Custom Mods...

It’s been awhile since my last post, that’s partly because it just got too hot to ride for awhile, but mostly because my bike was in the shop. We had to take them in for the 500 mile service, which was reasonably fast. But, I had been noticing that the more and more time I spent on the bike, the more and more sore my back was becoming because I had to lean forward slightly to reach the handle bars. I asked what could be done about that and the first suggestion was just to rotate the bars (fast and cheap!). I tried that for a week and it was super scary! The hoses and cables were too short in that configuration and when the handle bars were turned all the way to the right, the engine revved, when they were turned all the way to the left, the clutch wouldn’t engage. In fact, I sometimes I had trouble engaging the clutch on the street. I was so scared that I didn’t even want to ride it like that!

The next solution was “risers”. These are fairly common, but because our bikes are so new, most manufacturers didn’t know how they would work yet – would the hoses be ok? Etc. So, the good people at Freewheelin’ spent a lot of time on the phone figuring this out for me. They finally found some chrome risers. This was a bit iffy as the original ones were black and we weren’t sure how the chrome would look. But, I knew I wanted to be comfortable and safe above all else, so we went with it.

Let me just tell you, they look great!!! DH is totally jealous now! AND, the best part is that I can bend my arms a little and stretch my back out when I’m riding. I’m really happy with this modification!

In fact, I was so happy about it AND the fact that the weather has finally cooled off, that I spent ALL day Saturday on the bike!

Early that morning, it was about 55 degrees out and I knew I was going to ride the bike to the barn. I didn’t have much of a choice as DH had the car for golf and my farrier was going to be there at 9am. I suited up and decided to put the liner in my summer jacket. I thought that if I wore my hoodie under the lined jacket that I would be hot, so I shoved the hoodie in my backpack and headed out. About half way to the barn, my teeth started chattering and I sure wished I had worn that hoodie! Lesson learned: when the wind blows on you at 45-50mph, it feels a lot colder than it actually is!!! On the way home I wore the hoodie…

After DH got home, he wanted to take the bikes to get his hair cut. As we were suiting up, I saw him put on a long-sleeved t-shirt and just grab the outer mesh shell of his jacket. I said, “Umm… you’re gonna need the liner.” He argued about it, being from up north and all, but I finally harassed him to putting it in. When we got to our destination he looks at me and says, “You’re the best wife ever! You were right about the liner!” So we rode to lunch, then to get his hair cut, then to Freewheelin’ to find out about two-way communicators for our helmets (that’s a topic for another time).

We spent the whole day on the bikes and had a great time. I’m looking forward to more of this weather and putting more miles under those tires… though it may be time to start looking into a winter jacket!!!