Hi! I'm Paul and I've only been riding since February of 2017. I'm a late middle aged guy and have mostly figured out riding with the MSF Basic Rider Course and YouTube videos. Help modding the bike came from the members over at the HD Street Forums.

The bike was purchased for the rather utilitarian reason that I'm a high mileage driver and needed another vehicle to spread the miles around. I was running the wheels off of my truck and car.

My first bike is a 2016 Street 750 purchased on a closeout deal of previous year bikes at Loess Hills H-D in Pacific Junction, IA. I live near there, but work in central Iowa where I keep an apartment. It mostly gets used in commuter duty, but has made the approximately 400 mile round trip between home and home away from home about half a dozen times. It has been ridden every month since I bought it, racking up just over 11,000 miles.

I have thought about putting a Fuel Pack 3 on this bike, or possibly doing a full State I setup. I have also considered forward controls, the Memphis Shades bat wing fairing, the Tuffside padded seat cover, and maybe some better luggage. All of that amounts to pouring a couple of thousand dollars into that small bike, though.

While I ponder what to do with it, I have decided to let the bike spend the winter in Austin, TX. My nephew there and his girlfriend will soon be taking the MSF getting their licenses. They want to go the ADV bike route eventually, but this will make a good starter bike for them. They can log a few thousand miles and learn about motorcycle ownership while they explore their options for buying a bike their skills won't outgrow quite so fast.

MSF classes in Austin seem to be kind of pricey. It's $250-$350 every place I look into, as opposed to $125 here in Iowa. Does anybody have suggestions for a cheap course near Austin?

 

Welcome to the Forum from Northern California!

 

Welcome to the forums from Ontario, Canada

 

Back in August I stepped up to a 2007 XL1200C. It was a garage queen with only 3,800 miles on it, to which I've added another 1,200 miles.


I'll ride this one through the winter and until my nephew gets his next bike. It's not too big for use as a commuter bike, yet is big enough for the occasional weekend trips that I make. It already has the Screaming Eagle slip on mufflers, so it only makes sense to slap on a Fuel Pack 3 and intake. Maybe down the road I'll go for a 2-into-1 exhaust, but mostly I'm pretty happy with it.

 

Welcome! I ride out that way often. I stop at Loess Hills HD often for a free beer on the weekends. If you ever want to ride, shoot me a PM. Enjoy your bike.

 

 

Note in the last photo that I purposely bought the bike in my price range that was closest to the beer cooler...

My bikes mostly live at my home away from home outside Ames, IA, so I'm not really doing much riding in that area. Last year I rode on four or five weekend trips to my home outside PJ, but this year I was almost always in the cage due to weather or carrying cargo. After the nephew gets his own bike, I'll probably leave the xg750 down there and the Sportster in Ames. That way I'll always have one bike or the other available.

I'm like the most non-biker guy that hangs out at Loess Hills on Saturdays. Karl always makes a big deal of it if he's there, and most of the staff seems to know who I am. It's kind of strange getting that kind of attention after having purchased a couple of lower end bikes.

 

Welcome from Ohio

 

 

Welcome from Minnesota