So I thought I'd give a tank bag a try. I discovered that Chase Harper is right here in Ventura. I had one of their bags on a previous bike that I really liked. It was well made, held enough and they're made here in 'Murica with a 110% lifetime warranty. But, it went with that bike when I sold it, a long time ago.

I went out to see what they had nowadays, dealt with Ron Harper hisself. Mellow dude.

Looked like their 950M model was the ticket, and it's a really nice bag. It's a magnetic mount with a keeper strap, not that it seems necessary, it sticks really tight with no sliding. In fact, if the mag flaps were just a bit longer, it would work well as a tail bag for long trips.

I'm going to take it out later on it's maiden ride and see how things go.



1610 miles on the clock and headed out...

 

Subscribed all the way from Texas.

Really enjoying your build.

 

I like the tank bag very much. Been on a few runs with it, and had it on all last week for work. Stays in place, holds a fair amount, easily moved for fueling. Glad it's not any bigger though.

It kinda kills the "naked" look of the bike, but I'll take the trade-off. That said, I've had it off the past couple days, just because it wasn't necessary for the tooling around I was doing.

Haven't noticed any marking or burnishing of the denim paint. Yet...


Tried a little experiment - I took a left turn a little while back and caught the left peg pin. The kick-back was a bit of a surprise, I wasn't over that far. More the way the street is graded/paved at that particular spot. (heck, I hate taking the inside lane at this turn in my car, and avoid it if at all possible. didn't have a choice this time)

Anyway, I caught the pin and the peg got a little floppy. When I got home, I found that the clevis had opened up a little. Pulled the peg and applied a few judicious whacks with a hammer to close it back up and reinstalled the peg.

A few days later I got to thinking I'd try the stock pegs again. They are a little narrower and the pins aren't as long/pointy. Swapped them out and headed for Ventura. I lost count of the mis-shifts and missed the brake pedal 3 times. I almost turned around to swap them out again, but figured I'd give them "out there and back" as a fair assessment.

Got home, pulled the pins off the round pegs (they're too pointy anyway) and put the round pegs back on. Muymasmuchomorebuenoer. The stock pegs are going to rot...

I may have helped sell another SR today...

2059 miles on the clock...

 

Just checking in...


Bikes been running fine, I'm still having a blast with it. Just waiting and hoping K&N is going to get off the pot and make a filter assembly for it.


I hate it when guys say "Let's go for a ride" and then communication is non-existent. I sleep in on Sat. after a weird night being up late and a few minutes later I get a text - "John and I are in front of Target." "On my way." responds one of the others.


Now, I kinda wanted to go, and I'm the road map as they really haven't been up around there much. But there's no way I'm ready to just pick up and ride.


So I text back - "I can't be there in less than an hour, go on." And that was including the ride time from my place to the meet-up.


Have a nice ride, fellas...


So I go about my business, coming to life and taking care of domestic responsibilities, etc...


Decide to run out to my buddy's shop and get going. I get to the top of Wells and decide - "Ya know, I bet I can catch up with them." So I turn right instead of left and twist some wick.


I get caught behind every sandbagger you can think of, took the long way around so I wouldn't have to go through downtown Ojai, get to the 33 and just as I'm about to go straight through to Meiner's Oaks to head to Ventura, I get hit with "Turn left"


Deer Lodge is like maybe a 100 yds down the way, I pass by to see their bikes parked out front. Alrighty den...


Decent lunch, then took them down some of the back roads on the way to Ventura. We split when we got to the 33 again, me to Johnny's, they wanted to go home.


Nice ride, but as I suspected, friggin hot up in Ojai. It was nice to get back to the coast.


Had to run out to Moorpark yesterday to pick up a piece of test equipment for work, the place was right next door to Simi Harley. Jeez, imagine that...


Turns out I had to wait a bit for the gear. Darn, I guess I'll just go next door and...


I did make the mistake of checking out (sitting on) the CVO Pro-Street Breakout they had there. UH-OH... (too bad I really don't care for forward controls. But maybe I could get used to them. Hmmm...)


Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on so.


2543 miles on the clock...

 

My how time flies...

Managed a ride up to Cold Spring Tavern (yup, weekend before last. Just before the Whittier fire flared up) Met the buds, left the parking lot, got the signals and realized I'd left them in the dust. Mind you, I'm the guy on the 750 here. J on his Triumph 800 Tiger, D on his Suzuki Boulevard M109 and F on his Triumph Triple Rocket. The idea was to show them how to get up there without touching the 101 (ceptin' fer the little piece from the meet-up to the 33, just to save a little out-of-the-way riding)

So I'm trying to tootle and let them catch up. Dey ain't catching up. Go up the 33 and really throttle back. Dey still ain't catching up. ??? Pull over and wait at the exit for Casitas Vista. No show. Check the phone. Text - "We didn't know which way you were goin, so we're just going to blast up the hiway. Gee fellas, which part of "Up the 101, then up the 33" wasn't clear? Sheesh.

So I go ahead and go the back way. It was fun and surprisingly unbusy. Stopped at the Corner Market, picked up some jerky, had a blast on the back 150, the 192 was cool also. Stopped for some gas in SB, then up the 154 to CST. They were there and eating when I pulled in. The joint was jumpin' and you know you're in for some good blues when the band is setting up and a case gets opened with a couple dozen harps in it. The fella on the Castrol 30w cardboard box was quite talented also...

We hung for a while, then J had to go meet the wife in Carpenteria. I took F back down the 192/150 with me, D went with J. All-in-all, a fun trip. Except for the leaving the guys in the dust part. It wasn't intentional. Really.

And Alanui ran great the whole trip.

Found that a couple of MSR 30oz fuel bottles will fit in the tank bag perfectly. No leaks with the new rugrat-resistant caps, just make sure you hit the o-rings with a little vaseline so you can get them to unscrew. Still, I wish the regular caps were available anymore.


Otherwise, just been riding around some. Took the 4th week off, and we get hit with a heat-wave that made it not much fun for riding a lot. (Not to mention a few projects I had planned) But I got a few rides in.

Picked up some bling;

The RH and LH Dark Custom case medallions.



It's funny, the left side replaces the existing cover, o-ring and you reuse the Allen bolts to install. The right side is a nice, heavy piece of machined aluminum with some pretty chromed button head Torx screws that install into a bracket that gets placed over the existing bar/shield that's already there. The bracket has a very tightly machined cut-out for the bar/shield and is affixed with a couple pieces of 3M VHB tape. ???

Granted, there aren't any holes for screws to go into, so that's the way it has to be. I'm keeping an eye on my $65 medallion to see how long it takes for it to go bye-bye after a few heat cycles. We'll see...

Bikes been running fine, and I have to say that I haven't run into any of the problems others have experienced. I did have to adjust the shift lever down a little, it's easier to deal with now.

Pulled in to Vta HD this past Saturday to find another Street Rod in the parking lot. Rhinestone license frame. It'z a gurl... She's got 400 miles on it so far, likes it a lot. Another guy inside checking out the green one they have, seemed pretty interested. The bike's getting a lot of attention, just not taking off quite as fast as I was thinking. I still think HD has a winner in the XG750A.

3096 miles on the clock...

 

I agree the XG-A's are great bike. They are flying off the showrooms here in the Northeast. I hope they decide to make a bike comparable to the DL line of Suzuki. The revolution X powerplant is quite nice but I can't see why this 750 isn't pushing 75-80hp stock. Oh well I'm in hopes they release a larger displacement engine with the same power band. I'm sold on my Street-Rod but not the company, yet. I hope they make more modern standard Motorcycles so I don't have to keep buying Japanese. I went for a decent 400 mile loop yesterday, gearing up for another smaller jaunt (maybe only 200-300 miles). I love this bike, quite versatile. I have been using allot of aftermarket focused for the Japanese market (saddle bags, windshield, pipe, bar risers, etc) for it's much cheaper then going to the dealer and buying "Harley brand". Should be at 7K miles on mine by the end of the week! Officially going on my 3rd rear tire and the front stock scorcher is just about cooked.

How is your tires holding up?

 

The Scorchers seem to be holding up pretty well so far. I can't say I've been dragging the pegs, but I do get over pretty far and grip has been very predictable.


That said, I do have a set of Michelin Pilot Road 4's (F&R) in the garage waiting for the change-out when the 21's start wearing out. Revzilla was having a special on them and I had some Zillacash or whatever it's called from a few other purchases, so that made them even cheaper.


I found your 5K write-up enlightening and informative. I'm curious to see if I experience anything similar. How's your HD dealer taking care of you on the issues you've had?

 

The Scorcher felt very much like a set of pilot road 2's I had for my FZ1 a few years back, lasted about as long but I do heat my tires up fast and ride very hard so they go pretty quick. Decent tire for grip but nothing phenomenal (will slip out under hard turning and acceleration), better shoes out there for sure.

I ran PR4GT's on my Concours14 (1352cc I-4 162WHP when I last dyno'd it) Very Very long lasting tire, I got over 8K on a rear (unheard of on a heavy big liter super sport touring bike) and my front is just now kicked with nearly 30K miles on it!!!!! I'm trying the new Dunlop Road Smart 3's. I'll keep you posted but depending on the size of the rear your throwing on the XG you likelly love it. My only grievance is the rear was very hard to heat up, especially during the Late Fall/Winter/ EarlySpring riding and I experienced a good amount of wheel slip during hard turns and power outs.

As for sizes I'm currently running a 150 50 R17 on the rear now on a Shinko 006 Podium (Comparable to the Pilot Power line). The tire really helps the gearing out and once these kick I'll swap over to a Pilot Power 2CT. The 150 is a bit more squirrely and will lead to drifts and wheel spin but if you know how to ride it's pretty beneficial, especially when coming out of the turns and off the line, My XG now has no problem getting up to 120mph, where as before it was an event to do so. But for $68 for a rear it's a phenomenal deal to try out different sizes. The 170 I ran in the back really gears the bike down to much, good for cruising but you do lose off the line acceleration with the taller, wider (and heavier) 170 not to mention she steers like a brick going into turns...

My dealer is AWESOME! They took care of the bike right away and I didn't get charged a dime. Very pleased with the Company's response to my issues. As stated, I hope they keep making motorcycles I want to ride. I'd love to keep doing business with them, but will break ties if my only in brand option for "upgrade" is a cruiser.

Best!

 

I too have taken the rear fender delete option, with an addition; (or an additional deletion, as it were)



And the plate finally showed up, they missed the part where the first space was supposed to be a blank half-space, so it's all the way to the left. I'll live.

I really hated the way the turn signals looked with the delete (actually, I disliked them before the delete. Rubber and plastic, yuk) and decided to go with some Omega's from Joker Machine. Way more solid and physically less obtrusive.



Of course, this means the front ones had to go also. Unlike jedz, I haven't had any issues with the front fairing, and as there was a dearth of places to mount turn signals elsewhere, I took advantage of the best spot I could find.



It's ridiculous how easily the fronts came off, also rubber and plastic. It really cleans the forks up too. I did lose the front running lights as the Omega's are a two-wire setup, I can live with that. They are otherwise DOT approved. They seem plenty bright.



I'm happy with the setup, I'll try to get some outdoor shots tomorrow.

Otherwise, I've just been riding and having fun. Went on a good ride last Sunday after Ventura Harley's "Endless Days of Summer" bash. Got me cogitating on some decisions I'll be making down the road.


3861 miles on the clock...

 

I tried a few shots after work, the light was working against me a little.



That, and there's "sumpin' goin' on" at the point.



Still. I like the way it's all coming together. It's amazing how much better it looks without the huge, clamp-on signals up front.



3919 miles on the clock...