JohnT

I had been hoping to make it this year, but with the new job I just didn't see a way to get a Saturday in August off. Working at a bike shop, in the summer,does not do good things for getting away. And now 1 of our service managers managed to get his butt fired. This seals the deal, no way can I get Saturday off. (I want his old job and the raise in pay.) I may pop in for a drink after work on Saturday though.

Tom, just get ya over to the Rite Aid and ask for "eye bleach".

We prefer to think of ourselves as unique.

Glad you are OK. Yesterday must have been one of those days. I'm running down RT 3 into Watertown on my way to work. I have the green light at a "T" intersection where I am turning left.The left to right and right to left traffic both have red lights so I am safe to make my left turn. Nope, not at all. As the guy in the F150 decides he just doesn't have to wait for his light to turn green and turns left in front of me. I look him right in the eye and wave a finger at him. He pulls his truck to the side of the street and gets out to shake his fist and finger at me, so I pull into the gas station on the corner to talk to him. (Maybe not the smartest move in this day and age, but I'm not going to live forever anyway) This genius starts yelling at me and swearing at me. After a minute or so I get so mad that I step around his truck door. (Behind which he has been standing, yelling at me through the open window.) He asks if I intend to hit him. Told him I was considering it. He claims to be a "rider" himself. Yet he has no idea why I am angry that he ran a red light in front of me. This is now getting to be a scene and I have to get to work anyway so I turn around and leave. I am acquainted through work with 2 people that died this past weekend from left turn cagers. One Friday in Sturgis and one right here in Jefferson County on Sunday. I have had enough. It may bite my butt in the end, but I've just had it.

The modifications I needed for the Kickers in my 1st Gen are worth the effort. (IMNSHO) Be sure to buy a 600Hz high pass filter and install inline. This stops lower frequencies that the speakers are not meant to reproduce. My stereo now kind of looks like Dr Frankenstein installed the 6x9's in the fairing, but when I crack it open at work, people can't believe it. And it helps us sell more high (over) priced Boom Audio stuff. If looking at the Kicker 4" 2 ways, be sure to check specs. On 2 models of 4 ohm 2 ways, one has higher power handling capability. Worth the extra few bucks if you have a high power amp.

Doug Kellar was one of my customers. We serviced his bike for the trip to Sturgis literally as he was leaving town. Douglas Kellar, 56 of Adams, N.Y., tried to avoid a car turning in front of him onto Sturgis Road. He was thrown from his bike and hit the car. Margaret Rand, 65 of Parker, S.D., was cited for failure to yield. The 12th death was about 9 p.m. on SD 244, five miles west of Mount Rushmore. See ya next time Doug.

Gotta feel reassured when Karma is working. When it works for one of us, it reinforces the reality for us all. Wow, I should write fortune cookies.

Well, the reclamation has begun. Took the Voyager into work as usual but on Thursday I had a set of Michelin Commander II's mounted up. When my guy went on lunch I took advantage of the bike being on the lift to drain and add fresh oil to the rear. Then pulled the old girl off the lift and opened the front master cylinder. Not sure, but I think the substance in there was brake fluid at one time. Not going to swear to that though. Used the brake bleeder to suck the substance out of the master and then used brake clean, rags, and a utility knife to get the mess out of the master. It literally needed scraping. I love air assisted brake bleeders. Hook the fitting to the bleeder, stand by the master, and pull the trigger. Watch for bubbles in the line to go away and keep the master full. I also cleaned up the pins the front pads slide on. Fantastic front brakes now. And I am reminded that I much prefer both my front discs be activated by my right hand independent of the rear brakes. Next up are the rear brakes and the clutch. They can't be in any better shape fluid wise. About motorcycle tires. Just because they are legal and supposedly therefor safe doesn't mean I didn't need tires. Had folks asking why on earth I installed new tires. Was I made of money? Nope, I'm not. But my intermittent "head shake" is gone. 12 year old tires that spent most of their life sitting in a garage can have issues that legal tread depth have nothing to do with I guess. I'm not sure why that set of old tires sucked, but they just did. Riding other peoples Harleys on a daily basis is a great tool in learning acceptance. Compared to a Harley the tranny on this thing is short throw, quiet, and shifts like butter. Just can't compare it to the way my VR shifts. The VR is way ahead in "butt comfort" as well. But I can drive the Voyager SO much faster than I can the VR. (Venture still has that high speed shake)

By any chance is Avast the anti virus being used? I have found that recent updates in Avast anti virus did not play well with Firefox for some reason. I recently switched to Panda free anti virus. While it is still too soon to tell if it is as "safe" as Avast or AVG what I do see is my freezing of Firefox and "script issues" are gone. My Mozilla Thunderbird email client is also more responsive. My OS is Windows 7.

The heck with "safety". I just like it when cagers drop their cell phone / coffee cup / cheeseburger at the sound of my horn. The relay that came with mine gives me t he option of a brief tap tap of my stock horn, or with a 1/4 second extra the air horn kicks in.

If someone wants in, they get in. Always been that way. The highest of tech locks still only keep out honest people. Again, that is the way it is. And will always be.

I wouldn't say I was "bright" but I do get lucky.

Stellar advice on the part of aharbi and beach bum.

Yesterday I went into work with my pocket full of my (small amount) of mad money. After work I was going to go look at an old but nice Yamaha wave runner. Never had one, never ridden one, and always wanted to ride one. Well, the best laid plans and all that. One of our sales guys came up to me and said, "Johnny, do I have the bike for you. I took it in trade and figured you might want it. He shows me a (can't hardly get this name out) Kawasaki Voyager XII. Yes, I know. It's a Kamasaki. Did I mention she is a 2003 and has just 8300 one owner miles on her? And the price offered to me was ridiculously low. One of the fringe benefits of the "Harley mentality" is that some stuff gets sold for near scrap prices. Before I knew it I was writing a "get ready" for the bike. With me as the new owner. One nice thing about working at a dealership, other than the occasional SCREAMING HOT BARGAIN is that by the time I was done work it was registered and insured and I had to park the VR in the storage barn so I could ride the Voyager home. 100 cc's less, a bit lighter, and 17 years of technology improvement may make for an unfair competition between the 2 bikes. (My VR and my Voyager that is) 50 miles, no real twisties, and one on ramp roll on is leading me to believe the Kawi might just be faster than the VR. And so far I think the VR carves corners better but must reserve judgement on that till I get the feel of the Kawi. They handle differently it seems but time will tell. The Kawi sits lower at the saddle. Corbin by the way. Not sure I am impressed, have to give the comfort nod to the VR stock seat. But the lower height is nice. Clarion AM FM cassette with 4 speakers works just fine. But that will see improvement. No on board compressor for the air ride, but easily reached valves to fill the shock and forks. Cruise is not working, not powering on at all. Hoping it is just a fuse. Front brakes are mush. One can of Sea Foam and a tank of fresh fuel (compliments of the used bike get ready) and 50 miles and it now idles like a kitten at 800 RPM. I have ordered new brake pads, 2 oil filters, and a fresh set of Michelins for her. And so it begins. The resurrection of yet another neglected touring bike. And before anyone (Puc) reminds me of the value without pictures. I snapped these at the shop. Not cleaned, not shined, and just the way I bought her.

And that's the way it is. Thank you, and good night.

I just put so much lighting on mine that it is hard to really see it. Between squinting in the face of bright lights and the speed at which it passed on by, just real hard to tell what it was. Or see the flaws.

As much as I would like to bust on HD for yet another recall, I can't. In this day and age of trying to make more with less every manufacturer is going to run into situations they wish hadn't happened. In HD's defense, by the time we noticed the trend we were notified of the recall the next day. Bulletin M-1408 arrived and the recall process began. We had gotten 2 customers in 2 days. The 2nd and 3rd customers in 4 days, so it was easy to notice the trend. We were already trying to get HD to warranty the bags when lo and behold, warranty was not an issue. It's not a huge deal at all. .1 hour fix for Touring and .2 hour fix for CVO models. Simple hardware replacement. Until a rider can get in and get it done I am recommending to them that they firmly seat the fastener and then tape them in place. If they don't work their way out, the bag doesn't fall off. And not everyone is experiencing the failure. The clutch recall is a bigger deal to me. Imagine out of the blue having no clutch. But again, the owners are being made aware, and as an HD service person the first thing I do when one of my customers hits my desk is to run their vehicle for recalls. If one is there, it gets done at the time of their service. The way HD steps up is great.

That bike, the way it is pictured, would get my money out of my pocket. Retro styling meets new age technology. If you think guys my age won't buy into that maybe you should Google the popularity of the "new" Dodge Challenger. And try to get your hands on a Challenger Hellcat. I want to carry my stuff, be able to scrape foot pegs / floor boards, and run 135 on occasion. I would mortgage my home for that bike. And the first time I rode into work @ FX Harley Davidson the fun would begin. And wait till I put the damn thing on the dyno. Probably get my @$$ beat when I asked them how much money would have to be spent on an HD to get those kind of dyno numbers. One of my (metric) mechanics has an old Kawasaki Voyager that just put down 87 rear wheel horse power and 126 foot pounds of torque. That made the HD boys mad.

Actually I work for an HD dealer. When I read that back just now I realized it came out oddly. In the service department I ride them with miles ranging from 1 to 35,000. Not a fan of the ride or handling. I have never ridden any other 3 wheel motorcycle so I have nothing to compare it to. Although that may change shortly as my neighbor has a new Spyder.

Says the guy who works for a Harley dealer and rides the Tri Glide now and then, (2 or 3 times a week). They handle, less than nicely. Never ridden a Hannigan conversion.

I had OK luck with a set of 880's. They held up OK. I changed them with only about 9000 miles on them so I didn't have to be down part way through a season getting tires mounted. Like to do that early before riding season if they are going to have to be changed in a few thousand miles. (We play hell getting a decent turn around time around Watertown in the summer) Toward the end they were really noisy. My E3's are a fantastic tire. To soon to tell about wear, but the handling? Oh boy! I grew accustomed to my forward pegs scraping with any tire I mount. But running the E3 I am now finding my foot (on the standard pegs) scrubbing pavement at times.

YES IT WILL!!!!!! It simply dissolves and disappears. And will continue to do so until the parts of the plastic that absorbed the fluid are gone. Guess how I know? The exact same scenario played out on my bike a couple years ago. Once it disolves the paint it soaks into the plastic and the plastic is history.

I'm a waver. I have always felt that other riders and I share something. (And that goes for the mopeds, and 3 wheelers, and even the Harley-Davidson's.) A common risk /common reward thing. We choose to be out there amongst the masses that run each other off the road every day. We are all at the same disadvantage. Yet we still ride. Love to ride. Whether they wave back or not is immaterial. I am waving for me. And if I come by a 1st Gen, they get a wave and that Gladiator bump my chest with my fist thing.

This pic doesn't do justice to the bright "eye impact" these lights make. The brightness is a bit over the top.

Okey Dokey. You do get what you pay for. Twistedthrottle.com . But be prepared to pay top dollar for top quality lighting. I just put a set of 10 watt LED's on mine from them. The brand is Denali. Top shelf construction and the wiring harness is first rate with bullet proof connectors and good wiring. Mine have a ballast so to speak. Wired as they are on low beam I have 50% power and they are great running lights / low beams. When I switch to high beam they are full 10 watt (each) LED driving lights that light up the world in front of me. I drilled 2 holes on each side of my fairing on the underside of the (former) vent channel from the front of the fairing. I mounted the light bracket to the front hole and the wire passes through the rear hole into my fairing on each side. I had a set of HID lights with self contained ballasts that threw good light, but the "lag" when switching form low to high or back sucked pond scum. They had to warm up when switched. These LED's ROCK. Now the bad news. $375 a set. With a 12" strip of white 5630 LED's on each side of my fairing, a 1 watt LED on each mirror, my PIAA 100 watt equivalent Halogen headlamp,and this set of running / driving lights no one has pulled left in front of me lately. Some just stare at the front of my bike now. That's kinda cool.