Bike Check With Bryant

Aaron Hartless
2021-03-26T16:49:24-04:00
First Manufacturing Company

Bike Check with Bryant about his 2016 H-D Roadster
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Tell us about your bike and why you chose the Sportster?

I ride a 2016 Harley Davidson Roadster, which wasn’t even in my plans to buy. The riding bug bit me when I hopped on the back of a friends bike just to get some lunch. By the time I got back for the day I told everyone I’m going to buy a bike by the end of the week. Well I went shopping the next day and that was the first bike I saw and I fell in love with it, putting a deposit down and all right then and there. After looking at twenty plus bikes that week I still couldn’t shake wanting the Roadster so I pulled the trigger on it. The inverted forks and overall smaller size make it great in the corners, and the 1200 motor is plenty to get to scootin with. Exactly what I wanted in a bike.

What upgrades have you made to the bike?

I rode it as I bought it for about a year as planned before upgrading anything, but now I find myself wrenching on it about every week.
I’ve slimmed the whole bike down by getting rid of all the lollipop taillights and turn signals, as well as taking the mirrors off. I replaced the taillight with an under fender mounted one, and switched the wide foot pegs with some slim moto style ones. I changed up the riding stance with some ODI handlebars with some rise in them, now my hips don’t lock up! The last thing I’ve done to it just last week was the Bassani Road Rage 2 into 1 exhaust, which makes the throttle so much more fun to twist.
Future plans include adding a small fairing, painting that and the tins myself, and some other custom fabrication to save weight or slim it down even more.

What is your favorite route to ride in NC?

My favorite route is probably out to my friends farm in Denver, NC and all around there. It’s just far enough out that I can get out of the traffic of the city and hit some backroads for some miles, to come home to dinner on time.
My favorite trip I’ve taken though was up to Boone, NC for a bachelor party. When we left Charlotte is was barely above freezing. My knees were bouncing off the tank at one point but every mile was full of smiles.

If you were given $1500 for a road trip where would you go for two weeks?

I visited Johnson City, TN right before I bought a bike and I’ve always wanted to go back. The roads were smooth, winding, and traffic was extremely light.
I would probably rent a cabin for my closest friends, getting as many people as I could to come with. The western side of the Appalachian mountains are so different from the east, I could spend the whole two weeks going up and down them as far as a day could take me and the others.

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