Electra Glide In Blue

I finally went out and got my own motorcycle. The wife and I had been talking about buying another car, mostly because she was driving the older paid in full car that we already own that takes upwards of 20 minutes to heat up. The bright idea to swap cars with her and buy a bike instead popped into my head and I set out to convince her. Turns out, it didn’t take much convincing. So I started shopping around.

I started out looking at Harleys and discovered after crunching the numbers a bit that the best I could probably do at the time would be a Sportster. I liked the look of the Nightster, but I wasn’t really sold at the price point. I decided to take a look into what Honda has to offer and I found the 2011 Shadow Phantom. After seeing pictures of the Phantom and reading up on it a bit, I decided to see what the local Honda dealer here had in stock. According to their website they just happened to have a Phantom waiting for me to swing by and check it out. At this point I was ready to swing by and take a look, but I decided that I better slow it down a bit as I usually tend to get screwed whenever I am buying a new vehicle.

I started talking with some people I know who have owned bikes and got some general tips for haggling and looking into financing. About two weeks ago I tried refinancing my car loan and after shopping it around the best offer I could find would extend the loan by about 20 months @ 14.49%, which is a higher rate than what I bought it for. When I started looking for financing to buy a bike, I had pretty low expectations on the deals I would find. I decided I should come up with a backup plan before checking out the dealership. They had a used bike in stock at just under $5000 that looked like a pretty good deal, so I decided that if I couldn’t make the financing work on the Phantom, I would go with the 2009 Shadow Aero. I decided to go ahead and check with Honda on the internet to see if they would approve me for financing directly. I wasn’t too surprised to see that I was “pre-approved”, but the best information I could get without going in to see a dealer was just a dollar amount, no APR.

My daughter had a half day of school on Thursday and since my wife is in school now as well, I would have to take half a day off work and pick her up from school and hang with her for the afternoon. It was a decent enough day for Colorado in February, the sun was out and it at least felt warm. I decided before I even got to work that I wanted to swing by the dealership and take a look at these bikes. I sent the wife a text message asking if she would be okay with being excluded and she gave me a call right as I was picking up my daughter from school. She was having sort of a boring day, and didn’t really want me to make a purchase without her being present. It didn’t take much convincing to get her to take the rest of the day off and come to the dealership with me.

We got to the dealership and I started talking with the sales guy and I was trying to keep my poker face about how bad I wanted to buy. He offered to let me test drive whatever and was very nice about giving us space and letting us look around. I let him know that I was interested in the Phantom and the Aero and that I would like to test drive each. He said it would be no problem but that I would have to wear a helmet and he had one I could use. It was a three quarter helmet and I had my eye wear from riding the ’68 over the summer with me so I was all set to go. I have never rode in cold weather before and I didn’t really know what to expect. The three quarter helmet with motorcycle sunglasses wasn’t enough! It was so cold when I got going out on the road. I test drove both bikes and really didn’t have much of a preference either way other than looks and the Phantom being fuel injected and brand new. When I hopped on the Phantom for the test drive, it had 14 miles on it.

I got back from the test drives and told the sales guy that I was interested in the Phantom and that we should talk about financing. I let him know that I was pre-approved but wanted to know more details. We sat down and he pulled up my application. MSRP on the Phantom was $7,999. I asked what he’d do for me on the price and he said that he’d take $600 right off the top. After licensing and taxes and such we ended up right around $7500. I asked him what I had been approved for and to my surprise I was approved at 6.7%. I couldn’t believe I was going to be able to walk out of there with the bike I wanted and it would be affordable for us! I decided that without a windshield on the bike it might be a smart idea to go with a full face helmet so I got one of those while I was there. The staff were all very friendly and helped me size and select a helmet to match my new bike. If you are in the market for a bike in the Fort Collins area, I highly recommend Rick Mitts at Interstate Honda. I should probably look into some winter gear, but at the moment I think I will be going with boots, gloves, long johns, my snowboarding jacket, and the full face helmet.

We got the bike home and there was still a bit of daylight left so I decided that there was no time like the present. I threw my gear on and off I went. The only thing I have found about this bike that I don’t like is the stickers that came on the gas tank. After doing a bit of research I found the most often suggested method for removal is to hit them with some WD-40 and a blow drier and to patiently work them off, I will be giving that a shot later today. My daughter is totally excited about riding, because she can reach the pegs on this bike so we went and got her a helmet last night. We’re going to wait until after lunch, then we’re hitting the road!

Hey everybody, its been a bit since I’ve done a post on here. That is mostly because the bike has been garaged since my last post. We decided that the noise it has been making is bad enough that I probably shouldn’t be riding on it. When I have run it by others, they say that it is likely the valves that need to be adjusted. In my experience, the ticking happens for a bit, and then stops for awhile, but it always comes back. Another observation I have had is that the oil light seems to light up depending on whether or not it is ticking. The oil light is almost always on when I start it. When I ride it, either the oil light will go out after a short time, or it will start ticking. After some time, the ticking will stop, and the light will be out.

After running that information by another experienced rider, it was suggested that there may be a problem with the oil pump on the bike, which I think feels right. We have looked into what that entails and it looks to be a much bigger operation than I would feel comfortable performing. So, the bike has been garaged for awhile now and after the fantastic weather we had here this weekend I found myself longing for a ride. Short on cash at the moment, and even if I had the money I don’t know a good place to take it. Either way, I remembered it had been a minute since I wrote anything here, so I just wanted to touch base with those of you who are still tuned in.

Take it easy!

We’re doing a contest this week and giving away a gift certificate to RevZilla. RevZilla is a leading online motorcycle superstore. They record and feature video reviews of their top products and have a very large selection of helmets, jackets, and pants for street, touring, and offroad bikers. I have been looking specifically at the Shoei Helmets. I figured it might be a smart idea to pick one up and I have finally gotten around to shopping the idea around a bit.

Anyway, if you are interested in the contest here is how it is going to work. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post about your first ride. When the contest ends on August 3rd, one week from now I will pick a comment at random. Please make sure you are using a valid email address with your comment as I will be contacting you via email to get more information so that I can get you your gift card. That is all there is to it, share a story with others, get a chance at a gift card to a killer online store. Take a moment to enter, then head on over to their site and check it out.

Congrats to our winner Don!

Been out on a few rides since the last post. The FLH is making a strange noise and I not quite sure what I think about it. I’ve spoken with a couple of people who say that it could be a normal sound after the engine gets warmed up. I guess my dad just rebuilt the top end within the last year. It was suggested that I change the oil just in case, so I went ahead and did just that last weekend.

Luckily, one of my more mechanically inclined friends was available to give me a hand. We road out to Thunder Mountain on Saturday to get some things we’d need. Oil, gaskets, and the oil filter. The book that we had wasn’t the most helpful, as there was a bit of confusion on how to go about changing the oil in the primary chain case, as well as the oil for the transmission. The gasket I was sold at Thunder Mountain didn’t help matters much at all, because it was the wrong gasket altogether. I guess the top piece for the primary chain case was a bit “custom” as the guys from the dealership had never seen anything like it.

Changing the engine oil was easy enough. It was very similar to my experience with changing the oil in a car. Just pull the plug and drain the oil. Changing the filter couldn’t have been easier either. Once we had figured out for sure what to do with the primary and the transmission, we got it all slapped back together and decided to run it around the block a few times to make sure it wasn’t going to spray oil everywhere. Unfortunately, the battery wouldn’t turn the engine over!

After doing a little bit of R&D I read that motorcycles don’t really recharge batteries like cars do and that it would be a good idea to toss them on a charger once a month or so. I ended up heading over to K-Mart to pick up an automatic charger that included a float mode. After letting it sit on the charger for awhile, I was all ready to give it another shot. The bike started right up after the battery had been fully charged, and I cruised it around the neighborhood for a bit. No leaks and it wasn’t spraying oil everywhere, so I am quite happy with the oil change. Its still making the ticking sound after the engine gets hot, so I’m not sure what to think of that. I will be putting it in front of some more experienced ears once I get the chance. Adjusting the valves may be the next step.

Just wondering if anyone else seems to have a bike that ticks after it gets running or have any ideas to share with a noob such as myself? A big thanks to my friend Dell for helping me with the oil change!