Thurmont Trip

Halloo,

With the weather starting to get cooler these days, I'd really like to plan a return trip to the Cozy before the snows hit in the mountains.

The buffet was excellent and I hear they do breakfast as well.

Any takers?

FB

St Michaels Run

Hey gang,

Those of you who missed the St Michaels Run last week... really missed something! The weather was great, the roads were straight... the traffic was light and the food was right!

FB

Bad Boys Bad Boys

Ocean City Bike Week pictures

OC Bike Week

The "Cruisers" logged 710 miles during OC Bike Week, NOT BAD !! Destinations included..Darlington, Seaford, Ocean City, Crisfield, Assateague, Salisbury, Chincoteague, and Smyrna. Here's a shot of the crew after raiding Crisfield. We had 21 bikes in on this one !!

Charm City Cruisers is taken

I checked... unfortunately ... it's taken already.

Group Name

It seems that Charm City Leatherbacks and Crabtowne Cruisers have been the top two names thus far. Let's settle it and merge the two together and go with Charm City Cruisers. What do you guys think ??

The Infamous AQUA-HARLEY

Bikeless Chick sent in this photo of her Aqua-Harley

Photo Viewing

Just a quick note... if you click on the photos they expand to a larger size. If you are having trouble seeing the photos in the blog, trying clicking on them

Also, you can download any photo you like to your own computer by right-clicking on the photo and selecting the SAVE AS option.

Daylight Raid along the Susquehanna

Small towns along the Susquehanna shut their doors in fear at the sound of our Harley V-twins. Shown here, Crab City Crusiers on a daylight raid.

Bernie and Sharron -- the Redeye Run

Bernie and Sharron on the way to the Redeye... what a great run it was!

Ahoy Maties

Arrrrggghhh... getting gas in Delaware and flying the flag.

Chuck and Jill at Gettysburg

Another fine Gettysburg ride... shown here, Chuck and Jill outside Jill's Collectibles.

Chincoteaque Run

Michelle riding shotgun on the way to Ocean City.

Ride Like A Pro V

As is painfully obvious on most days, I'm a newbie rider and really have no business being being on the road endangering the public... lol

One of the things that has helped me considerably, is the Ride Like a Pro V DVD. It's chock full of riding tips for both beginers and experienced riders alike.

I recommend this video.

If anyone wants to borrow this DVD, let Michelle or I know, but be forewarned... we want it back. It's that good... worth watching over and over.

Otherwise, you can go to www.ridelikeapro.com and purchase it yourself.

Special Offer--- 50% off

Michelle and I were thinking, as much as we love Old Blu, we should get an upgrade. The dealer told us he'd make us a special offer on this bike... half off!

Phil's Loaner

Finally, the Harley dealer decided to take action and give Phil a loaner while his bike was in the shop.

I take back all those bad things I was thinking about them.

Pictures of Sharon and Bernie's party

Posters

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to learn how to post messages.

Where to next week????

Weekend at Bernies

Another great party Sharon ! Food to die for. Company wasnt bad either. Bob said glad you could show up Mel !!!!! Fatboy 05

Gettysbergs

What a wonderful ride we all had on Sunday. Larry was such a great teacher on knowing his history. I really enjoy learning all about our past. Thanks Larry!! Fatboy 05

Thoughts on Gettyburg

The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory in the summer of 1863 that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy", it was the wars bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties. It also provided President Abraham Lincoln with the setting for his most famous address. It was my pleasure (for the 2nd time) to ride along with one of my riding brothers Larry and our little band of bikers to Gettysburg. This place never fails to humble me, and along with the vast knowledge of the events that Larry possesses made for a great ride all the way around ! I feel blessed to ride along with such a great group and thanks again to Larry for providing the historical facts behind the relics we were viewing. Simply put, if we as a nation don't learn from our past, then we are destined to repeat it !

new from ground wire

thanks for the E-post. I hope this gets out to every one. thanks for a terrific day n the great history lesson.
see ya !!!
ground wire

Thanks!!!!

Old Blue and friends thanks for a great day of riding! Cant wait for bike week.

Group Name

I'm liking Crabtowne Cruisers the best... followed by Crab City Cruisers. Either one works for me.

Once we've decided on a name, I'll start working on a logo.

FB Blue

Still Looking for Agreement on the Name

Crab Town Cruisers ... anyone... anyone... Bueller?

Weekend at Bernie's

Wow! How much fun was that????? What a great time... the food... the company... the pool... everything was outstanding.

Hats off to the hosts!!!!

And people... you haven't lived until you've seen Bob do his sychronized swimming routine.

Thanks again for a wonderful time.

Riding Ole Blu

Even though I am not a "Harley Rider" I've been invited to join this blog by the owner of "Ole Blu" my good friends Michelle and Larry. I have to say sitting on the back of that beautiful piece of chrome engineering with the wind in my hair (through the helmet of course) and the bugs in my teeth has got me thinking that I should take the plunge and buy me one. But alas I am a wimp and prefer to remain "the bitch on the back". So I will continue to sit "idle" and wait my turn and when I get the chance I'll hop on the back and raise my hands in the air and yell "all hail ole blue!"

The Clarks

A sunny day... a clean bike... and a hot chick on the back.

It just doesnt get any better.

Cathy's First Ride on Old Blu

Yep... I'd be scared too. Cathy's rigid stance is not due to my putting an arm around her... she was just a bit nervous.

This shot was taken on a ride back from Chincoteague to Ocean City.

Even though Cathy doesn't own a bike, she has converted her Jetski into an Aqua-Harley and if we play our cards right... she may let us go for a spin on it during bike week.

Old Blu's Ignition Problems

Old Blu has had some starting issues in recent weeks. Yesterday, thanks to Wayne, I think we got to the bottom of it.

Seems the battery cable was coming loose because of a screwy washer arrangement so it would arc when you pressed the Starter.

Looks like it may be fixed now... hopefully.

Biker's Prayer

Dear Lord, as I get ready to get on this hog and prepare to ride, Just let me feel your presence with me riding side by side.Let us feel the wind together blowing across our face, Don't let me fail to see and smell the nature around me as I ride from place to place.
Dear Lord, keep me safe from harm and let the other drivers see me as I ride by, And every once in awhile even though I'm a biker let them say, "Hi". Keep me alert and always watching for others, Don't let me ever fail to stop and help out one of my sisters or brothers.
And when my time on earth is up and it's time for me to take that ride in the sky, Just give me a chance to tell everyone I love them and don't forget me when I die. Lord, Thank You for letting me be a biker and doing what I loved the best, For the many miles I traveled, places I got to go and see before I finally came to rest.

08 High Idle Issue

Many have experienced a higher than normal idle on the 08 bikes with the TBW (throttle by wire) throttles. Some feel it is a problem with the bike but the MOCO is working on a possible fix for this.It is mainly brought about when the idle is elevated just before shut down such as rolling on the throttle when shutting down, sometimes without knowing or realizing it. Using the kill switch to shut down when the idle is not at a normal idle will also promote this condition. The ECM remembers the last known idle speed just prior to shut down.What seems to work for many to eliminate this problem which can also be found in the manual is this procedure below. It is the same procedure for a replacement of the twist grip sensor as it is to eliminate the stored higher throttle value when shutting down and rolling on the throttle which is what is giving some this problem.Whenever a new twist grip sensor (or ECM) is installed, place the engine run/stop switch in the RUN position and turn the ignition/light key switch to IGNITION and then back to OFF four times (without starting engine). Allow at least ten seconds to elapse between ignition cycles. As the ECM uses the first four ignition cycles to establish the optimum idle speed, there may be initial performance problems if the procedure is not performed, such as high idle or hesitation when the throttle is opened.Here's a more detailed view of this. Turn the RUN switch to RUN, do not touch the throttle.Turn on the IGNITION SWITCH, wait for the CEL (Yellow engine light) to turn OFF.Turn off IGN only, wait for 10 seconds and repeat this sequence 3 more times.After this, go to your dealer and get the NEW ECM Flash installed in the bike.What it does is keeps the ECM awake for an additional 10 seconds and gives the TGS (throttle grip sensor) time to settle into a ZERO state, and it is a should be covered under the warranty and a free ECM Flash.If they aren't aware of the fix, refer them to HDNet, there is a document that details the warranty procedure. Tech Tip 380

Harley Customer Service

Poor Phil... The guy buys a brand new Harley and within days the thing springs an oil leak. Now... this isn't just any Harley... we're talking the Grand Poobah of Harleys... the dream machine, the Pamela Anderson of Harleys... in other words... a weapons-grade Harley Davidson. You'd think a guy spends $40 large to own a Harley, the dealership would be falling all over themselves to make it right... but no!

Phil (to Harley Service Tech): Hey.. I have oil leaking from the heads into my air cleaner.

Harley Tech: Hmmm.... well... just wipe it off every now and then.

Yeah, ... right! Bottomline is, Harley has had the bike in a service bay for weeks ... waiting on a part that Phil offered to have Fedex-ed overnight at his own expense. Meanwhile, summer is wasting away and bike week in OC is just around the corner.

There's a special place in hell for Harley techs that would make a guy wait like Phil has been waiting.

Interesting Exchange at Looney's

Mel (to waitress): I'll have the turtle soup... and make it snappy!

Waitress (to all of us): Did you guys smoke dope on the way over here?

lol

Harpers Ferry Ride

Thanks to everyone who participated in the ride to Harper's Ferry last Saturday. What a group!

If I'm not mistaken, we had around 12 bikes take part... a record number for our group.

The ride itself was not without a few hiccups... like getting lost, f'instance. That'll teach everyone to let me lead... lol. Other than that, the trip down Rt. 26 was lovely... even relaxing.

With a group this large, parking was going to be a problem for a small town like Harper's Ferry... and it was. Fortunately there was no shortage of illegal spaces.

The restaurant was a bust as far as I was concerned. The service was far too slow and the food was overpriced. Let's not go back there any time soon.

After spending two hours waiting for food, we were extremely fortunate in that the local police were distracted from giving us $50 parking tickets by some fool who drove his car up on the railroad tracks and got stuck. Thank God for morons.

In this picture you can see the car wedged neatly on the tracks and an oncoming train in the distance. A disaster was narrowly averted by a timely call to the dispatcher who was able to alert the engineer.

The train just.... just... managed to stop. The engineer later told me he was on the phone with his dispatcher when he rounded the bend. If the call had come a few seconds later, he would not have been able to stop.

Anyway, a tow truck came to pull the clown off the tracks and we drove away without getting tickets.

Laurence

Harley-Davidson & the Marlboro Man

Okay. So I'm sitting around wishing I was riding when I spy Harley-Davidson & the Marlboro Man on Comcast On-Demand. Great, I'll have to check out this movie especially since I'm a kewl Harley riding dude these days and I smoke Marlboros.

As I'm getting comfy in front of Michelle's wide-screen multi-speaker entertainment apparatus, I'm thinking... it doesn't get much better than this.

WRONG!

Mickey Rourke plays Harley Davidson. Don Johnson plays the Marlboro Man. Neither performance is great but at least Mickey is believeable. In comparison to the rest of the cast, these two at least got their lines right and hit the director's marks.

The movie itself was made in 1991, back in the pre-dot.com era, when Hollywood was somewhat careful about throwing money away. I suspect that the producers were only able to finance this waste of celluloid by lining up some fat promotional buy-ins. Consider... the main characters are Harley-Davidson and the Marlboro man (Don Johnson's bike needed to be equipped with an oxygen tank and iron lung). I'd say those are two pretty recognizable brand names.

But wait... there's also a female character who goes by the name Virginia Slim. Geez... gimme a break. And just when you think the movie can't get any cheesy-er... another character gets introduced. Yup... Jack Daniels!!! So you can kind of see where the money got spent... and it wasn't on character development.

What???? No casting call for Johnnie Walker??? How 'bout the Hamburgler??? How did the producer/director let these two slide by?

Anyway... I wasted about 45 minutes watching this embarassing piece of film history before I called it quits. According to the wikipedia entry for this movie, it only garnered $7 million at the box office. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=2037842

That's a disasterous return. Heck, I bet the catering budget was at least that much.

Save yourself the bother. I'd rather ride in the rain downhill over oily gravel than watch this movie again.

Laurence

Pinnacle Ride August 10th

Thanks to everyone who participated in the August 10th "Ride to the Pinnacle". Yes, we got lucky. While we were enjoying the view at the Pinnacle, Bel Air was getting hammered by golf-ball size hail. (Is there any other kind?)

Old Blu passed the 20,000 mile mark on the odometer without incident.

laurence

Name for Group Requested

There's no way that we will pick a name that everyone likes so to get the thing moving, I picked a name that no one will like.

Post any suggestions for a new name and we'll adopt a concensus over the next week or so.

laurence

Pictures