Victory

Victory Vision Tour Photo source: Victory: The New American Motorcycle

I bought a new motorcycle this week. Just earlier this year, I was thinking about selling my bike and giving it up, but now I’m glad I didn’t.

I looked at Harleys last year, but I couldn’t make myself turn loose of the money for one. Again. When I bought my original Honda VTX 1800r, I bought it because it was so much more motorcycle for the money than a Harley. This year, I didn’t even look at a Harley. I know what they look like. They haven’t changed.

I wasn’t even going to buy a bike. I had decided to keep my old one another year or two, and took it in for new tires and a state inspection sticker. I was fed up with the larger dealerships, so I took it to the Victory dealership near the church. That was a big mistake, at least so far as my wallet is concerned.

You can’t go to a dealership without looking around. It’s like eating one potato chip or stepping on the same piece of water twice. It just can’t be done. So I looked.

And I saw the most beautiful motorcycle I have ever seen in my life. I made myself leave it alone. Suna and I stopped by on Saturday to see if my bike was ready. It wasn’t, but she got a look at the bike, to. She said, “You can park that in front of my house! It’s so pretty I might even get on it.”

Monday, I called the dealership and asked the to prepare an estimate for trading in my old bike on the new one. I test drove the demo and fell in love with the bike all over again. It’s as if it were made for my body. It’s powerful and big, but it still has a low center of gravity. It turns like a dream.

We came to terms, and I picked it up on Tuesday. I’ve been driving it for a couple of days now, and I just get more impressed. I was buffeted by strong side winds going over an overpass on my way home from choir practice Wednesday night. I would have had to wrestle my old bike under those conditions. The Vision just shrugged them off as its aerodynamics seemed to adjust the bike to the turbulence automatically.

Have I mentioned how good it sounds? Not too loud, it has a deep, throaty rumble than Suna calls manly. It is the perfect motorcycle.

Madman across the Water

This is the seat I wish were on my bike.

Photo source: Cycle Spot

There’s a joke and I know it very well

It’s one of those that I told you long ago

Take my word I’m a madman don’t you know

—Bernie Taupin

The joke is on me this time. It’s an old one in tech writing circles: assume a piece of information is so basic that everyone already knows it. In this, the basic knowledge was how to remove the seat on a 2003 Honda VTX 1800R.

One writer even said that the procedure was so easy, he would not not explain it. “Besides, you’ve probably don it a thousand times already.” OK. That was pass was in a procedure for hunting down ground problems. So, maybe he gets a pass.

Why am I ranting on this topic again? I needed to change the battery on my bike after it left me stranded. To do that, I had to remove the rider’s seat. I spent two days trying to find out how. Once I had the secret, the whole operation took less than a half hour— and that only because I was going very slowly.

So what is the secret? The two bolts that hold the seat on really have allen heads. The hex indentions are covered by chrome caps. The owner’s manual even says to remove the caps, but it point to the wrong bolts and never says how to remove them. Turns out there are two ways:

• Push hard and pry with your fingernail.
• Pop them off with a flat head screwdriver.

I reccommend the second option.