Check out our product spotlight on Willy Shiny's Chrome Fork Legs and Wheel Spacers.

INTRODUCTION – There’s just something about chrome that makes us smile, especially when its laid out tastefully on a motorcycle. Truth is, Harley-Davidson does a fairly decent job at giving its stock bikes enough chrome to satisfy its customer base–for a short time. Once the honeymoon period with our new bikes is over, we start to notice certain things. Particularly, where on the bike the MoCo decided to “skimp” on the chrome. One of the areas, we feel, where Harley-Davidson continually drops the ball, or the chrome (in this case), is on the front fork legs. In our opinion, there’s no excuse for this. Chrome fork legs should come standard on a Harley-Davidson bagger. So, in an effort to correct an egregious mistake by the MoCo, we decided to reach out to Joe Cutshall, owner of Willy Shiny, at his shop in Rancho Cucamonga, to discuss how he might be able to “bling out” our Road Glide. For those of you who don’t know about Willy Shiny, its a company based out of Southern California that offers a chrome exchange program and a small, but growing, line of Harley-Davidson parts/accessories.

The company was founded in 2005, while Joe was in the middle of a Road King show bike build. Wanting to jazz up the Road King’s front wheel with something nicer than the chrome pipe pieces normally used for wheel spacers; Joe developed his own spacers that hid the wheel’s rotor bolts and bearings. Once word spread of Joe’s cool looking wheel spacers, everyone and their mother wanted a set–this is how Willy Shiny was born.

Willy Shiny has grown tremendously since their first wheel spacer in 2005. They are now a full fledged chrome exchange service, specializing in chrome wheels, fork legs, and brake calipers. In this post, we are going to be spotlighting their chrome fork legs and wheel spacers.

THE DETAILS – The Willy Shiny’s fork legs are top notch. Their beautiful triple plated chrome finish is achieved in large part through their meticulous preparation and chroming application process. Prior to chroming, all fork legs are sanded down and polished. This includes those ugly cast ridges on the backside of the fork leg caliper mounts, the raised “SHOWA” letters, and raised fork leg model numbers. Next, a thick copper base is applied combined with bright nickel and chrome, giving the fork legs a brilliant high luster shine. Finally, the newly chromed fork legs go through a “fit test” of sorts. Chrome remnants that have made their way into any threaded areas of the fork legs, or areas that will accommodate gaskets, are removed, insuring that all caliper mount bolts, drain plugs, and fork gaskets seat properly. That is Willy Shiny’s attention to detail.

Ok, so now we’ve given you the scoop on Willy Shiny’s chrome fork legs, lets talk about their famous wheel spacers.

Willy Shiny’s wheel spacers were designed with two things in mind–hiding the wheel’s rotor bolts and bearings, and improving the look of the wheel while doing so. The wheel spacers are made from billet aluminum and polished to a high luster before a beautiful triple plated chrome finish is applied. A stop collar is built into the wheel spacers to keep them properly distanced from the brake rotors. Got ABS brakes? No problem, Willy Shiny has a set that are ingeniously designed to hide the rotor bolts AND the ABS pick up sensor. That’s right, the left side spacer has a precision machined “window” where the ABS cable and sensor is fed through. And if you’re wondering…no, the spacers do not turn with the wheel. They are held stationary with the axle.

OUR THOUGHTS – We were highly impressed with the craftsmanship in Willy Shiny’s chrome fork legs and wheel spacers. To be honest, we didn’t realize the benefit of having a nice looking chrome wheel spacer until it was pointed out to us. It’s attention to those small details that really separates a great looking bike, from a good looking bike. The combination of the chrome fork legs and wheel spacer really jazzed up the front end of our Road Glide. It’s pretty amazing how Willy Shiny was able to transform our ugly stock fork legs into something that was show quality. Sure, we could have spent hundreds of dollars on aftermarket chrome fork legs, or even worse, handed our money over to the stealership for a set of their chrome fork legs, but why? Willy Shiny provided us a great product, that included a 2 year warranty against chrome flaking or peeling, at an unbeatable price.

CONCLUSION – If you’re tired of looking at your ugly stock fork legs, do something about it. Visit Willy Shiny and let them “bling you out”. You’re bike will look fantastic, and you’ll still have money in your pocket for gas!

To see Willy Shiny’s full line of products and/or to get details on their chrome exchange service, visit willyshiny.com. You can also call their toll free number at 1-909-815-5376.