As the riding season winds down...

 I lost a few months -- the entire summer to be exact -- from my riding season this year due to work commitments. Most often, I only rode to work; and it wasn't even a nice commute. Pathetic. I began to make up for misplaced time with a 4-day trip to Barre, VT at the end of August. That was a great get-away and the western side of Vermont is always a scenic ride.

The upside of working this summer was to get some fun-money for upgrades to my aging riding gear and new pieces/parts for the bike. The list for 2022 includes:

Chrome Front Axle Nut Covers

Mustang Standard Touring Solo Seat with Driver Backrest for Harley-Davidson Electra Glide & Road King Police 1983-'21, Textured, Black

'09-'22 Harley Touring Vivid Black Mid-Frame Air Deflectors from Hogworkz

Harley-Davidson® 16 Inch Detachables™ Wind Splitter Vented Windshield Dark Smoke

Extended shift lever from Softbrake

H-D Chrome Flush-Mount Fuel Cap and Gauge Kit

Dakota Digital 4.5 in. Chrome MLX-2011 Series Speedometer

CVO Road King Windsplitter replacement windshield from Freedom Shields

10" H-D Fused Lo Chrome WITH heated Kahuna handgrips. Super nice upgrade!

YHMTIVTU Motorcycle Saddlebag Liners Organizers

H-D Profile Custom Mirrors Satin Black, since my riding position was perfectly altered after addition of the Fused Lo bars, but I only see my elbows in the stock mirrors...

H-D Tank Knee Pads as my more forward seating position is allowing me to grip the tank more with my knees

Every mod in place now is working perfectly for me and I'm really enjoying this bike. While I appreciate the classic nature of the Road King and I've kept to mods that accentuate it. I hated the stock speedo cluster. 4.5 inches of wasted space for information. It's bad enough to have to drop your eyes away from the road to look down at the tank in the first place and I considered relocating with new gauges on the bar, where nature intended them.

I decided to go with the H-D flush-mount fuel gauge and gas cap. And the largest upgrade was moving to the Dakota Digital instrument cluster. Now I can see much more information and see it quickly without trying to look a the dumb little couple inch square LCD panel in the stock speedo. Dragged this bike right into the 21st century but kept the stock lines.

Next year? New grippier tires and maybe front and rear suspension replacement. I have to constantly slow down in corners to keep from scraping the floorboards. Usually the edge of my riding boots scrape pavement as the first lean angle warning indicator. We'll see...

Another riding year has completed. I always feel like I never get to ride as much as I intended to at the end of the prior year, but I always enjoy every ride I get to take.

Quick ride in the Berkshires

 Last Sunday was another beautiful day for a short ride. Not a cloud in the sky and temps were up into the 60's, so just needed to pick a direction to go. I decided to head out to the East and ride towards Hancock, Mass, then follow Rt43 north to the intersection with Rt 7. Originally I was thinking I might ride up Mt Greylock but I decided to wait for a warmer day for that climb. It's not super high but the temps do drop as you climb. 

I continued south on Rt 7 into Pittsfield MA, where I picked up Rt 20 heading west back into NY. Traffic was pretty light in most stretches and there were a good number of motorcycles out along the way as we get into warmer weather. When you have to start to mow the lawn around here, the chances of seeing more snow are mostly done for the season.

It was an easy ride and most of the (not NY) roads were in great shape. Overall a nice couple hours and about a 100+ mile loop.

Horns of a dilemma

 So, how's that new seat working out?...    

Over this past winter I picked up a Mustang solo seat with support bracket and spring mount kit for H-D. Seemed fine sitting on it installed on the bike in the garage. Looks really cool with it's profiles. Then I got out for the first ride of this year a couple of weeks back. The seat feels much different than the H-D seat I had installed last fall, but I suppose that is to be expected. The Mustang seat clearly looks like a higher build quality. You can just flip over any H-D seat that you've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars for and see that it is stapled, whereas the Mustang seats I have are all riveted.

I was after this seat right from the time I was ordering the parts at my dealership to do the conversion, but there were none available. Interesting story on that, I spoke with a sales tech on the phone about ordering this and he proved in repeated emails he had no idea what I was talking about and kept referring me to the wrong seat. I was after this seat as Mustang has a built-in backrest capacity for most of their seats, including this solo seat, and Harley does not. Like the Corbin seats I've had, my Mustang seats have a built-in receiver in the back of the seat which you just slide the arm of the backrest into. Simple. But not Harley.

I went out for a 40 mile ride and was not totally liking the feel of the seat. It has a pressure point the H-D seat does not. It is much more thinly padded on the seating area, but bulkier on the lumbar/back of the seat. I kept feeling like it had me moving towards the tank and I had to keep adjusting.

I next rode about 30 miles to a friend's house and told him about my experiences with this seat. He currently has the same one on a H-D Electra Glide Police and didn't find it as difficult as I had. He is also a couple inches shorter than I am. I rode home and had the same opinions.

I then put the H-D solo seat back on. It is more thickly padded and has a wider seating area for wide  American butts. I rode 60 miles yesterday and liked it. I found myself moving around on the seat a bit to put the bike into corners. Not saying I was dragging a knee but I was definitely comfortable with riding the bike. So.... today I swapped the Mustang back on.

SSDD. Because the padding is thinner, I am sitting a bit lower with this seat. Not the end of the world. I also feel that due to the sculpting of the seating area that I am sitting closer to the tank. Okay... But both of those things combined completely changes the rider triangle.

My legs are now level VS hips higher than knees. My feet fall in a very slightly more rearward place on the boards putting my legs in a 90 degree bend. Just that bit of loss of height and moving my feet back a little more, makes bending my ankles to downshift and brake just a bit less pleasant. And I've already installed a 1" longer shift lever and rear brake lever.

Well this sux. It's not like given the choice between riding with the Mustang or not riding at all that I would chose door #2, but the H-D is clearly looking like the better option for me. Ugh. I REALLY wanted that backrest for longer rides. There may be one more adjustment I can make to the seating configuration to see if that helps. TBD. Too cold to ride until next week, so I'll try it again...

The above is the H-D solo seat from last fall

From today's ride, the Mustang solo seat

Ready for Spring to arrive

 It is beginning to look as if Winter may have lost it's grip on the Northeast. Temps are still around freezing most nights, but are consistently reaching into the 50's during the day now; sometimes higher. There has been enough rain to wash away the salt and sand that had been applied to the roads during snowstorms, and I am ready to ride at the next opportunity.

I accumulated a few goodies over the past couple months to add to my FLHR and put a few of them on during the last 2 weeks as time allowed.

> Chrome front axle nut covers

> Mustang solo saddle with backrest    (4^th seat I’ve had on this bike in ½ year or so I’ve owned it)  I already have the Mustang passenger pillion from earlier with the H-D solo seat. Decision Time cometh and then I should sell a couple of the seats I have accumulated…

> 2” Ride Masters aluminum seat riser

> Replaced all lights with Eagle Lights LEDs

> H-D Wind Splitter vented windshield, which is kinda like the amount of protection from the windscreen on all sport bikes I’ve owned, ie not much. But it looks a lot cooler than stock, so ….

> Painted air deflectors from HogWorkz behind rear cylinders. Mechanics must have really small hands...

> 1” extended shift lever from Softbrake   Already have their clutch lever and extended brake pedal

> H-D soft lowers

> H-D black fender skirt

I will be getting a taller tinted, flared windscreen soon for longer trips or weather protection, and still have the stock shield in the meantime. So very many things I have planned for this bike, upcoming. 

All I need is $$$