Broken Truck? No Hot Water? So what - New Bike!

I was waiting at the door of the bank this morning when they finally opened (on time). I managed to convince them to hand me a check and then it was off to the dealership. I then handed them the check and they handed me some paperwork. Next stop was my insurance company, to switch my policy over from the Fatboy to the new bike. Once they’d given me their stamp of approval, it was off to the registry for the final blessing; a new registration. Having secured that, things were looking good. I just needed to wait for Zig to get out of work so he could run me back to the dealership, and I’d be the proud owner of a new HD. Did I mention that things were looking good? I did, right? Because that was when the crap hit the fan.

Walking back out to the parking lot, I could see that my truck was puking fluid onto the tar underneath the engine. Radiator fluid? Was I overheating? The truck hadn’t seemed to be running hot… Getting closer, I could make out a reddish tint to the fluid. Great. Well, let’s take a look-see and find out what’s up. Looking underneath, I could see the steering box was hemorrhaging fluid. Wonderful. Well, let’s get this puppy back home quickly, while I can still steer.

Pulling into the driveway, I breathed a sigh of relief. Ok, the steering problem was an issue that would have to be dealt with, but it didn’t have to be dealt with right now. Just focus on the new bike and find my happy place. Things will be ok.

And speaking of the new bike, I’d need room in the garage for it, which meant the Fatboy needed to be moved down to the cellar. So I headed down there to start moving some things around…and that was when I found the puddle underneath my water heater. Are you kidding me?? TWO things in one day? What the hell? The funds are already tight as hell from the new bike purchase, and now I’m looking at two major repairs in one day? Oy.

Happy place…happy place. Must find happy place. Ok, doing a quick check around the house, everything else appeared to be in order…no more nasty surprises. Back to the plan; I moved some things around in the cellar and moved the Fatboy down to it’s new (and hopefully temporary) home. Even did some yard work to pass the time until Zig would be out of work.

The call came in; Zig was on his way. He soon arrived to pick me up and we hit the road, with me riding ‘bitch‘ on the back. We got some funny looks on the way down to the dealership (I guess it’s not often that Zig has someone so good looking riding on the back of his bike). We met the folks at the dealership, did the handing off of the keys, they took my pic (for their customer wall) and then Zig and I saddled up. We’d opted to head south to avoid the city traffic, so we cut through some side roads that would lead us back to the 4 lane.

So here I was; on my bike and getting a feel for the new ride. Throttle? Amazingly quick and responsive. That will definitely take some getting used to. The downshifting isn’t an issue; I seem to be able to find that level quite easily. As for upshifting…well...that will take some time as well. I keep catching the lever with the side of my boot. Granted, I’m still making the shift, but it’s not clean. Also; I’m sitting up much, much higher than I’m used to - I’ll have to look into after market seats to see if I can lower myself a few inches. So after all this analysis, what is my opinion? I don’t like it. No seriously; I don’t like how this new bike rides. What the hell have I done? Have I made a huge mistake? And then a memory floated up from the deep recesses of my gray matter; I hadn’t liked the Fatboy when I first picked it up, either. It was too different from the Shovelhead. But I’d soon realized that it was a better riding machine and I’d quickly settled into a much nicer riding experience. So perhaps that was all I needed with this new bike, right? Time would tell.

And speaking of ‘time’, allow me to back up a bit; Zig and I have a deadline. We have one week to log 1,000 miles. You see, we’re heading down to New Jersey to check out a concert and want to be able to open the machines up for the ride down. Which means we’ll need to have completed the break-in period and have the first service done, beforehand. So we’ve already made the service appointments at the dealership - and the clock is ticking.

Back to tonight’s ride; Keeping an eye on the tachometers, we gently hammered down 95 and soon fell into our normal riding rhythm; side by side. We reached the end of Rhode Island and didn’t even pause. Pushing into Connecticut, the miles really began piling up behind us. After close to an hour, Zig gave me the “Stomach needs food” signal and we peeled off at the next exit. We located Sal’s Pizza in lovely Old Saybrook, and kicked back for a bit. He jokingly asked if I was planning on putting all 1,000 miles on in one night. I shrugged and said sure, why not. Then he informed me that he had hockey that night, so we would need to head back. And head back we did, the machines easily clicking the mileage up as we crossed back into Rhode Island, and then into our home state. We parted ways at Zig’s exit and headed off to our respective homesteads.

I’m happy to say that by the end of the evening, I’ve warmed up greatly to the new ride. There’s still a lot of getting-used-to that will need to be done, but overall, I’m very happy with it. I’ve got 200 miles logged in the first night of ownership, and I’ve got tomorrow off from work. The weather looks like it’ll cooperate for at least the morning, so I’m going to bulk up the odometer a bit more.

Apologies, but my camera doesn’t play well with this laptop, so I’m unable to get pictures up before Monday. Please bear with.

Ride Hard, Take Chances