Hi guys.
So here goes. I am currently modifying my 08 Night Train. Now the front end mods that are getting done are 3 degree trees. 23 inch front wheel Arlen ness lower fork legs and progressive suspension front spring kit.
I have gone bigger on the rear wheel also from 17 to 18. I have added a legend air suspension kit to the rear also.
From people with experience how do u think the bike will handle? Will it have the same feel in steering? Or will these mods cause the bike to handle worse? Or will it not make a big difference in handling
my last bike was an 08 heritage softail in standard form with the exception of progressive fork springs which just by themselves improved handling a lot, current bike softail custom with a more raked front end and the handling is not within cooee of non raked out heritage, this is my experience.the more rake the more front end flop.
I just put a 7 deg tree on my fatty ( also did progressive springs as well)
i have ran a 23 " front rim and 18 " rear for a year or so now and it handled ok
now with the trees ( despite the calculators saying it was way to much trail) it handles better. Signifigantly more stable at highway speed. low speed stuff same same
i was REAL cautious first time out as I was expecting the worst but was very pleasantly suprised.
Remebr that the softail forks are 2" longer than fatty ones as std so that will also have an effect on the handling somewhat.
My two bob worth is go for it and keep the std stuff to return to stk if you dont like it.
The raked look is ssoooo much better.
have a look at my bike in the softail section of this forum under show us your bike page 60
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I agree with some others...
I put 4 degree trees on my Fatty (2010). I also used 2 inch overs. I upped the rear to 18 and the front to 19. It handles fine.
It falls into the corners a little more, but you get use to it. I have small wobble at about 50kph, but you can hardly notice.
Slow speeds are fine, high speeds are fine. I have had my hands off at 140, with no issues.
I tightened my neck a little more than fallway specs to stiffen her up, but other than that, it rides nice!
The standard softail trees are 2 degree rake already aren't they, fatties have no rake in the trees in all the places I looked, 3 degrees is not a lot more than the trees you might already have in there. Think the frames are the same with a 30 degree neck, the softail gets its look from the raked trees and bigger skinny front wheel.
Got it wrong before if the specs I just looked up are correct.
2008 Nightrain
Rake at steering head, 32 degrees
Fork angle 33.5 degrees
Trail 5 in or 127 mm.
2008 Fatboy
Fork angle 32 degrees
Trail 5.8 in or 147mm
Going by that the standard trees you have are 1.5 degrees already, so you will gain another 1.5 degrees with the 3 degree trees. A different sets of specs give the standard Softail trees as 2 degrees.
Same as some one put on before, be careful changing it too much if you don't know what your doing, or it might want to have its own idea of where the front wheel should be heading. It might not be the same direction as you want to go. I read somewhere about someone who put a + 5 degree rake on and swore he bent the handle bars to keep the bloody thing on the road going through a set of high speed sweepers. That alone frightened me because the standard risers don't look that strong, if one of them gave way you'd be really screwed. Also read somewhere that a standard Softail is already at the legal permissable limit in one or some states for the same reason, think it was on this forum. Whether this is true or not I don't know, might pay to check with someone who knows whats what first and let us all know.
