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

Charm City Leatherbacks

Welcome everyone!

Over the next couple days I will be collecting email addresses and setting up post permissions so that all members are able to post to the blog at will.

In order to post, you must respond to the invite message that I'm sending to your email address. Once you've done that you are able to post to the blog.

Laurence