Had a great vacation! Trip report to follow soon - and it will be a lengthy one. I'll post a note here when it's ready.
Decided to take the Harley for a ride this morning, seeing as how I'd been on the Ural all week. Had no particular destination in mind, so I figured I'd start with a visit to my local Harley dealer and then decide where to go from there. Well, wasn't today the Demo Ride day... I'd totally forgotten about it. There was quite a crowd of people milling about, but the rides weren't fully booked yet so I figured what the heck I might as well take one out for a spin. I wanted to try the Road Glide again, having ridden it last year at the demo ride, but it was booked for the next three rides and I didn't feel like waiting that long for another spin on it. My second choice, the Street Bob, was also booked three rides ahead. The guy asked what else I wanted to try so I asked what was available for the next ride and he started listing them off. When he got to the Wide Glide I said I'd try that one and he slotted me in.
I went outside to wander about and wait as my ride wasn't due to leave for another 20 minutes yet. Ran into a former motorcycle course student of mine and was delighted to hear that she had recently passed her M2 Exit course with only one minor infraction. She credited that and her riding ability to my skills as an instructor, which really made my day. It's always an ego boost to hear from former students and to know that what they were taught really helped shape them into competent riders. I also ran into the Third Officer from our Southern Cruisers Chapter and we chatted for a bit. Found a few more old friends and chatted some more and then suddenly it was my turn to ride.
When I swung a leg over the Wide Glide I was immediately impressed with the way it felt. They had the bars adjusted a little too close for my liking but the seat felt great and the forward controls were in a natural feeling position. But when I fired up the motor that's when things got bizarre. It was SO smooth I had to look down at the motor and frame again because foe a moment I thought I'd accidentally sat on a Softail with its counterbalanced motor. But, no, the engine was bouncing and shaking about on its rubber mounts like a caged beast and there were traditional shock absorbers on the rear suspension, so it really was a Dyna Wide Glide I was on. What's strange is that the Wide Glide shares the same frame and motor as my Superglide, only the front end, gas tank and body parts are different. This means that my Superglide should have been as smooth as this Wide Glide, but this was simply not the case. But more on that in a minute.
The demo ride route was about 10km long and consisted of a short stretch down the westbound 401HWY (aka: Ontario's Autobahn), followed by some secondary highways and county roads with a few nice curvy sections. The controls, gearbox, performance and ergonomics were so close to my Superglide that it didn't take very long at all to get used to the Wide Glide. The seat felt plusher and the riding position very relaxed, although I wonder how it would feel after a few hours on the road. The step on the seat locks you into one butt position and the wider gas tank splays the legs outwards a bit more, but the big difference is the way you sit up straight in the seat, as opposed to the slight forward lean of the Superglide. This upright position puts all the force of bumps directly onto the tailbone, which after a while can become quite painful. But - the bars were a little close and the ride was only 15 minutes long, so it's hard to tell for sure what the long range comfort would be like. I didn't get a chance to try a panic stop but the skinny front tire and disc brake seemed to work well enough whenever I used them. The suspension (and slightly longer wheelbase) gave a pleasantly smooth ride and the handling was very predictable; overall the bike instills a lot of confidence with its ease of operation. The motor pulls strong and the new 6-speed gearbox has well spaced ratios, no real surprises here as it is pretty much the identical setup to my bike. Fit and finish was of the usual high standard and overall the short demo ride was very enjoyable. Maybe too enjoyable.
When I got back the salesman saw me coming and said something must be wrong because I had "that smile" on my face. I asked him what the price difference was between the two bikes and without batting an eye he said the Wide Glide was about $5k more. I told him I really liked the ride and thought maybe I might have bought the wrong bike. He said if I got a red one we could transfer the hard saddlebags on my Superglide to a Wide Glide no problem. The Parts Lady then reminded me that Angie would kill me if I showed up with another new bike and that kinda brought me back to reality. Damn demo rides on a Harley can REALLY mess with your mind.
Anyways. I had always thought my Superglide vibrated more than it should have, but put that down to having just come from the luxurious perch of an Electra-Glide. When I told Jamie (the salesman) that the Wide Glide was way smoother than mine he said that shouldn't be as they were basically the same bike. He told me to have a talk with the Service Manager because something was obviously wrong. So I told Junior (Service Mgr) about it and he mentioned that they had experienced a few premature failures of the front lower motor mounts on the '06 models. In fact, they had just replaced one on one of the demo bikes and it only had 1,300km on the odometer. He sent me to the shop area to talk to one of the mechanics to get their opinion. The mech on duty happened to be Amzy, a guy I know and trust quite well. We talked for a bit and he said it sounded like a shot motor mount might be the problem, so we went outside to take a look at my bike. He crawled behind the front wheel and took one look under the front of the motor and I heard him say "Yep, it's shot". Then he had me get down there and look while he fired up the bike - the motor moved but the rubber didn't. Damn.
Back to the service counter. Junior happened to have three motor mounts on order and due to arrive on Tuesday, so my bike will have its first warranty related repair then at the 8,000km mark. Tomorrow morning I have to take it in for the 8k service, so if the part arrives early they'll do it then but it will be fixed Tuesday for sure. In the mean time he said I can continue to ride it without fear of damage, as the other motor mounts are designed to compensate in a situation like this. Good thing, too, because I suspect the motor mount was shot at time of delivery it's just that nobody noticed it until today - 8,000km later. So participating in demo rides can be a good thing even if you already own that particular brand.
I left the demo ride and decided to make a quick trip north to the Hillside Coffee Company in the wee village of Sydenham for some freshly roasted and ground Kenyan AA, as we were almost out of coffee at home. Then I took the back roads and had a nice, traffic and idiot free ride home. Sweet day!
