Out with the Old and in With the New

Well, as most of you correctly guessed; the plug wires did not fix the problem (not had anyone really expected they would). I’d already made up my mind that if (when) they didn’t fix things, I’d trade the bike in and get a new one.

I already knew what I was going to look at; the new Street Glides – with the Daytona Blue Pearl color option. I talked to a few dealerships to get some initial information and then headed off to Boston Harley to see the color in person. It wasn’t as bright as it looked on-line, but I still liked it. The sales guy I talked to saw my notepad with the other dealership info on it and commented that he didn’t want me shopping anywhere else – IE: what would it take to get me to sign on something that day? Well, for starters, how about if you came down to (X) on your price. Let me check with the sales manager. He comes back; yes, we can do that price. Ok great, we have a starting price, now let’s talk about my bike for trade-in value (I told them about the skipping problem). Let me get a number from the sales manager – he came back and I thought to myself hmmm, that’s kinda low. So, we continued the dance. Me; I’m still not signing today. This is still just informational only. Him; Well, what would it take to get you to sign? Me; Ok, how about you toss in a Stage 1 upgrade? Him; Let me see if we can do that – yes, we can. Me; Great! But I’m still not signing today. Him; Well, what would it take to get a signature? Me; Hmmm…well, this (X) is the number I had in mind for my trade-in. If you can come up to this number, then we have a deal. Him; Let me check – we can do that.

At this point, I figured I had about as good a deal as I was going to get anywhere – let’s sign this deal!

That was Wednesday, they didn’t have that exact bike in stock but would let me know when it was in (prob withing a few days). How about I come down on Saturday to finalize the transaction? Then I got the call the next day (Thursday); the bike was in! Ok, now the fever started hitting me hard. It was like just before heading out on a bike trip; I couldn’t sleep at all! I called the dealership and said I had to come in the next day (Friday) – I needed to ride!!! They had to shuffle some scheduling around to accommodate me, but they said ok, come on down.

I arrived and we started in with the process. They came out to look at my old bike and started it up – it sprang to life no problem. He shut it off and then we went in and did the paperwork thing. The finance guy was cool, we had each other laughing pretty good. At one point, he noted the year and mileage on the bike I was trading in and says “You’ve got 50k miles on your ’08 – you definitely ride, huh?” I just said “Yep”, but thought to myself “Well, I had 40k on the first ’08, and I put 40k on the 2nd ’08... 40k + 40k means I technically have 80k on my ’08!!”

When I’d signed on all the dotted lines, it was time to ring the large “ship” style bell. As I did it, I heard another bell ring out – then another! Looking around, I saw that the sales manager had rung one, and the boutique ladies had rung one as well. Then everyone in the place started clapping and cheering. Hey thanks everyone! Now who’s chipping in to help me with the payments? (cue crickets chirping…)

Then it was time to take my old bike off the trailer – again, it started up just fine. I mentally crossed my fingers as the sales guy rode it across their parking lot and into the innards of their building. I was afraid it would stall or start bucking wildly, and we’d have some discussions to do. But it seemed to run smoothly enough and I exhaled thankfully as she passed through the garage door and the rumble of the Rineharts faded into the bowels of the building.

And just like that, she was gone… Yes I’ll miss her…but not the problems she gave me!

A few minutes later, I could hear the approaching sound of a much quieter bike. And then, there she was! The sales guy reappeared, exiting the garage door astride my shiny, spotless new bike! He brought her around and we got her loaded onto the trailer. A hearty handshake was exchanged, and I was off, headed back to the homestead!

A quick text to Matty to see if he’d be around to give me a hand "with something". Ya see; I hadn’t mentioned to anyone that I was getting a new bike. For some reason, I’d felt very superstitious about the whole thing, fearing that if I said anything before the new bike was signed/sealed and in my driveway, that the deal would fall through. Maybe it was because of all the headaches and heartaches I’d had with the old one, but I just wanted to keep things under wraps until the deal was done.

When Matt pulled into my driveway, I saw him begin nodding when he spotted the bike on the trailer. As he stepped out of his truck, he said he’d surmised that a new bike was a strong possibility of what I’d needed help with. It didn’t take long to get her unloaded and then a quick celebratory beer, and he was off to get cleaned up for that night’s ‘Vous planning party.

And there you have it – the story of my new ride! I took it over to Aaron’s house that night for the planning party and it felt AMAZING to have a reliable ride again! Then on Saturday, Matt and I rode up to Rex’s house to enjoy the great weather that this past weekend brought us. The ride home yesterday was good as well, and I now have ~440 miles on it. I’ve been going easy on it – the break-in is 500 miles. After that, I get to ride it normally.

The first service gets done after 1,000 miles. I’m bringing the bike back in, in two weeks, for the Stage 1 upgrade. I will probably need to have the 1k service done at the same time…or maybe even sooner…

Not a bad way to start a new relationship…