Quaker Steak Bike Night

Wednesday night bike night at Quaker Steak in St. Pete 7/15/09 (FL). There must have been 2,000 people there. A couple won a free trip to Sturgis complements Attorney Fran Haasch.

Here are a few of the standouts:

(I hope that wasn't beer those cops were drinking. I'm pretty sure it was coffee.)

2008 FXDF FatBob Muffler Change

I wanted to keep the stock pipes and change out the mufflers for better performance and sound. I went with the Khrome Werks slip-on mufflers because of their deep bass rumble. I bought them off the internet at http://www.mandmcycles.com/ at a very good price of $219 plus S & H which came to a total of about $240.00, quite a deal. I contacted Mark at M and M Cycles (e-mail MBK30072@aol.com) and he had them shipped out in a few days.

The mufflers arrived with easy to understand instructions and I simply removed the stock mufflers, and installed the new ones using the original bolts and clamps. About 10 minutes to get the old ones off and 10 minutes to put the new ones on and a little time polishing the chrome.

I then went on an all day 300 mile ride where I was able to test the difference in performance and sound. I could tell there were a few more horses and the sound was incredible. The stock pipes go unheard at highway speeds, the new Khrome Werks mufflers let other drivers know you're coming or riding along side. Apparently the onboard computer can adjust to the new mufflers without the cost of a computer software download from Harley-Davidson. If I had changed out the air filter at the same time then the download would have been mandatory for proper performance.

All in all a good experience!

Palm Harbor Motorcycle Fest 11/08

4 Park Ride

We haven't posted for a while, though we still do our weekly motorcycle rides. I thought it might be an idea to start logging our short trips.

Today we did a tour around 2 of the local counties here in Florida (Pinellas County and Pasco County) and visited 4 county parks. It's still plenty warm here in Florida for beach goers. I think it was about 92F or more today. Not so humid as in July/August though.

I put together the pictures into a little video montage for easier viewing.

Enjoy!

-Phil

Equipment Evaluation

2008 Harley-Davidson FXDF FatBob: (http://www.jimshd.com/) The best bike I've owned hands down! What a pleasure it was to be able to ride fast and hard and put the bike away wet without even a miss fire. That bike can run and didn't get its legs until it was in 6th gear at seventy five miles an hour where she held steady hour after hour. Fifty-three miles to the U.S. gallon at that speed and she didn't use a drop of oil for the entire 3400 mile trip. Now I couldn't say that about my 1971 FX, or any of my Sportsters and my 58 Sportster used to drink oil like I drink tea.

Now I'm a rider and not a loafer so putting on a windshield was against my better judgement but boy did I thank the gods that I did decide to use one. I would have been bug splattered and tuckered out after the first hundred miles. It was an easily removed shield so I went to Port Dover sans the shield only to discover that eighty per cent of the bikes were sporting one.

2008 Yamaha Raider: (http://ridenow.com/clearwater) I've ridden this bike and its a tree puller with 113 cubic inches! Smooth, fast and gone before you could think "twist of the wrist." We were planning on using it on the farm to plow the fields in the off season. Phil chose the smaller shield and rightfully so because we saw another Raider with the large shield and it looked like a bull moose in heat. But the smaller shield did give Phil more of a fight in high winds. His bike got about forty-eight miles to the gallon, which is very respectable.

Road Master Luggage Rack (http://www.motorcycletravelrack.com/) Well I was the best dressed and up first in the morning and ready to ride because of the ease in which I could load my Kuryakyn bags on the bike by simply placing them and buckling the straps. The rack held my equipment in place no matter what paces I put my bike through. I did put a couple of hose clamps on just for safety sake and peace of mind. It even held firm through "The Tail of the Dragon" 318 hairpin turns in 11 miles. The bumps in the road, which seamed to be every few miles, would bounce me around but the bags didn't move a hair.

Frogg Toggs: I know Phil mentioned that I burned through my rain pants by touching them to the pipes. Here's the lesson learned, "Don't put your rain pants on when it's windy and always dress away from a hot bike." Simple enough! They worked perfectly, it was me who failed them not the other way round. Couple of tire patches and they're good as new.

The Wholefood Farmacy (http://www.revital.wholefoodfarmacy.com/) Nutrient dense survival food that tastes good and fills you up and keeps you full! Both Phil and I ate Phi Plus while traveling to and from Canada. We only ate in a restaurant once on the way up and once on the way back. Why eat fake food that makes you fat when you can eat nutritious food which is fullfilling and gives you energy. I continued eating Phi Plus and drinking a mix of AmpliPhi and DetoxiPhi in the morning to start my day. The food stayed fresh and tasted great.

Here's my video from the photos and videos I took with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30, 7.1 megapixel camera. I carried this tiny camera strapped on my belt within easy reach so that I could pop it out and start shooting. I'm always amazed at the quality of the video and photos as well as the sound for a camera that fits in the palm of my hand.

Paul Turnbull

Guinness World Record(?), Zoom Zoom and We're Home

Port Dover, Ontario, Canada: "Friday the 13th has roared into the record books as the largest single-day parade of motorcycles, says a Norfolk tourism official, and estimated about 25,000 motorcycles made their way into the tiny town by mid-afternoon yesterday. She also speculated that attendance this year may have surpassed last year's 150,000 people, which would set another record." -thespec.com

After the Port Dover Bike day was over we decided it was time to head home. Also, we hadn't tested the rain gear and we heard there was plenty of rain and storms south of us. Early Monday morning we headed out early and by Tuesday we were in the thick of it.

West Virginia and Virginia had the heaviest rain, which sometimes came up fairly quickly as we rounded a mountain. There were times when it poured pretty intensely.

The rain gear worked very well, keeping us dry and somewhat warm.

Once we were through the rain we kept up a good pace, around 75 to 80 (and sometimes a bit better) all the way home. The bikes handled superbly.

When we hit South Carolina it was monstrously hot. Must have been over 100F. By mid-afternoon we were toast, so we packed it in and found a motel. We got up around 3am and hit the road to avoid the heat. It was perfect. Nice and cool, less traffic, and relatively smooth sailing. It did heat up quite a bit later but we managed to land at home around noon, so missed the worst heat of the day.

We had one newspaper and one magazine follow our trip. We may have some of our pictures featured in one. We'll let you know if that happens.

There are still some pictures and comments we'll add over the next few days as the dust settles.

Thanks for following. We love the comments.

Best,
-Phil

Port Dover Bike Day, June 13, 2008!

Port Dover bike day! It was packed. Every street was completely full with bikes and bikers. By noon it was shoulder to shoulder. Paul and I got there early, about 6am. Paul knew a back way into town so we could avoid some of the traffic. We got great parking spots right downtown, near the water.

I learned something about Ontario, Canada: Women are allowed to go topless,, legally! And yes I learned this by personal observation. Yowza!

OK, the bikes. There were bikes of every type, size, and modification. Incredible. I'm not sure how many people were there but I heard estimates of over 100,000. In spite of the crowd there wasn't a single instance of 'trouble' that I noticed. Everyone was friendly and well behaved.

We took lots of pictures and rather than put them all in here we did a couple of short montages.

The first is a bit of Port Dover ambiance, and me with the Hooter's girls.


Next is the bikes.

And here's some video of the constant stream of bikes into, and through, and around the town.

There were plenty of 'characters' there as well. Here's a shot of Paul with a costumed couple.









There's lots more but we'll try to get more up onto the site over the next few days or so.

The last leg of the trip is coming up. We'll be heading out on Monday through upstate NY and into Pennsylvania.

Thanks for following along with us. We love to get your comments.

Best,
-Phil