Saturday, November 1, 2008

Long day

Have I ever mentioned that I dislike riding on Interstates? I really dislike riding on Interstates, but that's what we did today.

Dave and I went to buy some Harley stuff that we found on craigslist. The seller lives on a private airport in Carefree, AZ - the other side of the world from Apache Junction - or at least on the other side of Phoenix which seems like the same thing. Fred is a real nice guy that used to own the Tucson Harley dealership. In his hanger he has a Beechcraft, three 'vettes, a couple Vipers, a Cobra and a Porsche along with other cool stuff. I bought some brand new HD rain gear, some T bags, a seat and some of Fred's other cool stuff. Dave escaped with only some saddlebag liners.

From there we rode the Interstate to University of Phoenix Stadium (where the Superbowl was played) to check out the International Motorcycle Show. We were hoping that Pete and Jill would be there selling Gerbing heated clothing. Pete and Jill retired from the shipyard, too, so it would have been good to see them, but they chose to skip this show and go to the one in Dallas.

Another craigslist score was a set of cyclevision brackets that allowed me to mount hard bags on my bike instead of the sloppy leather bags. Dave is a bit put out with me as I was able to get all of this ready made when he took a year to fabricate the brackets to accomplish the same thing on his first bike, a Fat Boy now owned by Forrest.

Speaking of Forrest, I may have some painting for him to do next summer...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rob says, you'll have it looking like your Honda in no time! You need to lose those spoke wheels too Indian Larry.

CiaoBella! said...

I'm sure it's lookin' goooood, even with the spoke wheels! You know, Frank used to own a bike like yours, one of the loves of his life!

Cap'n Franko said...

Frank has owned a coupla Harleys in his lifetime. The one he had in the '60s was a fine bike for its time, as dependable as anything else on two wheels then. The most recent one was an '88 Sportster, supposedly the "new generation" after AMF ownership and with improved everything. It was a desperately undependable POS. YMMV.

Hope your experience is better.

I like a spoked front wheel but a solid-disc rear; but again, that's just me.

Scott said...

Things have fallen in place recently. Working the trade for the Harley, selling the Honda quickly, finding the hard bags and brackets, meeting Fred (a former owner of a HD shop with lots of spare stuff), selling the old seat and bags quickly - my head is spinning. The chrome spokes will be here for a while (unless I find another deal on craiglist),

Anonymous said...

Aaaaah man I liked the retro style of leather saddle bags and seat. If your going repaint, any colors selected yet?

Scott said...

I loved the retro look of the bags with studs and conchos, but they weren't practical. The leather bags sag over the years and they had been scuffed pretty bad. They were hard to open, didn't hold much, weren't water tight and didn't lock. Other than that they were fine.