Can't wait! heeehaw!

Been talking with the head mechanic at my local Harley dealer about the mods and based on his experience, he strongly suggested to ride it stock form at least till the 1st service so I set a mental bar on what the bike should feel like & do in case I hit a road block. and enjoy the damn thing first.

Until then I will focus on getting the exact parts I am after. However, this is what I found out on the 2018 street bob so far.

-fit & finish isn't as perfect as older models, other than the paint job,, I noticed few cost cutting measures like plastic bit inside the clutch leaver, handlebar control buttons are in weird shade of black, two halves of key fob won't close properly, no "Harely Davidson" lettering on tyres, Not perfect welding underside of the bike. etc

When I look at my sportster in any angle and in any detail I used to think "wow, this is thing of beauty". Same can't be said on the 2018 Street bob in my opinion. I love the bike nevertheless.

-this is subjective, streetbob handle bar should be pulled towards the body lot more than in typical Harley promoted photos to be more ergonomic. Harley's sales materials & photos shows the handle bar pointing straight up (probably for aesthetics), but the "bike build" 3d representation shows the handle bar in the (I believe) in the correct position. It rides so much better that way too. I saw few people out there complaining about the body position of street bob. If you are one of them try them with the handle bar pulled towards you. night and day difference.

-rear brake is surprisingly rubbish. I honestly thought it wasn't working at first.

-headlight housing looks like a rice bowl, I much prefer the old shape that had the bullet shape. Also the new headlight electric wire connector is not interchangeable to old H4 models.

-I have measured the screw holes for the fuel pump and then seem like a exact match between 48 and 2018 street bob.

-back bone of street bob has square section with electric wire inside them. the actual width measures to be less than 3-5mm difference between 48 and street bob.

-Digital speedo is lovely. As a side note, you can swap it to analog speedo by getting HD genuine cable and analog speedo and vice versa.

-when you look at the bike side on, rear swing arm shape has changed. I prefer the old shape and diagonal lower arm.

-It corners well for what it is, amazing power and torque but in my honest opinion general styling cues on the new 2018 sofatil street bob is a bit off,, hence the reason I want to change lot of things.

With my riding availability, it should take about a month or so to hit the 1st service.

Will get my tools out then.

I think they have intentionally made them unattractive, and cheap looking to encourage/ force more money being spent on mods at point of sale.  Helped save my marriage at least (until they make a few changes anyway)

the tiny instrument panel is a thing of beauty, and easier to see that the old Dyna tank mounted dials. Impressed how well it holds up in the light (not that we've had much in Vic this week!) though with the very high bars the ergonomics of looking down is a bit odd!

having read your comment about the position of the bars, and had the feeling they were too upright on the test ride, I got them to pull them back a couple of inches before I took delivery, but might need to come back a bit more... will decide in the next few days.

glad I'm not the only one worried about the back brake ... I saw a couple of US reviewers comment on that as well. Wonder if it's an adjustment issue or if it's just weak as piss?

plan to keep it stock for a while (Stage 1 will probably happen after I've had it for a year or so), the only tweak I'd like is to add some DynamicRingz to upgrade the front indicators to running lights as well, but it looks like the AU spec bike only has wiring for the 1156 socket and I don't want to drill holes and run wires!

yeah the handle bar is funny one.. I tried pulling it back and back and back to a point where the handle was almost touching the (now modified 48) tank. Not to mention it looked worse and worse and worse.. haha 

the thing with it is that, as the handle bar is pulled backwards, it goes lower as well. witch worsens the reach. I come to realise that you not only need the pull back but also the height and the overall width has simultaneous effect on the position. I ended up swapping the handlebar all around. with its new self adjusting clutch cable and detachable screw from the ABS unit made it a breeze to swap out. Wish I new there was an extension cable for few bucks before I cut and solder joined the electrical wires though. Will probably last many years to come but will swap them with the new ones on my next handle bar change.

My bike looks nothing like the factory bike now… waiting on the while handlebar grip and then the exhaust.. still haven’t found the one I like…. ! and still sounds very very quite ?!!