Somewhere, along the way to a 2014 Street Glide, I lost the thread. The meaning of being a rider. It was a beautiful bike. Powerful. Capable and reliable. All of it right out of the box. Even better with a little money thrown at it. Nearly perfect. And yet… I don’t know, maybe it was too nice. I rode it, but the experience came to feel…bland. Riding that 2014 Rushmore was not unlike the experience of driving a cage. There was an essential isolation from the world rushing past…from the world inside me.

I said I lost my way (didn’t I?) But in fact, it’s probably more that the ‘way’ lead me to this place, where a ’91 FLSTC makes more sense for me than a 2014 FLHX.

I don’t ride the miles like I used to ride. I like to ‘tinker’. Tools are as much a part of the motorcycle experience for me as the bike itself. I’m getting old and I favor ‘simple’. I guess I’ve become pretty simple, myself. I’m not interested in competing anymore. Having the ‘latest and greatest’ is an endless merry-go-round ride where you circle back past the same point, again, and again. There’s no progress, no progression. Just a replay every few years of the same thing, thinking you’re on-top while you’re digging out of that same old hole you just got out of. I’ll be happy with what I’ve been granted, hold on to it now, cherish it. Work to perfect it. Comfortable in the knowledge that I’ll never truly get there…(thank God).

There’s nothing better than working in the garage on a quiet summer evening, the radio on, upgrading a front caliper…replacing a switch…changing bars…adding new grips…(name something)…and regarding the job when it’s done. There’s something to be said for that, finishing what you’ve started, seeing a task through. I did do some of this with the SG, too, but... Just 'but'...

For me the future is a ’91 Softail, the past a Big Blue 2014 Street Glide. Everything gets turned on its head sometimes, if you listen. That’s the way it needs to be now…turned around and upside down in order to make sense again.

 

Reading this made my morning! Exactly the way I feel when people (mostly my brother knowing money is not the problem) ask me why not just buy a newer bike instead of keep doing all these updates to yours old 97?...Since I was a kid I have always love to tear things apart and see how it all works and of course try to make it better. Some people will never understand the satisfaction in knowing their bike, car or whatever it may be in the way that we do. Thing is, My OLD 97 is exactly the way I want it to be or at least someday it will be....well maybe....there is alway new ideals....THANKS TO THE PEOPLE ON THIS FORUM.....LOL

 

Sounds like justification for having buyer's remorse?

 

That's pure Evo poetry right there and embodies why most of us ride Evo's.

 

Remorse is like a ****-house. You might have to visit it from time to time. But it's not someplace to linger.

If I ever regret my decision, I'll take steps to change it. But it was a matter of choice, not necessity. And efficiency, too. More bikes: more insurance, more registration...for stuff that just sits there. Free will. That's another thing about getting old. You learn 'how' to make decisions you can live with. Anything you feel was forced on you is liable to come back to bite you in the azz. When you wake up to **** at 2 AM, and can't get back to sleep...it's stuff like what you 'should have' done that rattles around inside your noggin. Not what you did.

The EVO is part of my journey through life. I just about decided to not have a bike. But I'm not ready for that. I've got some more riding years. I don't think I'll do the 3-wheel thing. When I'm no good on two anymore, that'll be time to set it aside, and move on...

Funny thing. Talk about not knowing what you don't know (definition of a high-school Freshman). I'm going to add an oil pressure gauge in the tappet oil screen hole. There's that big slot-head bolt sitting there. It looks like the kind of thing I'll mess up resoundingly if I don't use the right tool. Come to find out that tool's called a 'Drag Link Socket'. I've never owned a 'Drag Link Socket'. Until yesterday, I didn't know I needed one. You learn something new every day, I guess. (And I'm starting to sound like Forrest Gump, to myself...)

Another 'funny thing'...the guy who's buying my bike is ecstatic. Like a kid at Xmas. Right now we're waiting for the pink slip to get here. When I decided to sell the SG, I paid it off. I'm not very well to do but I have a few bucks set aside for retirement so I borrowed from that. I'm looking to pay it back when the sale's done.

Harley doesn't do hardcopy pinks in Cali anymore...so I have to wait for the state to issue the pink, and mail it. Meanwhile...like I said, the guy is literally a kid at Xmas. The point being, what makes sense for me, doesn't make sense for him...and vice versa. I'm not saying, and I don't think anyone took it that way, that an EVO is a perfect bike for everyone. Rather, it's the perfect bike for me, and others of like mind...perfect right now, here in this time and place. If you own and love your Rushmore, Ducati, Yamaha, etc., more power. Being a 'motorcycle rider' (e.g., helping others out on the road) is far more important, in my list of priorities, than what we ride.

Alan

 

I ride with Shovels, Evo's and Twin Cams, each one of them are different in there own ways. Can be surrounded by 5 new Street Glides at the same time, they are nice bikes and although I give them chit, you can see why they are popular but I did ride one of them and just didn't have the soul of a older bike.

We as Evo owners have evolved with upgraded brakes, suspensions, engine mods, some creature comforts and not exactly a dinosaur as stereotyped by modern riders. Evolution of a Evo to the modern world is something that makes you feel good about your ride because it is a great feeling to ride something that your own hands on completed. I'm not going to be stubborn and say "I'll never own a TC" but a Evo will be somewhere close to me unless a financial situation forces it's sell but not a goal.

The great thing about being a mechanic for a living is the people around me with new bikes will install bolt on's and performance parts on themselves as they know I'll have their backs but make them do the work themselves. Will get them info, tools, support and come in the back end to check the work, install the Mastertune plus making them install install the upgraded map themselves, they test run it. It may not be a Evo but my friends get the sense of riding a Harley as it should be. Really enjoy watching guys with $23,000 bikes pacing like a expecting father when I have them inside the ECM making changes, I'll throw in a few Oh Chit, This isn't right, We just screwed up to make them become intense and kinda passing on a tradition of Harley's and becoming part of that bike.

 

I have to totally agree with you Alan. It seems the older we get the more we learn. The "RAT RACE" starts to become a part of the past. Even though I never really attempted to be part of that race.
Being Nostalgic is just the opposite of that, not what you have but you you brought back to life and it's not the two wheeled buddy, it's the passion and commitment to the past that we always fall back to and along the way we learn a lot about ourselves. Here's a quote from the other day that I posted in another thread.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/evo-c...dometer-3.html

"After being as patient as I have been with the motor rebuild, I've learned a little about myself and expectations. there is no real reason to rush anything anymore. It just messes it up and creates a little frustration... So might as well enjoy the ride.....and the RIDE.."

It truly becomes a journey based on our accomplishments and not our possessions. Evo owners and beyond (Shovel Knuckles, pans and flat heads) it doesn't matter it's all about the JOURNEY......

 

Riding the Road Glide is fine and it does its intended job with a radio and rubber mounted foot rests that function. The Softail puts a smile on my face even though the rigid mounted motor rumbles my feet of the foot rests, has no radio and handles like crap.
Thanks, Alan.
Tom

 

Pretty much sums up where I ended up, right there. Well said.

 

You guys are making me feel Bad....My Newest bike is a '93 EVO!!!!!