Posts by BKL

    I am running the Nitto 555 and have 45,000 miles on the fronts --- will change for the 2019 season and over 25,000 miles on the rear. I don't baby them but not aggressive all the time...

    Comparing the UTQG among the different rear tires I've tried, I got around 10-11,000 miles out of the original factory rear tire and the Kenda I replaced it with. I then tried a Sumitomo HTR Z III tire and only got around 7000 miles on it. The Kendas and the Sumitomo are both UTQG rated at 300. I then tried a Nankang NS-20 rated at 360 and got almost 10,000 miles on it. The Nitto 555 G2 carries a UTQG rating of 320, so it is similar to the other 3 brands I've tried. I've got a little over 7,000 miles on it now and from the amount of tread left, I'm hoping to get at least 11,000 miles out of it. When I was on two wheels, I typically got around 3 x the life from my front tire compared to the rear and so far I've done a little closer to 4 x that on my Slingshot, but I can't imagine getting 25,000 miles from a rear tire, especially since I am now turbo'd. :D

    Similar vehicles were listed on reversetrike.com, but the site appears to no longer be maintained and most links I tried no longer worked. A shame, because that site used to be THE place to look for reverse trike info.

    Equivalent to 90,000 miles on the tires or 30,000 each set while drifting gives me hope that I may get more than 10,000 out of mine! :thumbsup: That makes me happy. :D

    Assuming the Nitto 555 G2 might be good for 30,000 miles in normal 4-wheel would seem to translate to around 15,000 miles when used in a non-rotated application such as our Slingshots. Allowing for some additional wear due to the stresses placed on our rear tire, I hope to get at least 11,000 miles from my 555 G2 315/35ZR17 tire, hopefully more.

    Assuming you bought the kit from Hahn, the tune cost (except shipping to Bob at OBD Diagnostics) is included in the kit cost. IIRC, the Hahn turbo instructions request you email Hahn before shipping your ECU to Bob.You should also include your Hahn Order number when you ship to Bob. Here's a link to the shipping address for the ECU reflash - OBD Diagnostics.


    Good Luck!

    As far as headlight color, I prefer bulbs that produce light with a color temperature around 6000K as that is considered a pure white. As you move higher up the color temperature scale, the light becomes bluer and doesn't penetrate as well at night. Standard headlights are usually around 4300K which gives them a slightly yellow tint. Here's a link to an informative site 0 Best HID Color: Headlight Color Guide - Best Headlight Bulbs

    Sometimes I think that the weather people have no clue exactly how much the mountains around this valley can deflect the storms that come in from your side of those mountains. As the crow flies you and I are not far apart yet most of the time the storms that can drench you are more or less drained by the time they can make it over the mountain. Our biggest rain events are almost never the winter storms that come in from the north west past you. Our biggest rain events are almost always the summer storms that come in from the south east through mexico

    When we lived in the DC area before retiring, the weather folks often told us they used 3 different models to try and allow for the mountains to the west of the DC area, but always complained about how rarely the models would agree with each other!
    After the DC Beltway (I-495) around DC was completed in the mid-1960s, the weather people started using that as a dividing line for weather, reporting weather inside the Beltway and outside the Beltway. We had a house about 200 yards outside the Beltway and my Dad lived in the same subdivision in a house about 3/4 mile inside the Beltway. Quite often, it would rain in one location, but not the other.

    I've never really been that impressed with the SSO Canadian Headlights kit. The SSO kit uses a shutter-equipped projector unit , but the output has never seemed anywhere near equal to the output of the Hella center headlights on my 2015 Base Slingshot. I also didn't like the way the original SSO Canadian headlights needed to be modified for the LED headlights offered when I bought the set several years ago (I don't know if the SSO headlights or the LED bulbs still use the original mounting systems and would consider the SlingMods Canadian Headlight units since they do not seem to require mods for LED bulbs).
    In my quest for better nighttime lighting, I'm considering replacing my existing SSO CH units with either the SlingMods CH units or true Canadian headlights from Polaris. I know that the SlingMods CH units only operate on High or Low beam and lack the shutter used on the dual-beam center headlights.
    That's the reason I'm asking those who have owned Slingshots with the original Hella center headlights AND Slingshots with the non-Hella center headlights to get an honest comparison between the two different headlights. I'm assuming the non-Hella center headlights used on the 16.5 and newer Slingshots are the same as the Canadian headlights Polaris uses on export Slingshots and am trying to figure out if the performance of the true Canadian headlights is worth the extra cost. The cost of the true Canadian headlights is around $350+ compared to around $130 for the SlingMods Canadian headlights.

    Oct 26, 2018 Update - I deleted this post because I had an improper understanding of the true Canadian Headlights. I also installed the SlingMods CH units and like their light output much more, even with the halogen bulbs. It looks like I can reuse my SSO LED bulbs with the SlingMods CH units, but I haven't tried yet. See Post #6 in this thread - Headlight Pod question - for what I discovered about my SSO CH units and what cause their very low light output.

    For those of you with experience using the original Hella center headlights and the newer non-Hella headlights, did you notice any significant differences in headlight output or patterns? I'm thinking bout replacing my SSO LED-equipped Canadian Headlight units (I've never really felt they added much additional light :( ) with Polaris' Canadian Headlights as I'd like more headlight output for both High and Low beam operation.

    They backed down on warnings. Google is one of the few companies that can get away with bitch slapping Microsoft. And Microsoft needs it occasionally.


    Now let's talk about Facebook exposing 50,000,000 users accounts! Have I mentioned how much I hate Facebook lately. :D

    Never joined FB. Never will. One thing I really hate is how hard they make it to read a FB page w/o joining. They never seem to stop changing their privacy rules to maximize monetizing their members.

    @BKL I have a Video on Installing the Twist Dynamics Cold Air Intake. I am posting it here as at the very end of video around 14 min 40 Sec I place my GoPro under the hood for a view of how the air box fits when closing the hood. You can see it is a tight fit with the hood and no room for incorrect mounting. Just want to show something you can not normally see. Hope your post and troubles will help others avoid this damaging mistake. Glad things are getting back to normal for you.

    @samowens44, my BIG mistake was relying on my memory of my Hahn CAI install from 2 years earlier and I ended up mounting the airbox so it was too high. When I went to push down to check that my hood was securely latched, I ended up pushing the hood against the top of the too-high airbox. Not realizing my problerm was the too-high airbox, I thought the problem was the newly installed TD/MadSatd extended hod hinges and when I went to adjust that, the gas cartridge pushed the hinge way out of adjustment. Once I reinstalled the original hood hinges, I was able to adjust the hood pretty quickly since there was no gas cartridge trying to push things. Too bad my comedy of errors was such a PITA to fix. :D

    @BKL
    Tell me got some ride time in since July...


    If not, might I suggest you do some ride time to re-align your own stars and get right with nature...


    We get enough down days for too many reasons...
    Use those for days in the garage.

    After having screwed up and unnecessarily complicated my hood alignment, I was not in a real hurry to get things fixed. I have gotten way too soft and used to AC and try to avoid doing much outside when it's hot,especially when the temps & humidity are both in the 80s-90s.
    I got in a few day rides without my hood and took my time reinstalling the factory hood hinges. When my Daughter and I actually put the hood back on, I was pleasantly surprised at how little hassle we really had getting everything to lineup and actually close and latch properly. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how smoothly things went this afternoon.
    And I did enjoy my almost 100 mile ride this evening.

    My Daughter's schedule finally aligned with mine and we reinstalled the hood after I removed the MadStad extended hood hinges and reinstalled the stock hinges and we got the hood to properly close with just a few adjustments.
    Now I just need to get my nerve back to try reinstalling the MadStad extended hood hinges and hopefully, things will go more smoothly.

    I don’t usually take moter vehicle advice from Popular Mechanics. I thought the article on 25 tools every DIYer needs was interesting. Looks like I have all of them.
    I still hate the looks of that bike. Just my opinion.

    To me, the Piaggio MP3 doesn't look as bad with the second front wheel, primarily because the opening between the wheels doesn't look as big as it does on motorcycles with larger front wheels. That big opening is a big obstacle to good looks.

    I haven't had my S/S That long, But i won't cover it at any time.. My Motorcycles when i parked them for the winter i just coved them with an old sheet...My Trikes i rode them just about everyday in the winter, And hopefully i can ride the S/S all winter also....Gonna find out the first time it snows, I'm thinking with the fat rear tire, It might not get any traction going up my driveway , Had the same problem with a Spyder i had.. My Tri-Glide had no problems in the snow..3 inches or less...

    Keep in mind your Tri-Glide weighs less and has narrower tires increasing the weight per square inch of contact surface, so that probably helps your traction
    You might get better winter traction with an All Season narrower tire like the Nitto Motivo. The Motivo is an asymmetric tire and some folks don't like running an asymmetric tire on the rear of a single rear wheel vehicle. Several Slingshot owners have used asymmetric tires on the rear of our Slingshots, but the sample size is not very big.
    If you have a Base model Slingshot, Nitto shows you can go as narrow as a 235/40ZR18 which will be about 1" narrower and should increase the weight per sq in of contact surface for better traction. The Discount Tire Tire Size Calculator shows that tire to be turning at 65.3 mph at an indicated 65.
    On the 9" wide SL wheel, going to a smaller size Motivo tire (245/45ZR20) only reduces your tire width by about .4 inches, so it would not make as big a difference in weight per sq in of contact patch and would mean you're doing 69 mph at an indicated 65. Unfortunately, the Motivo seems to come in relatively limited sizes for the SL rear wheel.
    The point is, running a narrower all season tire on the rear may help improve traction in colder weather conditions, but you'll still need to avoid getting on the gas if you want traction in poorer weather conditions. Just make sure the tire is rated for the wheel you want to mount it on.

    My cool weather gear consists of a pair of insulated coveralls I bought at WalMart around 10 years ago with long-johns underneath and a warm shirt, warm jacket with gloves.