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.

changing The Pace : Modifications, Part 1

After a month of Road King ownership, I'm still settling in. I like it. A lot. It's powerful and handles well enough for what I want to do at this time. I have spent years getting ready to make this transition and am very, very happy to have this bike. Now, I have to learn how to use it, and get the most from it. I have learned where I am in the rev range by feel now in most gears. I have also learned how far I can lean by scraping both floorboards a few times. Answer here is: not as far as I would like, and far less than I am used to.

I wish the brakes were 10 times better, and by that I mean more responsive, but I will be looking into that. Hey -- did you know that motorcycles have a rear brake? Seriously! I'm not kidding, turns out they do. And while this bike has 2 front disc rotors, they seem to be mostly for show; you can't actually stop this motorcycle quickly using them. I ride covering the front brake with my index finger, and they are good for scrubbing speed, but if you really want to stop a 900lb Harley in a hurry, you MUST use the rear brake in conjunction with the front brake, while downshifting of course. After 30 years of nearly all of my braking being completed by my right index finger, to the point I have lifted the rear wheel off the ground more times than I can count under severe braking, a handful of front brakes can't stop this bike anywhere less than an airport runway. And THAT was an important lesson for me to learn early.

I have heard in person, and read a lot from Harley riders who have the impression that the front brakes will kill you, and you should avoid them, and there is something to this if you are riding a H-D at say 15mph or less. Then, using the front brake without care while turning can tuck the front end and make bad things happen. I believe that is due to the frame geometry and weight distribution under braking, but could be wrong. Police motor officer training PREACHES nearly dragging the rear brake to perform slow-speed maneuvers, while applying power and controlling the clutch friction zone, and I've seen enough videos from current and ex motor officers to believe them 100%. They can suspend the laws of physics and make these bikes do insane things and perhaps next year after some ride time, I will join friends of mine and start to practice these techniques. After I install the Drop Guards... Meanwhile, I constantly practice using the rear brake.

So brakes could be on my future upgrade list. Along with lighting. This bike has the old-school lights. HD sells other models with some LEDs at this point, but I'm not aware of many with full LED lighting. Huge aftermarket for that also and for good reason. It's not so much to see at night, as much as to BE SEEN during the daylight. Super bright lighting is one less reason for someone to tell the responding officer they didn't see you after pasting your ass. 

As every rider experiences on a regular basis -- and hopefully can escape! -- on my most recent ride I had a driver looking to the the right, saw it was clear, I'm guessing did not look left again before turning  left across my path :  statistically the #1 cause of motorcycle accidents. I was watching and anticipated this action as I approached and was already slowing down. I'm fairly proud I didn't flip him off, but wish that I'd had an LED highbeam that I could have flashed at him.

I reeeeeeealy wish that my backordered Mustang Touring seat would arrive as I hate the stock seat. When my wife first saw me riding the bike she said I looked like Easy Rider, and you know, not in a good way. The stock seat has a very pronounced slope at the back which forces the rider to lean backwards to make contact.

When I lean back to the seat, I am in a posture very similar to driving a car, and you would think that would feel perfectly normal, but to me it is unpleasant for a few reasons. First, slouching VS sitting up straight puts a lot of strain on your lower back as the miles go on. Zero lumbar support from the seat.

The next problem with this is that this slouch puts my line of sight right about at the top of the stock windscreen, which I find unnerving entering corners. I knew I was giving up much high-speed control of a motorcycle as I transitioned through the years from a sportbike crouch to the cruiser slouch, but obstruction of my line of sight is unacceptable. I am also waiting for a backordered Harley Windsplitter as my first attempt to correct that, as one of it's benefits will be that it is 3" shorter.

So I spend about 1/2 my ride time using my quads to push back and help me to sit more upright, which takes strain off my back, allows me to see over the windscreen and puts me in a position I feel (you may disagree) provides me more control. That soon moves the pain from my back to my legs... Another problem with is that the stock seat has limited flat surface area to occupy as they devote a couple inches of the driver space to the sloped back. I am hoping the new extended reach seat fixes all 3 of these issues as it eliminates the slouch-slope which will give me more flat space all the way back to the more upright seat step, which provides some lumbar support. I added a backrest to provide more as needed. And, it's better padded than stock so I'm hoping it adds a tiny bit of seat height from the ground. All of this will give me (maybe not you) a better seating position.

Once I get all of the seating issues worked out, I'll start considering handlebar replacements as the stock one are a bit too pullback. I know I can swing them forward but I'm talking more about shape and z-bars. More on this in a future entry.

zRides - the reboot

Time passes. Things change. Again.

[ I understand if you don't want to read all of this, there are a couple pics at the bottom of this post

Also, I need to check all of the links in older posts as they could have expired years ago]

Well, it seems the title of the prior post turned out to be quite prescient, considering the 10 year gap. I have decided that as I begin another decade (2020 didn't really count, right?)  and a new phase in my life, that I am going to try adding this blog back into my routine, and I hope to return to a bit of digital photography which has also languished. 

I've had a couple of bikes come and go over the past 10 years, including my ZRX1200R, GSXR1100 and my Ninja 1000, and my riding dropped off considerably due to personal reasons and activities, and spirit-crushing freakin' work schedules. I have resolved most of those problems now, so -- I'M BACK !

For over 30 years I rode only sport bikes. Need for speed and all of that. I had a very narrow focus on what I considered a viable motorcycle to be, within that paradigm. If you want a quick look into where I was at that time, read any of my other Americade entries.

Over time, I found that some of the things I had been chasing (...) lost their attraction for me. Things I had thought were not important previously, came more into focus. I leaned away (I can't help it...) from corner carving and started to dwell more on riding. I began to look at motorcycling differently. I began to think about taking long rides out in the mountains that surround this area. I actually started to read the American Motorcyclist magazine I'd been receiving for 35 years...

And what I decided I wanted most NOW was not the endless quest for carving the next corner, but to slow down enough to see was was passing in-between them. I wanted some peace and calm back in my life. What I wanted above all else was the sense of wonder of motorcycling that I felt as a young boy when I'd stop playing to look up and watch a bike roll by; the sensation of the first rides I took when I was 10 years old on a Montgomery Wards mini-bike, the ones with a lawnmower engine, pull-start and rear scrub brake; the first time when as a teenager I mastered shifting on a KE100 while orbiting a small dirt track. I want that feeling again.

For some reason I do not now remember, at the 2016 Americade I spotted a Victory Cross Country and it held my attention. 

I got the nerve to take it out -- public opinion be damned! I was the only rider in head-to-toe full gear -- and found to my disbelief that I enjoyed it. I took it out again and again and again that week. One day it rained as we rode to Americade, the entire day we spent there and all the way home, and I took that bike out repeatedly. 

I will admit that this advertising pic from Victory for the CC, particularly in Suede Nuclear Sunset Orange, added a bit to my desire for this bike:

I put on over 700 miles of 20 min demo rides that week on that bike. Don't remember if I rode anything else. Followed that up with a Demo Truck Day at our local dealer a month later. I decided I was going to buy a Victory CC the following spring. And then, that winter Polaris pulled the plug on Victory and after a couple months of pouting, I moved on.

At the IMS at Javitts that I've attended a lot of the past 30 years, I came across a 2019 Harley Davidson Road King Special. I didn't even know what model it was as I came up behind it; guess I had not seen the Special before. I thought it was black but it was really Midnight Blue over the blacked out bike. I spent the next year thinking that would be the bike I would get next. Money kept getting reallocated and no bike was purchased. Then this year was finally my year.

After months of researching over the winter and changing my mind dozens of times, I started searching online for an FLHR, as while the Special is gorgeous, the Road King Classic has a better stock ride and that was a bigger priority for me if I am going to sit in that position. At first, with the massive inflation that happened with 2021, I was searching 2016/2017 models. I'd take the final Rushmore but wanted the M8, though I did fear a first year release. One day in frustration I expanded my search up to 2019 and immediately found a bike that was posted 2 days earlier and was not 1000 miles away, but a 45 minute drive. I went, I saw, I put a deposit down.

Original owner had some bad luck and had only put 266 miles on the clock, then it sat for a year. While I have no delusions of zigzagging the country, I will be using this bike extensively in search of that feeling.

** Editor's Update A Couple Of Years Into The Future: This bike will NOT stay in the configuration that you see here. It will be a work in progress while I own it

well and truly done

10/27 we picked up 3". Not so bad, it melted in a day or two. 10/29 we picked up another 7". Okay, I can take a hint. Time to clean and polish and setup for winter.

Off to sleep the winter away, until next spring...