Freebird

Great pictures. A couple of initial thoughts. Assume you were riding fairly aggressive but the gas mileage could certainly be better. My 2013 Road Glide got around 40 consistently. Heat issue would be a problem for me. That is the primary reason that I sold the Harley.

No, if you didn't have permission, it wouldn't even let you send it. The problem is that you can't access your profile I don't think before you become a supporting member. There is a setting there to "save" sent PMs. I'm sure it went through.

WOW....pretty amazing.

Check out the forum area here called the Darksiders.

That about sums it up. Midnight models had more chrome. Later the S models had the extra chrome I think. That's about it. Only difference in the trunks was some additional support washers starting in 2000. Retrofits were made available for the '99 models.

About 3 weeks ago, I spent a week in Minnesota at our semi-annual sales meeting. I didn't want to go because I had to leave the day after the funeral services for my brother in law and I really felt that I needed to stay home with Eileen. It was not really an option though. I got to Minnesota on Monday and then on Tuesday night, I finally made the decision that I had been struggling with for a while. I tendered my resignation on Tuesday night and told them that I would work until the first of March. I have been with the company for 14 years and they truly are a great company to work for. After 25 years of constant travel though, I had just lost my excitement for the job. As most of you know, I had been running my brother in laws stairlift business for a little over a year so have a good idea about the potential of the business. So, I am now self-employed. It was a big and scary step but I feel that I made the right decision. I have never been a person that wanted to own my own business but I think I am going to enjoy it. Though I am technically still working for my old company until March 2nd, I have a little over 3 weeks vacation coming so am starting it next Friday so I'm pretty much done with it. Eileen was encouraging me to resign and her first question was "why are you staying until March?" The last year has been brutal trying to juggle two full-time jobs and to be honest, I'm so business right now with the stairlift business that I don't know how I managed to do anything else. So I would like to say that I have semi-retired but I don't think that is going to be the case. I guess I've just changed jobs. The only thing that is a bit scary is that I am giving up the company's contribution to my medical insurance. I will stay on it for the next 18 months through the Cobra plan but it's expensive and I can only keep it for 18 months. Then I will have to find something else. Except for that, I feel pretty comfortable with my decision.

We have a member @Carbon_One that used to make them. Not sure if he still does but I tagged him in this post so that he can reply.

This won't help you because I'm sure you don't want to move to Yankee Land but the company that I work for currently has two outside sales/support jobs open. They are a great company to work for if anybody is interested but unfortunately, they do require a 4 year college degree. It doesn't matter what the degree is in but they require one in something. Absolutely not necessary to do the job but they won't bend on that requirement and they WILL verify. That being said, if anybody is interested, one of the positions is for the Chicago, Minnesota, surrounding areas. Ideally the person would be based somewhere around the Chicago area. The other position is mine. I tendered my resignation during our semi-annual sales meeting in Minnesota about 3 weeks ago. I am working until the end of this month and then moving on to other things. Most of you know that I have run my Brother in Laws stairlift business for a little more than a year. He passed away on new years day and I have made the decision to continue with that business full time. I couldn't continue to do both jobs and am tired of the travel that I have done for over 25 years now. I'm ready to spend my nights at home. So my position is open and that person would cover OH, MI, IN, KY, WV, western PA, and western NY. They would want you somewhat centrally located in that area. So, if anybody has a college education, lives in one of those areas, and needs a job, I can give you some contact information. Pay is OK, benefits are good, you will have a company car (Dodge Caravan), and all travel expenses are paid. I think they are starting people with 2 weeks paid vacation. Benefits include medical, dental, 401k, etc.

Eileen will be very unhappy if Spyders aren't allowed.

We have decided that Freebird's Maintenance Day will indeed be held this year. I will post the dates very soon but it will be the end of May or First of June as usual. Details coming soon.

The stairlifts that I unload off the semis come in good sized boxes but really aren't very heavy. Light enough that I can scoot the pallets around once I put them in my garage. If I start lifting anything heavy, I'll certainly add some weight to the back. I didn't get it home until Thursday and finally looked to see how many hours it has on it. 167 hours so it should be good for a long time. I know that he had just had it serviced.

I don't think there are any performance gains. Some people just like the sound better. Harley uses a lot of different designs but it's not unusual to be able to see straight through them.

Well, this one is not for sale. My BIL bought it brand new at a dealership in Medina, OH. Not far from me but I'm sure you can find one closer.

I bought a brand new Kubota about the same size as this Mahindra about 10 or so years ago. It was a great little tractor. I bought it because I had a special project and needed it at the time but after I finished, it was just sitting there and not being used so I sold it. It did have the backhoe and it was very handy at times. They make a backhoe attachment for this one also but I don't see myself needing it at this time.

I'm very familiar with the old Farmalls. Spent many summers sitting in the steel seat of one of them raking hay. There are still a lot of them around today.

I understand. I'm not dealing with enough weight to worry about that at this time. It's just getting them off the semi trailers and down my 450 ft. gravel drive. I considered just buying a used fork lift but after looking at the prices of units that would work fairly well on the uneven gravel drive, the prices started getting pretty high even for older models that would likely need refurbishing to be reliable. Then all they would do is lift. At least with this, I can move snow, mow, etc. so it serves multiple purposes. Just made more sense to me than a dedicated forklift.

Well, I hope it wasn't a mistake but I ended up paying off the bank and keeping my recently deceased brother-in-law's tractor. I have used it over the past year primarily for unloading the stairlifts off of semis when they are delivered. I know very little about Mahindra tractors but it seems to be ok. It's a 4x4 model with diesel, loader and mowing deck. 3 point hitch and live PTO. 2015 model with only a hundred something hours on it. My preference would have been a Kubota probably but I didn't want to spend that much money. I needed something to unload the trucks, I think I got a decent deal on it but not rock bottom, we had already built forks for it that attach to the bucket. This is a picture of one just like it that I found online. Looks identical. Hope none of you have horror tales about the Mahindra brand. Here's picture of my brother-in-law unloading a pallet off a semi not long before he passed away. This was before we added the forks to the bucket.

I really like Nissan vehicles. I bought my wife a new 2015 Nissan Murano Platinum edition when they came out with the new model in 2015. We've had absolutely no problems with it and it has been great. One thing that I was told by my local mechanic and friend though is that Nissan's repair costs are high. He tried to talk me out of buying it because he said that most Nissan parts are proprietary and expensive. Not an issue if you trade vehicles while they are still under warranty but we pretty much plan to keep this one for a long time so at some point, it may come back to bite me.

Pictures are restored.

Did I not say ONE of our best?

I wasn't exactly making them from scratch but was using stands off the first gens. Here is a thread that shows how I was making them and how they bolted on. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?1427-Freebird-Centerstand-Installation

Craig, I've already told you this but I'll repeat it here. Whatever you need, whenever you need it, we are here for you. You are a great friend and a great member here. Please know that you are in our prayers. As has been said, it's not over until it's over. I do believe in and have experience miracles. I pray that one will come your way.

The 130's that I've seen people here use has been a front tire. Not sure where you saw that it was a rear.

RAID was rebuilt on the server and the site is now on the SSD drives. Speed seems to be back to normal from here anyway.

I can't help with that one. The problem is that he linked them from Photobucket and now Photobucket has disabled linking photos from their site unless you want to pay them big money. The only option would be if somebody can find them on his Photobucket site and save them to your computer and then maybe email them to me.