A round for everyone, orange juice for me. Still got a head cold.
This was supposed to be "the first thousand miles" but it kinda got
away from me.
First of all, this spring absolutely sucks. I'm not put off by a
little moisture, but this constant relentless rain and permanent 40's
weather is really starting to annoy me. If we don't start getting
some global warming soon, I'm gonna start burning garbage in the back
yard.
To recap, had a Sportster for 12 years, traded it in a few weeks ago
for a 2003 Ultra Classic. Had some initial issues -- dead battery,
cam chain tensioner failure, but finally got all that cleared up and
concentrating on getting accustomed to the bike, learning its
idiosyncrasies, putting on some miles, figuring out what sort of
changes I need to do.
First change was to take off the SE mufflers and put stock mufflers
back on. I might trade out the stock exhaust later if I can find a
free flowing muffler that doesn't overwhelm the rider. The Sportster
was noisy, got that out of my system now, don't need another noisy
bike.
I've put just over 2K miles on the bike; would have been more but the
sky has not been cooperating. I'm getting used to the thing, both the
riding part and the wrenching part, but it has been a paradigm shift
for me.
-- Yet another wet Easter --
Since we started to go to Riddle, OR for Easter, over a decade ago,
it’s always been hot and dry until three years ago, when it was 40 and
pouring. Then last year it was 40 with a combination of hail and
heavy rain. This year, it started out dry, so I took a chance and
drove the bike down. Nice ride, only got sprinkled on a couple times.
It remained dry Friday, rained hard all the way through Saturday, and
then the temperature dropped and we got rain and hail Sunday during
the egg hunt again. Those kids just can’t catch a break.
It rained off and on Sunday afternoon, with a strong south wind, so I
tried to time it to head back during a clear patch and drive ahead of
the rain. Almost made it. I could see the wall of water chasing me
in the rear view mirror. It caught up during a gas stop but I managed
to get ahead of it again when I got back on the freeway. But traffic
started getting heavy south of Wilsonville, the weather caught up, and
it was cold and pouring the rest of the ride home. How pleasant.
The temperature continued to drop the rest of the ride. By the time I
got home the air was cold enough for breath to smoke and I was pretty
wet. Not as bad as I would have been on the Sportster, the upper and
lower fairings do a good job keeping the rain and road splash
off, but when it’s raining you can’t help getting wet. Finally home,
I turned on the heat and sat in front of the register for an hour to
dry out. My throat was a little scratchy on Monday, and I had a full
head cold by Monday evening. I think I pushed the envelope a bit. But
what does one do? There’s no weather decent enough to ride in.
The bike ran fine. I really think it needs a better air cleaner. When
you twist the throttle it sounds like it’s gasping for air.
I’m really liking the cruise control, and the seat is much more
comfortable than any other bike I’ve ever had. At a rest stop, a
couple about my age came over and admired the bike. The guy said his
wife was getting tired of riding on the back of his chopper, and my
rig looked a lot more comfortable. I said yes it is, you can’t go
wrong. I'm guessing he may be doing a trade in soon.
There's a little buzz in the handlebars that causes some numbness over
long distances. Nothing like the jackhammer feel of the Sporty, but I
might still put in a pair of bar end weights before the next long
trip.
Daughter Shannon, 16 years old and driving on a permit, drove the
truck to Riddle and back, accompanied by wife and dogs, mostly without
issue. I’m told she took an onramp a little fast at one point and
plastered the dogs against the side of the truck bed. Good thing we
have a canopy. She intended to ride back with me on the bike, but
looked at the sky and said "maybe some other time".
Handling:
Making the transition from a small sporty bike to a land yacht goes
through three phases: (1) Abject terror: Extreme caution in corners,
exaggerated care in moving and parking the thing. (2) Acceptance:
Realization that the bike handles just fine as long as you understand
its limitations, and learning basic rules, like don't park nose down
on a steep hill. (3) Hubris: Becoming confident with the bike, you
forget yourself and start to drive it more and more aggressively, like
you did your old bike, until a few close calls show you the error of
your ways, hopefully without killing you in the process. Really, the
land yacht will just go where you point it, without hardly any effort
on your part, as long as you don't try to make it react too quickly or
corner too aggressively. If you do get in trouble, coming in too hot
or missing your line, you'll learn quickly that you can't manhandle an
800 pound bike like you did its 400 pound predecessor. Lesson
learned; Take it easy, plan ahead, and if you wanted to hotrod, you
should have bought one.
Upcoming projects:
I intend to pop the rocker box covers, look over the rockers, make
sure they're getting oil, aren't too worn and aren't clattering
against the cover. Yeah, I'm told that the TC88 is naturally noisy
so don't worry about it, but I can't let it go without at least
putting eyes on the rockers. While I'm in there, I'll replace the
plastic breather assembly with the new metal one.
I'm thinking of going with a K&N RK-3909 filter kit, similar to what I
had on the Sporty. I called the dealer about what it would cost to
get the computer re-flashed, and got... a somewhat curious
reply. "Oh no," said the shop person, "You don't want to reflash.
We've had bad luck with that. Sometimes the settings will revert, or
the unit will fail completely." Really? Really? I've been
doing quite a bit of reading, and I haven't run across that. They
recommend that I get the SE race tuner, as they've had better luck
with that.
Maybe so, but all I want to do is put on a better air cleaner, not
turn it into an 11 second drag bike. The race tuner seems like
overkill. Besides, I think I remember reading that you can't change
any settings below 4000 RPM, where the bike spends most of its time,
so what's the point?
So I'm not sure I believe them. When I bought the stock mufflers (off
an 05 road king) the guy had an SE Race Fueler he bought and never
used, so I bought it from him relatively cheap. Although opinions on
the net vary wildly on the Fueler, it does seem to perform the
function I'm looking for -- to enrichen the mixture, compensating for
the higher volume of air, across the entire RPM range. Originally I
was going to pay the dealer for a reflash. They doubled down, I
folded, they ended up not selling me anything. Such is karma.
The exhaust on this bike is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. The
rear pipe splits into two just inches from the jug, with the left side
going to the left muffler, and the right side joining
with the single front pipe ending up at the right muffler. I'm not an
airflow engineer, but it seems like the rear should draw more than the
front. I understand there are two conflicting design considerations
-- to have a working muffler on each side, yet have some kind of
crossover for better scavenging, and the jug and pipe placement
doesn't lend itself to a straightforward solution. Whatever
the theory, it appears to work.
When there's any catastrophic failure in a motorcycle, there's no way
to be 100% sure, short of tearing down the engine or doing forensic
analysis of the pieces, that you got all the bits out. So an early oil
change sounds like a good idea on general principles. I'm interested
in trying the K&N oil filter, mostly because I really like the nut on
the end of the filter so you can use a wrench instead of trying to
fiddle with an oil filter remover in close quarters. Usually I get
frustrated and drive a screwdriver through the old filter to get it to
turn, which makes a mess, and bothers my wife. (She doesn't like it
when I approach the bike with a hammer.) The K&N seems like a better
solution. Who knows, maybe in another 108 years Harley will have
adopted it.
Another somewhat controversial thing; I'm thinking I'll switch to
Mobile 1. I had it in the Sportster, and objective measurements with
the oil bag thermometer showed that it ran 10-15 degrees
cooler. Reports differ whether it'll quiet the clatter in the top
end. Some say no difference, others say a significant difference.
We're about to get another data point. (I've never really
believed that the "bearing skate" issue was real.)
So all in all, am I happy with my purchase? You bet. It's fun and
comfortable, two factors you don't often find together. Do I miss my
old bike? Yes, a little. When I get the feeling I want to burn up
the back roads, I realize I don't have a bike for that anymore. But
the feeling passes.
Ron
-
2003 FLHTCUI "Noisy Glide"
http://www.christianfamilywebsite.com
http://www.ronaldchristian.com
Definition: Nelp: Contraction of "no help". Colloquial: Help
messages that are of no help whatsoever. Pertains to help files,
messages or documentation that convey no useful information, or
pedantically repeat the blindingly obvious.
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> comfortable, two factors you don't often find together. Do I miss my
> old bike? Yes, a little. When I get the feeling I want to burn up
> the back roads, I realize I don't have a bike for that anymore. But
> the feeling passes.
> Ron
> -
> 2003 FLHTCUI "Noisy Glide"http://www.christianfamilywebsite.comhttp://www.ronaldchristian.com