First Harley

 I'm an old man, but I've only been riding since 2002.  At the time,
I bought a brand new Triumph Bonneville America.  It was a really
great bike, and after I outfitted it with a backrest and forward
pegs, I could literally go anywhere with it.  In some seasons (very
limited seasons, weather-wise), I'd put 12K miles on it.  Even took
it to DC for Rolling Thunder last year.

But this year, I decided it was time for something special.  It took
me a while to come around to Harley because of the backlash effect.
You (Harley guys) tend to look down your noses at non-Harley riders
(come on, you know it's true), and so the backlash effect is to say
'I'll never ride one of those pieces of crap'.  :-)

Well, I finally succumbed, looked around at both new and used, and
found what I think was a fantastic deal on a 2002 FLHRCI that had
less than 10K miles on it.  It was more of a trophy piece to the
guy.  He was very reluctant to ride it for fear that something would
scratch it, and spent thousands tricking it out.  Except for the
Corbin seat, everything on it is genuine Harley, and he's replaced
about everything he could with chrome that already wasn't chrome,
and even some of the stuff that was chrome.

So far, I've only driven it from his house to mine (7 miles), and
the only thing I've done to it was to install forward (Harley) pegs
(I'm a lot taller than he is), and I'm about to replace the fully
chrome hand grips with rubber & chrome grips (Harley) because, as he
said, the full chrome ones were a mistake given how cold it gets up
here.

So that's my story, so far.  What else should I know?  Should I only
use an authorized Harley dealer for service?  What other kinds of
accessories might I want to consider?  Are custom paint jobs
expensive, and do they enhance or detract from the value of the
bike, even if they're done right?

 wrote:

you need a new zebco...........


Obama - the end of our freedoms

 wrote:


    You should know that generalizations like "You (Harley guys)
tend to look down your noses at non-Harley riders
(come on, you know it's true)" make *you* look biased.  A large
percentage of the regulars here either own, have owned, or will own
other brands of bikes.  Get that elitism crap out of your system &
you'll get along a lot better here.
    As to your other questions...... Find the best parts & service
for what you want your bike to become regardless of who provides them.
Harley makes a good machine.  Some dealers are good business men with
good service departments.  Some aren't.  Custom paint makes the bike
more valuable to you.  They narrow your customer base when you try to
sell & cause you to worry about them when you're ridin' & parkin' the
bike outside your own garage.  Go read the faq at www.rmhfaq.com it'll
make your experience here better.

Jinks ('86FXRS, '07FLTR)
#64
Remember, "No good deed goes unpunished"

 X-No-archive: yes

No shit.  I guess you missed the subtly and irony of the humor there

Ahhhhhhhh, Usenet.  It never lets me down.

 AllYou! sed:

Ahhhhh, newbies,,, some will never get it.
And since you X-archived, I've added the entire post so it will be
archived, so you can do one of two things:
1. Leave and never come back, and we can use this post for future newbs
on how not to act.
2. Stick around, get to understand what *we* have here, and be able to
look back at how you stepped on your dick the very first day of school.

Now, shut up and listen, go to the corner, grab a drink of your choice,
Roach is buying cause that's the kind of guy he is.
Or, you can answer this post, and reaffirm my assessment of you.

ASSHOLE#104 Len