Last weekend, I took the Sportster on our maiden voyage. Sure, I’ve logged hundreds of thousands of miles on this bike over the years, killed it few times, rebuilt it, flogged it at the track, and damn near blew it up (along with myself), but this was the maiden voyage with the new motor.
It was freakin’ awesome.
Mileage was better, performance was exceptional, and the seat rode better than it used to. I ended up going to Dahlonega, Georgia and the “Bear on the Square” festival and all told, put nearly 800 miles on the new engine with no hiccups. I’m making up for lost time!
Yeah – when my buddies told me about it, I thought it was “Bare in the Square”, but it wasn’t. Bunch of mountain bluegrass style music and crafts, chill crowd, and awesome twists and turns on those mountain roads.
The bike handled it all with no drama at all.
What’s funny, though, is that last week, I guess, I mentioned that New York City is having all kinds of drama with dirt bikes on the roads, and I saw a slew of them up in the mountain roads this weekend.
…And every rider was obeying the law on the road. Yeah, I know they were technically breaking it by being on the road in a vehicle not designed for it, but nobody was hot-dogging, no “gangs” of riders picking on car drivers, no dummies slinging around hairpin turns.
At least, not these guys.
The only real schnooks I saw were the rich biker types that drove up for the day from the city. You know the type – he bought the bike, then learned to ride? He had somebody else detail the bike. The fair-weather guys were the ones acting up – and they were all old enough to know better.
But overall, they even acted pretty well and they are the ones that make me the most nervous.
The really good news, though, was that my bike played nice all weekend. I was ready, too – I had tucked about every item that I thought could help me out in the saddlebags, but never needed to even open that side.
That makes for a great weekend. For all you guys that are still trying to get your scoot out on the road, step up! Take a day, any day, and get out there.