Leaderboard

Yesterday the weather alternated between rain and snow all day. I decided to do soma odds and ends on the bikes. Hadn't checked the air pressure on Eileen's trike tires and found the rears to be over inflated by 10 lbs and the front was 5 lbs low. Then decided to check the air in the rear suspension. I apparently I gave away my last Prorgressjive air pump when I sold the last bike so had to go find one. Found a Harley dealership open about an hour away so drove over to get it. When I was checking out, the lady asked if I needed anything else and knowing that they don't normally stock Vance and Hines mufflers, I said yea, I need a pair of Vance and Hines mufflers for a 22 Road Glide Limited. She said great, I have a brand new set still in the. box that I ordered for a customer who changed his mind and will make you a good deal on them. I had planned to eventually buy a set of Vance and Hines Monster Rounds. These were Vance and Hines Torquer 450's and after doing a bit of research on them and her knocking $300.00 off the price, I decided to buy them. Got home and first checked her rear suspesion and found that it was set on. zero. pressure. Got it adjusted properly. and about that time, Amazon delivered the KuryAkyn highway. pegs I had ordered for her so I. went. ahead and iinstalled them. So now I'm done with her trike for now at least. I've added a riders backrest, passenger backrest, KuryAkyn cup holder, phone mount with charger, Windshield pouch, and the highway pegs. She is good to go. So then I installed the new mufflers on my Road Glide. in my opinion, they look and sound great. At least sitting in the garage. I actually like them better than the Monster Rounds. I think the 4 1/2" gives it a considerably deeper sound the the 4" Monster Rounds. It is a bit louder than stock but not obnoxious. I'll know more after the weather gets better and I can get it on the road. All in all, a fairly productive day.

After 26 years working for the same company, it's time to move on. Things have been dicey for the last few years, but at this point they can no longer offer reliable year 'round work. I was hoping to retire here, but the bottom line is I gotta work. SO I"ve accepted a positiion with another outfit; they're matching my benefits plus a little bump in pay scale.. Sad to go but it's necessary. I'm starting to get a little excited about it though as my duties will be a little different, in a good way. Wish me luck.

Like others here, due to age and health, I decided to downsize from my 2006 Royal Star Tour Deluxe to a Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650. Loosing over 300# is welcomed but I'm not thrilled about loosing the drive shaft for a chain. While this new bike is only rated for 47HP, many reviewers say that it has no problem cruising at 75mph. And smoothly too. Being an air/oil cooled parallel twin with screw and locknut valve adjusters, maintenance should be a breeze. Time will tell. It does come with a three-year, unlimited mile warranty. Still being winter here in the Denver area, I haven't ridden it much, but the few miles I have, have been enjoyable.

They were your idea anyway 🤣. I’ve got some pretty strong front dive after 80k on it. I started reading posts here thinking about progressives and found several posts by you and Rick Butler about the Sonics. I placed the order yesterday, when they get here I’m going to install them in a lower mileage set of Midnight forks from a parts bike I bought. Hopefully having the forks ready will make a quick job of pulling the fairing and swapping forks. I already have a hook in the ceiling to hang the inner from doing head bearings a couple years ago. I saved them with the idea of liking the chrome forks someday.

I found a buyer for the trike and Deb sold the cargo trailer, so that leaves the RSV.

Update: My last message to them was that I was planning to open a PayPal dispute today at 12:00 if the order wasn’t fulfilled. The owner called me at 10:00 (18 days after order placed) to tell me they were running behind and they wouldn’t be making the springs for another week. I can understand busy times and product delays but keeping your customers in the loop goes a long way. An answered email or returned call could have saved them a sale and repeat customer. I recommend that if you want a product from them that you call ahead to see if it’s in stock.

not by me I let Trina handle my lite work

I just got a confirmation from PayPal that my Bitcoin purchase of $890.90 was complete. I did not buy any bit coin. The e-mail phone# and PayPal# don't match and we found no such activity on our CC. We will continue to monitor our CC. Be wary folks.

I'm not even gonna tell him that, don't want to hear his reply, 🤬

If you build it we will come!!!

Yesterday, I changed the oil in my bike and in Eileen's trike. I'll tell you right up front that there are certainly things that I like better about the Yamaha Venture as opposed to the Harley. Oil changes is one of them. The Yamaha is pretty straight forward, simply drain the oil. Change the filter. Add the oil. Done. Harley, easy enough but a lot more work. Drain the engine oil. Change the filter, Add oil. This can be on the side stand ut bike should be raised off stand to get most of the old oil out. Then drain the transmission, carefully measure about 28 ounces of transmission fluid. Add the 28 ounces. Check level and then add a bit more if needed until it is correct. Do NOT overfill. This is done with bike on the side stand. Then, remove the derby cover on the primary. Drain the primary fluid. use the special funnel to add oil to the primary. It takes a little less than a quart. Carefully add fluid while watching the level. Fill just to he bottom of the clutch basket. Do NOT overfill. Install new derby cover gasket, re-install derby cover. This is done with bike upright on my bike. Trike is different of course. All told, the Harely takes approximately 4 1/2 quarts of oil. One new oil filter. Mobile 1 for me. So 5 quarts at $10.99 per quart. 1 quart of transmission fluid. I use Redline Shockproof, at $20.00 per quart. 1 quart of primary fluid. I use Redline primary fluid at a $20.00 per quart. So to change the oil in the two Harleys was approximately $115.00 x two bikes so $230.00. Neither bike was due for an oil change but both were done before I bought them so I don't know what was used in them or if it was done exactly right. I'm sort of picky about that. On Saturday, I put a new front tire on Eileen's trike. Had some life left in it but was slightly cupped and it was the original tire on a 2017 bike.

My OC is coming soon and I'll need to put a rear tire on already. Mfgr and OEM replacements got about 13-14K on them. That was great but the third OEM only has about 6500 on it and the wear is a dramatic difference on this one. Time to look at darkside again. .

I've put just a hair over a thousand miles on it now. I have to say that I'm amazed at how smooth that little engine is even at 80 MPH. The mirrors are crystal clear. Plus, with its 59" wheelbase it is very stable. At 5'8", while I do get more wind noise than with the large windshield on my old RSTD, I do not get any buffeting. As long as I wear earplugs, I'm good. Online reviewers also complain about the rear shocks. While of course the bike is built to a budget, I've found that for my 170# carcass (plus gear), setting the shocks at position 3 of 4 allows for a firm but acceptable ride. I think too many try for a softer ride at the expense of bottoming out. As of now, I have no buyers remorse. I also added a pair of Shad SH-23 saddlebags which are reasonably priced.

Once again the members (current and former) of this group saved my sanity. I was replacing the clutch slave and struggling to get it out. After a while, I took a break to regroup and searched the site for tips on removing the slave. Thanks to the different threads I was able to understand the twists and turns required to remove it. I really don't know if would have continued to work with it or just started taking bits of the motorcycle off until I quit. Anyway I just wanted to say how much I appreciate all of you and the decades of experience contained here.

Crisis averted! Found the switch top burred in one of my gloves in the saddle bag after cleaning out the bike last night

True that, I kept using the battery in mine last year knowing I needed to replace it so last week I put the new battery in getting ready for riding season, so I have changed the oil and filter, checked all tires, new battery and checked lights. I need to check the brake and clutch fluid condition incase it needs flushing.

We went out Saturday, probably the most expensive 150 miles we ever rode. Spent $12 on gas, $40 on lunch, stopped by a motorsports store and accidentally dropped the deposit on an 18’ aluminum fishing/hunting boat. 😱😱😱. We just planned to look and pick out something to put on our wish list and start saving for.

WE are over by Daytona area if you decide to ride out somewhere when you get down here. Could meet somewhere in between for lunch or short ride.

That's a shame. I will say this, being through acquisitions and mergers, there is a lot involved and a lot of work. It's not uncommon for customers to be ignored for some time after. I've seen this because of technical issues, personnel departures as well as just stupidity. That being said, they will lose business over this and should 100% pay very close attention to the customers. You are buying the business for a reason and you need it to succeed fast.

I don’t know if there’s a legit reason for a delay or if it’s just poor management but you’d think they could take 10 seconds to answer an email in 2-1/2 weeks. Lack of customer service is the fastest way to lose me as a customer.

That’s be great but about an extra 6 hours. I need to do it in one day, not sure the back can take that.

Well, let's hope you have a GREAT retirement....If ya get my meaning....

It's sad when you've been with a company for so long and you see the issues and can do little to help correct them. I've had 5 full time jobs in my adult life. One, the first, was only 6 weeks because I was not given what was promised. I've been fortunate to be able to have had my own side business for about 15 of those years. My tenures are not as long as yours, 6 weeks, 2.5 years, 5 years, 12 years and 18 years in the current company. During this time my roles have changed dramatically too. From a tech building PC's and networks to managing DR, office construction projects around the country to basically anything no one else wants to do. If it's hitting the fan I get the call to manage the issue to resolution. It's kept the career challenging enough to keep me interested. As far as retiring, I tell everyone I'll retire at noon the day they bury me. Part of that is choice, part is not but hopefully can change that before the time comes.

DJ, I am in a similar field. I have been very fortunate(read LUCKY) that my frequent decisions to change employers has always benefited my family. I am now, #2 in the service dept. and #1 is ready to retire at any moment. Ironically, the company I now work for is the one I started out with in 1995. All this to say, I am sure you made the right decision.

They didn't actually promise anything. The primary issue is lack of work where I am. I know several of the guys at the place I'm going to and they all seem pretty happy there, plus they're pretty pleased that I'll be joining them. I'll be coming on board as a senior tech, which means I'll be doing more of the sort of work that will fit my experience and skill set, rather than jumping around on rooftops like I'm still 25 years old. I'll be doing more direction / supervision, kind of like a working foreman. They're taking me on, matching the benefits and pay above union scale that I've worked so hard to get where I am now. That's pretty rare, so I don't think they're expecting me to be a grunt. I've only 4 years to go until retirement and they know that and are still willing to take me on. I'm not comfortable with change, but I really should have done this years ago. They first offered me this spot in 2019, but I opted to stay loyal to the company I've been with for so long, but, like I said, I gotta work or I'll have to start contributing to my health benefits and my pension would suffer without full time hours. It's a necessary move. Even the people I'm close to in management with my current company are aware that I'm leaving and say I'm probably doing the right thing. They even floated the idea of paying me 40 hrs a week, working or not to keep me, but i declined That could only last for so long. I'm sure I'm doing the right thing. I hope....lol... Only 4 years to go....

Hope it's everything they promised.

Good luck with your new life.

Good luck on the new job!

My first glance at your pic I thought it was a BSA. If you dont plan on multi day trips I could see where its a good scooter. But then I also remember the days when a 650 was a "big bike". My brother back in late 50's rode a 500 I guess BSA from MacDill (Tampa) to Detroit. LOL MY parents thought he was nuts to go that far on a bike. Yours looks like fun, enjoy.

If you are staying in the same area, I'll bet a lot of your current customers follow you.

Good luck on the new job, new faces and new places will make it easy to adjust to.Give it hell!!!!!

Congrats on the new job. I hope you are very happy with the new company. Sometimes it's the only. or. best thing that you can do.

had the volume on the radio up

Hearing going on the fritz?

I get those a few times a year, I never open the email or click any links. If I’m questioning anything I log into PayPal to check my account.

Plan and post a get together and I’ll head that way😁😁😁. Even rode with y’all from Bongo’s place to Don’s so it wouldn’t be my first trip. I miss the WNY rallies.

Great!!! I was talking to @skydoc_17 today about ways we could get y’all down here without having to drag you down with a log chain. 🤣🤣🤣

I am thinking on it and I know @Marcarlis as well as we talked about it. I just have a few issues I need to get out my way before I can confirm.

I've been looking at the Touring version of the Super Meteor. I'd like to lose some weight as well. The RSV has gained weight over the years! Grins! Only complaint I've heard is the windshield doesn't protect the head from buffeting at highway speeds. Do let us know how the scoot rides at you get more miles on it. I'll be paying attention! Pretty color!

Ron, i installed sonic straight rate springs along with 15 wt fork oil, and I now run 0 psi air in the forks. I love the ride now.

I think you will like the Sonic Springs. In my opinion, they are the best option for the RSV.

Yep, disconnect line and plug both ends. Good to go.

Is it possible that the bike had been laid on its side at one time. Reason I ask is if that is the case, front fork oil may have possibly entered the air line and works its way back to the compressor and solenoids and that is what you have leaking. I am not aware of any oil used in the compressor so that wouldnt be what you have leaking. If you have the service manual, you can check pages 2-41 thru 2-46 and the services needed on the air compressor. There is also a procedure of how to remove the fork oil from the lines on page 2-40. The service manual is available in the tech section library. Good luck and let us know how it goes..

I was hoping you could make it but have a good trip up there. The New Hampshire/Maine area is one of the trips we hope to make someday. We’ve never been past west New York.

skydoc_17 sells a delinking kit. New SS hoses and and a manifold for the front.

LOL....not sure I remember how to work on an '86.

Eileen and I managed to get a little ride in today. Only about 50 miles I think. All backroads as she is still learning. She’s going ok but still needs a lot more time in the seat and learning how to find neutral.

Here are pics

Hey Don, You Sir, are a GOOD MAN! We don't care what kind of bike you and Eileen ride, we DO care that you ride safely, visit many wonderful places, and take lots of pics to share with the forum members! Heck! we got members that ride Electric Bicycles for Jimmy's sake! You do YOU, Don and Eileen! Update: Thanks Don, I showed Jean Eileen's new bike, and now SHE wants one too so she can ride with Eileen! Thanks Buddy! Earl.