It's 01/30/01 I am scheduled to take delivery on my 2001 FLSTCI Heritage Softtail� Classic with EFI. The service manager from Woodstock Harley Davidson is droping it off tommorrow morning. The weather is not looking good, freezing rain this morning followed by heavy rain this afternoon. The dealer is charging me $100. to do so, but it was snowing on Saturday when I went to sign the paper work and I want it home. It is one beautiful piece of machinery. I am still in awe, it's starting to warm up some, but I still have a good ice/snow pack on most of my driveway. That and the roads are sandy and salty, so I will wait for my first ride for a few more weeks I guess.
01/31/01 Update: I lied about riding my bike, when Gary unloaded it, and road it up my driveway to my garage I lost all common sense. We talked a bit about features and possible upgrades in the future, I just had to try it out.
So I went out and started chopping ice only to find a mud puddle under about an 1" of ice. I gave up I already feel like crap from some cold or early flu, hope it is not the flu, I did get my flu shot last trip to the cardio doc. Where was I? oh yea even though the roads were ugly (wet, sandy, salty) I had to ride my bike. I got my full face helmet, my boots, gloves, and denim padded shirt, and official HD� denim jacket. It's 9:00 am and about 35�f and overcast, for the first time believe it or not I am alone with my bike. For the first time I get to start it. I walk around it in a daze, admiring the beauty of this two wheel marvel. The one glaring flaw is the rear fender trim/light is not quite aligned right. I take my key/alarm fob, set the alarm, tip the bike, alarm goes off. I went with the factory alarm with the optional siren, worked fine just hope it help's deter any amatures from "borrowing" it. I tried the fork lock, then the ignition.
I put on my helmet, gloves and climbed on. I checked out all the switches and lights then backed it out of my garage and turned it around. Shut the garage and climbed back on. I fliped the on/off switch let the computer do it's thing, and hit the starter button. The beast within awoke, the sound of it's rumble awoke my spirit and my pulse quickend. Checked the brake locations again, I'm 6'2" with size 14 feet so the stock brake peddle is/was a concern. As it turns out it wasn't that hard to get use to, I'll have to give it some time and see. I checked turn switches and pulled in the clutch, and put it in first gear. Looked ahead at the 30' of hard packed snow on my drive way along with the mud puddles and slowly eased out the clutch. Make it to the street and made a right. It is amazing how a motorcycle that weighs in at 696 pounds can be so easy to move around, walking it out of my garage while straddling it and now riding out of my winding neighborhood roads. I rode a bike that was about 300 pounds lighter that was more work to ride.
I headed north on some back roads, I figured since I had to ride carefully for awhile it would be good to stay out of traffic. The road was wet with sand and snow along the edges, lots of trees, twist's and turns. It felt so good to be back on a motorcycle after so long without. I just road at a slow 30-40mph watching the road and the few cars out on the road. Turns out my single layer of Levi's were not quite enough to keep back the cold, so I went only 26 miles round trip, that and this damned bug I got made all plans of an enjoyable ride a pipe dream. Got home (just in time) looked at my beautiful brand new bike and got sick at all the dirt that dared soil it. So for a 1 hr ride I have a 2 hr wash and polish. But It damned sure look's good.
The bike is black and beautiful, with just enough chrome to be a pain to clean, but not so much to be gaudy. I went ahead and put the Screamin' Eagle slip on mufflers to give it the traditional sound, and the Screamin' Eagle air cleaner kit to let it breath. It seemed to be running a little rich at startup, and at take off and while riding it sputters some and it will backfire when I roll off the gas, I am not sure if it is the cold or the changes I made to the pipes and intake. I changed the plugs even though they looked fine, I guess I will need to add a Power Commander� to help the stock ecm work with these mods I have done. The best source for parts I have found so far is DirectParts.com ask for Rich, great prices and service. I have to get it back to the dealer if they ever have an opening, this time of year they are really busy. I have heard nothing but praise about the preformance improvment's with the PC from the good folks in a news group I read alot. It's called rec.motorcycles.harley or the VB&G, I never met any of these good folk's but I feel I can trust their experiance in the real world. The service manager from Woodstock told me when I asked what he thought of the Power Commander, that it should not be needed if the bike is set up right. I guess time will tell. Could be it just needs to hurry up and get broken in so I can open it up and blow all the crap out of it. I also added a set of crash bars, all I could see was me pulling an "Artie Johnson" from "Laugh In", rolling up to a stop and forgetting to put my feet down. It will take some time before I take it any further with more changes (no mas money) but I would like to go with a set of cast wheels of some kind, for cleaning and for the tube less tires. I am also thinking along the lines of the big bore 95ci to get more power and speed to stay away from the big rigs when riding two up.
I know the dangers involved in riding it is why I stopped riding full time long ago. But this will be the best chance I have to get back where my heart and head have always been. I do hope I can outlast the payments ;^) I wish everyone the best the road and life can offer. Ride safe and Love life.
I finally have some pics of my bike check them out. My 2001 Heritage |