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Hottie would never understand this, but I've reigned the engine in once.

No, I don't. Maybe I shouldn't reply to you on this becasue you seem to have respect for all bikers.
I was talking to a hardcore standard rider about performance. He was taken aback and said his bike was plenty fast. He very proudly told me how he paid $17,000 for the bike and went straight into the engine. Changing bore and stroke, updating with tighter heads and using bigger carbs. He said he had nearly $20k in that bike and it was a real performance machine. He said he could do 11.24 seconds in a quarter mile.
I proceeded to tell him that I paid $8995 and could do 10.45 in a quarter mile. He asked me what I did to the bike and I told him I put gas in it and turned the key. I never got around to telling him that was the slow bike and I just use it for twisties. But lean angle and rake and trail are words he would have never understodd anyway.

Maybe I shouldn't reply to you on this becasue you seem to have respect for all bikers.

Of course I have respect for all bikers. You should too. I have trouble understanding that you don't.

I proceeded to tell him that I paid $8995 and could do 10.45 in a quarter mile. He asked me what I did to the bike and I told him I put gas in it and turned the key. I never got around to telling him that was the slow bike and I just use it for twisties. But lean angle and rake and trail are words he would have never understodd anyway.

I see where you get your misconceptions from. $17k for the bike, and $20k in performance parts to go slower than a sport bike is pretty damned stupid. I don't get it.

I spent $6.5K on my bike, and then about $900 on parts to make it go faster. Not that I was looking for a performance machine, just that I thought the 883 was something of a dog especially riding two up.

Problem was that I over did it. I used domed pistons, aggressive cams, a race ignition, etc. It was just tuned for the wrong kind of ride. The power was waaaaay too far up in the band for my liking.

I've since gone the other way with dished pistons, a cam that's not aggressive but torquey in really low RPM's for real world roll on in traffic power. It still dynos at 10 more HP than a standard big twin, while only being 5/7 the weight. It's faster than the 1100 Yammy cruiser my buddy rides, but that's like being taller than Tattoo. Point is though, it's plenty fast enough for any kind of real world driving.

As for lean angles and rake and trail....lol. It was a lowered model when I bought with lowered front end and 11.75" shock in the rear (standard Sporty is 13.5"). I put 10.5" rears on within month. I probably reduce the lean angle by a full two degrees. Not that I ever noticed, because I actually slow down for corners.

Went on the Toys for Tots ride in our town. We had a great turnout...some 1100 bikes. The ride consists of about 12 miles of surface street riding approx. 7 to 10mph...in a continuous long line of bikes...directed by the local police. While lounging around awaiting takeoff, the sky was blue, the sun out and temp. around 60 degrees. Just a beautiful day! You could easily tell the Harley riders from all others...they were decked out in their leather chaps, leather jackets, leather do-rags...what a bunch of posers!

I was talking to a hardcore standard rider about performance. He was taken aback and said his bike was plenty fast. He very proudly told me how he paid $17,000 for the bike and went straight into the engine. Changing bore and stroke, updating with tighter heads and using bigger carbs. He said he had nearly $20k in that bike and it was a real performance machine. He said he could do 11.24 seconds in a quarter mile. I proceeded to tell him that I paid $8995 and could do 10.45 in a quarter mile. He asked me what I did to the bike and I told him I put gas in it and turned the key.

LOL! A good friend of mine had a similar experience. He ran into a guy who sunk about $50,000US into a corvette and was going on and on about performance times. My friend asked if he was dissapointed that he put all that work into his car and it still couldn't outperform a $7000 sportbike. The guy shut up pretty fast.