Time is short, again

 I got out for rides twice this past week with Scott, for autumn foliage runs while the weather was unusually warm. It was in the low 70's all this past week, but the cold front comes through on Saturday. It's not unusual to have snow on the Halloween decorations around here, so hoping not this year.

On Monday afternoon we did a 50 miles circuit of eastern Rensselaer County, covering a lot of our old stomping grounds and some roads that have for decades been incorporated into Sunday rides. Found some newly paved areas and avoided some of the places destroyed by flooding last summer, not all of which have been repaired.

Thursday we went north around the east side of Saratoga Lake, and I accumulated about 100 miles. Again, many roads we've used for decades as part of Sunday rides and many others I'd never been on, and at times had no idea at all where we were. My H-D Ride Planner app took copious notes if I want to try and recreate the run.

These were the first longer rides I've done since adding the H-D Police solo seat and it is such an improvement for me, in the way i'm sitting now. I'm hoping to soon have a 2" riser from Ride Masters which will elevate the back of the seat, making the seating surface level, rather than slanting backwards. Harley just can't give up on the default slouch, ever.

Didn't get any leaf pics, 'cause the point was the ride, so we didn't stop for photo shoots along the way. Both days were warm and bright and you picked up the smells of Autumn as you rode. Leaves and apples and occasionally burning wood. Like me, many people around this area would tell you fall is a favorite season. We've been taking these rides for 40 years now and I am hopeful for a few more.

In the two, really non-scenic pics below, take a look at the seats on both bikes. You can see how the seat on the Electra Glide with the riser at the back really raises the seat to a level seating surface, compared with the initial stock install on my Road King, which tilts a bit to the back. Hopefully, I'll get that riser in time to try it this season, and that will be the end of seating modifications. For a while.

September Road Trip, Part 2

My 9/2/2021 entry describes a 3 day trip to Barre, VT with a couple friends who participated in the NE Motorcycle Skills Training and Challenge Event. I was extremely impressed with the riding skills of the competitors and it quickly became apparent why just about every single person was riding a Police model of Road King or Electra Glide, with the solo seat. Not only that but most had also installed a 1-2" riser above the spring to raise the rear of the seat so that the position moved from nearly level to slightly canted forward.

While riding the course, they also sat right up close on the tank. That, I understood immediately as I have been doing this on sportbikes since the '80's. Not sure of the exact physics at work, but you instinctively learn that you have the best leverage, weight distribution and overall control in tight cornering moving forward on the bike towards the bars.

When I got my Road King it came with the stock seat. Total garbage. If you are using that same seat, please do yourself a favor and upgrade. You will be very happy with the improvement in comfort and seating position from any other seat you try.

For me, it was a matter of sitting more upright, both for physical comfort and improved control of the bike. I bought a used Mustang Super Touring seat and it was a huge improvement. The extended reach design removed the slope at the back of the rider's space and moved me back 1-2 inches for more legroom and better operation of the foot pedals. The seat provides far more lumbar support and the additional padding also raised me up 1-2". I judged all of this by how I sat more upright and could see a few inches above the windscreen.

Then I went to the Skills event and saw people who had mastered their bikes. You can see the winning Expert Class ride here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYhWr1Inks

I also got to sit on a bike configured this way and was shocked at how it felt. I was struck by how much it felt like the seating position of my Kawasaki Ninja 1000. The control posture was outstanding, which is why Police bikes are setup this way; also for all day comfort. 

So... contacted my dealer and ordered up the parts needed to convert my bike over to the Police Solo Seat. That all came in after a couple weeks and they did the installation. I am still waiting for a Mustang passenger seat to come in as 2021 is among other things, the Year of the Backorder.

Riding the bike home for 30 minutes was an eye opener. It is shocking how much better the bike feels to me. I’m still going to elevate the rear of the seat, but right now my knees are a bit below my hips and I am seeing at least 4” over the windscreen. Once the riser is on and I’m hopefully done messing with the seating, I'll focus on whatever the next thing is...

Road Trip

Okay, Road Trip is relative. It was about 400 miles round trip, and I know some people who do that in 1/2 a day before lunch, then continue on. So let me qualify this. A friend and I took off for a 4hr trip into another state and stayed there 3 days before riding back. So... road trip. Longest ride for me so far on the Road King.

The purpose of this adventure was to attend the NE Motorcycle Skills Training and Challenge Event being hosted by Ride Like A Pro Palm Beach and being held at Wilkins Harley Davidson in Barre, VT. They have a really great dealership, tons of stock and everyone there is very friendly and helpful.

My friend Scott has been training with Mike this year to work on slow speed riding skills utilizing patterns of cones. Mike was planning to attend this event and compete in the expert class and suggested my buddy go and register in novice class for the experience of it. I was along for the trip. You've likely seen this type of thing before, sometimes with police motor officers participating in a competition, demonstration or rodeo. YouTube is loaded with tons of competition videos and many people offering training and advice on slow speed motorcycle handling.

I would say that after several decades riding sport-bikes, I was fairly confident with them in most riding situations, but at this time I have very little low-speed riding skills with my big, heavy FLHR. I am committed to changing that. Like with any performance activity, it is one thing to see videos or TV shows of skilled people performing, and it is entirely different to be there live, in this case for days, watching, hearing and smelling it. Seeing people take a 900lb bike and toss it down, then flip it back up, grinding floorboards as they navigate hundreds of cones in tight, complex patterns is amazing. And allow me to point out that almost every single one of them was using a police-style solo seat and sitting right up against the tank. This gives a posture that is surprisingly close to that of my Ninja 1000 and provides maximum control of the motorcycle.

My friend's ability to remember the entire course layout and eventually navigate it completely without touching a cone or putting a foot down was impressive at his stage. I do not believe that right now I could complete any single section of it, and there are dozens. Then seeing the top-level competitors go through the course at several times the speed was incredible. Made me quite self-conscience just navigating in and out of the dealership parking lot...

Vermont has some really great roads and the ride was a good one. Only problem was that the weather was not cooperating on our departure day. Phone app said no issues, clear skies... That changed during our lunch break when it rained for 10 minutes. As we left for home a couple of hours later, we ended up riding in rain on and off for stretches, the entire duration of the return trip.

No mishaps, and even with the inconvenience of the rain, it was a great few days. I am waiting on some more equipment and putting on a few more miles, but plan to aggressively practice these types of manuvers next year. I have no illusions of ever competing but truly see the value in being able to control my motorcycle to the full extent of my abilities.

Another Ride, Another NDE

Last Sunday was a pretty nice summer day - the humidity broke for a change and it was sunny throughout. Decided to take a quick spin so I went out for a 50 mile loop. Figure 8 actually. There are some  slow areas through a few towns and many stretches labeled 55mph further out into the countryside, which had very little traffic and can be taken as quickly as you dare. I'm enjoying the new seat addition and it was a nice ride.

I've heard most of my adult life that a large number of accidents occur within 1 mile of where you live. I think that is because people can become complacent due to familiarity. So, I'm about 30 seconds from my house, about to exit a divided highway with 2 lanes in each direction, and I stop at a red light, where I will make a right turn. I'm looking to my left as there is a constant stream of traffic coming and I ended up sitting there for the entire light.

Light turns green for me and I turn my head back to the right and start to let out the clutch when a SUV comes up along side me on the right, on the shoulder area with hash marks on it to tell you to stay in your lane bro, and whips around the corner. Over the years, I've had cars do this while I had my F-150 or Ram, and if I see them in time, I run them clean off the road. Different deal on a bike...

On this map segment, I'm in red and the SUV is in blue

I start saying out-loud to no one in particular "Are you F*ing kidding me?" as I pull the clutch back in and brake, catching the early 20-something's face in his side mirror, who sees what he has done, or was told by a passenger or whatever, and gives me the wave of "Sorry, my bad", which I returned with a different emphasis.

I know that I had checked my directional as I was about to stop to make sure it was on, which is partly trying to get used to having to push 2 different thumb switches and look straight down at the tiny digital directional display to see if it's on. I know that they brilliantly self-cancel after you make a turn and if you travel a long distance, but I check as I'm stopping. I am not aware these are on any timer if I'm sitting still, and I'm not 100% positive it was still flashing as I sat there, though I do check that... I suppose it could have gone off just as I came to a stop, which sort of makes this my mistake.

Bottom line is, ALWAYS check everything ALWAYS

After the Rain

 Yesterday I went to visit friends I have not seen since the Covid adventure began. Both are long time Harley riders who have decades of riding and hundreds of thousand miles between them. I learned last week that Mark had a Mustang Super Touring seat he no longer uses and offered to sell to me. As I have been back-ordered on this same seat for about 2 months now and find the stock seat I have to be a limiting factor on how long I can ride, I jumped at the offer.

I was thinking I'd drive up and get the seat, but... ended up taking my bike. My initial hesitation was that we are in a really hot and humid stretch of weather and A/C seemed a good choice. I would not otherwise have been out riding, but went for it. I turned it into a 37 mile trip and when I got within 5 miles things went from sunny, hot & humid to dark and 10 degrees cooler due to a large cloud front. I arrived without incident, spent some time and then headed back home with my new-to-me seat. 

It had clouded up again and there were storms in the area. Confidence was not high. About a mile into the return trip I found the rain and rode in it for 5 minutes, then another 10 on soaked roads where it had already rained, then it dried out for the final 30 minutes home.

During this first excursion with this bike in the rain and on wet roads, I learned that I can lock the rear wheel dropping down into 3rd gear, and also that between downshifting and braking I can lock both front and rear wheels simultaneously, and slide by a road I wanted to turn onto. Take-away here was that I am not on a sportbike and need to have a bit more planned braking lead time under these wet conditions. I still have a lot to learn about the braking of this motorcycle, but no need to learn that both wheels locked will quickly lead to a bad outcome...

First thing this morning, before cleaning, I went out for a short ride. 

Different day. Different lake.

Then the plan to was wash and wax the bike. That turned into about 3 hours of time after taking parts off and getting all of the road spray I could reach cleaned out. 4 or 5 coats of wax later and I'm good to go for the next ride.

Ride Safe

Time to look for another bike...

Blast from the past:

As I was sorting some pics of bikes I no longer own, I came across this debacle from 9/1/2013. First, let me say that I really did enjoy owning this Ducati S2R1000. It was far from the most performance oriented bike I have had, but ticked the boxes for being exotic and sporty and was a blast to toss around. 

A few of us went south to Middleburgh on the weekly ride that Sunday. I had the trail postion in line on the way back. Somewhere below the escarpment, after putting on 110 miles, I'm watching the line ahead bend around a 100 degree right turn.

I downshift a gear to start setup for the approaching corner, let the clutch out and immediately hear a metallic clatter that sounds, well, pretty bad. I reflexively pull in the clutch lever and listen. I let it back out again (sort of like hitting the side of an old TV in the 70's) and same result. I pull the clutch, hard on the brakes, coast around the corner and come to a stop along the side of the road. I watch the riders ahead of me disappear around the next corner.

I look down expecting to see a blown out case where the transmission used to be, or something similar from all of the noises, and I catch a glimpse of my chain hanging low. Okay, not so bad, I'm thinking my chain snapped, but I can't really see well with the helmet on. I get off and look and this is what I notice after a full second:

Um, that can't be right...

Like you, I was thinking "Hey…." or something like that. I bet it took another 5 seconds before I fully realized what I was looking at. Is that the axle?... Then, where is the sprocket? And how did that get out from under the chain under tension? Next thought was holy crap, that could have been reeeeeealy bad if the chain wrapped as I was entering the corner.

Everything is gone. I walk back along the road a bit and never find anything. I have a mental image of the sprocket coming off while I was doing about 70mph, now sticking in a tree like a Chinese throwing star. And I'm thinking there are at least 3 other parts which are supposed to be what prevents that. The more I consider all of this the angrier I am getting. The other riders come back looking for me and we all stand there repeating "I have never seen anything like that happen before."

So we leave the bike in some guy's driveway (after asking…) (I personally wanted to push it back closer to the corner exit and leave the bike along the shoulder of the road at that point, hoping one of the occasionally passing dump trucks would paste it and I could just cash out) and Scott rides me back to his house, where another guy meets us after going home to get his truck. We drive 30 miles back to the bike, load it, and leave it at Scott's house. I get a ride to my house, then head to a family party, very late.

So, turns out that Sunday was a good day not to die. I'm quite thankful about that. Laying in bed that night I'm thinking that for lack of a $1.89 clip, the entire carrier/sprocket/cushbearings/cover/wheelnut assembly was allowed to fall off of a $10K bike, at speed. That my friends, is a design flaw. It's also a very sobering thought. I went further to think that the wheel was off a few hundred miles earlier to have new tires put on and what if <dealer long out of business due to massive mismanagement> rushed reassembly? Would not be the first thing they f'd up. Not pointing fingers, but either something wasn't tight, the clip wasn't there or had to break? It didn't just fall off.

So I ordered up $300 worth of parts, most of it used off eBay, which saved me about 200%. Took all of that, a bunch of beer and phone number for the local pizza place back to Scott's where a group of guys with experience assembling all of this, did so. I rode the bike down the driveway, around the cul-de-sac and into the back of my truck. When I got home I put about 10 miles on it and declared it repaired. Never rode that bike again. 

What it should look like. And yes, this is a totally different bike

My plan that summer had been to trade this one in the following year if possible and this event had done nothing to lessen that desire. Traded it in the next spring for a 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 1000. If I were you, and have the same swing arm setup, I'd go safety wire that clip...

Things I enjoy about this Road King

 I am now over 2 months into Harley ownership. Hard to believe this much time has passed, but I'm going to blame part of that on the rain. Unlike the West Coast which is going up in flames and struggling with drought, the East Coast has been like the Amazon for most of this summer. The rain has been relentless. It's raining again as I type this. Here is an accounting of rain damage that occurred a couple weeks ago a few miles from where I used to live. This is taken from an article published by Q105.7 Classic Rock, My personal FAVORITE local radio station:

So under these conditions, it's been difficult to get a lot of riding in lately and if there is half a day where the roads are dry, I'm out for an hour or two. For the first time this summer, I had the ability and the weather cooperated so that I was able to ride BOTH days this past weekend.

I have spent a lot of time cleaning and waxing this bike in my garage the past few weeks and one thing that I really appreciate about this motorcycle is that it has Presence. I enjoy the classic, minimalist look of this motorcycle. Just sitting parked, it occupies space in a way that draws everyone to it. It is a large, solid machine that commands attention, as touring bikes tend to do. As I go over this bike with polishing cloths from front fender to tips of the exhausts, I am totally impressed with how much substance this motorcycle represents.

Let me try to explain this... I have owned many motorcycles over the years, the vast majority being Kawasaki, some Suzuki, and others. The Kawi's always impressed me with how solid, sturdy and just well built they were. Not to mention screaming good fun. At the far end of that spectrum was the Ducati Monster I owned, which for all of its expense, had a great deal of plastic and unfinished exposed metal everywhere. When I am polishing the front fender of a motorcycle, I expect it to feel solid, not floppy, flimsy and cheap. Other side of that argument can be made that these bikes are all about performance, but that also doesn't fly with the Monster. I really enjoyed that bike. It made a statement all it's own and was fun to ride, so hard to fault it too much. I guess they were going for that crashed Euro-bike vibe.

The Road King takes substance, several levels above. It looks big and solid, because it IS. That seems easily explained since it weighs about twice as much as sport bikes I have owned. But now, I really appreciate this. Polishing this bike you see and feel the material that goes into Harleys. The fit and finish which is exposed is all brilliant. The paint, the chrome. It's outstanding.

Over the years I have said that I appreciated Harleys as an art form, but I was in a place where I was all about sheer performance corner to corner. Don't get me wrong, I still love that. I know I've become comfortable with this bike now as today for the first time I instinctively started to hang off a bit in a 90 degree uphill left turn before I started to worry about the rear suspension. I also learned today that I can lock the rear wheel during aggressive braking, so I'm still exploring limits.

What I really need is a new seat, but that discussion will happen in another post. Still making some mods to accommodate my size and hoping, hoping, hoping that my backordered parts will arrive while it's still riding season. I think that once I have these things sorted this bike will work very well for me.

I am very happy to have it.