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Showing results for tags 'road'.
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Have you seen this statistic. 98% of all harleys sold are still on the road. The other 2% made it home. Ride safe, Mike
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I did a low speed drop onto the pavement yesterday at lunch time headed back to work. An old fella pulled out at the back of a car lot and didnt look. (or just didnt see) I wasnt ever in danger of hitting him but I did have to brake hard, when i did my front wheel hit a slippery manhole cover causing me to slide a bit and dumping the bike and me at about 10-15 mph roughly. The old guy didnt stop or even look back as far as i know, but i am ok with a few bruise and scrapes but just feeling really stiff and sore. Here are some pics of the bike and the road I was on when I wiped out. I am thinking insurance will total the 85 but I will hafta wait and see what is happening until Friday at least. the pics are here; https://picasaweb.google.com/103959080138590887139/20111018Oct172011RoadrashEtc# I hafta add thanks to the Diamond Gusset Defender motorcycle Jeans I have no road rash on my legs, butt, or hip, but still bruised. IMHO road rash is way worse that a bruise and I am happy that my hip doesnt resemble a raspberry.
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It is the time of year where the deer are just coming into the rut. This means that they will be more active and even less predictable than at any other time of the year. A buck will attack ANYTHING that gets between him and the doe he is chasing. The does will run blindly trying to get away from the bucks if they are not yet ready for what he has in mind. There is no more of the "mostly around dawn and dusk" for deer running across a road, expect them at any time of the day or night. All of the flashing lights and loud noises will not get them to stop from running in front of you. It is totally up to you to see and avoid them, and they may be coming fast. Lets all be extra vigilant out there. The Rut typically lasts till mid to late November. I just heard a news story this morning of 7 people in Indiana killed in their mini van after hitting a deer that left the van disabled in the road and it was then creamed by a semi. Our bikes are no match for even a small deer.
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I have an Angel watching me because she kept me from getting killed or badly injured today. Took a ride throught Ohio and Pa with friends. We were heading to Fatboys biker hangout we like to ride to and get lunch when the weather is nice. We made a left turn onto a two lane highway and then approached a road that would be a right turn. I was looking at the leaves, a pretty girl was smiling at me from a car or I was just taking in the enjoyment of the ride. I WAS NOT PAYING ATTENTION! Woody activated his right turn signal and I missed it. The next thing I knew I had a Road Star turning in front of me! Life slowed to a crawl. I locked up both wheels in a panic manuver. The Royal Star was sliding back and forth like a snake on a griddle. I knew Woody could see me and I wanted him to just get out of the way. I could see the accident coming. Woody brought his years of riding experience from somewhere and gunned the Harley out of my way. I watched him hoping for a chance to just slip behind him. How we missed each other I will never know. I just made it behind him in a crossing pattern. I am 56 and on heart medication. I wonder if I should even keep riding sometimes.
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Please pray for some friends of mine from church. They lost their daughter to a motorcycle/deer accident last week. She was on the back of her husbands motorcycle when they hit the deer. He is relatively unhurt as he was thrown to the side of the road. She was thrown into the middle of the road and ran over by a Van. Please keep everyone involved in your prayers. The husband and driver of the van have a heavy burden they are going to be carrying around. Thanks and God Bless Ryan -
Hey, Thanks to a little low speed OOPS on a wet curve at the entrance to my subdivision yesterday, I now have a bit more road rash on the bike. All seems ok for the most part, but the farring plastic at the starboard edge, outboard of the speaker grill, has suffered the most. Seems to me I recenlty saw an old online Markland catalogue somewhere. If I remember right there were some chrome caps that fit onto that edge that would likely neatly cover up my bit of damage. I have never seen a set of these in person or on ebay, despite years of browsing, so I conclude that I'm not likely to find a set of these in this lifetime. Strikes me though that this edge is quite vulnerable and damage there must be fairly common, even if the bike never leaves the vertical plane. What do others do to either protect against or cover up road rash on this edge? Thanks, Brian
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I ran Dark Side on my VTX1300 and really liked it. Found a BFGoodrich Radial T/A 155/80R15. Mounted it. While working on that I also found a set of Road King mufflers. Just finsihed putting them on tonight.. Looks and sounds great.... Road test tomorrow....
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Dark red Gen 1 turned west on SE 44th Street from S. Sooner Road. Then turned south into housing area. Anyone from here?
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Well, I guess Carl had a free day so he came to visit. I'm just under 2 hours away from Ottawa. Carl showed up about 11:30 or so and after we ate, we went to work. He helped me UNDO several things I had done wrong...and we got my 88 almost all put back together. I"ve still got to bleed the clutch, and finish putting some plastic on...and the wiring is a mystery in so many ways!!!! But it still runs and the important lighting works so I'll be able to get it saftied and on the road. I was hoping to have it on the road so carl could ride the 84 while I had the 88 but there was just to much to do ...and undo...then redo....then redo again properly! I still have to work on quite a few things...but winter is months long....and the riding season is almost over so non-essentials can wait! Many thanks to Carl for an enjoyable and productive day. I learned a lot.
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has anyone done a rk muffler swap with a first gen?
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I am going on a late summer ride to PA.my neighbour and is buds have organized a 1000k Ride.I am really looking forward to this.Staying at Gunner's in St Marys' on Saturday night.I hear there are great road out there.Anything I should look out for.I will post pics aftyer the ride. Ray:fingers-crossed-emo
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Anybody heard of that famous Willy Nelson song On the Side of the Road Again? :-(
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Just completed my 2nd attempt on the Iron Butt Ride Around Texas (3247miles)in under 85hours.. 1st attempt DNF last Oct when I hit a gear box in the road at night outside Dalhart, which took out my left side cowling, floorboard and shifter along with a smashed exhaust and hole in stator cover. This attempt I started in Galveston on Monday 9/5, finished yesterday 9/8 barely. 84hours and 20min. Didn't mean to cut it that close, lost some time up in north Texas with 2 problems with the Venture. One was a clogged fuel filter, changed out in a hotel parking lot in Nocona. 2nd problem was from my 2010 RAT attempt curse of the kickstand wiring that got cut off in the Dalhart debris hit. The stand wiring was re-wired. Had a problem with engine cutting off and on, about 6 months ago. So I decided to check the stand wiring again, didn't find anything wrong, just unplugged the connector and re-connected no more problems all the way back to Galveston. Did run out of gas in west Texas from El Paso to Guadalupe N.P. and then to Kermit. Even with my 3 gallon Aux tank, Bad planning on my part. Didn't consider fuel mileage going over 70 for 200 miles.Luckily I made it to a little town west of Kermit, but it was closed and only took cash. A very nice lady drove by who worked there and opened the store and let me fill up. Gave her a big tip. Lesson learned. Lots of night riding which not fond of anymore after hitting that debris last year. Seen deer, hogs, jack rabbits, cows in Big Bend, and lot's of smoke from the wildfires. Rode from Victoria to Harlingen and from Atlanta to Marshall with with fires burning right up to the road some places. Hard to breath and see. Didn't have any road detours which would have killed my chances on the last leg. Had 18 checkpoints along the way. attached pic of my Spot tracker showing my ride. Lots of other stories. Here are a few pics. Not much time for picture snapping on this ride. I am glad to have finished this time around. The Venture was fun to ride the whole trip. She got me home safe.
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My nephew was given an early medical discharge from the Marines last week and has been stationed near Ft. Worth, TX. So rode here to my place in N. Georgia on his was to northern KY to visit his 2 kids (living with his Ex). He's got a beautiful, copper colored recent Vrod. Thats likely the Harley I would want. Rode some roads around the area Saturday, most of which were visited during the Vogel rally and wound up in Helen for supper. Sunday he wanted to ride the Dragon. We took the ride up US129 past Vogel and straight up 129 to Deals Gap, got there just before noon and had lunch. I turned him loose to ride the Dragon and on his way to Knoxville and north while I tried a new road. The Fontana Road is the 'other' road which runs north of US129 coming to a junction at Deals Gap. I haven't ridden it before. What a treat. Its NC28 and runs all the way to Franklin, a 2 hour ride of mostly narrow 2 lane twisty slow road. There were a couple spots where it was 4 lane or improved, but not too many miles of that. A lot of NC28 overlooks the Little Tennessee River. At Franklin there are lots of good riding roads to jump to, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Stay on NC28 to The Highlands and US64 east, north on 441 to Maggie Valley or Gatlinburg, or US64 back towards Murphy, NC.
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Was checking out the news this morning and a video from Logan, UT caught our eye. The link is here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44499884/ns/today-today_people/ Let's keep our eyes open, the rubber on the road, and look out for the unaware... Teri and Erv
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Well to make a long story short Mini has been buying me parts for the blonde sine I first left for the sandbox and I started using them this week.Got the bike running for the first time since 2008 and started with the parts installations put 2 new EBC rotors on a spare front wheel took the caliper off the 84 gotta have good brakes.and I rebuilt the starter.still have a loooong way to go before she hits the road but didnt keep me from doing a few laps in the yard today with a nekkid bike just to feel the power and true comfort of a first gen:banana::banana:. It wont be long till the wing gets sold just want to have the Blonde ready to terrorize the roads with. I will try to keep yall updated but the more I get to play with her the more I want to do to make her road worthy I forgot how much I really love the 83.And I have to make the rear brakes work that will be a first for me all the brakes on the blonde working at the same time LOL Gotta go still have a pile of parts about 3 feet high to put on her. Jeff
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Yesterday evening, Jacque's father (my ex) had a motorcycle accident near Athens, Alabama. He has a concussion, short term memory loss, two broken ribs, and a lot of deep gashes. He was transported from Athens hospital to Huntsville Hospital to get am MRI and be examined by a neurologist. He could not remember what happened nor any personal information. Jacque said he thought he rode his bike to the emergency room. According to witnesses of a road crew picking up trash on a two lane road, he passed a van and then laid down the bike. Not sure why this happened, if he hit some gravel or something else. He was wearing a helmet, jacket and gloves. My son Ben, was going to the scene to try to find his cell phone and was going to look and see if he could notice anything about the causation. Thank you Painterman, for the telephone call. It just shows how our VR family is. We were planning on going to Alabama this weekend as Brock has a football game so we can check on Vic's condition then. Please keep him in your prayers, as well as Ben and Jacque. Please ride safe, Bobbie
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what do you think about these sleeperhawk??http://www.phatperformanceparts.com/Kuryakyn_High_Intensity_Plus_4_5_L_E_D_Passing_L_p/2262.htm
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Ok, so I am one week back from an awesome 10 days on the road for my annual Atlanta to the Dak's back road twister. Almost perfect conditions bar a day off to weather Irene (in a cozy cabin mind you). Mentioned to my riding buddy that there is nothing sweeter than the sound of wind and rain on the roof of a cabin verses the top of your tiny tent, and he agreed. May have only been 2400 miles over those glorious days but never a better divorce from my reality back at work. And now 7 days later all I can think about is when is the next road trip, even am spying toy hauler sites to consider for extended times away. All I can say is I am a winning lottery ticket away from a vagabond lifestyle. Anyone want to contribute to the fund? All the best, Norm
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Since I am the passenger, I tend to keep my eyes on the road especially when we are riding in the country. I watch for gravel that washed out on the road from gravel driveways, gravel in curves and piles of gravel that have fallen on the road from perhaps a passing dump truck. I look for your crushed gravel, your B19 and pea gravel. I can usually spot gravel 75 feet ahead of us. We have been on nicely paved roads that suddenly become gravel. We have had to ride on gravel roads for many miles at a time. I deal with it, but do not especially like it. When we were in the badlands in SD we went on a short cut on a gravel road to see the sights. While riding a road grader was coming the other direction and almost caused us to go down because we wound up in this heavy loose gravel. It was not a good moment. Then of course I find out Freebird has a gravel drive. I am a lot better about gravel now than I was at first. Point of the thread, do your wives help look for problems laying on the road while you are riding, and if so is it a good thing in your opinion or do you wish we would just set there and be quiet. No matter what you say, I will keep watching. Yama Mama
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Yesterday, right after pulling out into traffic, I glanced down and noticed that I had no speedometer reading or odometer visible on the dash of my '03 RSMV. I reached down and wiggled the key and everything came back on. The trip home was around 120 miles and this happened a couple more times. Each time I was moving on down the road and do not know if the headlights and such were working, just that speedometer area was not. Has anyone else experienced this, and if so what can be done to fix it? Thanks! Don
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I've been riding (at times off and on) for 34 years on 10 different bikes. I'd guesstimate I have close to 200K miles in that time. I've obviously had my share of close calls, and in fact I've been hit (slight bumps) three times quite a few years ago, but I have never been involved in an actual accident or gone down. Until Sunday afternoon... My 17 year-old son and I were headed to one of our local mountain areas to do some camping. I was towing our Cycle-Kamp trailer, and Matthew was riding what is now his Suzuki Boulevard C50T. It's only about a 150 mile ride, with the last 60 or so on Hwy 38, a scenic twisty mountain road. It was a nice sunny day, just very hot at the lower altitudes. It's not uncommon for a late afternoon thunder storm in the area, and we had seen the clouds indicating we may run into it, but I was hoping to miss it. But the rains did get us, and it was pouring down pretty good. Kind of a bummer to deal with, but certainly nothing new. Then it began to hail. The size of marbles, and it was coming down hard. And we were less than 10 miles from our campground. I was more concerned about my son, so I was looking for a suitable spot to pull off. I saw a potential area and started to slow down. I was going about 40 mph, on a slight decline and into a sweeping left curve. As I tapped the brakes, I felt what I think was the trailer probably coming around to the right behind me. Not necessarily jack knifing, but it was pushing the back of the bike to the left. I knew immediately I was in trouble, but for a second I thought I could correct it and ride it out. But I didn't. I went down to the right, and I came off the bike then, sliding about 40 or 50 feet. The bike apparently flipped over to the other side and slid a little more as well. I remember thinking to keep my head up and my hands up (I was wearing fingerless gloves), and I remember seeing me and the bike going towards a Chevy Tahoe coming the other way, and praying that he would stop. As I came to a stop I appeared to be unhurt and was able to get to my feet right away. Thankfully my son had been able to somehow stop safely, but he was a mess. I could hear him screaming as I was sliding along. Then I guess he didn't see me for a couple seconds, and he panicked even more. He came running to me balling, and just held on. He couldn't stop crying. The Tahoe not only had stopped, but he pulled across the road to block traffic. And several cars behind Matthew stopped. I had heard a woman in a car that was in the pull off saying "Oh my God, he's getting up!" The man driving the Tahoe came over to help me pick up the bike and push it to the side. At first glance the damage looked significant, and it was difficult to push. The floorboards were pushed up so I couldn't get it out of gear. Part of the coupler had actually broken, so we just had to remove the safety chains to separate the trailer. Once everything was off the road, I looked where it had all just happened. I was amazed at the conditions I was looking at. The hail was still coming down and the road appeared to be almost snow covered. Of course it stopped about that time, but it continued to pour down rain for another 20 or so minutes. And there was nowhere to take cover. I wanted to take some photos of the bike and road conditions, but I didn't want to ruin my phone. So here we were, on a mountain road 150 miles from home, in pouring rain, and with one bike unridable and a busted trailer. There are some awesome people in this world still. The couple in the Tahoe were those people for us that day. Steve and Kathy live in the mountain town of Bear City, and they were just out for a Sunday afternoon drive in the rain. They too were both soaked after helping me get the bike and trailer off the road. Steve told me he had a trailer and would be willing to go get it and trailer us into town, or even back down the mountain to the freeway. I humbly and thankfully accepted his offer. I had already contacted my brother that was going to head up to get us, but that was going to take a while. Steve and Kathy returned with their trailer in about 30 minutes, and we were able to load the RSV and the trailer onto it. By now they offered for us to come to their home to wait for my brother. Did I say these people are awesome? Once at their home, I made some phone calls. I cancelled my camping reservations, and notified family and friends about what had happened, but assuring everyone we were okay. I had to talk one of my daughters into staying put till we got home, she wanted to come up to make sure I was okay. We changed into dry clothes and Kathy even threw our wet ones in the dryer. And I inspected the bike more thoroughly. I must admit, I was now starting to feel some bruising, and the emotions were coming on. It was a bit of a scary ordeal. I have rambled on enough for now. I'm not sure, but I think the bike is totaled. I'll add to this later and include some details on the damage and some photos. I'm pretty bummed at the ruined camping trip and the potential loss of my bike, but I obviously have a lot to be thankful for. I am so thankful that it was me and not my son that went down. It was so hot when we left home, and I normally would have been without the jacket and wearing just a t-shirt. For some reason I wore my TourMaster mesh jacket, and it did do its job. I also tend to wear either my 3/4 or even half helmet in that kind of heat, but I had my full face modular helmet on. Not a scratch on the helmet, but you never know. Although the hail probably was the biggest cause of me going down, it also provided a slick "sheet" for me to slide along on. The Tahoe was able to stop on time. Kathy said from looking at me coming at them, she really thought I would be seriously hurt or even killed. Steve said he didn't know what to think as he saw me and the bike and trailer coming at him. Said it looked bad. I thank God I was not seriously hurt. And of course the kindness and hospitality that was given to us by Steve and Kathy. And thank you to all on here for letting me tell my story, and for all the kind words I know I will get.
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My RSV has the Yamaha passing lights. Presently they are aimed to converge on the ground about 20 feet in front of the bike. Not really useful at night. I tried to aim them further down the road, but I'm having a problem. While it's easy to rotate them side to side, I can't find a way to adjust them "up and down" so that they are aimed further down the road. I was going to check the headlight aiming point and aim them just below that to light up the road without blinding oncoming traffic, but I can't find a way to adjust them "up and down". Am I missing something or is this how they are supposed to work? Andy
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I just want to say that as a new Venture owner, (1st gen) this forum has been an immense help in helping get my project 83 road ready. Let's just say all the basics were covered, re-soldering the computer to solve the headlight problem, extensive help on bleeding the braking system, repairing plastic tabs and fuel pump alternatives just to name a few of the places I 've been here in the last couple of weeks. Needless to say, my bike is now road ready. This winter I will be doing the second gear repair with help from VentureRiders.org. Thanks to all who have contributed to this wealth of information. Twelve bucks? What a deal!
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2 PM this afternoon saw two Ventures, Black Midnight and Silver, at the shopping center at intersection of state road 442 and US-1, later saw them heading north on US-1.
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