Gummiente's Blog!

[blues2cruise]

I'll have to look it up.
I like the new bike because it lacks the batwing fairing.

[Gummiente]

Finally rode Zero home today. There was a delay due to a registration glitch that was finally resolved yesterday and the bike is now in my name, with a new Veteran plate that I installed this morning. Decided not to store it at the shop over the winter, as I already have my Road Glide there and with all the bikes coming in for storage there wasn't much room anyway. I'll be putting a low restriction intake kit on the Road Glide and doing some fine tuning on the dyno, as well as installing a set of colour matched fairing lowers, so it made sense to keep it there. The Softail only requires a stripdown of unnecessary parts (saddlebags, engine guard, passenger pegs, passenger backrest) and a few simple mods like new handgrips, buffing out some scratches and installing some highway pegs, which can be done in my carport come the Spring. It will be prepped and placed in the storage shed out back this Sunday.

It was a lovely ride home, I took the long way down all my fave quiet, twisty back roads and just puttered along with my heated gear on the "Melt Skin" setting and my full face helmet blocking the icy wind from my face (it was only 4C). I took it easy on the real tight corners because this is only the second time riding this bike and the pavement was still cold and frosty in some patches that hadn't seen the sunlight yet. For a 15yr old bike, it rode very well and while the performance level was nowhere near what my modern Road Glide puts out, it scooted along just fine and did everything I asked it to without an issue. I think we're gonna get along just fine in the coming years.

So, I made it through another season of cagers trying to kill me, that's 35 years of riding under my belt now. Looking forward to many more!