I recently had the opportunity to customize my 2005 Softail Springer Classic with a Heartland 180 kit for my bike. Now if you have ever seen one of these kits, you recognize them from a mile away. They give the H-D Softail line a longer, lower, cleaner look.
While H-D has gone to great lengths to make their bikes longer and lower, the Heartland kit eliminates the stock struts and utilizes a low profile design to give the bike a very comfortable and low riding position. Bandit called me recently and told me a kit was on the way.
“You better not fuck it up. I was going to put this on a friend’s bike, but decided you needed the practice. Plus your bike looks like shit and I’m tired of waiting for you to get the sense to fix it right. You have a week, get it done!”
He’s such a great motivational type of guy. He reminds me of my cousins up in New York who do collecting for a local Don. They can motivate you in a hurry!
Some people are just lucky, you know? I know you have seen them. The same people who fall in a pile of shit and discover a Rolex watch in the midst of it. You know; charmed sons of bitches that just seem to get everything thrown their way. You know the type, right? Well I am one of ‘em! So don’t hate, appreciate! One of the advantages of working for Bikernet.com is you get the best deals on all the greatest parts and accessories out there. Besides the constant first class flights all over the world to cover events or the six figure income Bandit pays me, my life is definitely a charmed existence and I am…well, full of shit. None of that is true, but at least I could say it for a little while and daydream about the day when war is over, liberal pussies stop whining about everything under the sun, all the bills are paid, which leaves all day to ride the shit outta my Harley and drink myself into oblivion every day!
So anyways, I wait patiently for my kit not knowing exactly what to expect. My tool supply just plain sucks. Besides basic hand tools, I don’t have much. I was truly hoping this kit wouldn’t require anything extensive. I called Heartland and talked with Mark. He assured me anyone with n elementary understanding of hand tools could assemble this kit. The hardest part is cutting the “horns” from the stock frame, and they even give you a template for that.
“No problem,” I said. Actually I was shitting my pants at the thought of cutting my frame, but I knew I would do it when the time came. It was a necessary evil, and like the big guy said…my bike looked like shit. So I awaited the package and hoped for the best.
Three days later they arrived. I was leaving for work at 3:45 in the morning and saw the boxes by my front door as I was leaving. I immediately shut the bike down and ran to the porch to retrieve my presents!
I had two boxes stacked neatly next to my front door. I carried them to the garage and tore into the boxes. I had to see what the kit included. Work be damned! I was going to be late, but this was worth it.
The kit included the following-
•Chrome Struts HD Slotted
•8.5 inch Wild Heart fender
•Leather HD Solo Seat
•180 Second Seat and Sissy Bar
•Small Billet-Tears Black w/ Red LED’s
•Chrome Plate Holder 3/8
•Chrome Plate Light LED
•Signal Mirrors-Black
•Instructions
I was stoked as I drove to work picturing my bike with this kit on it. My next twelve hours at the plant would crawl by. When I finally made it back home that evening, I didn’t take long before I started to tear it apart.
The first things I did was remove the old seat, followed by the rear struts. These are all easily removed with a torx head socket and ratchet.
After the seat and struts, the fender comes off next. Once they were removed, the bike has a very different look. It’s almost too bad we need a fender at all.
The Factory Fuel Injection Module sits directly on top of the fender in a bracket. The bracket is removed and discarded.
Also remove the factory fuse bracket that is located in front of the old fender, just behind the battery.
Once that is removed, you will push the fuses all the way down to leave the area flush behind the battery, so the brain box can sit flat under the seat.
By this time, my brain was fried. I had been up for close to twenty hours and I had to be up in 4 hours to do it all over again. I decided to call it a night and start again the next night after work.
One thing was for sure; this kit was going to fucking rock!
End of Day 1
Riding a Harley is a unique experience that shapes it’s origin in the soul of the rider. Basically, the ride means something different to each person. When I first started riding a Harley in nearly 10 years ago, I didn’t care what the bike looked like, what year it was, or even the model, as long as it was a genuine H-D. Before long I began to look at the different bikes and I began noticing subtle, yet noticeable differences from one to the next. As I got more involved with bikes and convinced friends and family they also needed a Harley, I noticed the extremely different types of rides each bike offered. While all the H-D models offer a comfortable ride combined with that genuine H-D styling, well after a while it all starts to blend together. You can only see so many Softails with “Live to Ride” or the new “Skull” badges all over them. And truth be known, when I first started riding, it wasn’t the “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” look I was after. While I am sure Honda riders have their exceptions, for the most part, H-D, Honda, Big Dog, Kawasaki, they are all motorcycles. They are all big, fast, mechanical bikes that each have their own panache, but they are all just a little…tame.
The first time I saw Jesse James on Motorcycle Mania, I had been riding a Harley for about a year. Out of the whole show, I remember the way he looked when he rode! It was unlike the way my Dad and Grandpa looked on their bikes. While they looked to be perched atop their bikes, Jesse appeared to be IN his bike. Rather than riding the road, he was devouring it through his front tire and shitting the remnants out the backside. I was hooked! From that day forward, I searched for that ride.
WCC’s parked in Sturgis. They look ready to eat the road even when they are parked.
I sold my Ironhead Sportster and in December of 2002, I bought a Fatboy. Over the next three years I changed everything I could think of changing on the bike within my ability. While the bike was different from the showroom, it truly stayed fairly “stock”. I wanted my bike to look as if it were punishing the pavement with the front wheel and making the road ripple behind the rear. I wanted to be IN the bike. I never achieved it.
Even with high bars, slouching my back, and leaning forward, I am still on it, not riding in it.
I eventually traded the bike in on a Springer Softail Classic and decided to take the “nostalgic” route combined with modern technology. While the bike was a beautiful bike that I rode round trip to Sturgis, it was a little too conservative for me. In Sturgis, the only guys riding a stock springer with bags were old men who were mostly lawyers, stockbrokers, and doctors. While I am in no way degrading those who have conquered life long enough to be called “old”, I am just saying I am too young for that. Besides, I never achieved that “in the bike” ride I had been after for so long.
I even look like an old bastard sitting on the bike!
Then I saw it! The Heartland Biker kit! I saw a Softail custom in Sturgis that sat low to the ground in the rear and the bike was undoubtedly still a H-D. The rider, while casually leaning against the seat and drinking beer with his buddies, appeared to be sitting in his bike. He was in it while just leaning on it; I could only imagine what he looked like riding it.
I had to ask him about the kit.
“Hey man, I like your bike. What did you do to it?” I asked him while eyeing the low slung seat.
“Thanks man. I took it to the dealer and had them do up the back end like this,” he said. “I didn’t want it to look like everyone else’s.”
“You had the dealer do it? How much did that run ya?”
“Not too bad. I think it was 6 grand after parts and labor. The kit comes from a company called Heartland or something.”
I almost threw up. “How does it ride?”
Random ass shot. You can never have too much of these pics stored in the hard drive.
“Fucking awesome man. I really don’t care how it rides, I just bought it because it looks cool.”
“How many miles you got on it?”
“Oh, well I bought the bike three years ago and I had the kit put on in June. I don’t know, maybe 1200.”
“1200 since June, cool. I guess it’s holding up ok?”
“Nah man, 1200 since I bought it. I just drag it behind the truck to Sturgis and come here to party.”
I could feel my ears burning as my blood pressure escalated to dangerously high levels. “Where do you live?”
“Me, I stay here in South Dakota, about an hour and a half to the East of here.”
I just walked away. Fucking faggot!
I researched the web for any information on the Heartland Biker kit. I found out they offer kits compatible for tires ranging from 180 up to 250. They have a new kit that bolts directly to the new 200 series Softails with just the struts and fender being replaced. According to the web, it’s easy to put on and can be done in just a few hours. If you like the way the kit looks when I am done, you can give them a call at 310-822-2697. You will actually talk with a person, so feel assure that if you run into a problem, there will be someone there to help you.
So where did I leave off last time? Oh yeah, I had just removed my old seat, fender, Electronic Fuel Injection Module and Bracket, and was now ready for the next step.
According o the instructions, I had to remove the frame horns from the bike. I had borrowed a saw-zall and a grinder from work, so the next thing that was left was the cutting of my stock frame!
These had to go!
To some out there, cutting the frame horns seems like a simple enough task, but it was my first time and I had never seen it done before. Most guys get their experience at shops, or at more experienced buddies’ houses. I get all my experience in my garage, by myself. The first time I saw the oil get changed in the bike was when I did it. The first time for brakes, spark plugs, tank removal, paint, wheels, fenders, everything was my first. This would be yet another first.
According to the instructions, the next step was to bolt the template to the frame so you have a line to start with, you know a reference.
You can see the template in the first picture and me cutting away in the second.
I aligned the template and went to work. The saw-zall sliced through the two horns like butter. They were easy.
You can see how I used the template from heartland to keep my angle right. The angle doesn’t have to be perfect, the main thing is to cut away anough of the horn to allow the new struts and seat to sit flush.
My next step was to grind the area I had cut to a smoother finish. I also had to grind the outside edge to an angle to get the new seat to sit right on the frame. The instructions walk you through it step by step.
I used a hand grinder with a tiger pad to grind away the rough edges.
Where the horn once sat is now a gnarled, grind down, knub. We are ready for paint and mock up.
I used a Automotive touch up paint to brush the black onto the parts of the frame I had cut and grinded. It only took a few minutes for the frame to dry.
I mounted the fender struts on the back end to ensure they lined up, which they did.
I had my wife come and sit on the bike while I placed the fender where I wanted it and then had my daughter trace the struts and seat outline onto the fender using a magic marker.
The new seat and struts
I then used a piece of cardboard and traced the strut onto the cardboard. I cut out the shape and placed it onto the side of the strut with the holes. Once the template and strut matched, I poked the holes through the template so I could mark where the holes needed to be drilled in the fender.
I used the top of a pizza box to make my template.
*FYI-Heartland can also supply pre-drilled fenders.*
Once the marks were made on the fender, I just drilled the holes and used my step-drill to increase the hole size and give my placement a little “play”.
The next step was to drill the hole in the fender for the rear seat bolt.
I placed it all on the bike and couldn’t believe the look. Now I just had to wire in the LED taillight/brake light/running light.
The Heartland kit’s lights came with a very easy three wire scheme for matching to your bikes wiring.
Since I would only be using a brake/running light, I just matched the three colored wires from the heartland light to my wiring on the Harley. I connected the red to red, orange to orange, and white to white. It worked like a charm!
I drilled a small hole in the license plate bracket and mounted the light to the top of the bracket. I also placed a small while LED license plate light to my old belt guard frame holes. The next step was to clean up the wiring, removal and repainting the fender, and finishing up.
* Heartland recommends a lowering of the rear end. I have not done this yet as I am still waiting on the new wheel and tire which will be larger. While I have the stock 16 incher on their now, it will have an 18 x5 ½ wheel covered by a 180 series tire.
Bandit always asks me to post any problems I may have encountered during the process to help you guys and girls in case you try to do it. Well, I assure you, if I can do this thing, so can you. Heartland makes it really simple and all you need is a good set of basic hand tools, a saw-zall, and a grinder. This job is really easy and I accomplished the transformation in less than 4 hours. Hey, I had to take pictures and notes Goddamnit! I would like to say a special thank you to my daughter, Lori. I drug her out of the house at 9 pm to take some of these shots. You helped Daddy big time, sweetheart! Until next time, Ride Hard!
