cowpuc

proven to dominate in its life long endeavor to prove that regardless of how many wheels a vehicle may have, if you see a Blue 1st Gen approaching in your rear view mirror you may as well

There is one in Deadwood South Dakota, strickly clothing/accessories - no parts or bikes, strickly "other" Harley goodies.. http://www.deadwood.com/things_to_do/browse/retail/deadwood_harley_davidson

Because the MK1's have been a mainstay for us for many years the clam shell side loaders have too. I always liked the side loaders on the MK1's because of the ease of removal (totally right there with Yammer) for using as suitcases but, even more importantly to me, is the ease of which they make the back tire accessible - I can have the rear wheel off Tweeks in about 15 minutes. This is a huge plus if your standing on 125 degree pavement and have a kind hearted local person waiting to take you to the nearest bike shop to get a new tire mounted. They have proven to be some what of a challenge to always remember to lock them after loading because they will empty themselves pretty rapidly if they pop open on the road. I have always LOVED the Sport Touring looks of the clam shells and found their narrowness to be a huge help when snake trailing thru the brush. Another one of the things I have always found to be kind of pain in the neck with the clams though is that constant battle of making sure nothing is blocking them from being able to shut. For some reason this seems to be more of an issue in our left bag (aka, Women's Health and Beauty Aids Department) - even the unruly cord to a Hair Dryer or a spare Skull Cap can be a nightmare, as besides causing difficulty closing, either one can cause a major leak into the bag resulting in a riding partner complaining about having to wear wet clothing. As in all things, there is a learning curve. I can see where top loaders would have some huge pluses in that most of them allow for more storage area. I like the clams because they do allow easier access to the mess inside of them but top loaders can be packed by splitting up the Maintenance Department (right saddlebag on my MK1's) and loading the heavy tools and parts into the bottoms of the bags making a more evenly balanced load and a lower center of gravity. Also, I gotta say here, my FAVORITE look of all time as far as hard bags go are the old school Harley routine. The old design whose hard bags are held in a "basket" of chrome with "bullet" lights mounted on the rear rails get my vote as far as looks go. I have had several old HD's like this thru the years that were also equipped with a hinge on the leading edge of the cover. I also really appreciated the hinge as it kept the lid from taking off on its own adventure should I forget to lock it shut - I have also stopped and picked up a few lost lids from top loaders in my day . Because of my forgetfulness and tendency to get all geeky when getting ready to hit the road - if I am riding a scoot with top loaders, a hinged lid would probably be a good idea. @eagleeye stopped by not to long ago to show me his "new" V-Strom. It had some AWESOME Panniers on it (the previous owner spent some big bucks on that option ). While I have heard lots of comments thru the years pertaining to the looks of such (some folks think they are ugly - I do not), I LOVED em!! I like the ruggedness of having steel opposed to glass/plastic and the sturdiness idea. Almost an invite to go cross country in an off road fashion. Also the feeling of even if I did scratch em or dent em I could repair em pretty easily with a hammer and welder instead of using stickers and tie wraps:big-grin-emoticon: Another one of my favorite "saddle bag" idea's is found on our little Honda Helix. The back end opens up revealing a pretty good sized compartment (ok, its not huge but after all,, it is just a scooter). I think if I were going to design the ultimate in usable Saddlebags it would be something along this line. A molded one piece unit that opens rearward to expose a huge storage area. Have removable lids on the outer shell (where normal bag lids would be) to access the upper area/shelf of the bags and then have the lower area accessible from the back door. Then have the whole piece be able to lift up on a pivot to expose the rear tire assembly for ease of tire swaps/maintenance. Sometimes I talk to much:big-grin-emoticon:

With all this heightened security stuff happening you might have the some dudes with ratta tat tat's showing up at your door if you put it in a baggy and ship it I actually got kicked off Ebay for a year because I tried selling an antique BB gun on there right after 9/11,,, My kids harassed me to no end over that one:mugshot:,, calling me a gun runner and all that:big-grin-emoticon: Seriously brother, THANKS for the offer!!

:lightbulb:I think you are onto something,, may even be a marketable idea Dave.. Stick a pan under Big Mac, put a little drain oil in the pan so it hides the green anti-freeze and tell everybody you bought a new Harley :lightbulb:maybe even threatening to do so will be enough encourage the Mac to straighten up and accepting hibernation in a little more dignified fashion

Now I really really really really REALLY miss my :grandma: Grandmother's:95: Good one Eckster!! PS,, this should have been posted in the "Inspirational" thread thingy!

Right on Mover:thumbsup: and the new 750 and 500 HD's too. Have ridden the HD 750 a few times, sucker moves right along for 750 V-Twin. Have not had a chance to ride a new Scout but I would not be surprised that its a good performer. My neighbor and really good friend (we both like to spin wrenches and ride bikes) has a new V-Rod and I just picked up a beater V-Max to :stickpoke:with him, the V-Rod runs pretty dog gone good too. I keep with em pointing out that if Porsche would have given em the other two cylinders he would have a chance .. We got another really good friend of ours who has :Im not listening toabout picking up a new Scout and puttin a whoopin on us.. No idea if that would happen BUT,, sure is a blast and about em.. In the end, it seems like both HD and and now Vic might be headed into the non-pushrod watercooled zone dont it.. It will be interesting to see where it all ends up sales wise. I know that the V-Rod has been a rough sell. Those lop eared air cooled, pushrod, tractor motored Harley folks (dont get me wrong - I actually LOVE em too ) are the extreme when it comes to brand loyalty - willing to pay top dollar for a motor design right out of the early 1900's but will shove a top level high end first class designed modern day engined scoot away faster than a kid being offered a plate of Califlower for dinner:doh: Personally, and just an opinion, I think if Polaris would add an aggressive push toward establishing a HUGE Dealership network and make it a normal course of franchising to give those franchised dealers the ability and support to handle all products - right now, a Vic Dealership cannot work on an Indian which can make the Indian Dealerships a little difficult to locate - they would actually stand a chance at taking a bite out of the Harley stronghold. It's amazing how many Harley Shops a person will pass when out touring the country and how few Polaris Shops you find.. This is fun,, thanks for posting this thread up @BigLenny

If it were my scoot I would have no problem running them as long as they were rated at the load capacity I needed and were not more than a few years old. Being a lower end price tire you probably wont get the mileage out of them as you would a higher end tire (Michelin, Dunlop E3's) but I would run em till their down to the wear bars and then swap em out. Also, I always try to get the 130mph rating "H" rating cause I do like to run some higher speeds on occasion. As far as Kenda goes,, I ran em alot on my KX500 - even ran Kold Kutter ice screws in em during the winter time, and have never really had a problem with them. Now if we were talking Metzler then yea, have had some delamination issues with them.

,, that is kinda strange, I haven't heard any kind of scuttlebutt on bad radiators associated with our scoots.. Lord only knows what caused it, maybe a bad seam or a weak spot in the aluminum on a vein.. No idea how expensive a new rad would be but I would not be surprised that a rad shop could fix that fairly easily - hardest part would be getting it in and out.. Well brother,,, at least that gorgeous scoot of yours was kind enough to hold off till the very end of the season to decide it wanted some extra attention

Sure looks like direct competition for the Harley V-Rod,, good looking scoot. Be interesting to see how they run. Gotta hand it to those folks at Polaris, they sure been coming out with some awesome stuff!

I happen to know that Fool aint really no fool and gotta hunch he probably hit the nail on the head Dave.. Take a little gander at this video and see if you can detect a similar leak on yours. No idea if a 2nd Gen is plumbed like a 1st but this little vid may also help you find out whether it is or not? Know what cha mean about tucking them away, you might try lifting the cover up and whispering things like "its gonna be ok sweetheart - next year we are gonna do 10x more Hot Dog chasing so build up your energy while ya hibernate :big-grin-emoticon:"

to ya Jakester!!!! May that great big gorgeous Honda bring you endless hours of fantastic touring!! PS,,, (you had to know this was coming ) 's,,,, 's, 's 's,, when you get time we need 's Oh yea,, then there is this

Hi Nance You bring up a very interesting possible project. Although auto clutches have been around for a long time (worked on many of them back in the early days - Honda used a form of an auto clutch in the "CT" line and their Honda Mini Trails, Husky produced an early model auto clutch in the dirtbike line and then Honda also had an "automatic" 400 and 750 - this was a true automatic tranny though) that industry changed hugely back in the late 90's when a clutch pressure plate was designed using ball bearings in the pressure plate to engage and disengage the clutch. I happened upon the prototype of this design at a Dealer show back then and loved the idea right from the start. It caught on big time in the dirtbike industry and was not long and there were multiple suppliers of it. As I remember, the beginning was a complete clutch basket package and really expensive - I am thinking it was "Revloc" who started it all - with the need of swapping out the whole basket. Then a company called Rekluse came around with a design that required only the pressure plate to be swapped - much less expensive (under a grand). A number of my dirt riding friends went auto because it made them faster in the woods = completely takes the clutch out of the equation. Personally, I never made the change over - like mentioned already, I too learned long ago how to shift without a clutch and did it a LOT on my race bikes (dirt bikes) and never found the need or want to go auto BUT - I assure you if it came down to a need because I could not use my left hand like I use to, I would certainly not hesitate to go the direction your talking - clutchless shifting is fine once your moving but getting things rolling or sitting at a stop light,, gotta use that lever sometime IMHO. Unless something has really changed in design (and I highly doubt it has) the auto clutch is actually pretty simple. The design works on centrifical force controlled by engine rpm to move ball bearings to open and close the clutch. The clutch does end up being still functional at the hand lever BUT the auto design is also there doing its thing so the clutch pull is wayyyyyy easier and, under normal circumstance - the lever pull is not needed at all. One of the issues that I ran across with this system had to do with engine braking (using the resistance of the motor slowing you down when you chop the throttle) - in a nutshell, adding the auto clutch required more brake input which required a little bit of a learning curve. Of course its very possible that this has been overcome by small design changes but it is something you might wanna ask about when you choose the provider for the clutch (better to not have surprises). Other than that, when you come to a stop, the clutch is being automatically pulled in by the bearings and all functions beyond that are the same - just like you were pulling the lever. As far as installation goes, it should be just a matter of pulling the clutch cover, removing the pressure plate and installing the plate with the bearing assists in it. That comment is all based on my experience with dirt bikes but other than being smaller clutched - dirtbikes have the same system as our Yam's do so I am thinking the install should be the same. Because of this system being more common in the dirtbike world, you may find a lot more info about how the system works, maybe get a demonstration and maybe even find someone to do the install for you. Might not be a bad idea to make a few phone calls in your area to shops that cater to that world. I know our local KTM dealer is a smaller shop, been in business for years and has set up many auto clutches in recent years. Around here ya gotta stay away from the bigger shops with stuff like this because their business is usually quite limited when "modding" a scoot. The smaller shops are usually more informative IMHO. All the best in your "Venture" into the clutchless world. Keep us posted on how it goes young lady!! Puc PS, sorry about the length of all this but you know how I am

Very interesting and thanks for the info!! I think that is the type of stuff that my Phone repair guy was telling me is causing the "industry" to wonder just how long the Cable Networks and stuff are gonna go on. According to him, it has already made a huge dent in their sales. He came to do some repair work on our phone line (which is also our internet = DSL) and blurted out the sales pitch of what it would cost us extra for their TV. I told him that we had never had Cable or Dish, just always used Antenna (free TV) and that we also do a fair amount of "streaming". He totally got it and said A LOT of folks are going with "Ruku" (or the like), which I believe is similar to what you are using @friesman? The question I asked him (and he didnt know how to answer it) and would like to ask you is, is there a monthly fee for these systems or is it just a one time shot? Are you only getting streaming and such that you could find on the web anyway? Also might add, a couple weeks ago we were at our local Library checking out some books (sometimes reading a book is even more entertainment than watching the tube - shows ya how old school Tip and I really are ) and I noticed they had a flyer posted that their system now offers Movie Streaming accessible with a Library card. Just food for thought....

to the both of you and here's to many many more to come!! Hope the two of you are having a GREAT day together celebrating the AWESOME marriage you two love birds have enjoyed!!

Right there with ya Dan O' BUT - ya gotta admit,, those Walleye arent much different then a really big Perch,, just a whole lot less work and a whole lot more time to with them Walleye,, yummmm yummmmmmmmmmm!! NICE JOB @Hummingbird:thumbsup:

Thats not a crack in the armor Son-shine @divey ,, more like a bottomless canyon in your dear ol dads psychology.. Use to love riding in the snow but something snapped inside, nowadays it seems like just the mention of temps below 60 and I am running for my trusty ol Carharts The "throwing caution to wind and riding where ever" ideology is actually part of my "avoiding the cold philosphy" .. ,, how do I explain this, ,,,,, I will state it just like my oldest daughter did one time when we rode all the way down to the Grand Canyon from North Dakota because it was FREEZING up there,,, picture a 13 year old on the back of an 84 Royale all wrap up in her snowmobile clothing and her dad hears her say thru her Balacalva = "we are just like a couple of Lake Trout trying to find that perfect temperature and not caring how far or how deep we have to go to find it arent we Dad..":thumbsup: Give me miles and mile and miles of endless touring Son but cha gotta keep those temps above 70 (preferably +90) or things on your dear ol Dads body start locking up!!

WHY??? Because if you go outside during the winter and stick your tongue on the steel runners of your sled, winter will make you ask why you did that.

by the Florida Department of Fisheries when he was a kid. At that time he had a 9 foot Sand Shark in his fishing net but had no fishing license. Now that same net that he had removed from that same Batman and Robin Tool Belt once again had gotten him in trouble. Only this time he was dealing with someone who had 1st Gen Yamaha Venture that had proven itself 10 times faster than a Sand Shark and its owner was twice as

Why did I KNOW it was gonna be you who asked why?

And so begins the flurry (no pun intended ) of the saddest pictures on VentureRider.org!! Good on ya for taken such good care of those precious babies or yourn brother!! May their be filled with dreams of yesterdays miles and endless thoughts of tomorrow's smiles

and people asked me why I insist on changing my own bike tires instead of letting those kids down at our local bike shop do it for me and that's not even lectrical Sorry that happened to you Jeff BUT glad you found the mess and are gonna correct it BEFORE you or some other innocent person gets injured because of the ignorance of someone who should know better!

Well, no idea if this helps or not but I am one the majority here who are PROUD to call you my brother and that pride begins in a deep thankfulness and even a deeper respect for your Military Service. Every once in a great while I too bump into someone who obviously has no clue of what the costs of the freedom they enjoy every day in our great country really has been and continues to be Dan - men (and women) have laid it all on the line and many have given all. My response has always been "if you don't love it - LEAVE IT"!! Still here for you my friend and even dedicate this song in your name - to my brother and my friend, Yammer Dan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAFmFsb9XM

Sounds like life around here Gary - I was an avid Deer Hunter not so long ago, both Bow and Gun - lived it and loved it!! I can still hear the echo of my kids voices when they were little saying "no Daddy nooooo,, not "benison" again" It's also peek Whitefish season here on our Channel.. The pier is usually solid people out there trying their luck.

Why did I spend my whole day figuring out how the snowblower attaches to my tractor?