Forward Control Extentions Harley

The Person-al Approach ...

By Tom James in Schools on 30th Jun 2011 6:00

This article appeared in Pitchcare Magazine
Issue 36 - April / May 2011

Many of our nation's greatest politicians, actors and sportsmen found their calling while attending some of Britain's finest educational institutions .

The wealth of facilities at their disposal and a willingness to continue investing have helped ensure parents across the generations remain as determined as ever to give their children the best possible chance to hone their early development, before moving on to greatness and acclaim.

Summer Fields, a Preparatory School in North Oxford, is one such institution, and can boast a long and illustrious list of 'Old Summerfieldians' in its 157-year history, such as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (his grandson is the current headmaster) to famed Hollywood actor Christopher Lee and co-star of The Avengers, Patrick Macnee.

The boarding and day preparatory school was founded in 1864 and established to offer the highest standard of education for boys aged seven to 13.

It takes a full tour of the grounds to reveal the extent of Summer Fields seventy acre estate - land that had for most of the school's earlier history been run as a farm by owner and founder Archibald Maclaren, a fencing master who ran a gymnasium in Oxford, and his wife Gertrude, a fine Classical scholar and gifted teacher.

The school took its first steps into education in 1863 when Charles William Shirley Brooks, the soon-to-be editor of Punch, asked the couple to educate his sons.
The school remained in the Maclaren family for seventy-five years before benefactors, John Evans and Geoffrey Bolton, assumed control in 1939, forming Summer Fields into a charitable trust in 1955, with a board of governors that included Harold Macmillan.

Nigel Talbot Rice became headmaster in 1975 and the school embarked on a major extension of its facilities stretching over two decades. A series of capital campaigns enabled it to launch an ambitious building programme and the tradition of investment has remained the core vision of succeeding headmasters, and lives on today as the school invests in another major improvement of and addition to its outdoor sports provision.

Sportster Forward | Sportster Motorcycles

I like the control I get from the mid ride foot controls but they aren't comfortable, and I like the comfort of my highway pegs but I feel like I give up some control, I have seen bikes with controls mid way between those two but can't seem to find anything on how to do it or even foot controls meant for that location. Can anyone give me any suggestions?

What I used to do on my Japanese bikes, and now do on my Superglide, is heel shift and brake. It's not a technique I've seen recommended anywhere, but it works well for me. I ride with my feet on the highway pegs, and use the back heel of my boots to operate the levers. If you haven't tried it, it will take a bit of practice. Depending on just where your highway pegs are, you will need to move your foot for the action. For me, it's not a large movement. (larger on the HD, the others had custom pegs I mounted for my build. The HD ones came stock).

An alternative if you're not handy with steel is to have a local metalworking shop make up a set of custom pegs. The drawback (and reason I didn't bother to do it myself) is that you would also need to modify the linkages to match.

One advantage of riding the way I do is that by not having modified the original components, I retain the ability to use the mid-mount controls as designed. This gives me the same feeling of control you mentioned (and desire). I think of it as "slow speed stability".

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