner wheel is the reason?

T1

dose the oldman convertion work on the iron ? any one tried it ?

Hey OZ, I also have an Iron tank on as it is bigger than the 48 peanut and I have not noticed any handling difference at all mate, the lift I put on is 1.5". As Scouser said, the fuel light may come on a bit sooner but for me that is around 150-160 k's so doesn't bother me. You can be confident though that it won't make the bike feel top heavy. There are a heap of different types out there, I got mine from DKCustoms with the coil and ignition relocation, good quality gear.

T1,

You can lock the front brake on any bike no matter how shit the brakes are. The difference with good brakes, something like dual disc two pot Brembos on a sportsbike for example, is that you can apply much more braking force before that lockup occurs, because the four large pots spread the force over a wider area of the disc at any one time. Each of those contact points on the disc only has a quarter the likelihood of "grabbing" that the std 48 brake has. Plus, as more braking force is applied, more weight goes onto the front wheel, increasing its grip and further reducing the chance of lockup.

I'm pretty keen to get one of these calipers myself...

Maachine, did you get yours from Robbos? How much was it?

 hey machine how easy was it to do the standoffs on the blinkers? cheers mate any help will do

Hi 666, I had the bike in the shop getting the fork springs and dampers done so I got them to do the standoffs while it was in there as they had done the same thing to their 48 Judgement Day entry.  Here is a link to US HDForum that gave me the tip, http://www.hdforums.com/forum/sportster-models/721976-great-little-mod-to-the-48-and-only-takes-about-and-hour-or-two.html.  Just some muckin' around I reckon as the access isn't to flash under the rear fender.

does any one know if the oldman conversion and the xr caliper conversion will affect warranty

thanks scouser

Hey maachine, I would love to do this conversion if you have anymore sets left. But you have got to get something in return, I live very close so we could work something out maybe

Sorry man, I have already sent the spare sets I had to forum members.

 

 Hi guys,

Just wanted to add my latest upgrades and first riding impression to this thread. With help from T1 we upgraded my '11 48 yesterday including Oldman Conversion, drag bars, XR caliper and braided lines. See the final product below. A couple weeks back I also fitted the HD solo springer seat but turned it into a non-springer seat because the position was too high and too far forward for my taste and leg length (190cm).

First impressions with the oldman setup. Bike feels much more firm and stabile. The stock setting always made a weird metal 'click' when riding on an uneven surface and when reaching the max travel length. With the new springs I tried to run over each and every manhole cover I found. No weird sounds anymore and it now feels like a real bike. No heart attacks anymore when riding on bad roads. 

In addition to that I can really recommend the XR caliper upgrade. T1 found my break pads were already quite worn down after only 6500km. So maybe it's my riding style which I would see as a good fit for our bikes called Sportster " /> accelerate, break hard, corner, accelerate... In any case the callipers in combination with the new fork setup work really well! Two fingers breaking is now possible on a HD.

Let's see how the springs settle in over the next few hundred km.

The setup btw is pretty much stock. T1 used the standard length for the spacers. For a comparison my weight is about 85kg. Oil was Screaming Eagle fork oil. 

Maybe this thread helps to convince some others who think about doing this conversion as well. 

Ride safe,

Peter

PS fixed the image upload...  

 

 

It didn't effect any warranty because all parts used are HD.

If anybody wants to know, I had a Danny Grey custom gel seat made in the in the states. 

As for oil level, I put in the same as what goes into the 05 Dyna.