BigLenny

Definitely wanna go to that next year. Labor Day weekend myself and my two cousins rode our bikes to Barber and went to the museum. WOW! What an awesome place! We agreed to go to the Vintage Days event next year. I'll give you a headsup so we can meet and put a face with a name.

Hey Friends, I am looking for new ideas for our family to spend a week together. Let me set the stage. Our 3 kids are grown and gone from the home (Thank God), They are 27, 29, and 31 yrs old. Our 31 yr old son is married and he and my daughter in law have our only grandchild, a 6 year old wonderful bundle of life who's name is Maddox. He's my buddy. Anyway, thats another story. LOL. My daughter is a school teacher and lives 3 hours away. My 27 year old son rents a house with a couple buddys and he is finishing up college. So, now that our kids are grown and gone and have their own busy lives, we don't get to gather as a complete family near as often as we would like. Usually during birthdays, and major holidays, with an occasional weekend here or there. We do live close to our grandson so we get to see him regularly. So, for about the last 5-6 years my wife and I in an effort to spend quality time with our complete family, we have paid for a 4-5 bedroom house on the beach on the Redneck Riviera (Gulf Coast), and our whole family stays there for a week during the summer. It is always a great time of hanging out on the beach, eating great meals, going into town and shopping, riding go carts, playing mini golf, shopping, yada yada yada. Here's the delima. We are getting kinda bored with going to the same location every year and doing the same things. We have great interest in experiencing other areas of our beautiful country. It would have to be family oriented. Fun for all ages. Relaxing but have fun things close to do. You folks know the drill. So, I'm looking for you all to bring me some suggestions. Go deep into your wealth of vacation knowledge and sock it to me. If ya'll need more info from me to make suggestions just let know. Thanks so much, BL

I don't know. I guess it's just me being a bill ol sissy, but I like having a cruise control on a motorcycle. I can understand if it's a bike that isn't designed to tour, but if it has any touring characteristics at all, I would want a cruise control on it. I see that Honda added cruise to the F6B for 2015. Good idea. Last year Yamaha added cruise to the FJR which is a good idea since it is called a sport tourer. I don't see why Kawasaki and Honda haven't added it to their Concourse 1400 and ST1300 bikes. I would think adventure bikes like the VStrom, KTM Adventure, and others should have cruise on them. There are plenty of folks that take out across the country on long vacations riding adventure bikes. BMW is kinda the standard of those bikes and it has cruise. Yammy adding it to the Super Tenere was a good thing. Anyway. Just me babbling.

Come to think of it though, Honda only has two (Gold Wing and F6B), Kawi has two (Vulcan Voyager, Vulcan Vaquero), and Suzuki has none. So, maybe Yammy is right in line with their Japanese brethren. Sorry to bore everybody with my fetish for cruise control. LOL.

I know this is a very trivial thing to most, but I was looking at the Yamaha 2015 Lineup and am I correct in thinking that Yamaha offers cruise control now on only 2 of its bikes? The Super Tenere and the FJR? Kinda gives a little insight into what Yamaha is thinking about folks that wanna do some long tour trips. It certainly appears by looking at their new offering that the focus is on day trippers and week end warriors. Hmmmm....

Awwww Cowpuc, I'm so sad to hear of your fathers passing. I will certainly be praying for you and your family.

Thanks so much Don! This is kinda exciting! BigLenny

I Swear. When I grow up I definitely wanna be Cowpuc!

Snaggletooth, This is obviously the answer to where can we go to be safe?

Don, My wife and I saw the Ottawa story on the national news this morning and both of us looked at each other with our mouths open and a "what the???" look on our faces. My wife made the statement "nobody dislikes Canada, what the heck were they thinking". LOL.

WOW Eck! That is a cool find. But I'm like Condor, I've never heard of that brand before. So many old brand names like that made superb products but have gone by the wayside. Usually bought out by the large conglomerates and consumed into their mediocre worlds.

Don, Thanks so much for your hard work. I would expect nothing less for that hard earned $12.00 per year I spend. LOL! Seriously though, if you feel like you need to make a change, get after it. I'll get used to whatever adjustment just be part of the family.

LOVE MY RIVCO CENTER STAND! It does take a strong tug to get it up on the stand, but it is well worth it. Rivco was displaying their products at Bikes Blues and BBQ and I purchased it there and they installed it for me. I say buy it. You'll never regret it.

Ventureless, You make a very valid point about how far a good Victory dealer is from you. You're definitely in a pickle there. Unfortunately, with all of the circumstances you are facing, it appears Vic just isn't going to be the brand for you.

Im with SilverT on this one. When I was looking to buy my RSTD in 2007, the local Yamaha dealer was a complete **shole and until this day ranks as one of the most failed customer experiences I've ever had. He even made sure he told me if I buy somewhere else to not be coming to his store for warranty repair. Crazy! Guess what I did? I found a Yamaha dealer about and hour away that gave me probably one of the best buying experiences I've ever had. I didn't throw the Yamaha brand out of my hunt because of the bad experience I had with the one dealer. If i would've nixed Yammy off of my list, I would not have been afforded the wonderful experience I have had while owning and riding my RSTD. I hate that you had that experience. I have been to several Victory test rides when they have come to the local Victory dealership. It was a fun time and the truck driver was pretty dang cool. You must've ran into a guy or guys that Victory needs to know about. Good thing you informed them.

Puc, Your point of why Indian is sparcing out thier dealerships is a very real possibility. However, my feeling is there is not a bike out there that is wayyyy above another. Now, there are people who are inclined to feel thay way about their stuff because they are "my stuff is better than your stuff" type people. But, in reality, there really isn't a bike in the price range that we on this forum can afford that is wayyy better than another. I completely understand if that is Indian's go to market strategy, but I've ridden their bike, and while I have posted that it was certainly a very nice ride with a bushel full of power, it isn't wayyy over all the other bikes in it's segment. No matter how much a person pays for a bike, that sucker still has the possibility of leaving your booty on the side of the road some day. As a matter of fact, while I am impressed with and like to look at bikes that I know costs a ton of money, I am just as impressed, and maybe even more so, with bikes that have some serious years behind them, and costs little to nothing, but continue to tote their owners across this beautiful nation, ie: Tweeks. It never ceases to amaze me how we Americans fall for the same ol marketing tricks over and over and over. Indian is a beautiful machine! It rides very impressively and will scoot like heck when you need it to, but the lack of dealer network is a deal breaker for me. I am like you, I think they need to give everyone who is interested in owning a dealership the opportunity to do so. That way their dealer network wouldn't be as much of a discussion. Heres a story that'll baffle you. We have a motorcycle parts house here in Little Rock that is in a word, awesome! It is called Rodney's Cycle House. Rodney has been in business for probably 25-30 years and is well known and respected in the v twin biker community around this part of the country. Very well ran and first class place with lots of aftermarket stuff and a shop to install it, plus a biker restuarant called Handlebars Grill. It's a nice place that sits right on I-30, one of the busiest interstates in this part of the country. If you're going to Dallas from the middle of the country, your probably going to be going down I-30. Every Thursday Rodney has a bike night at his place with an outside bar and live bands. he usually gets a couple hundred bikers there on Thursday nights. really popular place. Now, there is a Polaris, Victory, Indian dealership in a town called Gravel Ridge about 40 miles away from Rodneys and it is an over the river and through the woods trip to get to the place. I have talked to plenty of riders that didn't even know the place had Indians. The dealership was the only place in the area selling Victorys, so the owner of the place applied for the Indian dealership and got it. They have made an area of their building dedicated to Indian, but you have to go through the Victory area, and then trek through a boat load of Polaris 4 wheelers and side by sides to get to it. It's a nice little corner of the building, kinda teeny. And this place is way out in the middle of nowhere. This owner has another Polaris dealership in a town beside Little Rock. It is a little box of a building that he has crammed with 4 wheelers and side by sides, but doesn't sell Victorys or Indians there. This dealership is only about 15 miles from Rodneys Cycle House, but as I said, only Polaris there. Well, Rodney went to Indian and talked to them about the possibility of putting an Indian dealership at his large well known parts business. It would be a perfect situation and Indian would sell a crap load of bikes out of that place, and Rodney is the type of guy that he would have a first class dealership that showcased only Indain. Indian made the decision that because the guy that owns the little tiny Indian dealership 40 miles away in the middle of nowhere also has the Polaris dealership that is only 15 miles from Rodney, that they wouldn't grant him a dealership because that owner has the option of some day cramming Indians in that little box of a building, which will never happen. Decisions like this are probably happening all across the country. The dealership that is 40 miles away in a remote little nothing place is doing fine and will serve that market area. But, Rodney's would allow Indian to have a major footprint in the metro Little Rock area with a position right on I-30. Both dealerships would survive and would be good for Indian, but it's decisions like this that will ultimately keep Indian from exploding in sales. Who knows, maybe they don't really want to grow that fast. Crazy.

Mark, AWESOME NEWS!!! This is gonna change your world! It will open a section of your heart that you never knew existed. Oh, and by the way, you need to start practicing your response to why you are more lenient with your grandchild than you were with your own kids. LOL.

SiverT, Great response to my point. And you actually owning the CCT makes me give credence to the Victory motor being as good as the Venture powerplant. My opinion was based on immediately after riding those bikes, we jumped on our bike to head home and the V4 just felt smoother and more revy than the VTwins. I told my wife that I actually felt a little guilty even thinking that maybe the new motors were better than our old V4. The Vic motor was awesome, and certainly more smooth and refined feeling than the Harleys engine, but it still gave that thumpity thumpity thumpity of the VTwin that I'm personally having a hard time buying into. When I blip the throttle of the V4 when the clutch is pulled or it is in neutral, it returns back a smooth quick rev that is cool feeling. When I do that on the VTwins it returns something that feels strong, but a little lacking, and kinda feels like a half miss or something that bothers me. I know it's just a wierd thing that is going on in my noggin, but I can't shake it. I agree with you that the V4 gives more handlebar and mirror buzz than the CCT does, but I gotta tell you, for some reason the Vision mirrors were vibrating so bad I couldn't see out of them when we were going down the freeway. They smoothed out at less than freeway speeds. Not sure why. They aren't as hard mounted as the CCT that you have. The Indian has all the great characteristics of the Victory motor, but that sucker is stronger than train smoke. It's a honker and I loved the power. Thanks for the imput.

Maybe I defined "tinkering" wrong. I do all or most of my own work. I have the 6' toolbox with 20 or so drawers filled with probably $5000.00 of tools and such. I have lifts, floor jacks, power tools running out the ying yang. Vises, compressors, generators, yada yada yada. two shops to work in. All general maintenance on my vehicles i do myself, and most or all non general maintenance, and a ton of remodeling on my house. But, what I meant by "tinkering" is; taking something that is perfectly fine in it's stock formation and then fiddle and tinkering with it by adding mods and different stuff than what the factory deems neccessary. I just really like stock stuff. And I take a lot of comfort and peace of mind in keeping it stock, but keeping it perfect all the time. I have and do add accessories to my bike like passing lamps, center stand, seats, chrome stuff and such. But what goes against my personal nature is taking something critical on the bike and changing it to aftermarket to try to make it better. That worries me. LOL. But, like I said, I hugely admire you folks that "tinker' with stuff and make it better than stock. Again, I wish my brain worked like that. LOL.

Oooooooo. I LOVE FALLS!! Niagra Falls, Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil Falls, Alamere Falls, Cumberland Falls, Multnomah Falls, Lower Falls of the Yellowstone...................Oops, sorry about that. Got my falls mixed up.

Hands down my #1 accessory is the Ultimate Seats rider and passenger seats and backrests. It changed our world as it pertains to how long we can be in the saddle. For the record, my #2 is the centerstand.

Gary, My wife and I rode it this past weekend at Bikes Blues and BBQ. Below is the report that I posted on another thread: Me and the honey got back late last night from spending a couple days at Bikes Blues and BBQ. Man, it was a packed house this year! The weather was perfect and it looked and felt like it was a record turn out. Thousands of bikes everywhere we went. We stayed 50 miles away and the hotels were crawling with bikes. Saw some crazy cool sites, as well as a ton of folks that shouldn't have been wearing what they were wearing. LOL. Beautiful/interesting rides everywhere. Immediately when we got to the rally I ran into a guy with a really clean 2009 red/black Venture with 29000 miles that he said was for sale. He said he'd take $6500.00. why in the universe I didn't write him a check right then and there I do not know. They say there is 400K bikers at this event. Usually I would adjust that figure to 100K, but this year it felt like there were a ton of folks there. It was crazy! We did see a double handful of Ventures during our time there, and a few RSTD's. Probably some folks on this site as well. Test Rides: The corporate trucks were there giving folks the opportunity to test ride their bikes. So, my wife and I did partake. We rode the Victory Vision, Victory Cross Country Tour, Harley Ultra Glide Limited water cooled, and the Indian Chieftain Roadmaster, the new 2015 model that is a full dresser. I had test ridden the Victorys and Harley before, but haven't ridden them two up with my wife. That changed things quite a bit. We rode the two Victory's first and while we were both more impressed with the overall ride and smoothness of the Vision, we like the CCT more because of all the storage room it offers. Teresas comfort on back was similar on both. I noticed a marked difference between the fixed fairing on the Vision compared to the CCT. It's kinda funny hearing some of her observations that just instinctively pop out of her mouth. She said the Victory's and Harley's motors sounded like chitty chitty bang bang compared to the V4 of our RSTD. LOL. We rode the the Harley next and right off the bat, the thing that most impressed us was how high tech the new redesigned bike is. The touchscreen infotainment center is awesome! The stereo is better than the others, and she reported the back seat was cushier than the Victorys. Everything was looking up for the Harley until we fired it up and it started the crazy shaking that its famous for at idle. She immediately asked me what was wrong with it, and made the statement that there is no way on earth she would want to own it. I was less dramatic than her, but, this time the vibrating at idle, even when I pulled the clutch while we were coming to a stop sign or light seemed to get on my nerves. The Victory's were so much smoother than the Harley that that is what we seemed to talk about the whole time we test rode it. I liked the power. It seemed more than the Victory's but not much if at all. I love the way Harley goes to market with all they have to offer, but both she and I kept shaking our head with amazement as we walked away from riding it. We both kinda wondered why anybody would want a bike that shakes like that. LOL. But, obviously a boat load of folks believe that shaking and rattling means something. Just not for us. Also, I am 6'6" and the bike felt so small from my seat to the dash that I felt like I was riding something too little for me. Victory will need to step up their game on the technology side of things to keep up with Harley's new stuff they put on their touring bikes. Finally, after a long wait, we got to ride the Indian Roadmaster. WOW!! We both loved this bike! I kinda wonder if it would feel like a Victory with Indian badging. I was wrong. This bike was the smoothest and most powerful of the 4 we rode. No crazy shaking, just the right size, and really unique looking. The motor has a ton of torque! Even in 6th gear the thing was strong when I twisted the throttle. Hands down if we were going to buy a bike yesterday, it would've been the Roadmaster. I know, I know, the old discussion of dealer network and such that always comes up, but I'm talking strictly about the performance of the bikes. The only thing that made us go hmmm about the Indian is, for the kind of money they want for it, it should have the big touchscreen dash on it that the Harley has. In closing, I wanna say this; I again had a very hard time liking the overall feel of the V Twins compared to my V4. I came away from the test rides without out a shadow of doubt in my mind that the power plant in my RSTD is superior to the two Victory's and the Harley's motors. The indian was on another level with the power and smoothness of it's engine. The personality of the V4's by being more revy than the thumpity thump of the V Twins is just better to me. I don't know, it's just me I guess. Anyway, thats my 2 cents.

I wish I had a tinkering brain. My brain always tells me to just go back with the stock stuff that Yamaha recommends. About the only exception to that is I will not use the Brickstone tires that they came with, and I did go with Skydocs clutch kit. For some reason I have this voice always talking to me reminding me that Yamaha has a boat load of tallented engineers that have way more knowledge than I do of how to build a motorcycle correctly and with the exact correct components to make it go. I really am amazed when I read the threads of you guys and gals that are creative and successful at increasing the performance of these ol sleds we ride. I just don't have that in me. I always weigh getting the fancy dancy spark plugs, but usually decide to just go back with stock NGK's. And I always toss around getting 47 hundred different brands and kinds of oil and oil filters, but I always just decide it's just simple to get Yamaha oil and keep using it. Many times I've been on the brink of going through the rigermarole of changing to a K&N filter system, but yada yada yada. Vmax rears, smaller front tires, high dollar shocks, messing with carb needles, expensive batteries, etc, etc, etc. Man, all that stuff sounds so cool! But, I guess I'm too simple minded. LOL. My innards tell me to keep it basic, keep it impeccibly clean and serviced, and ride the hair off of it. But, man, I wish I had some of ya'lls brain! It sounds like it would be a lot more fun.

Awww! She's a cutie! The Bible says, "Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they get old they will not depart from it". Looks like you're doing your part. LOL.

I am a sales rep for Grainger.