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As a geezer, I have some comments about my longish ride on the bike , from New Orleans to Ft Lauderdale, and back. 2100 miles.
Equipment: SE 16ga pipes, aircleaner and factory flash. Sundowner seat, factory soft leather bags, touring shield, Memphis Shades lowers. Engine guards with convoluted hiway peg location (first pic). Kuraykin switchblade pags in front, rear pegs have V-Mod ratchet extensions w/kuryakin mini boards, slanted forward. HD-Sac in the rear, (reinforced with heavy particle board and a slab of pine.)
1.) Mechanical: The bike never stalled, coughed or gave me any signs of mechanical problems. It does seem to be taking longer for the Engine light to go off when starting, but it does go off. I burned no measurable amount of (syn) oil on the trip. Averaged about 34 mpg. (The SE RoadKing I was riding with used exacly the same amount of gas as I did!) Low fuel light came on consistantly at 73 +/- 3 miles since fillup. Only let it go to full gauge empty once, and it took 2.8 gallons.
2.) Cruising: I went 80-85 mph most of the way. Used the friction lock quite a bit, especially when traveling alone on flat roads. The fuill face helmet was great. The GPS (posted in thread "footpegs") worked well, but was a little hard to see in some light conditions.
3.) Stereo: The iPod worked best with a Sony headest where the speakers fit part way in the ear, facing forward, and a radio shack booster, at about 85% volume. They have to be repositioned every time the helmet is removed. (The flip up helmet minimizes the need for that). The in-helmet speakers were not loud enough. I went through 560 of 1300 stored songs, in random access mode. Radio Shack makes a 3 into 1 12V accessory that has a plug thet exactly matches the HD battery tender plug. I used al three for my iPod, GPS and Cellphone charger.
4.) Load: I started out with the load vertical (also posted in thread "footpegs"). I changed this to a much lower load, by placing the clothes bag sideways (third pic). Finally, I figured out that the tent and mattress rolls would go on top of the saddle bags. By packing properly, I had a great back support.
5.) Me: I found the best position for the legs was with the feet on the rear boards. This was good for about 40 minutes. Then I would straighten out my legs using the front hiway pegs. The stock position has too much wind turbulence for any extended riding at 85 mph, especially with the headwinds I encountered going both ways! The switchblade heel support pegs, therefore were pretty much not used. My butt was the hardest challenge. Even the Sundowner is too hard for an old fart like me after 5 hours or so. I shifted from one cheek to the other, but eventually it just hurt. I'm thinking a fleece cover might be nice. I also finally said fashion be damned and used some mini bungee cords to lash my chaps to my boots/legs so they wouldn't flap. It was a godsend.
PS: I lost part of one Switchblade (rubber end) and the other one is jammed in the out position. And I had to readjust them several times. They are coming off this weekend.
Also, the front fender flames departed in the first high speed run with rain (on my side trip to New Orleans last Wed). One of the tank flames departed on my run to Ft Lauderdale, so the rest went immediately after. There were no scratches on the tank from 2000 miles with a tank bag bouncing on there.
So all in all, I was able to take a sleeping bag, air mattress, tent and enough clothes for a week, enough electronic goodies, and myself, on a very long ride. I wish I could go further between fill-ups, and wish my butt was more durable. But I will do it again. Probably with less clothes. But not much less of anything else.
Equipment: SE 16ga pipes, aircleaner and factory flash. Sundowner seat, factory soft leather bags, touring shield, Memphis Shades lowers. Engine guards with convoluted hiway peg location (first pic). Kuraykin switchblade pags in front, rear pegs have V-Mod ratchet extensions w/kuryakin mini boards, slanted forward. HD-Sac in the rear, (reinforced with heavy particle board and a slab of pine.)
1.) Mechanical: The bike never stalled, coughed or gave me any signs of mechanical problems. It does seem to be taking longer for the Engine light to go off when starting, but it does go off. I burned no measurable amount of (syn) oil on the trip. Averaged about 34 mpg. (The SE RoadKing I was riding with used exacly the same amount of gas as I did!) Low fuel light came on consistantly at 73 +/- 3 miles since fillup. Only let it go to full gauge empty once, and it took 2.8 gallons.
2.) Cruising: I went 80-85 mph most of the way. Used the friction lock quite a bit, especially when traveling alone on flat roads. The fuill face helmet was great. The GPS (posted in thread "footpegs") worked well, but was a little hard to see in some light conditions.
3.) Stereo: The iPod worked best with a Sony headest where the speakers fit part way in the ear, facing forward, and a radio shack booster, at about 85% volume. They have to be repositioned every time the helmet is removed. (The flip up helmet minimizes the need for that). The in-helmet speakers were not loud enough. I went through 560 of 1300 stored songs, in random access mode. Radio Shack makes a 3 into 1 12V accessory that has a plug thet exactly matches the HD battery tender plug. I used al three for my iPod, GPS and Cellphone charger.
4.) Load: I started out with the load vertical (also posted in thread "footpegs"). I changed this to a much lower load, by placing the clothes bag sideways (third pic). Finally, I figured out that the tent and mattress rolls would go on top of the saddle bags. By packing properly, I had a great back support.
5.) Me: I found the best position for the legs was with the feet on the rear boards. This was good for about 40 minutes. Then I would straighten out my legs using the front hiway pegs. The stock position has too much wind turbulence for any extended riding at 85 mph, especially with the headwinds I encountered going both ways! The switchblade heel support pegs, therefore were pretty much not used. My butt was the hardest challenge. Even the Sundowner is too hard for an old fart like me after 5 hours or so. I shifted from one cheek to the other, but eventually it just hurt. I'm thinking a fleece cover might be nice. I also finally said fashion be damned and used some mini bungee cords to lash my chaps to my boots/legs so they wouldn't flap. It was a godsend.
PS: I lost part of one Switchblade (rubber end) and the other one is jammed in the out position. And I had to readjust them several times. They are coming off this weekend.
Also, the front fender flames departed in the first high speed run with rain (on my side trip to New Orleans last Wed). One of the tank flames departed on my run to Ft Lauderdale, so the rest went immediately after. There were no scratches on the tank from 2000 miles with a tank bag bouncing on there.
So all in all, I was able to take a sleeping bag, air mattress, tent and enough clothes for a week, enough electronic goodies, and myself, on a very long ride. I wish I could go further between fill-ups, and wish my butt was more durable. But I will do it again. Probably with less clothes. But not much less of anything else.
