Long-Term Bikes: 2010 Honda Stateline + 2011 Kawasaki Vaquero + 2011 Star Stryker

Building a Bagger, Part 2
We made surprisingly good progress on our conversion of a stock 2010 Honda Stateline to a bagger with the simple installation of mounting frames and hard bags. Next up was part two— the fairing and windshield (we opted for the radio upgrade as well), followed by a shakedown cruise to see how the bigger rig would handle.

So we wrangled the big Stateline back onto the lift. The Inner Fairing, meanwhile, was placed on a towel so we could install the Fusion RA-200 marine-grade stereo. It all went in easily through the mounting gasket and into the mounting hole, with the 5 inch speakers popped into position and tightened down. Now we could run the color-coded speaker wires to the appropriate terminal on each speaker, and plug the radio harness into the radio.

Next we connected the wires from the radio to the battery, but now came the tricky part—finding a wire on the bike that has power when the ignition is off. It’s usually the headlight or a front turn signal wire (though we used a tester to be sure). We linked the supplied jumper wire to this 12V hot wire and the ignition wire on the radio harness. With the USB connection hooked into the radio, we could attach the antenna onto the Inner Fairing, run its wire through the loom and into the aerial input on the radio. Now, to mount the Inner and Outer Fairing...

The Fairing Lower mounting bracket goes on first, but you have to move the headlight stay, squeezing the mounting bracket between it and the lower triple mount. Next, position the Fairing Upper Mounting Bracket under the upper triple clamp, but only after removing the bolts from the brake hose guide and clutch cable guide. Then slide the front turn signals out of the way. With the brackets in place, we could then position the Outer Fairing.

Now you can slide the Inner Fairing into place in front of the handlebars. The supplied 9-inch windshield slips between the Outer and Inner fairing, and you tighten the screws as you go. Once that’s solid, secure the Inner Fairing to the Outer Fairing by tightening the lower mounting nuts. Reposition the turn signals and do a final check, turning handlebars lock to lock to make sure there’s no interference .

With everything checking out, we were psyched to ride our newly transformed bagger. Pulling the now-heavier bike (Dowco says it adds 33 lbs) off the sidestand was the first clue that there’d be a learning curve. The first few slow-speed twisties felt unwieldy, but the more we rode the beefier Stateline bagger (we called it the Stagger) the more comfortable it got. By the end of the day, we were pulling parking lot turns like it was a stocker, cranking our tunes loud and proud.

The audio isn’t up to par with, say, Harley’s Harmon-Kardon units, but it’s surprisingly robust and it is iPhone compatible—so we had our playlist within easy reach. All in all—with its good looks, nice fit and finish and very nice price, we’d have to say we’re pretty pleased with our new kit bike. Dowco even threw in a seat upgrade, supplying us with one of its Black Label saddles. Though we didn’t opt for any gel inserts or slick tribal stitching, it’s a sight better than the stock rack the Stateline came with.

Modifications