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

Answering my own question from last year, I am committed to the Mustang solo saddle over the H-D seat. The Harley seat is more comfortable for ME in the short-term with it being wider and better padded. What it lacks entirely is any type of lumbar support, which is critical for ME. It may be a better seat for YOU; to each their own. I also find it much easier to ride at speed and corner with the Mustang. And, during a couple hundred mile ride, I also learned that I hate the backrest, as due to my lower back issues it simply aggravates them. No plans at this time to ever use it again.

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, I've kept to mods that I feel accentuate that while also improving functionality. 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 $$$   

Global Warming has it's perks

 November-freakin-18 and for a brief couple of hours, ahead of a storm front pushing up from the south, it reached 64 degrees. I was in the process of putting Christmas lights up outside, when I happened to look at a weather app and saw that it had hit 60 degrees. No choice at that point: I had to stop what I was doing, get suited up, and head out for a ride. It's the law.

I figured that I had at least an hour before the weather turned bad, so I ran a figure 8 out around the eastern part of the county. It was a bright, sunny mid-day and any other time I would have ridden for another hour, but things needed to get done so I was back home after 41 miles. Less than 2 hours later the temperature had dropped 15 degrees and it was raining. I'm 99% sure that was the last ride of the season as high temps are in the 40's going forward, but it was a great escape.

As an aside, I've changed my seating position for the 4th time now by installing the 2" riser under the back of my solo seat, and this was my trial ride with it in place. Had to adjust my mirrors again and get the feel of yet another new seating position. I'd estimate I've raised the seat 4" from stock, my hips are above my knees, and it fits me perfectly now. I've already been researching the upgrades for next year...

Okay, THIS must be the final ride of the season...

 November 9 and the temps touched 58 degrees. Un-believe-able. Nothing for it, I had to get out for a quick spin. No one was available to ride with that afternoon, so I decided to do a loop around the north-east part of the county where we used to live a couple houses ago. It wasn't a pretty day; bright enough but full overcast, which made things look a bit dreary at times. Any leaves that were still clinging to trees were long past their brilliant yellows and reds and oranges and now were pretty much brown and crispy looking.

But it was warm and I was riding! I was running along some twisty roads by a large reservoir, not a car in sight, and thinking about riding again. I've wanted to do this as long as I can remember and all these years later I am still able to ride motorcycles. I do not take that for granted. I had wanted to stop at the top of the lake again in a frequent spot for a quick picture, but there was a car there so I kept going, a bit annoyed.

At one point I just peeled off on a road to the right and rode for many miles, just making random turns at intersections when one direction or the other looked appealing. Put me in mind of many decades ago when one or two of us used to go out for day rides and pick a direction and then just make turns based on where the sun was and dead reckoning. Always made it home.

After 1/2 an hour of just riding with little idea of where I was at the time, I made a turn and immediately realized I was right back at the spot that I had passed by earlier, so this time I stopped.

2 hours and 70 miles from the time I left, I was back home again, a bit sad that this was the end of riding for now. But as always, I was glad to have had the chance to go.

Be safe.

Might be the season end… A Trip to Blenheim

November 1 is a milestone around here to still be able to be out riding. Unlike last year, and many before that where there was snow at Halloween, this day was pretty nice. We had been monitoring the weather apps for about a week waiting to see if the predictions held out, and we got pretty lucky: right around 50 degrees with partial sun. Good enough.  Three of us planned to meet up and take a ride south to a covered bridge, just as a destination. We also know that the roads are usually in pretty good condition out that way, as we wind through the mountains.

Two would gather then come south to where I would meet them, and we’d proceed from there. An hour before that, a shower was passing through from Northwest to Southeast. So it’s raining a bit at Scott’s house… He waits it out and soon the sun is back again. Then Luke reports it is now raining at his house… We decided to push the meeting time 1/2 hour and gather at noon. I head out at 11:30 to meet them and I run into light showers — just enough to be annoying — along the way. We take off south on a planned route to go to the Blenheim Covered Bridge, which claims to be the “Longest single span wooden bridge of it’s type in the world”.

I’m pretty bundled up for this ride as I don’t have a batwing fairing or lowers or heated grips; some of that will be rectified over time. Many of the roads we traveled were known from Sunday ride routes we’ve taken in these areas over many years. The roads were mostly excellent and the scenery was very nice. That part of the ride was about 60 miles or so from where we met up.

Turns out that this is a re-creation of the original bridge which stood until 2011 when Tropical Storm Irene came through and caused historic flooding, which destroyed and washed the bridge away. It was rebuilt using the original plans in every detail, allowing it to maintain it’s historic designation, 10’ higher above it’s original location.

This is the Schoharie Creek many feet below flood stage

 

The ride back took a slightly different route to be both a bit quicker while the sun was still up, and avoid rush hour traffic. Overall I rode 132 miles, most of it through the local mountains to the south, on a sunny day in November, with two long-time good friends. If that turns out to be the final group ride for this year, it was a good one.

"Hey, which bike is yours?"  "The black Harley"...