out for a ride...

went out for a ride yesterday. well, more like running some errands, but it was a chance to get out on the bike... two things stood out on my short journey.

first, i love where i live. where else can you get stuck behind farm equipment chugging down the road at twenty and not really care?? i had considered passing on a double yellow. but then i thought why?? all that would accomplish is i'd get where i was going sooner. and since i was running errands "in town," why would i want to get there sooner. i just followed behind, thinking about how farming seems to be a dieing lifestyle.

second, i'm glad i don't live "in town"... the traffic and the people all up in themselves while they're driving, thinking they're the only ones on the road. or maybe just that they're privileged on the road and everyone else should bend to their wishes.

specifically, almost getting run off the road. or into oncoming traffic. as the road merges left from two lanes to one, some bozo in a lexus, nc plate sva-1091, just pulls into my space. any chance of them using a signal?? no. any change of them checking for other traffic before they change lanes?? no.

luckily i was expecting that behavior from the driver. maybe it it was being able to observe them for a mile or two and noticing they didn't have any regard for traffic around them. maybe it was the cell phone crammed in their ear.

i followed them, not by choice, for a couple more miles. all i can say it that my stereotyping was confirmed, at least in my mind, as they turned into wakefield.

once i got out from behind them, my ride improved. maybe because i was getting out of traffic and getting closer to home.

25k...

hit the 25k mark yesterday...

seems like a big milestone when you're a new rider and have a new bike - something to shoot for. now that i'm there, it doesn't seem like much. the longer i ride, the more i want to ride. i realize it's not about the miles, it's about where you've been, who you've met during those miles.

i look at future miles not so much in numbers, but journies... adventures i can share with my wife. the trips we'll take to get fish sammiches, to the beach or mountains, to see the world's largest whatever, or just to cruise around the back roads, spending time together and building more memories...

check out the ride map to see where i was when i hit the mark....

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...

who says harleys don't leak??

well, i'm starting to lose confidence in the service department at ray price...

after my last service and having the clutch replaced, while getting ready for the york trip, i noticed a couple things wrong with the bike. the clutch wasn't adjusted properly, one of muffler clamps bolts was loose and the rotors on the front wheel are on backwards... these are things i think the dealership should have fixed - maybe with the exception of the muffler clamp bolt...

when i got back from the smoke out, i was unpacking my bike and noticed a leak...

closer inspection found the primary drain plug was loose, almost to the point of being completely out. good thing i got home before that fell off!! so i tightened the drain plug and the other bolts around the primary...

a couple weeks later, i'm riding around and notice it leaking again... this time i take it back in to have them check it out and replace the gaskets - there's something more serious going on here than loose bolts.

while it was in, i had them do the 25000k service as well, a few hundred miles short, but close enough... while it was in, i got to tool around on a buell lightning... fun on the twisty country roads but wouldn't want it as my full-time bike...

york trip...

day one - june 8

packed up the bike in the morning and made our way up to manassas. as instructed we called father-in-law to let him know we were leaving. he would be leaving soon as well and call us when he was in position - where ever and when ever that might be...



i had daughter on the back of the bike with wife and left over kids in the chase vehicle... it was a hot day which made for a longer ride. still, i would prefer to be on the bike in the heat than in a cage...



trying to catch up to father-in-law was interesting to say the least. between crappy/non-existent cell phone reception, father-in-law moving locations and no communication between the bike and chase vehicle, it was an adventure. he was in at least two different locations, trying to find the perfect location.



it ended up being at a burger king in orange. luckily before we passed it. after grabbing some grub, we headed the rest of the way up to maanssas.

day two - june 9

the final leg up to york... we decided to leave mid-morning, between the morning rush hour and the heat of the day. if all goes well, we could miss traffic in the larger cities and get to york around noon, before the heat of the day hits.



we loaded up the bikes and headed out...

trip went pretty good, mostly back roads and not too much traffic... until we got to leesburg. unfortunately our timing was off a little and we managed to spend about thirty minutes in stop and go traffic. might not sound like much, but when it's already warm outside and you're sitting on an idling engine, it's not what you might call comfortable.



after getting out of traffic and up the road a little, we decided to make our first stop for refreshments. a welcome break...

second half of the trip was uneventful. we arrived at the best western in york. i think we were all happy to get there, out of the heat and into some air conditioning...

after checking in and unloading, we wandered out for some food. leaving the bikes parked and opting to walk, figuring it might be a tad cooler than riding...



a recommendation from the check-in girls lead us to the westgate restaurant and lounge.

unfortunately the 'free' and 'beer' weren't associated other than being on the same pane of glass...

a nice looking diner that i wanted to try - apparently no one else was interested...

in the evening, daughter and i decided to go for a ride. i think the others were still a bit worn out from the ride up. besides, this would give daughter and i a chance to hang out - it was her trip anyway...



not sure where to go, we decided to head to laugerman's, the nearest hd dealer. i plug the location into my gps and off we go...



while a gps is a great too and very handy to have, it's not perfect. and for some reason, the gps decided to route us around every back alley street between us and the dealership. using a conventional paper map, i could have plotted a direct route to the dealership taking us all of maybe three miles. but the gps chose a route for us that was no less than ten miles.



most of the time, this would have been less than ideal. and i was getting kind of frustrated because i knew there was a shorter route. but sometimes taking the wrong turn can lead to greater benefits. in our case, we stumbled upon prospect hill cemetary and quite a site it was...

we finally made it to laugerman's about thirty minutes before they closed - one of the few dealerships that are actually open late. i imagine it has something to do with the proximity to the factory.

we wandered around the dealership, looking at t-shirts and talking them out of a screw-it bandanna. we discovered the dealership has little collection, museum as they like to call it, of vintage and collector bikes. an impressive collection...

after leaving the dealership, we took a little ride around york, looking for the twisty little roads we didn't find on the ride up. or at least a cooler ride we could enjoy. it was a nice ride and a great way to end the day...

day three - june 10

got up, grabbed some breakfast, packed up the bikes and headed to the factory to take on a tour. reading the literature, it sounded like we needed to get there very early in order to have a chance at taking a tour. i wasn't about to miss my opportunity and planned to be pulling the bike into the parking lot as they opened the doors.

once the doors opened, we got our tickets for the first available tour. we wandered around the visitor center, checking out displays and just had some fun...

all the pieces needed to assemble a 2008 road king classic

part of the manufacturing process - from sheet metal to final product...

a couple other artifacts from the museum/visitor center. this is the bike vaughn l. beals was given when harley was purchased from amf.

waiting for the movie to begin before the tour... no picture taking on the tour...

after the factory tour, a quick stop by laugerman's for father-in-law and son to check out... always making memories...

then the trip home... despite the heat, we decided to take the longer route home, figuring heading through the mountains might make for a cooler ride. as well as the fact we'd hit slightly more twisty roads.



the ride longer ride through the mountains were certainly welcome. but we did pay the price when we had to stop on the hot asphalt for about fifteen minutes for road construction. even shutting the bikes off wasn't much relief.



once we got moving again, twisting through the mountains, the misery of sitting in the heat was quickly forgotten.



we made what we thought was our final stop in berkeley springs for an icy treat.

once we got moving again, the skies got dark and the rain clouds rolled in. one final stop to put on the rain gear. we decided to press on in the rain, as long as we could safely see in front of us.



the rain never did get bad enough to stop us. and as i've been discovering in the last few journeys in the rain, i actually like riding in the rain. not that i would chose it over riding on a sunny day, but i wouldn't not ride simply because it's raining...



we finally pulled back into manassas. another great end to a great ride.



looking back, i really enjoy riding with my father-in-law. i'm glad we can share these adventures and journeys. i hope we are able to put on many more miles together. and having the kids with us made the trip that much more special...



check out the 2008 ride map to see the route - this one in  green ...