Recently in Harley-Davidson Category

Today is the first official full day of vacation. I know I should really count yesterday since that is when we left Arizona but since that did not occur until after the baseball game and technically I am classifying going to the Diamondbacks as work (I love my job if that's the case), then today would truly be the first full day of vacation. And since this is my blog and my life I feel like I am empowered to define things however I want to. Wow, that sounded kind of like the time I got a new ball and decided I got to make the rules to the game or else I would take my ball and go home. That didn't work out too well as the ball went flat and we all had to go anyways so hopefully this time that attitude will work better.

The Harley-Davidson Owners Group has come up with a concept they declared Million Mile Monday. They set aside June 30, 2008 as a day to get everyone out on their bikes. The goal was to collectively try and accumulate one-million miles worldwide. The miles could be pretty much anything. Some would use their bikes to commute while others had planned a long journey that would incorporate this date into their plan. At the end of the day members were invited to log into the H.O.G. web site and enter their miles. It is a cool idea really. What better way to remind people how great it is to ride a motorcycle than to get them out on the road. Hopefully it would also increase the total number of riders on the road for at least a day. This should in turn make other drivers more aware that the motorcycle population is not a niche market but is much more mainstream than they had previously imagined. Perhaps then drivers would be more conscientious than they have been in the past.

Trying to get Trina interested in the Harley-Davidson Night Train has been an uphill battle. A lot of that may have to do with the way she was introduced to the bike. After the initial shock she did briefly think it was kind of cool having a husband that rode a motorcycle. But in my typical fashion I completely blew that when I offered to take her for a ride. She agreed and we mounted up to take a short ride. It seems that we have a difference of opinion as to what short actually means. My theory was you leave and come back on the same day. Trina on the other hand thought it meant a couple of miles to the store and back. This difference of opinion combined with the fact that the Badlander seat was definitely made for passenger comfort made for a very long ride for Trina. When we got home she was pretty sore. She was sore at me and sore in general. The good thing about that ride was that I got a new seat, one that had a much more comfortable passenger area. The bad thing was Trina refused to ride with me anymore. It looked as though I was destined to be a single rider. But recently things began to change.

After getting the call that my new wheels had arrived for my Harley-Davidson 2005 Softail Night Train, I made arrangements to have them installed. I dropped the bike off at Chandler Harley-Davidson on March 6. It was two wheels so I just assumed that the bike would be done either that day or the morning thereafter. Now what was that saying about never "assume" anything? Yeah, I seemed to have forgotten that. Maybe I was being unrealistic. Maybe I am being impatient. Maybe I just have no clue how long it actually takes to install a couple of wheels. No matter what the reason, it wasn't done. Instead I got a call this morning saying that the bike was ready to be picked up. All that was left to do was have it washed.

Oh how time flies when you are having fun! I had ordered a new set of wheels five days ago with the assumption that it could take up to two weeks for the wheels to arrive. Today when I got home from work there was a message on my answering machine from Chandler Harley-Davidson saying that my wheels had arrived. Even before the message finished playing I had grabbed the keys and headed for the door. I wanted to get down to the dealership to check out the wheels and schedule an appointment to have them installed.

"With this modification now complete I think my work for 2008 is done." I wrote these words just two short weeks ago and already I am contradicting myself. I did truly believe that once I put the new forks on my bike that I would be done for the year. After all, the things left on my list were pretty high-dollar changes and I didn't expect I would be dealing with them. Instead, a series of events occurred that have allowed me to change my mind and do one last set of changes to my Night Train.

The Night Train is really starting a transformation. The nuts and bolts swap were subtle but noticeable. The hand control changes were anything but subtle but again the look just seemed to work. There is definitely something to be said for chrome controls. If you are looking for something that will get noticed, that will do it. The problem with changing out the controls is that it makes the brushed metal fork legs really stand out and I don't mean in a good way. It was pretty clear that I was going to need to make a change to the forks but I was really facing a dilemma as to what direction I wanted to go with this conversion.