Had a play in Ireland today, love the place! Lakes everywhere, endless twistys and no traffic. Weather wasn't bad either
Beautiful (as usual!!) photos, Andy. I never tire of seeing your photos. It looks like the weather was not only not bad but it was also downright beautiful. Plus lakes, twists and no traffic? Awesome!
This past Monday was Labor Day in the U.S. so Steve and I took advantage of that and just the two of us rode down to a little town south of Tucson called Patagonia. I'd posted on this forum before about some of our group rides here. But Steve and I realized that the two of us hadn't ridden to Patagonia since Covid shut everything down! We love this place so it was great to be back there and we definitely won't let another two or three years pass before we head that way again. More like two or three months. Steve's bike...not his car! My bike parked down in front of a cool restaurant called The Velvet Elvis. We might have chosen to eat there except we arrived an hour and a half before it was scheduled to open. Here's the place we did eat. It's another favorite and now has outdoor seating in addition to indoor tables, a positive remnant of Covid times. Steve found us a nice table for two for our breakfast this morning. And he ordered us an "appetizer" to split prior to breakfast. Carrot cake! Life's short. Eat dessert first. There are several nice little shops along the same street as our restaurant. I poked around in this one while Steve lounged on a bench outside the door. And I found a fun little gift to give our dog sitter who was at our house looking after Ellie, the Boxer for the day. While I looked around this shop and the arts collective next door, Steve chatted with the couple with the BMW's we'd seen when we pulled into town--an R18 and an R1250RT. Turns out the woman was a Navy diver who dove all over the world prior to retiring. Of course the bulk of her diving was for things like rescue and recovery, demolitions, etc. Now they dive for pleasure and are going to Belize in January. After we talked a bit, I asked her if I could snap a photo of her vest. Neptune's Bastards Our dog sitter with her Patagonia present. Her first words were, "It's me and Ellie!" These skeleton figures are a Dia de los Muertos thing. For those of you who are unfamiliar with that, here's some background. https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/day-of-the-dead A lovely ride with the love of my life. As much as I also truly like and enjoy my good riding buddies with whom Steve and I traveled thousands of miles this summer, it sure was nice to go for a ride with just the two of us.
Carrot cake for breakfast and why not. I don't get all these hangups people have about food, just eat what you fancy, when you fancy it My youngest and I had curry for breakfast the other week as it came up (so to speak) over early coffee, and so why not Nice write up as usual
Agreed. I've been watching a lot of camping and cooking videos from YouTubers in Japan and Korea lately (no idea why), and breakfast often seems to be very similar to dinner! Lovely write up of your trip to Patagonia, @Sandi T.
Not mine but sorting a few jobs/issues out for a friend who's going to Ireland on it next week. A real blast from the past here with carb balancing on a 1997 Kawasaki ZX9. I can't remember the last time I used my vacuum gauges and chuckled to myself when thinking about the modern way. No multiple bits of vac pipe and service fuel tanks, long screwdrivers and bent spanners, nope, just your smartphone, Tunecu or similar and your OBD2 device.
Whilst the Triumph Tiger is great and was perfect for me doing the NC (just IMHO - each to their own) the fireblade is still the one I love. Had a run out this morning for a few hours, but didn’t want to go too far afield as it was threatening all sorts weather wise.
I've had similar thoughts @Boothman about the StreetTwin and 765rs. The ST gives some nice days out but if I want to really wake myself up then the 765 is in a different league.
This past Saturday I bought a new Harley Low Rider ST. Since I'm on the "replacement program" and don't have the space or money to add a bike, I'm saying goodbye to my Fat Boy, fondly known as El Gordo. But the good news is that the person who is buying Gordo is my boss, friend, and riding buddy, Leila! She's been riding a Sportster and has been looking to get a bigger bike for awhile now. She fell in love with my Fat Boy the first time she saw it so all this worked out really well. I've really enjoyed the Fat Boy but realized that I'm a Low Rider gal at heart. I should have realized that awhile ago as this is my third one. Third time's a charm, right?! My new bike! I think this paint job is a love it or hate it sort of deal, but the first time I saw it I fell in love with it. It's reminiscent of muscle cars from the '60's and '70's and that's by design. H-D started doing something called the Enthusiast Collection a few years ago and this "Fast Johnnie" paint job is part of that collection. They have this Celestial Blue paint with white racing stripes on just three models: the Street Glide ST, the Road Glide ST, and this bike, the Low Rider ST. All of Harleys bikes designated "ST" have the Milwaukee Eight 117 cubic inch (1920 cc) engine. The Low Rider ST is linked in style back to the FXRT's of the 1980's. And it's definitely linked to the "Club Style" bikes popularized in California much more recently. Here's the story behind the "Fast Johnnie" moniker. This photo of Johnnie the racing piglet is iconic in Harley history. Although I had the fob in hand and the bike out the door Saturday afternoon by 2pm, we set a new all time heat record that day. So even I couldn't bear to brave the heat to ride more than just home from the dealership. But I knew I'd be able to ride the next morning on our weekly Sunday ride. There has been a rash of new bike purchases in our group, enough so that I'm sure there's some psychological principle behind it all. The person in the foreground in this photo just bought an anniversary edition Heritage Classic earlier in the week. He and I went out again the next day to continue our breaking process. This is the most difficult time I've had keeping to the break in recommendations because this bike wants to fly! Or maybe it's I that want to fly on this bike! Interestingly, our group today had among the bikes a Victory, Suzuki, and BMW in addition to four Harleys. Our buddy with two Triumphs has been laying low for several months sadly. We ate breakfast at Coyote Pause, one of our staples. I was so engaged in eating and conversing that I didn't even think to take any food photos! What the heck? The Victory rider and the Suzuki GSXR rider had decided at breakfast that they wanted to trade bikes for the ride home. So we chose a spot for them to switch back which was also a nice opportunity to get a drink and rewet our neck scarves. It was another boiling hot (I'm talking 108ºF) day. But I was determined (and happy!) to ride more so some of us got in about 90 miles. Miles after two days.......393 miles to break in completion! I got the bike WAY earlier than anticipated. This model in this paint job is in high demand and only 2,000 Fast Johnnie bikes (counting all three models) were made in total. I'd put down money to order one and was told that it would probably take 4-6 weeks minimally to see it. So imagine my surprise when I got a call on Friday afternoon that my bike was in! I was stunned and not quite ready. I was all set to order parts for it and have that all squared away when the bike finally arrived. So now I'm ordering parts but already riding the bike. Definitely the preferable order of events! Anyway, I figured the one "mod" I could do in the meantime is what I always do first off, and that's get rid of the fugly plastic reflectors. So I spent a chunk of my Sunday afternoon post-ride doing just that. I have to say, I think Harley is using some different sort of nasty adhesive for the saddlebag and fender reflectors. It's the most difficult time I've ever had in getting all the goo off after removing the reflector. The fork reflectors were a piece of cake and left very little residue when I pulled them off. But, a very simple mod--and the least expensive one I'll do! I worked so hard to "roll" the stuck adhesive off that I got a blister on my thumb! I'll post about the mods I do so I'll probably be on the Post Your New Mods and/or What Have You Bought Recently threads a fair amount. But with this bike, mostly, as John Travolta said in the movie Wild Hogs, "I just wanna ride! I just wanna ride, man!"
Beautiful, beautiful bike and a superb paint job IMO. Any upgrade plans, Sandi, and are you going to stage it at all? You just reminded me (again) that I need to get rid of my fork reflectors!!!
I'm working on my customization and upgrades right now, @learningtofly. In fact, that's why I've been lax in finishing up my Sturgis ride report (just added some earlier today). I feel like a little kid with the excitement! But if I was a little kid, mom and day might be paying for the parts. Regarding any stage kits for performance, I'll probably just do a Stage 1, at least for now. I've ordered mufflers from Rinehart. Nice thing is in the Softails, the cat is in the mufflers so one doesn't really have to do a full exhaust. And a full exhaust right now is unbelievably expensive. So I'll also do a tuner. The bike already has a high flow air cleaner/box. And, holy moly, that 117 M8 is pretty darned great as is! Mostly I'm changing out things like grips, pegs, some farkles. But I'm also upgrading the lighting with Custom Dynamics turn signals and taillight. I'll wait on the headlight because, geez, speaking of expensive! I have put Le Pera seats on most all of my Harleys and love them. So I'm in the process of designing and ordering a seat for "Johnnie". That'll probably take 3-4 weeks to see but I'm a lover of anticipation so that's good. Oh, and I'll do the 8" KlockWerks Flare Windshield that is designed specifically for the Low Rider ST. Now get out there and banish those fork reflectors, Tony!
