T-Sport: Personalizing the T Part II

The calendar says that spring 2005 has arrived, but after a very promising start in March when the temps soared, it has been mostly cool, windy and wet. It also hasn't helped that the days with the best riding weather also fell on weekdays, a time where I spend most of my hours trapped at the office waiting for retirement. Mother Nature can be so cruel.

Since I was forced indoors anyway, I decided to do something useful in my Treasury Board regulation sized cubicle like update this web site. It's been about seven months since I last wrote about the T Sport and a few more small changes have been made, including one that mitigated a nagging problem.

What's New?

I have continued my experimentation with wind protection and had ordered a new extra tall windshield for the T Sport's fairing. You can read about that in a separate section of this chapter.

Voltage Gauge

On my old E Glide, the standard equipment voltage gauge once saved me from being stranded on the side of the road when my voltage regulator had failed. I liked that very much - the warning part - and naturally enough, I wanted that same advance warning capability on the Dyna.

So I purchased and installed Harley's new voltmeter kit which consists of three components: the 1.5" micro gauge and wiring ($96.95), a chrome bracket that mounts using the existing handlebar clamp bolts ($80.95), and a chrome housing ($63.95). I had originally planned on adapting a voltage gauge I had procured earlier from a marine supplier, but never got around to it. In any case, the Harley kit was much closer to what I wanted, so my surplus parts bin has grown again. Perhaps I will install the marine gauge on the Sportster, or maybe the Blast - should I ever finally get around to it.

Installation of the kit was quite easy once I highlighted the portions of the instructions relative to my model bike in yellow. In fact, reading the instructions was harder than actually doing the job. I did run into one snag, however, when I was lifting the gas tank to route the wiring along the top frame. The deluxe crossover quick-disconnect, which I had so cleverly fitted after replacing the tank on warranty to make jobs such as this that much easier, did not want to disconnect. So I pressed and pulled a little harder to free it apart. Suddenly it did, and close to four gallons of hi-test immediately gushed from both ends of the separated, but very broken, disconnect. So there I was. Crouched by the bike and pinching two black tubes with my fingers in a frantic effort to staunch the flow. I cried for help. I'm sure my entire neighborhood heard my pitiful pleas for assistance echo out from the garage. Yet neither my wife, who was in the house, nor my son, who was mowing the lawn, ever did.