Nice putt and Super Tuner

 Drink up.
Celebration style. (I won't offer through the ride, just help yourself,
the plastic is on the bar)

After much soul searching and fighting with the warranty department at
Deeley H-D I broke down and installed a Super Tuner on the '09 Ultra.
There are 6 of us who have installed 103" stage 2 kits on dressers over
the past winter and, due to a lack of information, we wrongly assumed the
Digital Tech download would work as advertised.
It doesn't, unless you install the crappy catalyst head pipe and leave
the stock mufflers on and even then the 6200rpm redline extension is
disabled. They don't seem to understand that false advertising is
illegal. They say that if the rev limiter is extended to 6200rpm they
will void the warranty.

Deeley refuses to acknowledge anything wrong and thus refuses to refund
any downloads in spite of never informing anyone of the changes to the
write up in the SE catalogue or the fact that changes to pipes will make
the download fail. They do say the Super Tuner will also void the
warranty but we have determined that, as long as the rev limit is
maintained it will be okay.

So far most have changed over to the SEST and what a difference. I think
it's a bit rich but the timing is right on and the bike runs so much
quieter. No pinging, no clattering. Just the tick tick of the cams and a
slight whir from the chains.

I took it out for a nice ride around the southern Manitoba countryside
yesterday to check it out.
The weather was perfect, cool, sunny, a bit of a wind from the south.
Headed around the city on the north bypass about 25 miles or so to fill
up for the trip. This was going to test the mileage as well. I'd noticed
it was a bit thirstier around town.

Heading west along the Trans Canada Highway I got that peaceful easy
feeling (sounds like a song) again. My wife was listening to her mp3
player on the back and I had the local classic rock station cranked. All
was good and right. The bike was running like a top and the Km remaining
on the odometer was growing rather than shrinking.

From Winnipeg west is pretty flat with a few wooded sections. As in most
places, the highway gets built along the easiest locations, generally the
flattest. That was okay, nothing much to get in the way of the scenery.

After 50 miles we turned north on Highway 16, billed as "The Other Trans
Canada Highway" which heads towards Saskatoon and Edmonton. My goal was
the town of Neepawa which is in a nice hilly spot.
It struck me how green everything is now. Usually by mid July things are
starting to turn brown but we've had so much rain and 8 months straight
of below normal temps (damn global warming) that everything is a lush
green.

We cruised along at a nice even 110kph which is about 65mph ish. A good
speed for two lanes. The countryside starts to roll just slightly as you
go along and you can see some distant hills, by local standards, in the
distance. I laugh when people describe Nebraska and Kansas as flat
because most of what I have seen of that area is hillier than most of
Manitoba.

50 miles later we came to Neepawa to find that they had their annual Lily
Festival on. We stopped and looked around a bit not that I am into
gardening but my wife is and we were hungry too.
We decided against the hot dog stand and went to McDonald's on the far
side of town which was the turn around point for us.

After a break we headed back towards Winnipeg just far enough to find
Highway 5 heading south, and into what had now become a fairly stiff
wind.
Highway 5 heads down into North Dakota. I just went as far as the town of
Glenboro. Along the way is winds through the Spruce Woods which is a
forested desert. Actually, it appears that the forest is reclaiming the
desert because it was a lot sparser and sandier when I was young.
The hills and dunes make a great spot to ride through and a nice change
from farm fields.

Coming out on the south end of the park we turned east on highway 2 which
is about another 50 miles or so from Neepawa.
The countryside becomes flatter again but with a few rolling sections.
The south wind really started to get annoying as it buffeted us around.
I really noticed the varying colours of the fields. yellow canola, green
alfalfa, soy and beets, a slight blue tinge just coming through on the
flax. Even flat country can have a beauty of its own.
As we rode along I was paying attention to the gas gauge and km
remaining. It was strating to get low but I wanted a good indication of
how far it would go on a tank. I passed up a couple of opportunities to
gas up knowing there were plenty of towns along the way at 10 mile
intervals. Surely they would have gas.
Surely.

Past Treherne where they have a bike raffle every fall with a dinner.
Past St Claude, a french speaking town where it was now down to idiot
light on and 40km to go.
After 60 miles from the turn off at Glenboro I stopped at the town of Elm
Creek which has a largish Co-Op station and grocery store. Which, as it
turns out, is closed on Sundays.
Shit (or merde in St Claude).
I show 20 km of gas left in the tank. St. Claude is 26km back the way I
came, Carmen, a relatively larger town with plenty of gas is 18km but
straight into the head wind.
I decide to chance Carmen hoping the fuel gauge is off in my favour.
Taking it very easy at around 55 mph I make it to the pumps.
The odometer shows 384km pr 238.6 miles. I filled it up to the brim and
had about .4 gallon left in the tank according to my calculations. Good
to know if I'm running low again.
238.6 miles on 5.6 gallons = 42.6 mpg (US) two up.
Not too shabby for an overweight Ultra.

From there I headed back north to Oakville where I picked up the TCH
again to head into the city.
Back around the perimeter highway and home.
Total distance travelled 547km or 340 miles.
Just a nice pleasant afternoon.

The bike ran like a charm all the way. Not a single ping, couldn't even
make it ping deliberately. It would probably run fine on regular gas
even. I might try that out next tank. The mileage was the best I have
gotten yet.

Thanks for riding along.
Plastic is on the bar so have another one.
--
Bob Mann

Cap'n, ah need moor pow'r.

 Bob Mann wrote:

Thank you sir, an eye-opener would be nice.

<snip a fine tale>

Thanks for posting.  You didn't have to worry about running out of gas,
you had your wife along to push.

Glad you got the bike sorted out.