December 31, 2009 12:47 AM PST
Hi guy's
I started riding in 1979, kawasaki Z2 750,I was in the navy at that time and my motorcycle day's were over when I was shipped overseas in 1984, I decided to get another bike in 2007. and bought a 2004 suzuki intruder (805 cc's), thought I needed moore power annd speed and traded it in for a 2007 vulcan 900, kept it until 2009...there weren't very many accesories available for my bike, I like them with what my friends call bling, so I traded her and decided it was time for a harley, japanese bikes are ok but I really wanted a bike built in the good old USA...I test drove at least 8 or 9 different harley's and fell in love with a 2008 FLHTC (electra glide classic), I thought this would be my forever bike because she had everything I had wanted (almost) LOL.. I added a few extras but hadn't counted on the weight of the bike when I laid it down, I am 6' tall and around 180 lbs. the bike outweighed me by 681 lbs, I really hated to ask for help picking it up especially after I dropped it in my neighbors azaelas, it took 3 of us about 45 minutes to untangle it from those darn bushes (LOL), that was really funny when I look back and think about it...so I got out my tools and removed the tour pack (more cussing this time) along with almost a case of beer, the repair manual was mostly useless for this process...it was a little lighter but I finally gave up and traded her in on a 2005 softail deuce, a beautiful bike with lot's of chrome but if you have a bad back it's really hard riding, I got my tools out again and took off the shocks and added a lowering kit..more cussing and beer!!!!the first set uf shocks bottomed out, I guess I lowered it a little too much, I got on ebay and purchased a used set of shocks, took the old set off, took the new(used) shocks apart and added another lowering kit again, not quite as low this time but the ride was still hard and painful..well to make a long story short (er) I traded her in after test riding 8 more used harley's.
I found my forever bike**a 2007 road king police interceptor, 8200 miles and in pretty good shape after being ridden by the NOPD (new orleans police dept) for 2 years, I haven't had to bring out the tools again and I drink less beer, the guy's really look hard when I pull up at a stop light, my bike looks great for it's age and I don't look bad at 52...my advice to all of you ladies is to not let anyone keep you from riding a bike if you want to, please take a training course, harley has a great riders edge course available, it's worth the price and peace of mind, I also joined ABATE of Louisiana inc. (american bikers active towards education), I have made so many friends there and hardly ever riding alone unless I want to, bikers on the whole are a lot more friendly than cagers and I have yet to see a biker on a cell phone while riding, I have even seen women cagers applying makeup while driving talking on the phone or texting while trying to remain in their own lane
keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down
best wishes
