[Retired Guy]

Sounds like that could be a great weekend!

 

[Retired Guy]

Not doing anything with the bike today. This morning, about 5 AM, I could see the lightening way off towards the south. Now, 6:20 AM, just starting to get daylight and the thunder is getting louder than the cartoons on TV.

 

[hogcowboy]

That was mostly a lightning show here. We got very little rain but lots of wind. Hope points north and east don’t get the bad stuff.

 

[Offcenter]

You going from oil to natural gas? Your wallet should like that

No Critter, I'm going from propane to natural gas.
I don't know how it is where you are, but in Jersey, propane is not regulated at all.
They can charge whatever they want....and they do! And if you try to save money by
using less propane, they charge you more. I've had a couple of classic battles with the
propane companies over the years because of that. The worst was when I found out that
they were charging me almost TWICE as much per gallon as they were charging my
next door neighbor! Same gas from the same truck, almost twice as much because
I tried to save money by using as little as possible.
I got some nasty woman on the phone who tried to blow me off. So I told her, "My brother
is an attorney. I want to hear you explain in court why you are charging me twice as much
for the same gas from the same truck." She slammed the phone down and I never heard
from them again. Switched to a different propane company. But they all try to pull the
same s**t.
Now I have natural gas which will be less than half the price of propane.

 

[Porky]

Rain, rain go away!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a big storm here with multiple 'Event' warnings so no riding for me.
Sam 🤔

 

[mike721]

You going from oil to natural gas? Your wallet should like that

Best thing I ever did was move someplace that had gas, I HATED oil heat. Dirty, smelly, expensive, maintenance intensive, logistically a mess ( has to be ordered and delivered) , and did I mention I didn't like it?
Gas is 100% better.

 

[mike721]

No Critter, I'm going from propane to natural gas.
I don't know how it is where you are, but in Jersey, propane is not regulated at all.
They can charge whatever they want....and they do! And if you try to save money by
using less propane, they charge you more. I've had a couple of classic battles with the
propane companies over the years because of that. The worst was when I found out that
they were charging me almost TWICE as much per gallon as they were charging my
next door neighbor! Same gas from the same truck, almost twice as much because
I tried to save money by using as little as possible.
I got some nasty woman on the phone who tried to blow me off. So I told her, "My brother
is an attorney. I want to hear you explain in court why you are charging me twice as much
for the same gas from the same truck." She slammed the phone down and I never heard
from them again. Switched to a different propane company. But they all try to pull the
same s**t.
Now I have natural gas which will be less than half the price of propane.

Propane is still better than oil, but natural gas is better than both!

 

[mike721]

Had a good weekend, 3 days off for a change!
I spent all day Friday working on my 08 Vision, good thing I did! I was trying to silence a squeak in the rear suspension, I figured something needed a bit of grease.. well turns out I had a broken spherical bearing in the suspension link, it was grinding steel on steel making the noise. This had to get fixed!
This is where it gets interesting... I looked up the part, it's still available but only as an assembly, around $700. No way I'm paying that.. OK, found a couple of used ones on eBay for about $60, OK, not bad, but I wonder...why change a whole assy when all that's wrong is a bearing?
I pressed the old bearing out of the rod assembly, got out my micrometer and did some measurements and found an identical bearing for $11, pressed it in using a deep socket as a pressing tool and we were back in business. Same exact cheap Chinese made spherical bearing that came out, that one lasted 133K miles so i think I'll be good for a while.
Nice $ saving there!

While I was at it I disassembled the other 3 points of the linkage and the pivot and inspected them all and greased them, and put it all back together. While I had it apart I replaced the rear brake pads with some nice new EBCs to match the fronts that I put in 10K ago and took it out for a test ride.

 

[mike721]

Spent Saturday and Sunday riding, on Saturday we rode with friends about 60 miles for lunch, I took my blue 16 Vision.
Sunday was fun, I led a group ride of 10 on a 130 mile ride in the Poconos, over a big dam,stopped for a nice lunch at a favorite restaurant, The Powerhouse, then back home on a different route, all twisty side roads, with an ice cream stop on the way home of course.
I took my 08 Vision and what made it even more fun was I tried something different, for the first time I took the tour pack off, losing 60+ pounds off the top of the bike, it was MUCH more nimble and maneuverable.. I might leave it this way! It sure looks different though, the lines of the bike are totally changed without that trunk! It's not that simple to remove the trunk from a Vision, takes 2 people and about 15 minutes, but it sure makes a difference!

 

[RogerC60]

I spent all day Friday working on my 08 Vision, good thing I did! I was trying to silence a squeak in the rear suspension, I figured something needed a bit of grease.. well turns out I had a broken spherical bearing in the suspension link, it was grinding steel on steel making the noise. This had to get fixed!

There's something not right with the world when motorcycles as pretty as that one have mechanical stuff go wrong. That's too nice a bike to have anything go wrong with it!

 

[RogerC60]

I took my 08 Vision and what made it even more fun was I tried something different, for the first time I took the tour pack off, losing 60+ pounds off the top of the bike, it was MUCH more nimble and maneuverable.. I might leave it this way! It sure looks different though, the lines of the bike are totally changed without that trunk! It's not that simple to remove the trunk from a Vision, takes 2 people and about 15 minutes, but it sure makes a difference!
View attachment 74026 View attachment 74027 View attachment 74028

I personally think any motorcycle looks better without that top case. If you've noticed in the Motorcycle Picture Challenge thread, most pics of my bike are without the case.

 

[mike721]

I personally think any motorcycle looks better without that top case. If you've noticed in the Motorcycle Picture Challenge thread, most pics of my bike are without the case.

I didn't think I would like it without it but I do. Now I have to see if I can live with it, the 08 is my daily commute ride, I can fit my laptop bag in the side case though it's tight, and my coat as well, but I'll have to either bring my helmet into work or lock it to the bike, I'm spoiled by the trunk.
I need to find someplace to put the trunk too, maybe hang it on the garage wall, it's a really big trunk and right now it's sitting on a blanket on the floor of the garage, and it's really in the way.

 

[mike721]

There's something not right with the world when motorcycles as pretty as that one have mechanical stuff go wrong. That's too nice a bike to have anything go wrong with it!

Reliability has been great but a few parts are starting to show their age, I'm starting to be more careful about inspections.
I think the 08 does still look pretty good for 14 years and 133k hard miles though. I should add that I also washed 6 months of road salt and crud off the poor thing too, it was filthy after riding all winter, a quick wash and wipe and it shined right up.
I hope her younger sister treats me as well, she's still a baby, a 2016 I bought new in 2018, I've only put 60k miles on so far

 

[hogcowboy]

Rain, rain go away!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a big storm here with multiple 'Event' warnings so no riding for me.
Sam 🤔

And more coming Sam. Got a little over an inch last night here. But lots of lightning.

 

[mike721]

And more coming Sam. Got a little over an inch last night here. But lots of lightning.

Uh oh, any weather you guys get is probably headed my way next...

 

[hogcowboy]

Uh oh, any weather you guys get is probably headed my way next...

Yep. And when it went through Oklahoma the nasty stuff was beginning to happen. Fingers and toes crossed hoping no one gets harmed.

 

[mike721]

Yep. And when it went through Oklahoma the nasty stuff was beginning to happen. Fingers and toes crossed hoping no one gets harmed.

Yeah, we had a nasty one yesterday around 0530 , rain, hail, crazy wind shear, and lighting bolts like crazy for 2 hours, shut the airport down till it blew through. No tornados this time but we have even been having those recently, and they are pretty rare here.
This year has been rough for storms.

 

[pdcomm]

We're in northern Indiana . Looks like fairly mild rain for a few hours .
Maybe you guys SW of here needed a bit of hard weather , so you can better appreciate the easy breezy stuff .

I did hear that some of Kansas got hit pretty bad ... 150+MPH winds and lots of destruction .
I've only been that fast on the ground once . When it goes quit , you best have a real good grip .

 

[Critter]

Spent Saturday and Sunday riding, on Saturday we rode with friends about 60 miles for lunch, I took my blue 16 Vision.
Sunday was fun, I led a group ride of 10 on a 130 mile ride in the Poconos, over a big dam,stopped for a nice lunch at a favorite restaurant, The Powerhouse, then back home on a different route, all twisty side roads, with an ice cream stop on the way home of course.
I took my 08 Vision and what made it even more fun was I tried something different, for the first time I took the tour pack off, losing 60+ pounds off the top of the bike, it was MUCH more nimble and maneuverable.. I might leave it this way! It sure looks different though, the lines of the bike are totally changed without that trunk! It's not that simple to remove the trunk from a Vision, takes 2 people and about 15 minutes, but it sure makes a difference!
View attachment 74026 View attachment 74027 View attachment 74028

I don't know Mike, it looks like if you smack the throttle you could find yourself on the ground watching the bike run away.

 

[Retired Guy]

Spring, Summer, plain old good weather, whatever you want to call it, got here today. Spent most of the day cleaning up outside and doing yardwork. (And once in a while seeing or hearing motorcycles on the road at the end of the drive.)

Was tired and dirty but wanted to ride, at least a little bit. The wife's Sportster hasn't been rode in a while, so after adjusting the rear tire air pressure with one of my 3 genuine Made in USA tire pressure gauges, I rode down to the Baptist Church parking lot. Did some tight circles and figure 8's, not going to say more about that now.

Then I went riding on these paved back roads. Didn't go very far, didn't go very fast, but I felt so much better. So it wasn't so much about what I did to the bike today, it was what the bike did for me.