Posts Tagged ‘Harley’

 

Not really TV, it is more than what you have received from television.  Stories of Bike is a web series that dives into the hearts of most of us that love motorcycles. If you “feel” motorcycles, and if you are reading a little nothing blog like this you likely do, you will get what they are giving you and want more!  From my point of view it is a version of “Why we ride” but done in a love affair with people documented.

To describe this series of short films (films because I think they are better than web TV) is a bit difficult so I will let the creator Cam Elkins:

“About a builder, working with his hands and why he or she builds and rides the bikes they do. I could never find a video that went further back than that. I wanted to hear their story that got them there.

Not just builders, but every day riders and their bikes. Their histories, their dreams, challenges, loves and losses. I wanted to see these stories and how riding a bike makes it all better.”

What brought the series to my attention was their first episode Answers. Answers is about a man taking a solo world trip on a 1969 Royal Enfield Bullet 350. As much as I love RE, not something I would do 🙂

The video series have won, deservingly, multiple awards for editing, cinematography and best documentary.  I can’t recommend this enough.  Season two is coming soon so please take the time to watch their product, it will be worth your time.   After you watch the YouTube video above go to their website and check out the rest of the series. 5 out of 5 stars!

5 star

ijustwant2ride.com

Ferry Hill Plantation

Location – Ferry Hill Plantation

Mile Marker –72.8

Historical Comments – Just up the street from Lock 38 is the Ferry Hill Plantation. The area around the plantation began as a cross river ferry site in the 1760’s. The ferry and plantation remained in a single family’s hands until 1958, a really good run. It site served as a restaurant and bar until 1974, catering to the students from Shepherd College across the river in Shepherdstown, WV.

The plantation served as the headquarters of the C&O Canal National Park system from 1979 to 2001. Now it is a museum to the C&O Canal and plantation life in Maryland. If you are touring the Canal this is a nice side stop.

Ride to Site – At the intersection of Route 34 and Canal Road, the ride to the plantation is a smooth easy ride. Coming from Canal Road be aware of the traffic on Route 34 as the speed limit does not seem enforced.

Amenities – Visitors Center, public restrooms, parking

Road Conditions (from main road) – paved

Railway Situation – none

Parking Lot Conditions – Paved and pea gravel

Main Attraction – Ferry Hill Plantation.

My Thoughts – One of the hidden gems while motorcycle touring the canal (it happens to be air conditioned) 🙂 . The plantation house is manned my volunteer docents who provide an oral rendition of the history of the home and grounds.

Map

C&O Canal Motorcycle Ride: Ferry Hill Plantation

A couple of adventure bikes are looking at a creek crossing when, out of nowhere, …. a Harley Davidson Street Glide scoots across the creek!

Not only that … He has his wife and small child on the bike….

 

While  I can’t recommend doing this without the proper gear, and a Harley is not the best motorcycle for this type of riding …….

Take that adventure riders! 🙂

ijustwant2ride.com

Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US

This week on the DawgHouse…. lots of discussion not a lot of news 🙂

Download Here

– Ken’s News –

Kid rides Canadian university tunnels and they’re not happy – watch the video:

AMA announces loss of another legend of motorcycling.

First 4 of 10 tips when attending a bike rally.

– Warren’s News –

Top10 bikes used by women riders.

Best bikes for passengers????

– Racing News –

Discuss MotoGP

Results of Flat Track

My daughter and I rode in a charity ride supporting Neurofibromatosis (NF).  The ride was hosted by NFmidatlantic.org and the Baltimore Ramblers Motorcycle Club.

NF is the most common of the “rare” diseases.  Neurofibromatosis is extraordinarily complicated. It comes in many forms, is often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and presents in a myriad of forms. Read more about the different types of NF here.

The event began with a pancake breakfast at Applebee’s in Timonium, MD. After everyone had their fill of pancakes the riders, about 50 or so, broke into smaller groups for the ride.

Members of the Ramblers guided us through the back country of Maryland for about an hour and a half before we finished at their clubhouse.  The ride itself was quite nice, we only had to dodge giant farm tractors twice!  🙂

There were a few vendors and food available at the clubhouse along with door prizes and 50/50 draws (Eryn 5 feet 100 Lbs won size XXL gloves 🙂 ).  There was also several vintage motorcycle to look at including an old Indian and a 1953 BMW.  After hanging out for a while and talking with the volunteers from the Mid-Atlantic NF and the Ramblers Eryn and I headed for home.  BTW the Ramblers are one of the oldest AMA motorcycle clubs in America, founded in 1929.

Much to my worry, the sky started to darken and the closer to Leesburg the more rain drops we felt.  Luckily we missed the down poor by a bit and made it to the garage dry.  The XM radio traffic worked well and had routed around a jam and saved us from getting wet!

By Warren S Massey

Well this somewhat surprised me… Ken, during our last DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio show, gave us a report on how the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA is putting on a long term motorcycle exhibit.

 

Now before I dive into the show I need to tell you about Forest Lawn.  According to reports there are more major Hollywood stars buried at Forest Lawn memorial Park than anywhere else.  A few examples of some of the stars interred there are Jimmy Stewart, Nat King Cole, Walt Disney, Casey Stengel, Humphrey Bogart, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor. This place is more than just a final resting place as it has works of art scattered about the grounds and a museum.  The museum is hosting the motorcycle Exhibit.

 

logo from forest lawn cemataryCalled “Vroom:  The Art of the Motorcycle” the show runs from June 27th until the 5th of January 2015.  According to the Forest Lawn website  the show “is a meticulously curated exhibition that will offer an in-depth look at the dynamic history of motorcycle culture, featuring some of the most beautiful, historic, rare and collectable vintage motorcycles; one-of-a-kind hand-painted motorcycle helmets, previously worn by world and national racing champions; painted motorcycle gas tanks and fenders; as well as paintings, sculpture and photographs by a dozen of today’s most celebrated motorcycle artists—many of whom are Southern California natives and/or residents”

 

A few of the bikes on display include a 1910 Flying Merkel, a 1938 Indian Flat Track Racer, a 1938 Crocker and Steve McQueen’s 1939 custom Indian Chief.  Other items for your viewing pleasure include sculptures and paintings by official Harley Davidson artists.  In the gift shop you can purchase hats and sweaters featuring the North Los Angeles Motorcycle Club logo along with coffee mugs depicting the Last Supper. 

I, for one, have no problem with this show.  In fact, I think it would be cool to be displayed with those bikes before being put in the ground!

 

 

 

Ijustwant2ride.com

2014 Harley Davidson FXDL Low Rider

[in your best Scottish accent, aka Mr. Scott from Star Trek] “Cap’n I am given her all I can, but if the engine and frame reach a resonant frequency of 5800 RPMs…the engine could shut down!”

All kidding aside a recall that started in Australia a few weeks ago (and reported on The DawHouse #269) has made it to America.  Apparently it is possible that the engine vibration at 5800 RPMs could cause the ignition switch to move to the ACC position shutting down the motor.  I am sure we all know what could happen if you were doing 80 MPH in the center of a multi-lane highway, just in front of a Tractor Trailer and the engine clicked off….not a pretty picture!

The NHTSA has issued campaign number 14V413000 that affect 3,361 2014.5 Dynas, built between 1/6/2014 and 6/19/2014, in the US (and based on fact that they were recalled in Australia I assume all 2014.5 Dyna motorcycles are affected).

This recall is self-reported by HD.  It first found the problem at the end of March 2014 when a bike turned itself off while on a dynamometer.  Further testing determined that this was a true safety issue and they reported the recall to the NHTSA at the beginning of July.

Owners may contact Harley-Davidson customer service at 1-800-258-2464.

motorcycle recall, dyna, fxdl, 2014

 

In a little more than a month, FX’s hit soap opera for men will be back for its last season.  The next episode will premiere on the 9th of September, so get your DVRs set to record the 7th and final season. motorcycle, sons of anarchy

 

While not a lot has been released about the final set of shows, a few tidbits have come out:

 

* The show starts 10 days after Tara’s murder and Jax in jail.

 

* Malcom-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show) will play the VP of the Grim Bastards.

 

* Rock Star Marilyn Manson will play a white supremacist inmate…not sure where that is going. LOL

 

* Courtney Love will play the preschool teacher for Jax’s son Abel.

 

* The “After the Show” show Anarchy Afterward, which was  web based will now be on TV immediately following the show, hosted by Chris Franjola.

 

 

 By Warren S Massey

ijustwant2ride.com

Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US

Highlights from the show:

 

Putting the FUN in Funeral, you can now attend a motorcycle show in a famous cemetery.

 

Woman lets God take the wheel, nearly kills motorcyclist then stops for burgers. (God fled the scene before the police arrived)

 

Like something from Star Trek… resonate frequency issues between the engine and frame is forcing Harley to recall Dyna’s in Australia!

 

Spring Creek Motocross results and discussion.

 

AMA Daytona Sportbike and AMA Superbike results and discussion.

By Warren S Massey

 

Ijustwant2ride.com

 

The dealer database is just WRONG, I don’t understand why!!!

Debbie and I took an 890 mile weekend ride over the 4th of July holiday.  It was here that a VERY surprising weakness with the built in GPS appeared. The motorcycle GPS has a database of HD dealers. During our ride I selected Freedom HD (Canton, OH) from the list of local dealerships in the GPS and we rolled out.

After about a 15 minute ride the GPS announced that we had reach our destination “on the right”. “Technically” it was correct, Freedom HD was on the right, but we were in the middle of the interstate and the dealership was about 300 yards, a large ditch, a fence and another roadway away. It was no better when we attempted to go to Adventure HD. You could see the dealership as we traveled down the interstate but, the GPS lady directed us in the opposite direction when we hit the exit. Following her directions we ended up in the parking lot of a Sheetz gas station.

Thank you for using the crazy GPS lady tours of eastern Ohio, my name is Harley I hope you had a good time.

Not only did it fail to find these two dealerships, it also failed to find Steel City HD on our trip home, placing the shop about a mile away on the wrong side of the road. We only found this store because there was no place to turn around along the road. To give the GPS system database of dealerships some credit it did find Valley HD and Neidengard’s HD with no issue. This is a brand new 2014 Ultra Limited with the most current software load. To only find 2 out of 5 dealerships listed in the database is poor quality control at best and plain stupid at worst.

Another weakness of the database is how the dealers are displayed.  At one point in the trip I thought let’s see what dealers are in the area… when I went to the database everything displayed as “Harley Davidson of” that’s it, just “Harley Davidson of”.

Now the reason for that is that all the dealers in that area were Harley Davidson of XXX city.  With a lot of the dealers named in that manner it would take some effort to make them display in a manner that was usable to the rider. There may be a way to see the entire name, but it is it was not an easy to find selection.

So, I state with some energy, the GPS in the new Rushmore motorcycles is crazy in the head, the head unit that is!

All in all I have to give the bike a big thumbs up over the 2011 model.  Yes there are some weaknesses, but there is no reason that HD cannot overcome them, IF THEY DESIRE TO.  That last part is what worries me.  Are they going to leave are GPS and other items as is or are they going to make our rides better?  I have no idea.

You can read part 4 of the review here!

 

Ijustwant2ride.com

I want to go to HD of ????