Advertisement
Published: September 14th 2009
Dad and Replica
This is my favorite because the main and tail are flowing and the background is vibrant.I had a busy weekend. Friday I spent a couple hours at the Open House at the Kansas City Harley Factory. Spent some time in Garnett saddling horses for my Dad and a day here in KC fiddling with Effie.
Melany and Willie asked if I wanted to ride out to the open house with them in the morning. Willie brought breakfast, what a sweetheart. I rode the new XR1200 they had in the demo rides. Wow what a fun ride. I am a little short in the inseam though. I could not engage or disengage the kickstand. The controls are in the crotch rocket position that was very different. I was stuck behind a 'sunday ride in the park' bagger demo most of the way around the route. The route was 10 miles and all but a small part of 4 lane was a not passing road. I was going to ride more, but they didn't have a very large fleet there and about everything but the boat anchors were gone. There was a line for the XR, so I had to wait to ride it. Nothing else was worth the wait. It was interesting to note that the
The KCMO Harley Factory Open House
I left the camera in the bike, so this is the only pic I took. Do you believe it. I should have had someone take a picture of me tip toeing the XR1200. sportster and dyna lines were gone first. All the v-rods were forward controls, I thought maybe they would modify one for the demo fleet. I just can't reach the forward controls on a vrod.
The motorcycle ride to Garnett is not ever boring the views are great as a couple times you are high enough to see for miles. But the terrain changes as you go down, most of it is 4 lane divided hwy then the last 23 miles is single lane, but it’s the prettiest. I love riding it on the bike.
It was a double whammy for the horse ride this weekend as dad rode both Replica and Harriet. They are both such kind horses. Although Harriet likes to walk on my feet, she is very considerate usually. Rep the mom of both the other two horses (Harriet and Poco) was very helpful when getting her ready. I think if she had fingers she would have put the bridle on all by herself. Its not that she was eager for a ride, she is just overly considerate. She knew just how and when to aim her nose in it and when to duck her head
for me to get it over her ears. She had not been ridden in over a year, but was just as gentle and sweet as could be. When unloading at one time she stopped and looked at me to wait until I had my arms clear before she started moving back. Watching the horses back out a trailer always has that frantic moment when their back feet make the big step down and they catch their balance and hurry to get their front feet out. I am very lucky that both Rep and Harriet will load themselves and unload themselves, you just have to give them a moment to think it over. But if I don’t hurry them and just let them do it at their pace it all goes very easy. Poor Rep does get nervous in the trailer. When she came out she was just soaked, dripping sweat by the cup full. Dad said she has always done that, ‘she gets nerrrrrrvous in the trailer’ he chuckles. Harriet is getting smart on this riding thing, she is getting harder to catch.
Replica did really good on her ride, except when the pavement changed colors. Dad had been
Dad and Replica
Moms favorite picture, because Rep looks smart. riding her in the grass next to the road, but he had to go over the bridge to continue. While on the bridge the pavement changed colors and she wasn’t liking it. Harriet has a fear of guard rails. Its kind of humorous really. She won’t take her eyes off them as I walked her across the bridge. Anxious that they would jump out and get her no doubt. Big Brave Horse I called her as I made fun of her as we walked.
I can’t get over how much these horses respect or care for my Dad. He has troubles both getting on and getting off the horses. It takes him, me and mom working at it to get him on or off. He feels self conscious about it but I am not sure it wouldn’t take a couple extra people helping to get me on or off too. And both Harriet and Rep will stand perfectly still and wait for him. He has a set of plastic steps that he uses to get up to the height of the saddle, as he can not pull himself up using the stirrup. After he dismounts he still has to
Dad and Harriet
Once Harriet saw me pulling the trailer she was done, it was time to go home and she knew it. make it down the steps and he leans heavily on the horses as he does that, but they stand there like a rock. Any shifting of their weight on their feet, a step forward or a side step would likely send Dad to the ground, I think they know that. They stand there like a rock for the couple minutes it takes to get him on and off. The more I work with these horses the more I have come to respect them. They are very kind hearted. At least Rep and Harriet are, Poco will bite or kick you in an instant. What a brat.
We did end the last ride differently. Usually as soon as Dad get off the horse I peel the tack off of her and we load her up and head straight back to the barn. Today I asked Mom if we couldn't just sit and relax after the ride. Give Dad a chance to catch his breath and the horse a chance to settle down and relax too. It worked out really well. We had some grain and water for Harriet and I brushed her with a brush I dunked in a bucket
Harriet, bless her heart.
After the ride I combed her and cooled her off with some water. She was watching the fishermen, intently watching not just looking. of water.
Saturday Darrel called to see if I wanted to put my lowering kit on. He knew I wanted to get it on before I left to visit my son on Tuesday. We made plans to meet up on Sunday and put it on. I told him we would need to build a bike lift to use before we could install the kit. The rear wheel has to be off the ground.
Sunday was eventful also as I made a morning run to Home Depot to get parts to make a bike lift. I thought about taking the Jeep, but then decided that wouldn’t be as much fun as figuring out how to get the wood and pipe home on the bike so I took Effie. Darrel came with me. I needed 2 3’ pieces of 2x6 and one 2’ piece of 2x4 along with a 4’ piece of iron pipe, then a hand full of hardware. I bought 2 boards and just had HD cut them to length. The total bill was $32. Then came the puzzle of strapping it on the bike. I do my grocery shopping using Effie. It really works well as I
Taking a break after the ride.
I wanted to just take some time and relax after the ride. can not go crazy buying stuff but have found ways to pack, strap and hang an amazing amount of food on the bike. I always enjoy figuring out how I am going to get it all on.
After packing the lift materials we enjoyed a really good polish sausage from the vendor there. He offered regular buns or poppy seed buns. Man, what a difference the poppy seed bun was. At the conclusion of lunch it was off to my house and we assembled the lift before I headed to the Shawnee American Legion for their celebration of come kind.
The 40/8 had their train there for rides. Ralph had asked me to show up and learn how to drive the train, there are only 2 members that know how and those 2 are eager to share that responsibility with others. So I was there at 1PM and rode with Ralph and Rick as they pointed out the problems with driving it. There were problems with the brakes and the front wheels on the trailer it pulls. I had to get out several times after a corner and kick the front tire so it would align back
Loaded with the bike Lift parts.
This is how she looked when I pulled in at home. into right position otherwise it made a really loud squeal. We made 4 trips and carried 74 people total on a ½ mile or so route through the neighborhood. I wish I would have taken a couple shots of it loaded with people. We had to stop when the brakes wouldn’t hold fluid. We had put one container of brake fluid in it which seemed to only make the leak more evident. After the 4th trip the train was parked and we were done. The brakes were just too bad. I didn’t get to drive but was kind of relieved since it took brute force on the brake pedal to get it to stop. It does have 3 separate sets of horns and a bell, which make it really fun to be in the front cab of it.
It was after 3PM when I called Darrel to resume our original quest which was to install a lowering kit on Effie. He was over in no time and we started on the project. I was concerned about the bike falling over when it was on the lift. The standard pattern for the lift is too short to work with Effie.
Her saddlebags are so wide that the lift has to hang too far off the left side to allow it to hang out on the right side. I was supposed to put eye bolts on the lift and strap the bike to the it, so it would not tip. But instead I put the eye bolts in the garage door frame and used the chain from my hammock to run across the two points. The chain is also run under the handlebars, when the bike was lifted it pulled it back and made the chain tight. I grabbed and pulled on the bike and it was not going to go sideways. The wheel chock was connected to the front wheel so it would stay up when taken off the lift.
I needed to remove my saddlebags to get to the lower rear shock mounts. This is what I was doing when Darrel showed up. He was there when I used the lift and lifted the bike. What a cool thing. I told him that putting the kit on was going to be quick it was all the prep of making the lift and getting the saddlebags on and off
Ralph and Rick
The hood up on the Train Engine (its actually a Oldsmobile). This is pretty normal. Ralph said they usually pray for it to just make it through an event. Today this is the firsttime they put brake fluid in. that was going to take the time.
After getting them on and putting the bags back on we took a little ride around the block. Now to make the list of things to do for tomorrow.
God Bless our troops who make the sacrifies so we can enjoy our weekends. I Will Never Forget.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.113s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0904s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sharing the Journey
Alec & Cindy Sharp
New bike?
Are we going to be getting a new HD?