Greetings!
Preparing for the road….Launch date July 7th
Oh, look at all the toys! A custom Harley travel bag sits on the luggage rack behind the passenger back rest. Once removed, up pops the handle, and it rolls away, of course! The seat is 2″ longer than a stock seat which goes a long way to fit my tall Irish ass. That’s not an old style Harley speedo you see in the photo on the right, it’s a waaay coool HD upgrade that contains the speedo, plus a tach, gear in use indicator, fuel gauge, clock, trip counters, odometer, and distance to empty readout. But this ain’t no BMW so I had to go to some lengths to find and install a 12 volt auxiliary port into which I can plug my cell phones, (yes, 2 of ’em, one ATT, the other Verizon), and a heated jacket when it gets cold. There’s a Stage-1 inhale and exhale upgrade that makes it breath a bit easier and generate a bit more hp to boot. The break light has been upgraded to a stutter flash then steady on LED unit that you can see for two miles at night. The car behind me will absolutely know that I am damn well breaking, day or night. An oil pressure gauge is important in summer, so I had ’em install one. The original cheesy plastic oil line was replaced with a braided steel unit that won’t melt and piss oil all over the place some scorching day in South Dakota! Even though its only about half gone, the front tire will be replaced, and then a major pre-trip service will be done this coming Wednesday…that will complete the bike prep. All work done very nicely by a great Harley dealership, Mike Bruno’s Bayou Harley Davidson, in Houma, Louisiana.
The bike, a virtually new Harley-Davidson Road King…has benefitted from Harley’s recent and incredibly well thought out improvements to this model line. High cruising speeds and Brembo dual discs up front, a bigger stronger frame, larger fuel tank, a big assed motor generating that massive Harley torque,a six speed trans, and plenty more. HD did such a good job that when I test rode one, it convinced me to sell my BMW R100RT, a wonderful tourer, and buy the Hog, a bike with old timey funk, excellent comfort, and new age refinement. This is a kick ass machine with stunning good looks, and modern amenities, on which I feel like King Shit. You feel like Prince Charming on a BMW, not quite enough testosterone.
Next time…preparation for the route, and what to bring …it’s a lot of fun, but more work than I expected.
Middie
