I do remember you typing of living by the sea John, and given all the Chrome springs and kit on a Springer, my guess is that you will need to be extra specially precious about cleaning it regularly... Which may be fun for some, but not for me..
Lead weights in the handlebars...!!! How very Porsche, given in the sixties Porsche seemingly put lead in the front bumpers of the then new 901 to off set the supposedly wayward rear end...? Could be no more than fake news... but..? (-:
Not so unusual as you think Mercedes added lead weights to cut out resonance and mitigate scuttle-shake in their '90's W!24 Cabriolets.
ANother 'old hands' advice I'll pass on, as most Harley seats are some form of plastic/vinyl covering, they with a hot engine underneath especially in summer , the seats 'draw you' ie make you sweat and become uncomfortable after a while. If you can't afford a leather replacement or they are no longer available, I use a new chamois leather placed on top of the seat, it saves your backside and you just remove it when not riding. I did 3 weeks of riding in the US on a chamois leather, as a leather seat wasn't available at the time for my new model Dyna-glide I took across to the States for the 90th celebrations. There are pictures of me on the freeway with little flaps or ears of the square chamois blowing in the wind. I was one of the few that didn't suffer saddle soreness after long days of riding.
After a while I used to get my standard Harley seat recovered in leather, usually having memory foam added as necessary to get the ride height correct for me......not cheap even back in the 90's..
