What Have You Being Doing With Your Non-triumph Today?

Thanks for the photos, @Mrs Visor. Those Boss Hoss bikes are something else. Love the paint on this one, though! But, man, that radiator......looks like the box fan we used to have running in our house years ago!

 

Hmm, it's always a bummer when there's something with our bikes that just needs to be lived with, @Mrs Visor. But, like bikes, I'm sure there are things about me that my hubby says the same thing--that just needs to be lived with.

 

Great photos and your breakfast looks delicious, @Mrs Visor!

 

Well the baffle all worked out well with a definite reduction in noise and no flat spots.
On the back of the above results, I decided to try for a bit more quieter and so added a 6mm bore washer onto the 10mm original.
This was again successful and I'm now happy to run with it as it is.
Full bore has a lovely " crack or bark" about it, but also trundling past Pc Plod is now more manageable.

 

Its time for a Spring clean in the garage, so the two wheeled occupants have been trundled out whilst I get to grips with the sweeping brush.

 

Yesterday jolly

 

Had the Fireblade out today as the weathers supposed to be turning tonight. Stopped at Lymm Dam for a quick photo

 

That is certainly a good - looking bike!!

 

Today Helmut and I went for a ride (Multistrada and Hyperstrada) with some of our local branch of the Ducati Owners Club from HR4K in Hereford to the re opening of Ducati Worcester and then a stop in at Dom's Bike Stop on the way back. I am not one for group rides with unknown people, however I am very pleased we went as everyone was lovely and it was a really nice day out .

 

Not what I was doing with my non-Triumph today, but a few weekends back I rode my 2023 Harley Low Rider ST over to our local dealership, Saguaro H-D, for "Demo Days". There's a new GM there and he's trying to get popular events such as Demo Days back on the calendar. I LOVE to test ride motorcycles of all types so was excited to ride some of the 2025's on the truck.

Demo rides were scheduled for a Friday and Saturday. Friday's weather wasn't very pleasant but I'm off work on Fridays and figured I had a better chance of my choice of bikes on a weekday--and a rainy one at that--versus Saturday. I was able to ride two bikes Friday afternoon so decided to go back again the next morning. All the photos (including my Friday test ride bikes) were taken on Saturday which was a beautiful sunny day.



Here's Friday's nasty weather. Well, I did get a good feel for how the full-fairing Road Glide does in rainy, windy conditions! (Very well, I must say).



The Road Glide that I test rode. I had a 2017 Road Glide and Steve currently rides a 2021 Road Glide. It's the most protective fairing that Harley makes.

ROAD GLIDE


The other bike I rode on Friday was this Heritage Classic Softail. When the day comes that I need to ride a lighter weight touring bike than my Street Glide, this is probably what I'll get. I've found this model to be very easy to ride. Neutral ergonomics, smooth with good handling, not particularly exciting but no surprises either.

HERITAGE CLASSIC


I usually go to yoga at 8:30am on Saturdays but when the alternate option is testing riding motorcycles, I'll take the bikes every time. I arrived just as Peter, the H-D driver and test ride guy, was setting up. He was great and we got to chat a bit throughout the day. I was there for awhile. I wound up test riding six more bikes.

The first two bikes I test rode have a combined MSRP of--get this--$91,000! Yowza! Well, even if I can't afford 'em I can test ride 'em! I'm really glad I didn't drop one of these babies. BTW, both the CVO models have 121 ci engines which is just shy of 2,000 cc's, coming in at 1,977cc's.

This first bike is the bike model I currently ride (mine's a 2024) but it's much less expensive as it's not a CVO which stands for Custom Vehicle Operations. It's Harley's "premium" offering. It felt a bit odd to ride this bike because it was "like mine" but really not thanks to the mods I've done (e.g., different handlebars, seat).

CVO STREET GLIDE


This second bike is similar to the Road Glide I rode yesterday but costs about $18K MORE! Crazy

CVO ROAD GLIDE ST


I've always like Harleys' "Road King" model. I had a 2014 CVO Road King--back when the CVO designation didn't mean Cash Very Over-the-Top. Steve has made little noises about buying this model at some point if he still wants a touring bike but not a big fairing. This is the only bike in the touring and cruiser families that Harley hasn't packed their 117 ci engine into--it still has the 114ci engine. Maybe they had leftovers at the factory?

ROAD KING SPECIAL


I had a 2021 Fat Boy which was a super cool bike but turned out not to quite be me. I subsequently sold it to a good friend and she loves it. So I still get to see it when she and I ride together. My current Low Rider ST is what I got instead. It's is my third Low Rider so I clearly need to stick with those. I thought it would be fun to ride a Fat Boy again so this was the 3rd test ride of the day. While it was fun to ride, it confirmed that my Low Rider ST was the right choice. There's no getting that big fat back tire around turns in a big hurry! That said, it is a totally cool and iconic Harley model. And Steve loves his 2001 Fat Boy sitting in our garage next to his much newer Road Glide.

FAT BOY


Next up I thought I'd see how the 2025 Low Rider ST feels compared to my 2023. Harley designates the 117 engine in the 2025 version as HO -- High Output. Even though the test ride was a diverse 12 mile loop including some freeway miles, I have to say I couldn't tell the difference. Other differences include a different gauge setup which is set a bit higher and larger than mine (which I liked) and a suite of electronic safety features as well as tire pressure monitoring and hill hold. I really do like that and have it on my current Street Glide. Those features were also on my previous Street Glide. Guess I just missed them on my cruiser by a couple of model years.

LOW RIDER ST


The last bike of the day for me was the smallest bike in Harleys cruiser family, the Street Bob. My first motorcycle was a 2010 Street Bob and they are quite a bit different 15 years later. Smaller and lighter with a much bigger and more powerful engine. This bike was the "dark horse" of my test riding and I sort of selected it on a whim. It was SOOOO fun! Nimble, light, and fast. If the test rides weren't about done for the day, I'd have signed up to ride this one again.

There you have it, the eight bikes I test rode in 24 hours. None of them made me envious or wanting to trade anything I currently have. But test rides always provide food for thought. Plus it's really fun to ride someone else's bikes! But not my friend's bikes--that makes me too nervous.

STREET BOB

 

Always a relief!!! Sometimes it's nice to confirm that you have what is right for you and it's fun to test ride and experience bikes you'd perhaps not otherwise ride. That said, I thought test riding the new Fireblade last year worth about £28000 ($37000) was an expensive bike to drop....but $91000 worth in two bikes is a whole other level .

It looks and sounds as if you had a lot of fun, are the fairings on the Road Glide really enormous compared to other models, or is it just the colour of that one making it look that way?

 

Well, $37000 is certainly nothing to sneeze at, @Mrs Visor! None of my purchases have ever come close to that--and probably won't unless I win the lottery (unlikely since I don't play it).

Yes, I had tons of fun! You're right that the red CVO Road Glide ST looks enormous! It's really not any bigger than the CVO Street Glide that I rode before it. Or than Steve's Road Glide Special and my Street Glide. And if you look at the steel gray Road Glide I rode on Friday, that's essentially the exact same bike without the expensive upgrades. I do think that the solid red color of the bike makes it look quite chunky. I saw one just like in our dealership a few weeks prior to the test rides and thought the same thing. To my eye the bike needs some sort of "red relief"--some secondary color, subtle graphics, something. It's also kind of an orangy red or fire engine red. Harley has another red for the 2025 models which I far prefer and think the Road Glide would look better even with just with a different hue of red. But I'm not a guy in his 30's or 40's making the kind of bucks it would take to buy this bike so maybe my taste is different.

 

I mean, it's no secret I like red bikes.....but even for me that needs "red relief" as you call it!!! Too much red even for my tastes .