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Last time I rode my wife's Fat Boy was coming back from getting the entire charging system replaced (stator, rotor, voltage regulator) and getting all the lights working properly. She hasn't ridden it since then. I start it up once a week and keep Sta-bil in it. So yesterday we load it up on a trailer with the sidecar to get the sidecar mounted. We get out there, get everything unloaded. I start it up, and now the turn signals don't work, the front brake light switch is stuck on, the neutral light is working intermittently and the headlight is flickering. All this from a 15 mile trailer ride. I was following the trailer so I know nothing happened enroute. I also have to put a new needle in the carb so it won't empty the gas tank into the motor if you forget to turn off the fuel. So there's that, mounting the sidecar, and now fixing the lights again. I've had this bike 6 month and it's been ridden about 50 miles and I have already spent way way more money on it than I have in 4 1/2 years on my Road Star. In fact , the only thing I had to fix on my Road Star was to replace that little plastic cover on the side of the carb, I think it was around $30.00. Mind you, it was still running before I fixed it, it just popped a lot. So even on the trailer, it breaks.
My wife's a good rider. She grew up on dirt bikes, like me. I introduced her to street bike when we were in our mid 30's and she took to it well. She learned on the mean streets of downtown Phoenix and never had an incident. For a couple of years we didn't have a car, just a couple big throw over saddlebags we used to shop for groceries. When we moved out to the desert, we were forced to buy a truck to haul water. That's right, no water, we had a 1000 gallon cistern buried in the backyard with a pump that pumped it into the house. I didn't mind hauling water, I would bring my pellet gun and shoot prairie dogs while I was waiting for the water trailer to fill to pass the time. But as time went on she rode less and less, then came the amputation. She can ride without the sidecar , but she can't reach the kickstand to retract it once she's on the bike. But she likes sidecar, she's got a few thousand miles on one, and it solves the kickstand issue. She says she wants to ride it to work, which is 130 miles one way, then she stays there 4 days and comes home for 3. There's a couple other women she works with who have H-D's, so I think it's more of a status thing. She had a 2007 Sportster before the amputation, and they dogged her about her "baby Harley", so she had to get a big twin. I don't know if she will ever ride it to work, hell, I don't know if it'll make it that far. I mean, it runs great, everything on it inside and out is practically new. But whoever put it together was of questionable skills. I had to replace the stator because they put the thrust washer in the wrong place and the stator rubbed on the rotor. The heel-toe shifter was on inside out, the rear shifter rubbed on the cases when it was pushed down. For awhile I thought it was the wrong shifter, but I kept looking at it and I finally realized that's all it was. I have went through it and blue Loc-Tited everything I can to try to keep it together. Of course I'll take it on at least a 100 mile test ride when I get the sidecar on it to see how it does. The moral of the story? H-D doesn't stand for Hunderd Dollars. It stands for Hundreds of Dollars.
My wife's a good rider. She grew up on dirt bikes, like me. I introduced her to street bike when we were in our mid 30's and she took to it well. She learned on the mean streets of downtown Phoenix and never had an incident. For a couple of years we didn't have a car, just a couple big throw over saddlebags we used to shop for groceries. When we moved out to the desert, we were forced to buy a truck to haul water. That's right, no water, we had a 1000 gallon cistern buried in the backyard with a pump that pumped it into the house. I didn't mind hauling water, I would bring my pellet gun and shoot prairie dogs while I was waiting for the water trailer to fill to pass the time. But as time went on she rode less and less, then came the amputation. She can ride without the sidecar , but she can't reach the kickstand to retract it once she's on the bike. But she likes sidecar, she's got a few thousand miles on one, and it solves the kickstand issue. She says she wants to ride it to work, which is 130 miles one way, then she stays there 4 days and comes home for 3. There's a couple other women she works with who have H-D's, so I think it's more of a status thing. She had a 2007 Sportster before the amputation, and they dogged her about her "baby Harley", so she had to get a big twin. I don't know if she will ever ride it to work, hell, I don't know if it'll make it that far. I mean, it runs great, everything on it inside and out is practically new. But whoever put it together was of questionable skills. I had to replace the stator because they put the thrust washer in the wrong place and the stator rubbed on the rotor. The heel-toe shifter was on inside out, the rear shifter rubbed on the cases when it was pushed down. For awhile I thought it was the wrong shifter, but I kept looking at it and I finally realized that's all it was. I have went through it and blue Loc-Tited everything I can to try to keep it together. Of course I'll take it on at least a 100 mile test ride when I get the sidecar on it to see how it does. The moral of the story? H-D doesn't stand for Hunderd Dollars. It stands for Hundreds of Dollars.
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