Road King 4/26/04

There’s two shots of the stripped King by Markus. The remaining amatuer shots were taken of the loaded King after a 650 mile weekend run to Laughlin and back to the west coast.

Over the last year we’ve tore into this classic 2003, 100th anniversary Road King. I figured I wanted a touring bike for the long haul. The notion was designed around maintaining the 100th theme, adding to the blackness and durability. I wanted a tough black bastard to ride, not detail or polish for shows. A bike for years to come. What could be better?

We used 90 percent H-D parts including a modified taillight bracket, Screamin’ Eagle turnsignals and narrow light bracket. Much of it was powder coated by Custom Powdercoating in Dallas

We kicked it off with light styling and safety accessories like a blacked-out dash, lowered shocks, rewired turnsignals, touring components and detachable back rests.

Here’s the lowered backrest which was black powdercoated. More items need to be blacked out.

We worked with a dealer for more involved tech mods and performance enhancements. Our formula was designed around beefing the low-end torque with cams, Screaming Eagle heads, air cleaner and two into one pipes. I ran it directly from the lift to a dyno, for a comparison test, which resulted in 68 horses, an 8-horse increase and 76 pounds of torque, a 6-pound increase.

With 16-inch apes from Custom Chrome and new cams it was a different beast as I rolled the King out of the service area and peeled down the street.

Here’s a shot of one of the Screamin’ Eagle ported heads. I went with the silver heads for the old Shovelhead or Pan look.

My old school notions leaned toward blacking out the king. If the frame had been another base color we might have followed it, but unity was the slogan behind design changes. I worked with Custom Powder Coating in Dallas as we stripped the touring model, inventoried the elements and sent them to the masters of powder (214)638-6416.

The Screamin’ Eagle two-into-one pipes and air cleaner were Jet Hot coated by Engineered Applications in Vernon, California, (323) 585-2894.

I rode over to Henry Figueroa’s Auto Restorations, a steel corrugated building on the wrong side of town. We removed the license plate holder and rear plastic fender tip. The filling and paint came from Henry (310) 218-9097. Henry filled the holes in the bottom of the fender and prepare it for George, The Wild Brush, to perform classic pinstriping magic (310) 488-5488.

Here’s an example of the Wild Brush pin striping on a super clean H-D Street Stalker fender.

I wanted to flame the bastard but paid homage to the 100th anniversary of H-D, reluctantly. We compromised and snatched the gold and silver (or gray) from the edge of the 100th tank band and expanded it to other elements of the King.

Stock horn cover, black powdered and touched by the magic Wild Brush.

We installed a factory oil cooler and tested it on the road to Barstow, California. Every goddamn element was covered in techs right here on Bikernet. Keeping the oil at a resonable temperature is critical to long rang reliability.

Returning from Laughlin we checked the oil temperature after 300 miles and it read a comfortable 226 degrees. This is the tightest H-D twin cam cooler yet.

Since I might ride the King to Sturgis this year and pack a Bikernet babe, we installed a detachable back rest for long distance runs.

The windshield was trimmed for the Custom Chrome 16-inch apes and splattered with bugs on the return trip from Laughlin.

The King was enhanced and prepped for the open road, or it’s capable of being stripped down for around town. What could be better?

The King loaded down for the road to Laughlin.

“It could be flamed and raked,” Renegade shouted from behind his rigid, kicker-only, magneto charged Shovelhead.

That’s all folks, chart to follow

PARTS

H-D Lowered shocks — For coolness without disturbing the ride.
H-D Shock pump tool — For ease of modifying and checking ride ability for singleor double-up runs.
H-D Taillight/brake light mod — To turn the turn signal lights into brakelights for added stopping visibility.

This puppy is golden. With a touch it shows the oil temp. Can’t beat it for monitoring the condition of the engine’s blood.

H-D Digital dipstick — For ease of observing oil temps.
H-D Docking kit — For backrest and fender rack capabilities.
H-D 100th Anniversary Cobra style seat — For coolness.
H-D Blacked out dash panel — For coolness and lack of sun glare on the openroad–get it?

Since I didn’t go for the tour rack or dresser box I needed help.

H-D Crash bar bags — For additional touring space.
H-D Mobil windshield — For low or high touring.
H-D Windshield bag — For windshield storage
Screamin’ Eagle Teardrop air cleaner cover–Style.
Screamin’ Eagle Heads–Enhanced flow and increased compression.
Screamin’ Eagle Air Cleaner Kit–Improve air velocity
Screamin’ Eagle Two Into One Touring Exhaust–Matching exhaust with heads.
H-D Speedo/Tach–More tuning information for the rider.
Screamin’ Eagle EFI turner kit–Tuning software.
H-D SE-203 cam set–Specific low end/mid range performance enhancement.
Goodrich Hydraulic lines and fittings–Extended lines for highbars.
Barnett’s Tool– Extended throttle and clutch cables.
Custom Chrome 16-inch High Bars–Changing the nature of the beast.

I still want to have these wheels machined and completely black powdered for a solid black look.

H-D black mag wheels and floating rotors with black centers–Adding to the blacked out look.
H-D fender brackets–Allowed the solid black Street Stalker fender to be bolted to the touring front end.
Screamin’ Eagle teardrop turnsignals and the narrower light bar–All style
H-D fender, license plate mount–Moved the bracket out of the way.
H-D New oil cooler for 1999 and later touring models–essential to cool the King.
H-D custom billet tab for the rear of the stock seat–We needed an extra one.
H-D Front and rear detachable docking hardware kits–Allows for detachable touring accessories to be mounted
H-D Lower backrest/sissybar–Designed to pleasure the ladies.

When ya can’t go black, there’s only one place to go, but chrome details.

H-DClassic hexbolt covers and stainless Allen caps to begin an engine detailing process.
H-DClassic Chrome Axle caps–Factory styling additions that prevent chrome shop runs.

It runs well. I’ve got proof. A ticket for 92 in a 55.