Letters From Hollywood

By Kemer Stevenson

There’s nothing better to make a guy feel better about himself than a good set of tools and a day in the driveway. After my first thousand miles on the two wheeled wonder, it’s finally time to make her my own. 

Every Harley owner knows, that the real appeal to the bike is in customizing it to match your personality. It’s a very cult-like culture. A trip to the dealership means a visit with my own personal mechanical stylist. Anita helped pick out all the parts and modifications my bike needs now, and for time to come.

Step one, swap out the traditional handlebars. Why? Well, the main reason is I think the traditional bars look girly. The new drag bars have a lower profile and forward lean, giving her a more aggressive, streamlined look.

After the swap, I realized that my mirror visibility was essentially shot. Looking into them reflected my arm, and nothing behind me. The solution was to invert my mirrors below the handlebars. 

Sounds simple enough... but, not so much. The stems hit the turn signals. Which led to me to relocating the blinkers from the handlebars, to much lower down on the front forks. 

The end result left the speedometer as the highest point on the bike, and the rest looking very aggro. Exactly the look I was going for. 

While the lone-wolf rep is very suave, I find the single seat of the Sportster it’s biggest shortfall. The bad-boy rep doesn’t do you any good if you can’t throw a hottie on the back. 

Of course, this also meant installing a set of foot-pegs. It took me three attempts to get these installed correctly. Unfortunately the solo bag I added, sort-of, kinda, gets in the way. Minor detail. It looks sweet. 

I love my dealership, but I’d be lying if I said they didn’t try to overcharge me for service. They quoted me over $400 to perform all the that work. I spent about four hours doing it myself. Not to mention the boost to my self esteem and bragging rights to be able to say I did it. 

Now Aurora is all ready for the visit from my dad next week. We’ll be heading north up the Pacific Coast Highway in a 4th of July weekend father and son ride. And I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am. Stay tuned, more details to follow.

Until next time, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. 

Kemer