06 Far East Ride - Day 9 - MA/RI HOG RALLY

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This is the 9th part of a series about my trip on my 2005 883 Low Harley Sportster ‘Effie’ from Kansas City to Novia Scotia and back. This was part of my vacation from 4 to 20 AUG 2006

SAT 12AUG06

Saturday was one of the better days in my life. You ever had one of those days where it starts out good and just keeps getting better and better? So I had stayed up late Friday night plotting the points of interest in my GPS. I had had trouble following the route instructions that were in the program guide for the dealers loop, so I wanted to make sure I saw Waldens Pond (I had read the book for a college ethics class) and the North Bridge along with finding Kellys HD for the free lunch and American HD that was also rather close in the area.

So Saturday morning I was not in a hurry to get up. By the time I woke up, uploaded the GPS, visited the vendors to check on the etchers pricing and ACE polish guys stuff it was close to 11AM when I am ready to pull out and start the day of riding. But low and behold, they are starting the field events…. And it’s the slow ride. I am usually pretty good at this so I scoot over there to check out how to sign up. As I am talking to the staff guy, a motorcycle policeman comes over to check out my police bags. It is unusual to see them mounted on a sportster. We have a fun conversation about how great these bags are in general. He makes some comments about the bags that come on the HD dressers that was not flattering and I think the staff guy was offended, but he didn’t say anything.

I observe that they are just about to finish up the slow ride so I tail onto the end of the line. I messed it up though and touched within the first 15 feet. Got too greedy for slow. Hey though if you are going to mess up its best to do it in front of a bunch of people that don’t know you. I left for Waldens Pond.

What impressed me most during this weekend as I am riding around MA is that I am not seeing a lot of houses from the roads. I know it is heavily populated, but as you ride the highways you don't see a lot of houses. It like riding on those nice shaded highways in southern MO, but I know in southern MO its farm land or national forest. The route is great just as the one yesterday had been. I get there and see the pond and see the cabin, but don’t want to pay $5 to park for the 15 minutes that it would take me to get a better look. So Waldens Pond was a fast stop.

I tried following the instructions to the North Bridge, but I either missed the turn or it wasn’t labled so I created a route on the GPS and was there in no time. The North Bridge is in the Minuteman National Park. This place is where the 'shot heard round the world’ was fired. It was the first shot fired from an organized colonial militia aimed at the British. The Revolutionary War started here. 400 Minutemen assaulted the bridge that 98 British soldiers held. This is one of those places that seem to have a soul of its own. It was a moving experience.

At this time its getting late and the free lunch is going to end in 45 minutes, so I plot the route to Kellys HD. They are serving hamburgers and hotdogs. Big thick burgers, it was good. I went in and checked out the dealership. They had a lot of bikes and a lot of sportys. I found a 1200 Low (what would have been my next one) and was disappointed to find out that it has the little chrome gauge like the customs, but is over the bars instead of under it. I had not realized it didn’t have the plain gauge, I bet the tach kit is expensive. I like the plain simple stuff because it makes it so much easier to modify the way you want it. I had thought about the 1200 Low because it still has the mid controls and the big tank. Whatever sporty I get next will end up with a big tank again.

After leaving Kellys within a couple blocks I pulled into a church lot to fix my loose left mirror. It had been bothering me all morning, but only thought about it when I was riding, not when I was stopped. So while I was there I checked the oil and put the remainder of a qt in it. I started the trip with a new qt and a partial. After 3200 miles I was just finishing the partial. So I would need to pick up a qt at American HD. On one trip I ran out and could not get to a dealer to pick some up for a couple days, I didn’t need it, but I worried for 3 days that I would. I decided it was just easier to make sure I always had the next qt in the bag then it was to worry about whether I would run out.

I mentioned earlier that I had visited the etcher that was at the rally. Well, Adam the service manager at Central HD South refers to my bike as the Sportster Ultra Classic. I had been wanting to incorporate that on the bike somewhere and when I saw the etcher I thought a derby cover with “Cindy’s Ultra Classic” or ‘Ultra Classic Sportster” would be a fun thing to do. So after getting the price range from the etcher, I was in search of another derby cover to get etched. Mine is scratched marked up from being kicked and from the first oil change, when Roger and I discovered what a piece of shit the original torx screws were as 3 were stripped out in no time, and yes we had used the correct size driver. I replaced them with cap head allens the next day. But if I was going to get a cover etched, I wanted to start with a blank in good condition. Kellys didn’t have one so I was in American HD part department looking in the catalog for a part number when the Parts guy asks the 2 guys standing behind me if they had the sportster parked out front. Indignately they had to immediately correct him that they drove something else. I forget what they were, but it was 3 or 4 initials and translated into ‘boat anchor’. The Sportster is the smallest Harley they make, it has a reputation of being a 'girls bike'. It doesn't offend me, I am a girl, but some guys get bent out of shape if they are associated with the sportster. Its a quick, nimble and has more heart than the other Harleys but thats just my opinion. I looked at part guy and said I have a sportster out there, is there a problem? He looked at me and said no, I mean the full dresser sporty. No one would ever associate me with my bike, seriously unless you already knew me or you saw me on the bike. In a line up I would be the last one picked and then only because there were no more choices. People are usually as surprised that I ride that sporty as they are that I am a certified advanced SCUBA diver. So I paused, because I had not ever thought of it as a full dresser, it doesn’t have fairing. I told him that I had the blue and silver sporty in the parking lot. He came right over and started asking questions about it. I mentioned I was looking for a derby cover and the parts crew started looking for a polished cover for me. He was concerned that the chrome might flake if I got a chrome one etched. Using a polished cover was more appealing since I don’t like chrome anyway. It was a strike out on the cover but then he asked if I would go outside and show him the bike, so out we went. Some of the other dealership guys come out too. They were as interested in all the attachments and customization I had done, but when they found out it had over 52,000 miles on it with only fork springs and a battery replacement they were amazed. Tom said that they had not known of anyone putting those kind of miles on one of the new sporties yet. He loved it that someone had modified the bike to make it a long distance trip bike, something he had not seen before. They wanted me to point out every modification that I had made. They are looking all over the bike searching for signs of any hard wear. One service tech noticed that my sprocket was starting to show ‘pebbling’ which will start to wear on the belt. The service guy explained to me that pebbling is when the smooth coating on the sprocket is worn off, then the sprocket becomes rough which is abrasive to the belt. So this is something I will start to monitor. Tom gives me his card, tells me to contact him whenever I need something and he will give me a discount (undisclosed here) and ship the stuff to me UPS. I just need to remind him that I had that sporty. Anyway other than the cop, this was the first person to speak to me before I spoke to them since I had been in MA. I left the dealership on cloud nine.



I returned to the rally site, more precisely to the etcher. We discussed my failure to secure another derby cover and made plans to do it by mail at a later date. As I was getting ready to move the bike to the other side of the hotel for the night, a group of 5 sporties ride in and park, so I scoot over to the group. I had been looking for XL-List timing covers and had not seen any this whole trip. They are getting their helmets off as I pull up and I make some smart ax comment like ‘wow, a whole herd of sporties, I had to come and be among them’. Four of the bikes were from one of the local HOG chapters, the fifth rider Steve was from PA and had been invited into the group since he didn’t know anyone else at the rally. We discussed the bikes and different modifications each of us had made to our rides. They were impressed with Effie and the amount of miles she had carried me. None had heard of Sportster.org or the XL-List so I encouraged them to check it out. Steve had a 2001 sporty with 57000 on it. He had a horn like I would associate with a roadster car, the kind that hung off the side of the car. It was really neat looking and sounded great. We talked for a half hour or so then split up as they were getting ready to go eat dinner and I needed to get a package ready for shipping. I left that group encounter still on cloud nine.

Yesterday remember I had begged a pizza box from Bravo Pizza so I could ship this sign I had bought and some dirty cloths home. The closing ceremonies was at 7:30 so I did another load of laundry to wash my shorts and blue jeans (again) then loaded as much as possible folded, rolled and shoved in that pizza box, taped it up, put the preprinted FED-EX label on it and took it to the front desk. The front desk clerk thought my choice of shipping box was pretty humorous. The girls at work will get a kick out of it too.

I am fortunate when I travel, I use my company's FED-EX account to send any package back to my company (home), the really neat thing is... because its a company account, I call 1-800-GO-FEDEX and give them the address to pick it up at. So I stop at a motel, ask them for a box, pack it, slap on a label, make a phone call and in a jiffy I have a bunch of free space in my saddlebags. All I have to do is carry some packing tape and some preprinted labels.

At closing ceremonies I meet up with Steve. I was surprised when I got a plaque for furthest traveled to the rally. On the way back to the room a stop at the front desk to collect the pizza package. One of the dirty shirts is removed and the plaque is wrapped up in the remaining shirts the package is resealed and returned to the front desk for FED-EX pick-up that had already been arranged. The clerk offers to get me a normal box, but I like this pizza box and my sign won’t fit in a regular box so I decline the offer. The shipping receiver at work will bet a chuckle when she gets the pizza box.

I am up until 3 AM working on the routes that need to be tweaked a little because of my decision to stay a day longer at the rally. I also checked out my dragon photos online. Zeefoto had theirs posted but Killboy still hasn’t posted that day yet. Having this laptop is a curse I think. When I have to long hand my daily logs, they are shorter and don’t take near as long to do.

The First Journal in this Series is: 06 Far East Ride - Day 1 - MO
The Route Map for the trip is located in the last Journal: 06 Far East Ride - Day 17 - HOME

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Photos

Walden Pond
I thought about 'taking the path less traveled' as I saw the keep off the grass sign that borderd the sidwalk.

MA Shady Lane
The routes laid out in the HOG Rally program were great, most of them were shady lanes such as this one.

An Example of Effie's Modifications
So this is what Effie usually looks like when I am on the road, the map board might be replaced with the tank bag occasionally. GPS, Sirius Radio, time & temperature dials, cup holder, pelican box to hold my little things, until it rains then the camera goes in it.