Beauty and the Beast

I did it. I just went and did it. I traded my Harley in for a new one.

As my 2010 Harley Ultra Classic Limited approached 70,000 miles I still loved riding it. I loved just about everything about it. I have ridden that bike around the entire United States, including Alaska. I rode the inaugural Hoka Hey rally in 2010. Coast to coast in less than 50 hours. Saddlesore 1000’s on every trip I take. You can read some of the stories here on the blog.

It was the first motorcycle in my life that I customized to fit my 6’6” body. It was absolutely comfortable. Increasingly hard to get on and off it because I couldn’t just swing my leg over it but that wasn’t that big of a deal.

I never once broke down on the road. I never once even got a flat tire. Now there was that time on the way to San Diego when the crash bar broke in the middle of the desert but all that took to “fix” were some zip ties. I never crashed. Sinking into the mud on a North Dakota gravel road doesn’t count.

But...I was losing confidence in it.

I had long imagined it would be the last Harley I would ever buy. I wanted to ride it 500,000 miles just to say I did. In order to get there, the things that wore out along the way would have to be replaced. At some point, the motor would have to be rebuilt. That is all par for the course and would still cost a lot less than a new bike. Well, it would cost less than a new bike.

Harley Davidsons don’t nickel and dime you to death. There is a reason why people talk about HD really standing for High Dollar. Everything about them is high quality and high cost. A Harley is a substantial motorcycle. It is a motorcycle with a soul. There is a connection that I feel to my Harley that I have never approached with any other bike in my life and I’ve had a few along the way. I think the Bible is right - where your treasure goes, your heart will follow. I do love me some Harley.

Motorcycles do the same thing to money that casinos do. And few motorcycles do that better than a Harley. Money becomes meaningless. It is just a tool to get what you want. It becomes magic money. It isn’t about what it costs anymore. It is just about what you need…. OK ….just about what you want.

While I never broke down on a trip, it was starting to feel like every trip ended up with something needing to be repaired or replaced. It killed me last spring to pay a $2600 repair bill. A new battery not too long after that. And then a voltage regulator in August. I’ve replaced the stator, the clutch, the brake master cylinder, a few sets of wheel bearings, the shocks, the starter, the compensator springs. Mostly normal stuff given the way that I ride but still. You get the point.

So when I got on the bike to ride to a breakfast meeting on a beautiful day in September, it broke my heart when I started it up and the throttle was racing. It doesn’t have a throttle cable so the problem was maybe in the electrical connections in the hand throttle or a computer problem. Whatever it was, it meant a trip to the repair shop and I HATE doing that. I don’t mind going every 5000 miles for service but it was those extra trips that were killing me.

All I could think about was a three day ride coming up in October. I really had no reason to think that I might somehow experience my first roadside heartbreak with it but that is what I was thinking about. I was losing confidence in my trusty steed.

So, after breakfast, I rode to a dealership, traded it in, and came back with a beauty.

I should tell you right now that I am absolutely the ideal Harley Davidson customer. As I rode to my dealer I was thinking about a few things. I was thinking about the brand new Milwaukee Eight engine coming out in 2017. I was thinking about what it would be like to have a detachable Tour Pack (the big luggage bag on the back.) Built in GPS. And those awesome headlights I had on my 2005 Road Glide.

So I walked in. Checked out the Road Glides and picked two. They wrote up both deals and I chose one. Then I went to the parts counter and gave them a list of everything that I wanted them to add to the bike. I knew there would be a couple of other tidbits that I would also add but I’d get them on my own.

So here you go. My brand spanking new 2017 Harley Davidson Road Glide Special.

Here are the modifications I have made thus far to render it a truly Tall Guy friendly ride.

• The tallest ape hanger handlebars that Harley sells. Internal wiring and heated grips. I chose fancy grips this time instead of the plain rubber. Something different. Nice.
• The tallest windshield that Harley sells. I thought about getting an aftermarket windshield but I trust that the Harley one will work just fine. I still see over it while riding but it helps with the head buffeting.
• Highway pegs (turned out for that extra inch.)
• A detachable King Tour Pack with a premium pad for Kelley and a nice chrome luggage rack for me. That will spend most of its life in my garage and it takes less than a minute to put it back on for short trips with Kelley and long trips with me.
• I replaced the standard equipment 11” shock with the longer one that comes on the Ultra Classic. I could care less about the “lowered look” - I want as much suspension travel as my 4XLT body can get. Pricey. I hope it proves worth it.
• And while I was waiting for all of that stuff to come in I added some floorboard relocators from Tall Guys Cycles and a Road Glide storage compartment for the dash. The relocators are a must for my legs and the storage is just nice to have.

So we have a new horse in the barn and she’s a beauty! Maybe I just like making payments to Harley Davidson Finance. Gotta do my part to keep the Motor Company afloat.

BTW, I’m not consistent in using my pet names for motorcycles. Since I call the KTM 1290 “The Beast” it is inevitable that the Harley is now officially “The Beauty.” Oh my goodness, boys and their toys.