catchin' up...

it's been a while since i've last posted.. lots to catch up on - mostly pictures...

patriot ride - 26 September 2008

patriot ride was that same route as last year - in fact, pretty much the same as last year with the exception of the number of people that showed up. probably not even half as many - most likely due to the threat of rain.

on to the pictures...

pow/mia bike...

ray price speaking to the riders at the national guard armory...

everyone listening to ray price...

ray price's trike...

i guess dog is man's best friend... the dog didn't seem to mind riding around on the back of the bike...

rocker...

on my way to ray price to demo the rocker c, i was questioning why i was going... i originally scheduled the demo ride because it was one of three ways to get the 105th anniversary dvd from harley. now i was wondering if this was really worth it... since it was scheduled and i was almost there, might as well go through with it...

i get there, traver gets me squared away with the paperwork and we're off... as we're leaving the parking lot, i notice how heavy the front end appears, like it just wants to flop over. this is, apparently, because of the wider rear tire and something for me to be aware of as we ride...

the seating position on the bike was comfortable although the seat itself was a little hard. i don't think i would be able to ride on it very long without taking a break.

i don't know if i like the handlebar configuration. when you're sitting on the bike, the rider is reflected in where the handlebar meets in the center. i guess for those that are vane, they can look at themselves while they're out riding around... it's just not for me...

the smooth ride made up for the hard seat. unlike my road king, the bike doesn't vibrate when you're stopped. just a nice smooth ride all around. you could feel the power when the throttle was rolled on.

the lean angle, or the lack of lean angle surprised me a bit. as we went through one sweeping turn, i was rolling on the throttle, leaning through the curve and i hear the pegs scraping a bit. well, not really the pegs, but the 'hero' tips - i think that's what traver called them. little metal tips that extend down at an angle from the end of the peg. i'm guessing these are to let the rider know they're getting close to the pegs. i was surprised because i didn't think i was really over that far.

overall, a nice bike. i enjoyed riding it. i would definitely ride it again. but i don't know that i would want to owe one. at least not before i got some other bikes...

so i came in to get a free dvd by doing a demo ride. i left having a better appreciation for the rocker. and i think i got more enjoyment from the demo ride that i will the dvd.

captial city bike fest...

next 'big' event on the calendar is the captial city bike fest... it's usually a good time... i take friday off and make a day of it. there's a charity ride friday during the day with festivities beginning in the evening. i've volunteered in the past and will probably again this year.

saturday's are fun to take the family - see the sites and sounds. normally we plan on heading down there for a short period of time and end up spending most of the day.

the event is getting bigger and bigger each year. i believe the rally has been a win-win between ray price and the city of raleigh. with the revitalization of the city, raleigh has been open to more events to help bring people in, the rally being one of those events. and the rally has certainly brought people into raleigh that normally might not have shown up.

looking forward to it...

restoring confidence...

i received a call this evening from randy, the service manager at ray price... he read my previous post and had some concerns about what i said.

first, i'm impressed he took the time to call - it shows he's very concerned about his customers and the service his department provides. through our discussion, i got more of an appreciation of the passion randy has for his job and motorcycling.

randy was concerned that i posted my comments and he never had a chance to address the "problems". i have to give him that - it's hard for them to make things right when they don't know about them... i should have talked to him and given him a chance to get things straight.

randy isn't only interested in maintaining a positive image for ray price, he's interested in the safety of his customers. when i complained about the brake rotors being on backwards, he saw a bigger potential issue of the front wheel being on backwards. he asked if i would go out to the garage and check to ensure the wheel was on correctly. once we established that is was mounted correctly, he said if the rotors were wrong, they would be more than happy to swap them the next time i was in.

we started talking more about why i thought the rotors were on backwards. randy educated me a bit further on the instance of when they might swap brake rotors or take other measures to reduce the noise when the brakes are used... i guess i was making a bigger issue than was really there...

we talked about the clutch not being set properly. he asked if a tech had informed me that the clutch would take about five hundred miles to get seated. unfortunately a tech hadn't told me that. now, knowing it was properly adjusted, it just needed time to to set it, makes me realize the tech didn't overlook something...

as far as the leak, they happen - probably more often than we'd like as owners... but it was unrelated to the clutch being replaced, as i first thought. randy took the time to explain what was done to fix the leak and how replacing the clutch wouldn't have caused the leak...

and the muffler bolt being loose... who knows when that happened. i don't know if they removed the muffler to replace the clutch or not. that bolt could have been loose for a long time and i just noticed it. do i expect them to check every single bolt on the bike each time it's in there for service?? no, that would be unreasonable. so maybe my comment about the bolt being loose was a bit unfair...

i do believe the techs working on the bikes are thorough. not only that, they do look over the bike for any safety issues any time a bike is in for service and will address those concerns if found.

what did i take away from randy's phone call today?? first, i think he restored my confidence in the service department. i say i think because maybe i was just making some assumptions. had i taken the time to talk to him or someone in the service department, maybe i would have understood better and not felt like i was losing confidence...

second, i do believe the guys in the service department at ray price take their jobs seriously and put their customers and their customer's safety first...

third, i'm a preferred customer at ray price... i paid a little extra for the plan but feel i got a lot in return. the service departments gets me in quickly, gets my bike fixed and back to me. while it's nice to feel like they bend over backwards to do what they can, i think they take all their customers as seriously... and that's a good thing.

in the four years i've been taking my bike to ray price, i have been very satisfied with their service. while i can't compare them to other service departments, because i've never had to deal with other service departments, i do believe they would be hard to beat...