Wild Rhino Harley-Davidson V-Rod

THIS Night Rod Special I got brand new. I saw it and thought, ‘That looks wild and I want to get one.’ I didn’t want to go overboard with this one because I went overboard with the last one. The old one was a ’96 Harley-Davidson Softail Springer with a wide arse and heaps of bling. This time I didn’t want to go for the bling; I just wanted to go for all black.

Dave from Burleigh Bars sent me a new set of handlebars which are fantastic; I love them. They’re called Ram Bars.

I changed the red pin-striping to silver pin-striping, and also the decal on the side of the air-box was red and I changed that to silver.

I ended up with a set of Arnott Air Ride shocks which I got through the shop, Wild Rhino. The Air Ride is pretty basic really; it takes about three hours to install. It raises the bike about four inches. You can adjust it as you ride and I’ve found it great. I can do several 100 km and there’ll be no drama.

Then I put in a ThunderMax ignition which I can’t speak highly enough of. It’s been great: auto-tunes itself the whole time so the bike runs really efficiently. I also put a Vance & Hines Competition Series exhaust on it.

The other thing I did was, instead of running a 240 rear tyre, I ran a 260 tyre and didn’t have to modify anything; it just goes straight on. Down the track I might look at a 300 arse-end.

The most expensive things were the LED tailights and front indicators. The front indicators were $420; the rear ones $580; they are expensive but they finish off the bike.

To ride, it’s fantastic. You can do your 700 km in a day and get off and still feel brand new; whereas with the old one, you’d get off and your back would be sore, your legs would be sore and you really knew you rode the bike. Whereas this one, you basically jump on and cruise.

The thing is, I haven’t gone for the extreme. I haven’t gone for anything too wild. I wanted to show people what they can do with a few dollars, without spending 50, 60 thousand dollars. Your bike will still look good and go good. With the ThunderMax and the exhaust, we’re getting 120 hp to the back wheel which is more than enough.

I’d like to specially thank Merv from S&M Powdercoating who’s powdercoated quite a few things for me; and Dave from Burleigh Bars for the bars which are great. Also a special thank you to Chris from Chris Kelly Automotives down in Geelong. He does all the computer work for us on our ThunderMaxes; he gets all the tuning right and makes everything go nice and crisp. It does make a difference.

Photos by Chris Randells; words by Rino