{"id":1977,"date":"2019-01-01T06:34:40","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T14:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2019-01-01T06:55:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T14:55:12","slug":"happy-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/01\/01\/happy-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy New Year!"},"content":{"rendered":"
A 2019 Heritage Softail.\u00a0 It’s magnificent, and magnificently expensive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m celebrating the start of 2019 the right way, with a trip to the rifle range to test a few new loads for accuracy, but during a break in my reloading session yesterday (at the tail end of 2018), I let chaos theory take over.\u00a0 That’s the theory that says you often get unpredictable outcomes from random, seemingly unconnected events.<\/p>\n

The unconnected event was the light bulb over our bathroom shower blowing out a couple of days ago. \u00a0 The Boss (SWMBO, or she who must be obeyed) gave me directions to get it taken care of, and that meant a short ride to the lighting store.\u00a0 You’re probably wondering about now if I somehow got electrocuted or if I slipped on the ladder taking the bulb out.\u00a0 Nope, neither one of those things happened.\u00a0 But….<\/p>\n

You see, the lighting store is just across the street from our local Harley dealer.\u00a0 You know, the T-shirt guys who also sell motorcycles.\u00a0 I had to stop in to see the new Harleys.\u00a0 I mean, I was right there.\u00a0 No, I didn’t need a new T-shirt.\u00a0 But I was curious.\u00a0 It would be 2019 in a few hours, and I needed to see the latest and the greatest from Milwaukee and Mumbai.<\/p>\n

I’ve owned a couple of Harleys in my life.\u00a0 The first was a 1979 Electra-Glide Classic, a two-tone-tan-and-cream-colored full dresser that was beautiful.\u00a0 I called it my optical illusion.\u00a0 It looked like a real motorcycle.\u00a0 The thing was gorgeous, but it couldn’t go a hundred miles without something breaking, and when I finally sold it (also in 1979, after its third top end overhaul), I swore I would never buy another Harley.<\/p>\n

Promises are made to be broken, and that led to a 1992 Heritage Softail, which was a great motorcycle.\u00a0 I did some real traveling on that one, as you’ll need from reading Moto Baja<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The Softail made it to 53,000 miles before the engine froze up, and that was after I owned it for just over 10 years.\u00a0 I’m real certain about that “just over 10 years” time frame, because when the engine locked up, the Harley dealer wouldn’t touch it.\u00a0 That was because it was “over 10 years” old, and that’s the cutoff for Harley working on a motorcycle.\u00a0 But that was okay…because I put a 96-inch S&S motor in the thing, and that really woke the bike up.\u00a0 Top end went from just under 100 mph to well over 120 mph (the speedo only went to 120, and burying the needle was no problemo<\/em> with the new motor). \u00a0 The fuel economy went from the low 40-mpg range to about 30 mpg with that new motor, but hey, who’s counting?<\/p>\n

But then chaos theory took over again. \u00a0 I was supposed to bring home a carton of milk one day when I was out on my Harley, I forgot, and SWMBO sent me back out to fetch said carton.\u00a0 For whatever reason, I took my KLR 650 on that run, so I had a chance to ride the 96-inch Harley back-to-back with the KLR. \u00a0 You can guess where this story is going.\u00a0 The KLR was faster, it handled better, and best of all, the entire KLR motorcycle had cost less (brand new) out the door than just the S&S had cost for the Harley. \u00a0 Cycle Trader<\/em> came to the rescue, and two days later, I was happily Harleyless. \u00a0 Chaos Theory.\u00a0 Powerful stuff.<\/p>\n

So, back to the main attraction here:\u00a0 My visit to the Harley dealer yesterday, and the 2019 version of the Heritage Softail.\u00a0 Here’s the ticket, folks, not including sales tax…<\/p>\n

Wowee! Note that this model has the optional 114-cubic-inch motor, for those times when 107 cubic inches just won’t do.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

$22,787!\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 I asked the sales guy, after telling him I was only interested in looking and I was not a buyer, about the engine size. \u00a0 It seems the standard motor is a 107 cubic inch V-twin, and this one had Harley’s optional 114-cubic inch motor.\u00a0 I guess there’s no substitute for cubic inches.\u00a0 My two earlier Harleys had 80 cubic inches.\u00a0 My current motorcycle has 250 cubic centimeters, which is hair over 15 cubic inches, and that has taken me all over the US, up and down Baja a half-dozen times, across China, around the Andes in Colombia, and well, you get the idea.\u00a0 But you never know.\u00a0 There might be a time when another 100 cubic inches would come in handy.<\/p>\n

Anyway, take a look at the dealer setup fee on that sticker above.\u00a0 Yikes again!\u00a0 And how about that CARB fee? \u00a0 Folks, I’ve been in the business, and I’ve spent a lot of time seeing bikes through the CARB process at their test facilities in El Monte, California.\u00a0 I know the folks who run the place.\u00a0 There is no such thing as a CARB fee. \u00a0 At least that the CARB people know about.<\/p>\n

Moving on, I noticed the Harley Street model.\u00a0 Gresh told me he’d never seen one, and I thought I’d snap a photo of it for him.\u00a0 It’s not a bad looking bike.\u00a0 Nah, scratch that:\u00a0 It’s a great looking bike…<\/p>\n

The Harley Street. 500cc. It looked and felt good to me. Maybe I can talk these guys into a test ride.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I like the look and feel of the Street.\u00a0 I don’t know how it rides.\u00a0 The price of the bike is reasonable, too, other than the aforementioned CARB and dealer setup fees…<\/p>\n

This is more like it for a guy like me. But there’s no way I’m paying a fictitious CARB fee or a thousand bucks for setup.\u00a0 The freight cost is close to reality, I think, and I’m okay with that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My guess is Harley is eager to deal on these little bikes.\u00a0 They should just give me one.\u00a0 I’d like to ride the Mumbai Monster. \u00a0 I’d ride it all over and publicize the hell out of it.\u00a0 It would give me license to start wearing Harley T-shirts again, too.<\/p>\n

I joked with the sales guy about the prices, and he told me to take a look at the CVO (as in “Custom Vehicle Operations”) number on the bike behind me.\u00a0 Wowzers!<\/p>\n

Yowzers,wowzers, and more!\u00a0 $45K!\u00a0 Hey, maybe they’d throw in a free T-shirt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

$45,522!\u00a0 Good Lord!<\/p>\n

But, the bike was beautiful…<\/p>\n

A CVO Harley. It was magnificent, and magnificently priced.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The CVO Harley has a 117 cubic inch engine. You know, for those times when 114 cubic inches just won’t do.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So there you have it. \u00a0 A burnt-out light bulb led to a Harley dealer visit and the photos you see above.\u00a0 No, I didn’t buy anything.\u00a0 Not even a T-shirt.\u00a0 But I had fun looking.\u00a0 It was a good way to wrap up 2018.<\/p>\n

Happy New Year, folks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m celebrating the start of 2019 the right way, with a trip to the rifle range to test a few new loads for accuracy, but during a break in my reloading session yesterday (at the tail end of 2018), I let chaos theory take over.\u00a0 That’s the theory that says you often get unpredictable outcomes … Continue reading “Happy New Year!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,452,103],"tags":[472,108,473,474],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amazon","category-harley","category-harley-davidson","tag-cvo-harley","tag-harley","tag-harley-street","tag-made-in-india"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1977"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1994,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions\/1994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}