toadstool
Active Member
I feel physically ill, like I might vomit. The thought of how much money, time, and effort have been wasted is truly sickening. I hope at least one person can learn from my mistakes.
I bought an amazing Big Dog bike in 08’ and should have stopped there. The bike looked and ran amazing. I got greedy and wanted more power. I “researched” what I thought would be the best freaking combination of parts possible and bought them all – mistake number one.
Mistake number two was trying to find the best deal when it came time for someone else to install all these bright and shiny parts. I found a back yard Harley certified and trained mechanic to do the job. When I picked the bike up I could tell something wasn’t right. Once he had his cash he didn’t seem to care.
Mistake number three was when I bumped my head and thought I should try to make the Big Dog go as fast as humanly possible. For some reason I thought dumping a shit load of money into a Big Dog and “racing it” was a super idea.
I kept all receipts and realized I had spent $6454 in parts and labor to have a bike that produced near stock HP… and a lot of valve train noise. The parts didn’t work well together, the mechanic made serious errors, and I was essentially in worse shape.
I finally had enough and found someone who could actually help with all the problems. So…. the motor was taken apart and problem, after problem was addressed. There was so much shit wrong with that motor that I was amazed it made it to the shop. The cam was installed wrong, the cylinders were machined with flaws, and parts were damaged and prematurely worn. I felt buyers’ remorse in a huge way.
Then came the bill….$4054.02, to fix my screw ups. That is a total of well over $10K of essentially wasted money. Don’t take me wrong, the bike runs amazing. There is so much power I seriously slid out of the seat when I cracked the throttle on the way home. There is no more noise from the motor and it runs as smooth as silk. In hind sight, I much rather have saved 10K and had a perfectly good bike.
The clutch is slipping and will need updated, but the dyno shows 118 hp and 123 ft lbs. The mechanic feels a better clutch will add 3-4 of each. The nitrous is still jetted at 30 hp but wasn’t dyno’d. With the beefed up piston rings I could easily switch the jets to 50 hp.
I am going to try and refrain from mistake number five which would be using the nitrous and messing up the bottom end.
In summary, know what the hell you are doing before you regret it and be happy with the stock Dog.
I bought an amazing Big Dog bike in 08’ and should have stopped there. The bike looked and ran amazing. I got greedy and wanted more power. I “researched” what I thought would be the best freaking combination of parts possible and bought them all – mistake number one.
Mistake number two was trying to find the best deal when it came time for someone else to install all these bright and shiny parts. I found a back yard Harley certified and trained mechanic to do the job. When I picked the bike up I could tell something wasn’t right. Once he had his cash he didn’t seem to care.
Mistake number three was when I bumped my head and thought I should try to make the Big Dog go as fast as humanly possible. For some reason I thought dumping a shit load of money into a Big Dog and “racing it” was a super idea.
I kept all receipts and realized I had spent $6454 in parts and labor to have a bike that produced near stock HP… and a lot of valve train noise. The parts didn’t work well together, the mechanic made serious errors, and I was essentially in worse shape.
I finally had enough and found someone who could actually help with all the problems. So…. the motor was taken apart and problem, after problem was addressed. There was so much shit wrong with that motor that I was amazed it made it to the shop. The cam was installed wrong, the cylinders were machined with flaws, and parts were damaged and prematurely worn. I felt buyers’ remorse in a huge way.
Then came the bill….$4054.02, to fix my screw ups. That is a total of well over $10K of essentially wasted money. Don’t take me wrong, the bike runs amazing. There is so much power I seriously slid out of the seat when I cracked the throttle on the way home. There is no more noise from the motor and it runs as smooth as silk. In hind sight, I much rather have saved 10K and had a perfectly good bike.
The clutch is slipping and will need updated, but the dyno shows 118 hp and 123 ft lbs. The mechanic feels a better clutch will add 3-4 of each. The nitrous is still jetted at 30 hp but wasn’t dyno’d. With the beefed up piston rings I could easily switch the jets to 50 hp.
I am going to try and refrain from mistake number five which would be using the nitrous and messing up the bottom end.
In summary, know what the hell you are doing before you regret it and be happy with the stock Dog.
