cowpuc

Au Contraire Monsieur,,, your ride report did WONDERS for this ol stuck in the snow Great White North buddy of yourn!!!!! OUTSTANDING RANDY!!!!!! When I read 78 degrees,,,, I almost started crying and than I screamed YES,,,, loud enough that Tippy almost spilled her soup!!!! Glad the two of you are feeling better!!! I bet that bike ride chased away any residual stuff from last year!!! Just thinkin out loud here,, forum rules are,, no pics - didnt happen,,,,, but not in your case,,,, still would have been nice,,, but thats ok cause if I would have been in your shoes the LAST thing on my mind would have been fiddling with a camera,, Tippy n I would have sucked every tiny little morsel of ride time up too.....

Why has that tune been playing in my mind over and over again this winter,, like a broken record why.

Ya got that right brotha!!!

Besides being majorly comfortable,, it flat out amazes me how lite weight the new stuff is!!! Plus their is nothing like the smell of a new helmet!! Congrats Bog!!!

:rotf::rotf: YAMMER AND PUC'S PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE - IT'S EASIER TO ASK FORGIVENESS THAN TO ASK PERMISSION and SOME THINGS ARE WORTH GETTING YOUR BUTT KICKED FOR:stirthepot: wish there was a way to write in code so only guys could read it,,, I felt like I was betraying my species by writing the above....

I use Adhuntr.com a lot Barry.. I also watch, buy/sell a lot on Ebay.. Been in the business for many many years and can honestly say I have never seen prices like they are in all my years..

Creole, Something to keep in mind about the HD belt drive system (not including the Sportster) - replacing the rear drive belt on an HD is not a simple matter.. I have helped with a couple of them and it is next to impossible on the highway.. Reason why is if you look at where the belt feeds into the back of the primary you will notice that it goes behind the clutch internal of the primary itself. It is a primary dismantle job, not for the faint of heart for sure!! I am not familiar with all the metrics but I do know that a lot of them have the front sprocket accessible under a small cover.. I am almost sure that the new Indians are this way too.. I know that the new breed of belts are very smooth and, unless you pick up a stone in the belt, very reliable, but brother - theres a lot of depris out there to pickup.. Not trying to talk down Harley or build up any other make here,, I personally LOVE em all and would ride ANY of the new bikes GLADLY. Just something to think about.. Puc

Dog gone good thing I aint closer to you Thom!! Man I love VR and the folks associated therein!!

:rotf: Wonder what "Government Stimulus Ice Cream" will taste like..

Tell your son ol Puc said CONGRATS!! Those Roadies are awesome bikes!! """People are going to have to ignore Blue Book prices and start being realistic on what the market is bringing""" Yeppers,, good ole free enterprise system,, in the end the market sets the prices and it is a CRAZY market out there, about the only thing the Blue Book is good for anymore is for insurance purposes. I often wonder about the impact the Web has had on all this, the ability to "shop" nation wide.. Now it seems like prices being affected by hard economic times on the west coast directly effect prices on the east coast.. Pretty interesting really...

Obviously you guys have never tried tent camping off the back roads of the U.P. of Michigan.. The mosquitoes up there are INSANE and when you finally get the tent up and you crawl into your sleeping bag, these tiny little bugs called "no-see-ums" fly thru the tent screens and their bite is worse than skeeters.. Most manufactures have been forced by regulators to produce "California" specified models for years.. Yamaha, being a company that not only complies with regulators, responds to consumer demands and produced a few bikes with "flame throwers" designed specifically for bug control - they were designated "Michigan U.P." bikes.. Tell Mike it works like this. You pull into into the camping spot, ride an 80 foot perimeter around your spot with flame on.. Pull to the center of the perimeter and quickly unload and pop tent up, wife gets in tent, hubby does another 80 foot perimeter on bike with flame on, park bike and climb in tent.. You now have 3 hours to sleep before making your next pass.. You might wanna hang onto your bike cause the Michigan DNR frowned deeply on the idea of tourist with flame throwers and forced yamaha to quit making them, can you say COLLECTOR BIKE.. Or,, if you decide to sell it, let me know cause I would rather deal with the DNR than those nasty (no-see-ems) ANYDAY and would put it to good use!!! Flame on sista!! Puc

Prayers up!

I'll take the 3rd WOW in a row!!! Someone was sure watching over you in finding that tumor and getting it out!! Sorry you had to go through it all!! I LOVED your take on "being able to live with one kidney but not without riding" - THATS THE SPIRIT!!!! My brother had a kidney removed loaded with cancer, didnt get on it soon enough and now he is dealing with it in his lungs.. Terrible stuff for sure!! Congrats and WELCOME BACK!! Puc

Randy it's funny you mention that, I have spent a fair amount of time ice racing and winter time dirt biking thru the years,,, using Kold Kutters (hardened screws with sharp edges) of course.. Riding a five gear wheelie on lake ice on my KX500 was NO problem with screws in the tires.. When I was younger and being from Michigan biking actually was just as much fun during the winter as in the summer - it was that serious! Out on the salt flats I was completely out of my Michigan born element.. While flying across the Bonneville at high speeds on the Yam I kept having flash backs of being on the lakes and racing in snow, I LITERALLY had to keep reminding myself that I was on salt - not ice - and didnt need those screws .. It was really a freaky feeling brother!!!

WOW Godlover,, you are right, THAT was a steal!! I have been watching em go thru like that all winter, standing in amazement at the deals out there.. Dont know whats going on in California/Florida/Texas but I saw a gorgeous MM with under 40k on it, an O2 RSV and an 05 TD all slide thru well below 4.. Felt just like you,,, sure can make ya wish you were trigger happy!!!!

Better take care of that GI's machine In respect of his service at least keep it clean. Wash it and wax it, every day while he is serving, having a foster child can be kind of unnerving. 1st Gens are tough and dont really care, as long as their moving, just let people stare.. But a 2nd Gens different, gotta have all things new, chrome eyebrows, cup holders, and its still slower too.. Still its great what your doing while your buddy is there, a good opportunity to show him you care!! Have fun KIC and tell your buddy THANK YOU FOR HIS SERVICE!!! Puc

Oh yea,,,, our ol beat up 1st Genny LOVES the stuff,,, broke 125 fully loaded on solid salt and was beggin for more,,,, wish I was back there instead of stuck in this snow bank!!!

,,,,,, ,,,,,,, what was that theme tune from Jeopardy again,,,,,,,,,,,, Cant you just see Tippy smackin the back of my head and saying,,, "cabin fever makes you a very impatient person Scott!!" - thats what she did just now :rotf: Thanks Barry,, looking forward to em!! I totally agree Rick! But, in Polaris's defense, they really did address some of Harley's known issues too though, primary gear drive, gear drive cams, push rod/valve stem angles, tranny smoothness.. It is really to bad they couldnt have offered them up for 2 or 3 thou cheaper than the matching HD models just to get em out and let the bikers find out if they are worthy or not.. I think its gonna be very difficult to compete directly with HD dollar for dollar,, I know you, me and LOTS of others are saying exactly what you said above!! If I were spending that kind of coin it would certainly be HD too,,, some of that from remembering what Polaris did about their early Victory problems!!

Well,,,, here is what worked for my son, Tippy and I.. He grew up in a home where love abounded and all the kids were encouraged to speak their minds, become what ever their bent in life was. We also raised the kids with no booze in our home, neither my wife nor I were even social drinkers.. So, when my son hit 18 and decided he wanted to do the party life and moved on (we allowed no drinking or drunkeness at our home).. Of course, Tippy was devistated.. She knew of my "party years" very well and knew that even though I didnt approve of his behavior I totally got where he was coming from.. I was hurt but certainly not surprised! I went through it starting at about 14 years old, by the time I hit 18 I was an alchoholic. By the time I was drinking age I lived in the bars.. I got tired of waking up sick and tired at age 25, almost like someone threw a light switch inside me.. Drawing from that experience, I told Tippy that it was a phase our one and only son was going thru.. She really had a hard time believing that.. During that time of my sons life I stayed in constant contact with him, took him out to lunch when he would go with me.. Helped him work on his car many many times.. All the while I was "helping" him with stuff I ALWAYS told him (when he was sober of course) that with todays laws concerning DUI's and out of respect for other peoples lives (and to protect him) that anytime he was out drinking, even one drop, that all he had to do was call me, 24/7, and I would gladly come get him and take him to his home and return him back to his car the next day when he was sober.. NO QUESTIONS ASKED!! I also told him that his drinking buddies were included in this offer.. Many, many, many times he took me up on this.. It got to be a regular thing for me to make trips to the bar in town for me to pick him up at 3 a.m.. Sometimes I would have more than him in my car, most of the time he was alone.. I NEVER scolded/scorned him, he knew how we/I felt so no words were ever spoken about it during these days.. I found that my love for my son (and others lives) was greater than my need to let my frustrations over come me and possibly ruin a chance to save my child.. We just celebrated my boys 29th birthday 6 days ago. Ironically, just 6 days ago we were all standing in our living room laughing about the fact that 4 years ago, almost to the date, he had announced that he was DONE with the partying. My wife just stared at me again and said,,, how on earth did you know that it would happen like that.. To which I replied (like many times before) - it's a guy thing honey. I cannot tell you how many times my boy has thanked me/us for NEVER giving up on him, for ALWAYS being there for him and for giving him the elbow room he needed to grow up.. Now,, all that being said,, some things that I DID NOT DO during those extremely tough years.. Before he got involved in drinking I would pretty regularly give him a few bucks for the girls,, so to speak.. After he moved out and started drinking, I kept the cash outlay very limited - I wasnt about to pay for his drinking.. He had to maintain some form of work - which was very good for him - to rent an apartment, own a car and party.. Oh yea,, I gotta mention this too..Here is an incident that really really stuck with him and that may have been the straw that broke the camels back.. We all know that along with the party life when a boy enters "manhood" are WOMEN... Being a good looking guy (again,, just like his dad) he had no problem getting attention from the ladies.. During his 24th year of life he decided he wanted to sell everything he owned and follow a young lady out to Idaho.. This was VERY hard on both Tippy and I.. BUT,, I told him I understood and that to please always remember that I was there for him.. We cried when we dropped him off at O'Hare and watched his tall, slanky body step off into the unknown.. About 2 months after he left we got a phone call, my son asking to speak to his dad.. Said he was broke,, the girl wasnt what he thought and wondered if I could help him get home.. I said yep, you bet son,, I cant afford to fly you (I could have but wanted some time with him) but I will drive out and get you.. I stuck the tent and sleeping bags in the car the next morning and headed west!! I will never forget the smile on his face when I picked him up standing on a street corner in Twin Falls.. On the way home I didnt lecture, just let him talk.. We camped for a few days out west like we used to do on our bike trips.. He went back to his apartment, went back to the job he left, the drinking friends accepted him right back in and he tried to pretend all was back to normal BUT I could see in him that he had changed.. Took about a year after that for the light switch to click... In conclusion I will say this,, PARENTING IS NOT AN EASY TASK but with love, understanding and LOTS of help from the Good Lord,, it is doable and VERY rewarding!! Hope this somehow helps Rbig1!! Puc

Prayers up!!

Yea that is really weird,,, I wish there was a way to play with colors and see if that made any difference.. It would be really neat if there was somewhere in the color spectrum that would eliminate the disappearing dots - than we just wear that color.. Also,,, I wonder if the outside dots were flashing,, what affect would that have,,, maybe those strobe headlights?? Just thinkin..

I can attest to the same thing Rand, many times over!! Most recent was last year on my 69 Honda Chopper.. Running four open pipes (LOUD), 18 inch over BRIGHT Chrome springer front end, wearing a LONG hair hat with hair flying in the wind and a high output BRIGHT xeon headlight.. I am cruisen down one of our main roads, traffic was lite, only one car in front of her and she turns to her left right in front of me.. Thankfully there was just enough room for me to hit the throttle and fly between her and the car that had stopped at the stop sign at the corner she was trying to make.. She didnt even stop, I chased her down, walked up to her window and asked why the heck she did that.. She starting crying and said "I just didnt see you".. Her son (about 12 years old) said "but mom, I was screaming at you to watch out for the motorcycle".. She said "I remember you saying that but I still didnt see him"... The whole time we were talking I was "sniffing" for booze,, looking for a reason to call in the law BUT she was absolutely sober.. Thanks to this thread I NOW understand that she was probably being totally honest - she literally didnt see me even though I was the ONLY vehicle in my lane that day!!! This is scary stuff!!!!!

Or are to busy munchin on Girl Scout Cookies to even care:rotf: No offence intended to any of our VR members or my other friends out there,, I LOVE Colorado and Washington - them theres truly GORGEOUS western states - with GREAT biker friendly people!!!!

Here's an interesting side note that I discovered when playing with those dots Randy. If I move back away from the screen a few feet the dots dont disappear,,,, could it be that staying out of bottle necks (finding that open area and staying there) has added benefits,, hmmmmm...

I am surprised the didnt start with Colorado and Washington