Tiny
01-26-2006, 08:17 PM
Well, I'm back in VA with the new :04biker: safely on the ground! I'll give a synopsis of the blessed event and then my first impressions of the bike.
The Buy: Left Richmond VA around 10am on tuesday. Got a late start because I had a buyer for my '94 Vulcan 1500 in Louisville, KY. Trailered that bike there, made a 20 minute smooth-as-silk transaction with a guy I'd never met, and then back on the road. Made it 650 miles before calling it quits for the night about 180 miles short of my destination of St. Louis, MO. Up early and at the dealer by 10:30am. Good thing I got there early or I would never have gotten the deal done that day! There were issues....I'll go into that later on another more detailed thread I plan to call "What Do You Consider an Out-The-Door price to include?"! Bottom line (no pun intended), I paid $12825 OTD (MY definition, not the dealers!), plus a nice new helmet and a Canyon Dancer thrown in to calm me down and coax me out of my moving truck and back into the dealership! Actually, very nice folks there at Donelson's Cycle...we just had a misunderstanding that got a tad heated before they pacified me with farkles! (Did I mention that I almost bought a Triumph Tiger in the mean time? 'Nother story for another day!)
In the mean time....Dan Fitzgerald had arrived and helped mightily in getting me to relax while the paperwork was being re-typed for the 3RD TIME! Great guy....funny, obviously very intelligent, serene, well-spoken and helpful. THANKS, DAN!
The deal got done around 1pm, and Dan and I headed off to lunch....he in a cage and me on my new ride! Only later did we realize the bike had no plates of any kind on it, and there was a cop writing tickets in the front parking lot of the dealership when we pulled out! Great lunch with a new friend, great conversation about much more than bikes, then back to the dealer and onto the trailer with Bluecephalus! He was mildly insulted but I "blindfolded" him with the Canyon Dancer and that made it easier. 20 miles to the Mississipi River where I parked, unloaded, and took a ride around Busch stadium and the Gateway Arch, then across the river and into Illinois (2 more states checked off my ride map!) before loading back up and hitting the road in earnest.
Rode almost to the Indiana/Kentucky border where I once again de-trailered (hey, the straps needed to be readjusted anyway, and Blue was restless!). Forward into Kentucky (2 MORE states on my ride map....I know it's cheating, but there is a special dispensation that applies when you drive 1700 miles round-trip just to buy a certain color motorcycle!), scouting out motels...has anyone but me noticed that fewer and fewer "motels" offer rooms opening directly to the parking lot? Found one, rode BACK to the truck/trailer in Indiana, (all this still with no tags on the bike) and loaded back up. Got back to the Kentuckey motel and made my first (2nd actually, but I'll get back to that) negative discovery about my new STeed: He won't fit through a motel room door! So he stabled on the sidewalk right outside the window with a tow-strap tied around the rear peg, run through the door and tied around the bed frame in the room. I slept with the curtains open, lights on, and a Ruger .357 lying on the bed-side table. No problema.
Yada yada yada....12 inches of snow in West Va, salt covering Bluecephalas ....yada yada....I'm home.
Impressions: Well, I've been riding an 800lb cruiser with 54 horse-power for the last 4 years, so the positive is obvious: WOW!!! This is good! My other Sport-Tourer experiences were an '85 BMW K100RT and a '90 Connie. This bike fits my 6'5", 270 lb frame way better than those did (which I already knew.....hence my 3 year lust for this bike), but obviously I need a new custom seat and risers. I'll rave more at a later date but for now I'll get the negatives out of the way.
1. Mien Gott.....that engine whine is annoying! It's fine while riding but sitting at idle I expect people to come up and ask me if I need assistance! Guess it just takes getting used to.
2. Dan thought I was honking at him in the Applebee's parking lot, but I was trying to work/cancel the turn signal! Ridiculously small switch that is not winter-glove friendly. When Dan got out of his car and walked over, my first question was "Don't these things auto-cancel?" This many bells and whistles and no auto-cancel? Which is important to me and brings us to......
3. I CAN'T SEE THE TURN SIGNALS!! Now granted, bikes just aren't made for the ergonomics of big guys. Nothing is, and I learned long ago to adapt to a "nothing fits" life. But even at night the dash so effectively blocks my view of the turn signals (and the tiny switch is so hard to find) that I have to duck my head and look under the dash to see if I'm riding with a blinker on! Not good. I'm thinking I might try mounting a mirror to the under side of the dash in the hopes that the reflection will enable me to see the blinker on....if not I'll cut and re-trim the dash....but then I know what the next problem will be: Can't read the display in even moderate sunlight. Oh, well.
That's all, folks........I'm tired but happy and can't wait to get out tomorrow and really start to learn this bike. Get ready, I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions! -Kevin
The Buy: Left Richmond VA around 10am on tuesday. Got a late start because I had a buyer for my '94 Vulcan 1500 in Louisville, KY. Trailered that bike there, made a 20 minute smooth-as-silk transaction with a guy I'd never met, and then back on the road. Made it 650 miles before calling it quits for the night about 180 miles short of my destination of St. Louis, MO. Up early and at the dealer by 10:30am. Good thing I got there early or I would never have gotten the deal done that day! There were issues....I'll go into that later on another more detailed thread I plan to call "What Do You Consider an Out-The-Door price to include?"! Bottom line (no pun intended), I paid $12825 OTD (MY definition, not the dealers!), plus a nice new helmet and a Canyon Dancer thrown in to calm me down and coax me out of my moving truck and back into the dealership! Actually, very nice folks there at Donelson's Cycle...we just had a misunderstanding that got a tad heated before they pacified me with farkles! (Did I mention that I almost bought a Triumph Tiger in the mean time? 'Nother story for another day!)
In the mean time....Dan Fitzgerald had arrived and helped mightily in getting me to relax while the paperwork was being re-typed for the 3RD TIME! Great guy....funny, obviously very intelligent, serene, well-spoken and helpful. THANKS, DAN!
The deal got done around 1pm, and Dan and I headed off to lunch....he in a cage and me on my new ride! Only later did we realize the bike had no plates of any kind on it, and there was a cop writing tickets in the front parking lot of the dealership when we pulled out! Great lunch with a new friend, great conversation about much more than bikes, then back to the dealer and onto the trailer with Bluecephalus! He was mildly insulted but I "blindfolded" him with the Canyon Dancer and that made it easier. 20 miles to the Mississipi River where I parked, unloaded, and took a ride around Busch stadium and the Gateway Arch, then across the river and into Illinois (2 more states checked off my ride map!) before loading back up and hitting the road in earnest.
Rode almost to the Indiana/Kentucky border where I once again de-trailered (hey, the straps needed to be readjusted anyway, and Blue was restless!). Forward into Kentucky (2 MORE states on my ride map....I know it's cheating, but there is a special dispensation that applies when you drive 1700 miles round-trip just to buy a certain color motorcycle!), scouting out motels...has anyone but me noticed that fewer and fewer "motels" offer rooms opening directly to the parking lot? Found one, rode BACK to the truck/trailer in Indiana, (all this still with no tags on the bike) and loaded back up. Got back to the Kentuckey motel and made my first (2nd actually, but I'll get back to that) negative discovery about my new STeed: He won't fit through a motel room door! So he stabled on the sidewalk right outside the window with a tow-strap tied around the rear peg, run through the door and tied around the bed frame in the room. I slept with the curtains open, lights on, and a Ruger .357 lying on the bed-side table. No problema.
Yada yada yada....12 inches of snow in West Va, salt covering Bluecephalas ....yada yada....I'm home.
Impressions: Well, I've been riding an 800lb cruiser with 54 horse-power for the last 4 years, so the positive is obvious: WOW!!! This is good! My other Sport-Tourer experiences were an '85 BMW K100RT and a '90 Connie. This bike fits my 6'5", 270 lb frame way better than those did (which I already knew.....hence my 3 year lust for this bike), but obviously I need a new custom seat and risers. I'll rave more at a later date but for now I'll get the negatives out of the way.
1. Mien Gott.....that engine whine is annoying! It's fine while riding but sitting at idle I expect people to come up and ask me if I need assistance! Guess it just takes getting used to.
2. Dan thought I was honking at him in the Applebee's parking lot, but I was trying to work/cancel the turn signal! Ridiculously small switch that is not winter-glove friendly. When Dan got out of his car and walked over, my first question was "Don't these things auto-cancel?" This many bells and whistles and no auto-cancel? Which is important to me and brings us to......
3. I CAN'T SEE THE TURN SIGNALS!! Now granted, bikes just aren't made for the ergonomics of big guys. Nothing is, and I learned long ago to adapt to a "nothing fits" life. But even at night the dash so effectively blocks my view of the turn signals (and the tiny switch is so hard to find) that I have to duck my head and look under the dash to see if I'm riding with a blinker on! Not good. I'm thinking I might try mounting a mirror to the under side of the dash in the hopes that the reflection will enable me to see the blinker on....if not I'll cut and re-trim the dash....but then I know what the next problem will be: Can't read the display in even moderate sunlight. Oh, well.
That's all, folks........I'm tired but happy and can't wait to get out tomorrow and really start to learn this bike. Get ready, I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions! -Kevin