Freebird

I forgot to mention that before heading home from Buffalo on Friday, I met up with Bongobob for some very good BBQ. It had been a long day already and it was nice to sit a while and enjoy some good food and conversation. Thank you @bongobobny for taking the time. Much appreciated and was great to see you again.

Looks great and probably a nice relaxing sound late in the evening when it gets quite outside. Very nice.

Two Dutchmen talking about WHO is going to PAY....I'm sure you are BOTH shaking.

Well, I did order a couple more things today but they were absolute necessities.

I'm done for now. Except for finding a wiring harness/isolator for the trailer. Utopia backrest is ordered, ROX handlebar risers are ordered. Yamaha backrest is ordered, Hitchdoc receiver type hitch is ordered, Yamaha luggage rack is ordered. I want the lower wind deflectors but they will have to wait for a while. The piggy bank is looking pretty malnourished.

This story starts about 2 years ago. We hooked the Waverunners up and took them down to Lake Hamilton in Arkansas where my son and two granddaughters us for a few days or rest and relaxation. It was a great time but to cut right to the chase, while my son was out on one of the Waverunners giving my 4-year-old granddaughter a ride, she apparently got hold of the key and dropped it into the lake. OK, no big deal. It's an electronic fob that basically locks or unlocks the Waverunner. Since it was running when it happened, you can use it as normal but just can't lock it. It's more of a security feature and also you use it to enable a "low power" mode or "learning mode". It was in full power mode so that didn't matter either. Now fast forward two years. Eileen and I are heading back down to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky the middle of October for our annual houseboat trip. We try to go once or sometimes twice a year and spend about 4 days on a houseboat rental. They can suck up a lot of gas so we take the Waverunner down, find a nice quite cover to anchor down the houseboat, and use the Waverunners for exploring, going to the store, etc. The missing key has been nagging at me. Like I said, you don't need it but, I've always worried that due to some radio frequency or something that the Waverunner would get switch off or to low power mode and it would then be unusable or stuck in slow mode. The key fob is about $169.00 from a dealer but then you also have to pay to have it programmed as it takes a special programming system to do it. You can find the keys on Ebay for around $125.00 but then still have to schedule an appointment and pay a dealer to program it. So I just hadn't bothered to do it. Last week I ran across an ad on Ebay from a seller who had what he said were "new but not in original box" keys WITH the matched receivers for $150.00. Those receivers retail for around $360.00 alone so that was a very good deal and I ordered the set. They came in on Friday when I was busy going after the new bike and I never got around to looking at it until today. To be honest, when I opened the package, it was fairly obvious to me that the seller wasn't exactly honest about them being NEW but I figured as long as it works, I really didn't care. So I found some parts diagrams online to determine where the receiver is actually located and though, as with most things, it wasn't exactly easy to get to, it could have been much worse. First thing this morning I removed the necessary panels inside the front hatch and by twisting just the right way, I was able to reach in, unplug, remove the old receiver, and replace it with the new one. Tried the key and it worked exactly as it should have. So I was feeling pretty good that I finally got it back to working the way it was supposed to. Just for the heck of it, I decided to test the other Waverunner and guess what, it wouldn't work. The fob did nothing at all when I pushed the button. So I figured that as the Waverunners are two years old, the battery probably needed replacing. So I took it apart, removed the battery and headed to Walmart to pick up a new one. Got two because I don't know how old the one off Ebay is either. Got back home and put the battery in and guess what? Still NOTHING. Then it dawned on me. What if somehow, the key that I still had, somehow got put in the storage console of the wrong Waverunner. The only thing to do was to take it apart and replace the receiver with the one that I had taken out of the first one. Finally got that done, tested it, and sure enough, it works just fine. So now both are working as they should. Stupid is as Stupid does. A smart man would have double checked which Waverunner the key worked with before taking it apart.

So one thing that I noticed on the SVTC is that, as usual with most bikes, the horn is very wimpy. I will take a closer look today but have any of you looked at adding a louder horn yet? It is not my top priority but will need to be done. I don't know why the manufacturers don't realize how important a really good horn is.

Yours was one of the many reports that I read before making the final decision to purchase this bike. Your report was excellent but I knew before reading it that I would be in pain on the way home. That has been the case on ANY bike, including the Ultra Glide and the RSV, before adding the highway pegs and backrest. I've posted on this site in the past that, for me, a backrest makes all the difference between a pain-free 20-mile ride or a pain-free iron butt. So it came as no surprise. As for the maintenance, it would bother me too if I did not plan to do my maintenance myself as I always have. As for the valve checks, I expect that being as they are screw type adjustments, they won't be quite as difficult at the bucket and shim type. We'll see.

I've read where the experts say that all accidents can be avoided but I never really agreed with that. All you can do is keep your head in the game and take all reasonable precautions. So sorry to hear about the accident but so very happy that you are still here to talk about it. Hope that new Wing brings you many miles of joy.

So what you are saying is that SS threaded rod is weaker than SS threaded rod?

I do remember you. Welcome back You have a LOT of catching up to do.

Eileen is really kind of wanting me to keep both of them. I just really don't need them both though. I just got an email from a guy that wants to come look at it tomorrow. Don't know if he is serious about it or not. Either way, I will probably sell it or trade it for something.

I'm really going to try to take the time. I'll likely sell or trade the old one though. As much as I like it, I really don't need two bikes.

HEY....I don't need YOUR help with her.

LOL....I'll put them back. Actually, I'll probably get black ones for the new bike.

Maybe, but because they are heated, I probably won't.

Yes, it is. I'll correct it. Thanks.

Yes, I've already received that warning. I will be very careful for sure. I have ordered some 2" risers that also pivot to come back. All reports are that cables and etc. work fine. Should be an easy install. Much easier than changing the bars as I did on the Harley and the RSV. You would think that with my long arms, I buy shirts with 36" sleeves, that I would not need such things but the fact is, I ride with my feet on the highway pegs and leaned back against the backrest and I always need the bars to come back further. The back part of my left shoulder is still hurting from the ride home. Same way on the RSV and the Harley. Backrest is ordered from Utopia and their ship date is the 10 of this month so I won't have to wait too long. Next on the list is a trailer hitch. I see that Big Bike Parts has one but it's not a receiver type. Still, the price is good. I'll look around but may go with it.

Well, I really didn't enjoy riding the Spyder. Wish some experience with Snowmobiles, ATV type 3 wheelers, etc. I was pretty much OK with the countersteering but it just wasn't comfortable to me. I will say this though, in the end, I actually liked it better than the Slingshot. I tell you, I'm just not sure how long Polaris will continue the Slingshot. It's a fun idea and there are a good many people that absolutely love them but Polaris has not done a good job with some things. There have been a lot of recalls, some fairly major, that have resulted in some owners making many trips to the dealership. I had a big dealer tell me this week, not the dealer where I traded mine off, that they sold only TWO new Slingshots all year. He said they sold a few used ones but only because they got them cheap and sold them cheap. The dealer I bought my new Venture from had two leftover last year models and had them listed brand new for $15,999. Both these dealers told me that they came out of the gate fairly strong but interest has decreased to almost nothing. They also both told me that they would be very surprised to see it remain on the market. Too bad, it was a very cool idea and I didn't have but one small problem with mine but Polaris just hasn't handled their issues very well in my opinion. Even on the Slingshot forums that I frequented, even the owners who LOVED them, joked about all the recalls and the Polaris lack of customer service. To be honest though, I heard some similar stories from some Victory and Indian owners. I should clarify. I didn't have but one small problem but I bought it used. The original owner had already had all the current recalls completed.

I told Eileen this morning that this was likely the last bike I would ever buy. I got a look somewhat like this.

Love them both.

I missed the heal shifter on the ride home. When I bought my first RSV in 1999, I didn't like the heal shifter. A lot of people didn't and a lot of folks either cut off the heal part or bought the Yamaha accessories chrome billet toe shifter. I got used to it and ended up really liking it. Then I looked at the shifter available for this bike and adding the heal shifter requires you to buy the new toe shifter also. At $195.00 for just the toe shifter part of it, I am pretty sure that I will just wait and get used to not having a heal shifter again. I did forget about the lower wind deflectors. I will certainly add those to my list though I honestly didn't have any problems with heat on the way home. It was only in the low to mid 80's though and I was running highway speeds the entire way. I don't know that they would help at slowers speeds anyway though. Still, I'll add them at some point. My next priority though is a trailer hitch and then probably the luggage rack.

I've seen pictures of both only in pictures. I did find a number of posts on a Facebook group from users who had one or the other. Most felt that the Yamaha backrest wasn't high enough. I guess they kept it short enough that the passenger can swing their leg over it and apparently it doesn't fold down. I considered both and decided to go with the Utopia. I like to really push back against it sometimes with my feet on the highway pegs and just didn't feel that the Yamaha backrest would do the job. As for the heat, I'm not concerned. Sounds neat but to be honest, I have a heated Russell seat on my '05 and I don't think I have turned it on except for once on the day that I bought the bike. Around here, by the time it gets cold enough to really need a heated seat, there is already too much salt on the roads for me to take the bike out.

You can remove it without affecting anything else. Some people have made cubby compartments like you mention. Some have added gauges there.