Featured Rideout Trying The Bar And Sheild

Discussion in 'Rideouts, Trackdays, Touring & Spotted' started by DCS222, Nov 18, 2018.

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  1. DCS222

    DCS222 Guest

    #1 DCS222, Nov 18, 2018
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 18, 2018
    Ok, not on my Trumpet but yesterday I was treated to a tour with these guys... http://www.lindtours.co.uk
    My wife bought me the “Twisted one” tour, and we went out on 2018 Softail Heritage with the 107 cubic inches of Milwaukee V powered grunt. The dealer was a big German dude called Axel, very pleasant to meet and got us sorted with the bike and there was another rider... lets call him Tom... who was also very nice.
    My wife hasn’t been on the back of a bike for years and was a little apprehensive... but she needn’t have worried, the Heritage is a big, comfortable cruiser and a pretty stable platform.
    True to the advert, Axel took us from Guildford via lots of the South’s small twisty lanes down toward the coast. Tom’s inexperience showed in places... he was on a big white FatBoy... wobbling round some corners, foot out with that “Shit, I don’t wanna drop a 20 grand bike!” kinda tension that is self-perpetuating! Axel was cool enough to ride to his pace, and to give Tom his due, a lot of the roads were thick with mud, grease, leaf mold and shit road repairs... and he had more tourque in his right mitt than he’s ever known.
    As some of the roads opened up, the pace quickened... allowing the addictive application of grunt that makes the Bar and Sheild the lifestyle choice for so many, with a deep rumbling soundtrack that adds to the experience. We arrive at Whiteways cafe, Bury Hill’s famous bikers meet that even a Northern Monkey like myself has heard of. Big brew and cake time, then off down past Arundel’s castle and a rumble off to a photo shoot outside Goodwood’s race track... then it’s time to crack on back towards Guildford using a great combination of fast A n’ B roads... Tom’s getting familiar with his ride now, his grin growing.
    We finally park back up at the lifestyle palace that is Lind’s Guildford Harley branch... more grins, handshakes and a chill out brew before driving the 320 miles back home with some great memories.

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  2. DCS222

    DCS222 Guest

    My brothers comment “can I see a Fat Boy?”
     
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  3. MattGaydon

    MattGaydon Noble Member

    Jun 11, 2015
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    Nice! That's my local Harley garage and they're great guys there!
     
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  4. crispey

    crispey crispey creme de la creme

    Nov 6, 2014
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    That’s great!
    Having never ridden a Harley myself, can you answer a question for me: do they not idle? Every time a Harley comes in to a stop or leaves a cafe or is travelling slowly down a street the riders are always continuously blipping the throttle, do they not work at low revs?
     
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  5. DCS222

    DCS222 Guest

    It’s a common motorcycle owners fault I’m afraid... made worse if there’s a plate glass window opposite the lights! Gotta make sure you look as goooood as you soooooound!
     
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  6. DCS222

    DCS222 Guest

    I didn’t know it had one of them, I’d have stayed on it a bit longer
     
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  7. joe mc donald

    Dec 26, 2014
    13,874
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    I found with my Harley when you blipped the gas it slipped into gear better without clunking and crashing in. I still do it on my Bonnie. Just A little bleep to ease the gears. But my 900 still clunks I think they call it a positive gearbox but I don't like it. There that's my two pence worth anyway. But DCS222 Have you purchased one yet.
    Ride Safe
    Joe
     
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  8. DCS222

    DCS222 Guest

    No mate... more muck than brass at my house
     
  9. joe mc donald

    Dec 26, 2014
    13,874
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    DCS222
    Are you sure the other half wasn't hinting. I think she might want to buy you one. Wait for Santa see if it growls and burbles.
    Ride Safe
    Joe.
     
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  10. Bad Billy

    Bad Billy Baddest Member

    Jun 1, 2017
    6,800
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    Nice write up mate, a different way to pass a day, hell of a round trip to do it though, nice that you have now seen some of the places us Southerners go on about, shame they didn't bring you back via Loomies!
     
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  11. Sandi T

    Sandi T It's ride o'clock somewhere!
    Subscriber

    Dec 3, 2018
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    DCS, I'm very late to this thread but it found me while I'm sipping a nip of Redbreast Irish Whiskey and "surfing" the forum. Your write-up of your and your missus' day on a Heritage Softail was a delight to read. :) And the pictures are terrific, too! It sounds like you had a lovely day. :grinning:

    One of my husband's and my riding buddies rides a 2018 Softail Heritage and he loves it. He has put about 20K on it in the past year and a half. He also owns a 2013 Triumph Speedmaster and a 2016 Indian Scout but seems to mostly show up to rides on his Harley. He's one of our group of five who this coming Friday is heading to the 79th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

    I took the 2018 Heritage for a test ride and really enjoyed it. I was not a fan of the pre-2018 models but like the 2018+ models quite a lot. Some day if (more like when) I need to trade my beloved orange "big boy" Road Glide Special for a smaller, lighter touring bike, I'll be looking pretty hard at the Heritage.

    Thanks for writing up your experience! Sorry I was late to the thread party, but I just had to respond after reading your terrific post and viewing your photos documenting your day with a Harley. :cool: BTW, what did your wife think of the bike?? Tell her she's totally cool--and a great spouse--for buying you the tour. :heart_eyes:
     
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  12. DCS222

    DCS222 Guest


    Cheers Sandi, I often dredge up old threads I case I miss an interesting gem. Thanks for the compliments, my wife has put up with me for 33 years now (28 of them married) so we know more about life with each other than without. I might joke and take the piss, but she does too... we’re very well matched. She loved being pillion, felt it was comfy with impressive feeling taking off... but she has MS and her knees were giving out by the end of the day... I’m sure that was a clothing issue though. Being November, she was wrapped up for cold and I think the trousers with the pads put too much pressure on her knees... and she hasn’t been on a bike in years, she’s just not used to it.
    But yeah, it’s a great beast of a bike... not versatile enough for me to own one... unless I had a garage like Valentino Rossi, in which case it’d fit into the bike collection.
     
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  13. mpllineman

    mpllineman First Class Member

    Feb 12, 2018
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    It sounds like you had a good time to me. It helps to have an agreeable wife with these matters. Having owned 2 Harleys, I will say I enjoyed them very much. They have 2 wheels and an engine, so, what's not to like!
     
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  14. Sandi T

    Sandi T It's ride o'clock somewhere!
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    Dec 3, 2018
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    Cheers back, DCS! Good to know it's not a faux pas to dig up old threads on this forum. I really loved reading your post about the Twisted One tour and I did look up the tour group, Lind Tours. They sound like a good company with some great tours. Would you recommend them?? My hubby and I are thinking hard about doing some sort of tour in Europe in the next couple of years or so. We've been leaning towards Spain but the more I'm involved on this forum the more I think the UK would be fun. :) We were all set to do an Edelweiss Motorcycle Tours tour of Ireland because my husband has always been under the impression that he's Irish (Stephen Michael Duley). But he thought he'd check out his ancestry before we made that decision. Anyway, he got involved with www.ancestry.com and to make a long story short, he found out he's 2% Irish and.......drum roll please.....94% English! The other 4% is German. Go figure. So now he's not so set on going to Ireland. :rolleyes: I'd still do it--I'm all over the Irish whiskey. ;)

    Congratulations of being married for 28 years and together for 33! In this day and age that is definitely something to celebrate.:heart_eyes: I am sorry to read that your wife has MS. I hope that she has good health care people on her side and is able to manage it as well as it can be managed. She is tops in my book without even having met her for both hopping on the back with hubby after not having ridden for years and doing that with MS to boot. She's a bad-ass. I don't have those two issues that she does and I have problems wearing riding jeans with pads in them so I'll bet you're right and that it was most likely the pads and not her. I appreciate the feedback on what she thought of the Heritage. And I'm glad she had fun! Such a fun, cool gift she gave you! My hubby got me a two day camp at the Keith Code Superbike School in Las Vegas last November for my birthday. What great spouses we each have! :grinning:

    I'm lucky and blessed to have three bikes--a 2017 H-D Road Glide Special, a 2017 H-D Dyna Low Rider S, and a 2019 Triumph Speed Triple RS. So for me, the Heritage would be a replacement for the long haul touring capabilities of the Road Glide if and when that bike becomes too much for me. If I could only have two bikes, I'd probably have the Speedy and a Heritage. But we'll see what Triumph and Harley-Davidson have up their sleeves in the future. My life motto has become "never say never". So who knows what lies around the next corner??
     
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  15. DCS222

    DCS222 Guest

    @Sandi T.

    I have just the one experience with Lind tours, but based on that... yes I’d recommend them. Axel was easy to get on with but also made decisions on the spot without dithering so you always felt in capable hands.
    You’ve a nice stable of iron there, I take it you and hubby are keen on the big vee’s... what does he make of the Scout... another bike I’d like to spend a day on... or have you ridden it?
     
  16. Sandi T

    Sandi T It's ride o'clock somewhere!
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    Dec 3, 2018
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    Thanks for the recommendation, DCS. Yep, we do like the big vee's. But I really love my Speed Triple too. :) My husband has a 2017 Street Glide. We're both fans of the M-8 engine--and I really didn't want to like it. ;) Once I test rode it, it was all over. That said, I really like the engine in my Low Rider S. It suits the bike and the ways and reasons I ride it quite nicely.

    I have a good friend who rides a Scout and she is crazy about it. I went to a demo day about four years ago at our local Indian dealership which just happens to be about a mile from my house. I rode the Scout and sent her a photo. She test rode it the next day and put down a deposit. Hers is a 2015 and they were on order at the time and quite the hot commodity. She has taken it on a couple of trips and has been very happy with it. I liked the bike pretty well when I test rode it but it was a little "clamshell" for me with the bar and foot control configuration. My friend is about 5'1" so had to do some "reconfiguring" to get a good fit. Being that height, her choice of bikes is somewhat limited.
     
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