Rode up to the Keene Swap Meet

I went for a Sunday ride to Cheshire Fairgrounds in Swanzey, NH for the Motorcycle Swap Meet.
I drove rte 202 North and cut across rte 2A in Athol to rte 32 North.

Along the way, I stopped at the Tully Dam to check out the sites.

The swap meet was similar in layout to going to the Stafford Springs swap meet, and the size was about the same as well. I found a nice set of guard bags for the Road King.

As I was leaving the swap meet, I took a few pictures...

And here is my bike with the guard bag on. I was able to pick up a nice set for $50.

Swapping out the exhaust header on the Road King

So, yesterday was the day I finally swapped out the exhaust header on the Road King.  I put on the header that I had removed the cat from a year ago.
It was not too bad of a job. Starting on Friday I began putting penetrating oil on the head fasteners and the mount under the transmission. I removed the right-hand floor board, the right hand muffler and the chrome from the exhaust.

The head fasteners  were not on real tight, so at least there was no worries there. Then I wiggled the exhaust header off the heads and out of the exhaust cross-over pipe. In hindsight, I should have disconnected that cross-over pipe first.

The exhaust port gaskets do  not look to0 bad even after wiggling the exhaust out. I will leave them in and take my chances.

I disconnected the O2 sensors from the bike, removed them from the old header and put them into the 'new' header. I then transferred the head connecting hardware from the old to the new.

After some attempts and finally determining that the cross-over pipe I left in place was hindering me, I finally got the pipe installed.

The test run went smoothly. I do not hear any ticking of exhaust leaks.

I took the bike for a test ride. Afterwards, I re-torqued the head fasteners. The bike has a slightly deeper tone.

Today, I put the chrome on and took it for a ride. I am getting some vibration in the bike that I didn't have before, so I will probably have to loosen the exhaust brackets and run the bike again to get everything to settle into a happy place. I will run it for a few days first, and let the bike settle in.

Dan installed the Hayden tensioner today....

I could not take pictures, but Dan installed the Hayden tensioner in his primary on the Road King classic today. I am going to wait a while to see how that turns out. His primary has a noticeable whine, but that is supposed to go away.

First ride day of 2014

Back on the bike today March 17, 2014.
It was about 25 degrees when I left the house this morning.
I had the mirror mount hand deflectors on the bike, so that help tremendously.

How it all turned out

Well, I would like to say it all turned out peachy.... but that is not the case. As I stated previously, this whole situation was odd.
So... the mainshaft was damaged and that ran me another $600. The bike is in storage now, I guess we shall see what the results are in the spring.

Here are pictures of the parts that were replaced, including the sprocket work I requested and the mainshaft work that was necessary.

As you can see in the last picture, the groove worn in the mainshaft was the real damage.

The Service Manager (Shane) at Southampton Harley told me the new parts with bearings are using a better quality bearing, and this should not happen again... I hope he is right. He did not think that the primary chain tensioner needed replacement, and that it was probably poor quality bearings not the tensioner that caused all this.
In the end, I have yet another bill to pay which I am not happy about.

I was, however, able to get another exhaust header pipe for free from the takeoff pile. It had the chrome exhaust shield by the catalytic converter, and mine is a little messed up there. Yiiipppeeeeee.

Wrapping up

Well, it is the first threat of real snow, and the bike has been picked up for storage.
Of course, once it gets to the dealership, they call saying they serviced the bike and feel that the noise from the primary needs to be addressed..... the same noise they told me 2 months ago was normal. I guess not so much.

Well, in the short version, I work out a deal with them to replace the main shaft bearing, seals gaskets, etc as well as upgrade the compensator sprocket to the latest SE version... all for under $500. I figured this is a good deal. If it had done it on my own I probably would have spent more in parts and specialized tools.

Now, the short version grows ..... I drove to the dealership and applied for the HD Visa card to put the work on, as well as to browse the shop. The service manager calls me into the shop to see the bike with the primary off and to feel the roughness of the main shaft into the transmission. Doesn't feel to bad to me, but they says it seems like a problem growing there and they want to open that up and at least check the bearings in the transmission. So ....  now the bike is having strangers touch its private parts and who knows where it will go from there. I am hopeful for good news, but ....

and this evening, already a half inch of snow and supposedly a lot more coming. I am 2 beers in ...

Motorcyclepedia Museum

Nice ride from western Mass to the Motorcyclepedia Museum in Newburgh, NY. Five of us met up in Granby, CT and headed for rte 44 westbound to the Hudson Valley area.
We had a quick stop on the way, when parts started flying off the vintage Harley Steve was riding... no duct tape, but electrical tape and zip ties took care of the saddlebag cover.

Then we stopped for lunch in Amena, NY at Four Brothers Pizza.

Then is was on to Newburgh and the museum.

I have to say, it did not look like much from outside, but inside was massive ... bikes on the main floor and down in the basement. I saw some things I have never seen before there. Here are some pictures... not too much since the phone needed to be charged. Hopefully Dan will contribute .. he had an actual camera. (You can also go to the museum website to see a lot of great photos.)

A version of Indian for every year ... some like new and some barn fresh.

Getting ready to head out 2 hours later. You can see the wall of death ride in the background. There were 2 more in the basement.

A quick stop after getting over the Hudson River (we had to pay a toll for that). There was an accident that held us up for around 30 minutes and then it rained on us. The ride home will dry us off.

Dan is getting gear.

So is Steve...

 and the other Dan ...

 Then we stopped in Canaan, CT for some pizza at Roma's pizza. Two large pies and the 5 of us polished it off no problem.

On the way back, we looked for the battery cover and bracket that flew off Steve's bike on the way down. In the dark I did not have high hopes, but the bracket was found no problem. The cover plate was not seem. It was probably in the tall grass.

A good day to ride

Surprisingly, today was a good day to ride. Even though it was likely to rain, Paula and I jumped on the bike and headed north and west. We saw a few sprinkles in Hadley and Northampton.
We stopped at Fitzwillys in Northampton for lunch. Then south on rte 10/202 to Westfield to visit Grandma. We had a good visit with Grandma and Jesse. On the return trip, we swung thru Easthampton to try and connect with Jeremy, but that did not pan out. Then we stopped at Hampshire College to visit Amanda.
Pretty much spent the whole day just riding and visiting. Good times, noodle salad.

Indian Demo Day @ Wagner Powersport in Worcester, MA

Dan and I headed out on rte 9 East thru Ware, MA ... the rte 32 North, rte 122 South to rte 122A South to Holden MA. This first part of the ride was fabulous. Nice relaxing riding thru the hill towns into central Mass. From Holden we went down Shrewsbury Street to Doyle Road which ultimately becomes Plantation Street for our destination.
Not a huge turnout for the time we arrived there.... around 1:30pm, but still plenty of people wanting to try the new bikes.

I did not register to ride one of these bikes, but we put our names on a wait list to see if we might luck out... and we did not have long to wait... around 20 minutes.
There was around 20 bikes and they would send them out like every 20 minutes or so. They took each group on a mixture of roads and the highway (rte 290) ... all-in-all around 15 miles of a loop.
We both tried a Chief Vintage ... blue with tan leather saddle and bags. I was comfortable on the bike, sitting upright. First surprising thing I hadn't noticed before... no heel shifter. The bike's chassis was responsive and handled well. I had spoken to some people who went before us and they were talking up the bike as very impressive... on my ride I thought that compared with my harley touring bike, the drive chain did not seem smooth ... there seemed quite a bit of vibration, mostly in 3rd and 6th gear. I also did not find the throttle all the responsive without giving it a food twist .... maybe slack in the cable. After the ride there was a quick survey and I mentioned these things. Others that I spoke to felt their bike was awesome, so maybe I had a bike that needed adjustment.
In summary, I felt the bike was very nice, and if I was in the market for a bike it would be a serious consideration... the drive chain just did not feel as smooth as my King. Some people may feel that this is just character given the lack of primary chain and having a direct gear from crank to tranny and they may be right, so it is something I could possibly let slide. However, when I twist the throttle I would want the bike to respond in a snap and I did not have that.... maybe after a stage 1or a new cable. I really liked the bike and would like to try some more to get a more thorough feel for them.