It seems everyone who has a Harley either wants to make it look the coolest or be the fastest. So, this month I decided to talk about performance.

I get a lot of people who ask for the best way to make their bike faster and still only spend a small amount of cash. Well, this is easy if all your want are small gains. But, if you wand to be faster than all of you friends, expect to spend more than they did. Since Harley's have become so popular, their price went up as did the parts for them.

Performance is easy to gain on a Harley because they have so many areas that have so much potential. The first area is air flow. If you look at a Harley's air box, it has a small hole at the bottom. This limits the air going in the motor, Replace it with a high flow air box and re-jet the carburetor. The next problem is the exhaust. I won't let all the new air from the air box out, so replace it with a good exhaust. Exhaust systems are a whole different article, but remember, some back pressure is good, so don't put a set of $40 drag pipes on and expect huge gains! The next step is the ignition. Find a good ignition that has an adjustable rev limiter and advance curves to adjust to any later upgrades. These are basic changes that will give great gains. If you want more, you will have to go inside the motor.

If you are going to build a motor, keep in mind that you will still want a dependable bike, so build it with your riding needs in mind. The first step to boost horse power inside the motor is to raise the compression ratio. This can be done by milling the heads or replacing the pistons. Don't go crazy with compression if you want to use pump gas. High compression Evo motors have a tendency to ping and that is trouble in the making. After you have good compression, you can put a bigger cam in. Don't go crazy here either. Just because a cam is bigger doesn't mean more horsepower. Talk to someone who knows what all the numbers mean and what you need. This is what I would call a basic upgrade to a bike. For more power you can go on and on if you have the cash. But most people are happy with ild gains.

If you plan to have work done on your bike, find out exactly what they are going to do and what they expect you to gain and make sure they will stand behind the work. Also, make sure they use good parts that match your needs!!