.jpg)
Jan. 10, 2009
Well, the day started out cheap enough - just show up at the Auburn Harley dealer for Get Acquainted day, pay the $15 to renew the local H.O.G. membership for the year, have a free samich & Coke, get in a nice ride in the overly warm January California sunshine, drool over the beautiful new Harleys, yak with other members about old rides, or upcoming rides for this year. I just happened to mention that I loved the new red Street Glide. We took a major loss in our retirement funds recently, so my wife said a new bike was out of the picture for now. The '03 Road King was pushing 50K miles, and didn't have a lot of trade in value. Or so I thought. New Harleys are almost never discounted. Besides, there was nothing on the showroom floor just like I wanted.
However - out in the garage, slightly dusty, covered with paw prints, sat this brand new 2009 Hot Sunglo Red FLHX Street Glide. ABS brakes. Six speed. Six gallon tank. Newly redesigned wider frame. 180 rear tire. Radio AM-FM-CD. Rerouted exhaust (under the frame, much cooler on the legs). Horribly stock mufflers; think Honda-like. 96CI engine, handlebar mounted fairing with gages and a cigarette lighter plug in for my GPS, or heated jacket(which we don't need in sunny Calif!!??) - all things lacking on my pretty 100th anniversary Road King.
Well, that was love at first sight, even tho the Street Glide needed a lot of additions and replacements. It was, after all, except for the ABS brakes, about as stock as they come.
Several years ago, I took a test ride on a BMW with ABS brakes, and I loved the very positive way it stopped. Harley has always been a little slow to adapt new technology. Maybe it is because the owners tend to be traditionalists - fuel injection is just too mysterious, if you like tinkering with carburetors. There aren't any water cooled bikes that have that throaty rumble of an air cooled V-twin, and there are a lot of good Harley riders that will tell you they can stop just as well with conventional brakes as ABS, so they have been slow in coming, plus they add some $700 to the cost of a new bike. So I test drove an ABS equipped Harley, and stopped it hard several times. And I'm sold. I'm convinced that in a panic stop, if I braked THAT hard on my Road King, I would have locked up the front wheel and crashed. You have to be going straight, tho. If you do that going into a curve, even ABS won't keep you from going down. There is a DVD that comes with ABS equipped Harley's that explains all that.
So I make them an offer they couldn't refuse. They countered with an offer I couldn't refuse. I called my wife and explained all this. I forgot to remember that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. It took two years of begging and whining to get the Road King, and I'm just too damn old to go through that again.
So, now I'm stuck with 7 years of very affordable payments, with the option of paying it off at any time with no prepayment penalty if the economy improves. I have a bike that needs a lot more invested to make it like I eventually want it to look and run. But I'm good at doing most of the work myself, and for me it is a labor of love. I've already added a taller, clear windshield, a meager beginning for what lies ahead.
I have a lot of parts left over from the Road King. I have just listed many of them on eBay. Hopefully, I can generate enough cash to get a head start on all the changes I want to make. Thunderwoman will get over it, maybe even come to like the new bike eventually. Meantime, looks like I'll be riding alone for a while.
Well, the day started out cheap enough - just show up at the Auburn Harley dealer for Get Acquainted day, pay the $15 to renew the local H.O.G. membership for the year, have a free samich & Coke, get in a nice ride in the overly warm January California sunshine, drool over the beautiful new Harleys, yak with other members about old rides, or upcoming rides for this year. I just happened to mention that I loved the new red Street Glide. We took a major loss in our retirement funds recently, so my wife said a new bike was out of the picture for now. The '03 Road King was pushing 50K miles, and didn't have a lot of trade in value. Or so I thought. New Harleys are almost never discounted. Besides, there was nothing on the showroom floor just like I wanted.
However - out in the garage, slightly dusty, covered with paw prints, sat this brand new 2009 Hot Sunglo Red FLHX Street Glide. ABS brakes. Six speed. Six gallon tank. Newly redesigned wider frame. 180 rear tire. Radio AM-FM-CD. Rerouted exhaust (under the frame, much cooler on the legs). Horribly stock mufflers; think Honda-like. 96CI engine, handlebar mounted fairing with gages and a cigarette lighter plug in for my GPS, or heated jacket(which we don't need in sunny Calif!!??) - all things lacking on my pretty 100th anniversary Road King.
Well, that was love at first sight, even tho the Street Glide needed a lot of additions and replacements. It was, after all, except for the ABS brakes, about as stock as they come.
Several years ago, I took a test ride on a BMW with ABS brakes, and I loved the very positive way it stopped. Harley has always been a little slow to adapt new technology. Maybe it is because the owners tend to be traditionalists - fuel injection is just too mysterious, if you like tinkering with carburetors. There aren't any water cooled bikes that have that throaty rumble of an air cooled V-twin, and there are a lot of good Harley riders that will tell you they can stop just as well with conventional brakes as ABS, so they have been slow in coming, plus they add some $700 to the cost of a new bike. So I test drove an ABS equipped Harley, and stopped it hard several times. And I'm sold. I'm convinced that in a panic stop, if I braked THAT hard on my Road King, I would have locked up the front wheel and crashed. You have to be going straight, tho. If you do that going into a curve, even ABS won't keep you from going down. There is a DVD that comes with ABS equipped Harley's that explains all that.
So I make them an offer they couldn't refuse. They countered with an offer I couldn't refuse. I called my wife and explained all this. I forgot to remember that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. It took two years of begging and whining to get the Road King, and I'm just too damn old to go through that again.
So, now I'm stuck with 7 years of very affordable payments, with the option of paying it off at any time with no prepayment penalty if the economy improves. I have a bike that needs a lot more invested to make it like I eventually want it to look and run. But I'm good at doing most of the work myself, and for me it is a labor of love. I've already added a taller, clear windshield, a meager beginning for what lies ahead.
I have a lot of parts left over from the Road King. I have just listed many of them on eBay. Hopefully, I can generate enough cash to get a head start on all the changes I want to make. Thunderwoman will get over it, maybe even come to like the new bike eventually. Meantime, looks like I'll be riding alone for a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment