Total Motorcycle Community Forums

How do you find the Heel/toe shifter on the silverado? I have been toying with the idea of the classic or the custom, but one of the big things is the heel toe shifter and the floor boards on the classic. I dont like them. Was it difficult to get used to the heel toe?

Northern Pete. I love the floorboards. And it didn't take very long to use the heel/toe shifter. It saves wear and tear on the top of your boot.

The floorboards are awesome! Saves so much on fatigue because you can shift your foot around so much more than on pegs, and there is no "pressure" point on your foot bottom. The heel/toe, well, thats another story. I don't use it very much at all. The nice thing though, it's there if you need it (like when my new steel toes were too tall to fit under the shifter) but you don't have to use it. I can use it, and its not too hard to adjust to...but I am a fairly new rider. My dad ( been riding longer than I have been alive) has a heel/toe on his Victory, and he never uses it. He is just in the habit of shifting normally. It more personal preference than anything. I prefer the boards over pegs though, and so does everyone I have talked to that has ridden both types (at least 6 people-most very seasoned riders).

Here's a question that displays my lack of knowledge regarding all things mechanical. Are floor boards hard to install or is it a 10 minute job?

After doing a quick google check on them, my interest has died! The cheapest I found were about $260. Waaaaaaay out of my price range. For some reason I expected them to be around $20-70. Oh well.

I'm glad you got that all figured out. I understand some mechanical stuff, well alot of mechanical stuff, but my bike came with floorboards, so I had no idea what kind of job it was to install them. Your right though, they are pretty expensive. Yet another reason I chose the bike that already 'em

Wow..it's been a while since I have been here huh? I have been doing some extra training at work. I am learning to run a few new machines. It has me working an opposite shift than Bill...so our lives have been a bit turned upside down lately, and my bike has taken a back seat.

I am a night person, and they have me at work now by 6:00am. Needless to say, there is no way I would ride to work that early, I am not even consious at that hour.

Yesterday I took the bike out for a nice ride after work. It was an AWESOME day weather wise, just picture perfect for a ride, so I couldn't resist. It was only the second time I ever rode without Bill behind me, so it was a little scary from time to time with cars right behind me, but I thought I did pretty good.

Twice I got a little freaked out. The first time I had just turned off one road onto another. About a quarter mile down the road the lake starts and there is a bridge. Well, as I was approaching the bridge a big dump truck full of granite passed me! Right on a bridge! A simple country road with a two way bridge. It freaked me out becasue he hadn't been behind me, he turned on the road from the other direction and boom there he was. Not a bright move on his part, and he freaked me out a bit.
Then a few miles after the bridge the road takes nearly a 90 degree turn to the right followed a few blocks later by another very sharp turn to the left. I was a bit shook from the granite truck, but was feeling confident in a lot of the stuff I was doing so far on the ride. As I entered the first turn...there it was.....gravel, from the yellow line to the shoulder. I just held on, I think I quit breathing and prolly missed a few heart beats too. but I did okay.....the next corner was much the same only there was gravel from shoulder to shoulder and this time I had oncoming traffic to deal with too....I looked in my mirror and no one was behind me, so I did slow wayyyyyy down through that corner.

After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. Just awesome country scenery, and open roads. I bummed around a bit then returned home. All in all it was a pretty good learnning day for me. I did improve a bit on my take offs and turns and I again learned I will never ride without my super cool mirrored face shield....it REALLY cuts the glare. It is storming out now wich sucks cuz I wanted to ride, but we really need the rain here, it is pretty dry.

It will prolly be a few more weeks of training before I am back to my normal schedule and riding takes a front seat again...I'll try to check in a bit more though.

It is FINALLY over!! Friday was my lst day working first shift at work. I will go back to my normal 2-10 shift after the July 4th Holiday. I am pretty excited about that. It will take a little readjusting, but then our lives will be back to normal again.

When I got home from work on friday afternoon it was once again a gorgeous day. So I took care of what I had to, let the holiday traffic clear out a bit, then I geared up and was off for yet another bike adventure without Bill behind me. I have to tell you, I think I did VERY well this time too. I had a feeling of confidence I haven't felt in a while. There weren't ANY negative thoughts creeping in. I stuck to the back country areas to avoid major Holiday traffic, and just cruised. I had no plan on where to go, which is so NOT like me at all, but it was fun. I don't think I was 2 miles from home and SPLAT, a big ol bug splats my helmet visor, right between the eyes!...what a mess, glad I had the helmet/visor on though...that woulda hurt!

I practiced a lot of stop and starts, and I think I finally got the take off thing conquered. The fear of chocking it off has left me, even though I did manage to do it once this ride, I am not nervous and scared every time I stop. If it dies....hell, just hit the starter button and off we go again...no big thing right?

I also practiced turning off one road and onto another. I am not real smooth at that. I seem to slow down way too much. It just doen't seem smooth and natural to me. I did do pretty good a few times, but still need work on that too. I down shift way too far I think, then I am almost stopped. I will work on that more today..yes, I said today, I think Bill and I are going out together today.

I'll post more if we do..and if I remember, I'll take a camera with us and show you guys where we ride.

Okay, I remembered to charge the batteries for the camera.....but um, forgot to take the camera with us. .sorry....I will remember someday, I promise!

Bill and I decided to take Sev's advice. He said no better way to celebrate Canada Day than to get out and taste it......well, yesterday was the birthday of the good ol USA so we celebrated by getting out there and tasting it, just not to the extent Sev and his buddies did. We simply went for a day trip all around central Wisconsin.

I threw my purse and a map in the saddle bags and off we went. I had a rough idea of where I wanted to go, but most of the trip was on roads I had never been on before, so needless to say I missed a few turns, and made some pretty abrupt stops/turns. One time the road we needed to turn on came up so fast I just hammered the brakes and turned. I knew there was no cages behind Bill and was confident he cold make the turn. He did and all was good. A little while later, I convinced myself I missed my road somewhere, so I found a place to take a break and check the map. Sure enough we had to back track about 5 miles or so. While we were stopped Bill said he almost didn't make that abrupt turn I was sure he could handle. Seems his hands were bothering him a bit so he had just set the cruise and was in the process of shaking out his hands when I hit the brakes and turned so fast....he did manage to make it, but made sure he told me he barely made it. I did pay more attention in my mirrors after that to how he was doing and asked at each stop sign if he wanted to keep on the adventure or head home...he hung in there the whole day.

I was glad we turned around to hit the road I missed instead of just altering our ride from where we ended up. That road was awesome. One swoopy turn after another. I had a defintie "lightbulb moment" on this trip. I felt so calm and confident. Only once did I get scared or have negative thoughts....I just smiled from ear to ear and rode.

There were a ton of bikes out too. Got lots of practicing waving thats for sure. After a brief stop to make sure we were both good to keep going, we decided to take the loop I went on by myself the other night when I got passed on a bridge by a dump truck. We were going down Hwy C...which by the way, I have NEVER ridden on that road and NOT been passed by a cage. No matter how fast I go, I always get passed... !Well, once again a pickup truck goes wizzing by..I was doing 65 on a road with a speedlimit of 55. I noticed Bill had the visor up on his helmet, which he does a lot, he says its cooler. He has a clear visor and wears sunglasses made to fit on his perscription glasses, where as I just have a tinted visor for my helmet. To each his own I guess.

I did get a little freaked out on the corners that were full of gravel last time I was out, even though the gravel was for the most part gone...that was really the only time I sorta panicked and felt uneasy. Otherwise it was smooth sailing....I do think I need to invest in an aftermarket seat though. I had to stand up and shake out the butt and legs at the last couple of stop signs. Those seats are expensive though. Maybe next year.

When we got home I asked Bill how it was....and he said it was great for the most part. I asked what part wasn't so great?. Remember me saying I noticed his visor up on Hwy C? Well, it seems a huge ol bug hit him in the bridge of the nose and slid up, knocking his sunglasses off his prescription glasses, and sending them tumbling down the road. I asked why he didn't stop, and he said he figured if he did find them they would be so scratched up and gnarly looking that it wouldn't matter anyways...so it looks like maybe I'll be getting him a tinted visor now too!

We got home in time to fire up the grill, have a bite to eat and walk down to the city park and watch the awesome fireworks display with some friends. It was an excellent Independence Day, and hopefully a new July 4th Ride tradition has been born

Hi all.....Just wanted to let you all know, I am living with the coolest guy in the world ....Today before work we were debating if it was going to rain or not. Like I have said in the past, I am a fair weather rider, and not real fond of the rain. I was sure it wasn't going to rain, and if it did it would be done and over before I was finished with work. Well, Bill convinced me otherwise, so I took the car, and left my poor ol bike in the garage. All night long I kept looking outside, and it was beautiful out there. Only once did it even look like rain, and that passed pretty quickly. I was a little bummed that I let him convince me to take the car.

Work night was over. I am on overtime, so only 3 of us were there until midnight. We all helped lock up. As I was getting the bay doors locked, I caught something shiney out of the corner of my eye. I took a step back and looked, and there was my bike! My helmet was on the sissybar, and my jacket was draped over the seat. I always have one or two pair of gloves in the saddle bags. I was shocked. There it was. Bill had rode my bike over, so I could at least ride home. It was awesome. As I stood there, getting excited about the ride home, I remembered my hard lunchbox I had with me didn't fit in my saddle bags, and I didn't have a strap with me. Hmmmmm....may have to leave it at work til tomorrow. I stepped outside to get a better look at my bike under the lights and low and behold, there he was. Bill was sitting on the retaining wall outside the building waiting for me to take my lunchbox and the car home. I thought he had brought the other set of car keys and just dropped the bike off and left. What a guy!! So we chatted a few minutes til the buzzer rang, then I geared up and off I went. It felt good to ride home, but I gotta admit, after 10 hours of work, that bike seemed a bit heavy at first.

Enough rambling for now, just wanted to let you all know how cool Bill can be...and I know he sometimes reads this blog, so thanks honey, I appreciated it.