Old Member / New Member from Blanco TX

[Road Scholar]

Hello all.  Back in the day I had a '98 Red & Cream Valk that I sold in 2010.  Regretted that move for 15 years but today rectified that wrong and bought this Black '03 with only 13,900 miles.  Previous owner kept up with the maintenance and bike needs nothing.  Rode about 70 miles this evening and it ran flawless.  Hoping to start riding to work and rack up some miles!

[fgtex]

Welcome! These bikes like to be ridden. Enjoy the ride! There are are several VRCC members here in the greater Austin area.

[DIGGER]

Rare find to not have any more miles than that.....

[Road Scholar]

Thanks for the welcome.  I still remember my first ride on a Valkyrie in the Dell parking lot in Round Rock in 2000?  I had a Shadow and was parked beside a Valk and the owner says "hey, want to try it out?"  I was hooked...

My new to me '03 has the original petcock.  Should I replace with a Pingle or something similar?  I read about hydrolock and want to avoid the consequences of that. 

[HayHauler]

My opinion only.  If you ride the bike at least every 2 weeks, you can stick with the stock petcock.  If it will sit for several weeks at a time, you are better off with the Pingle.
I have 200k miles on stock petcocks with no issues, but I ride every chance I get.

My $.01875.

Hay 
Jimmyt

[Road Scholar]

Thanks Hay Hauler, I appreciate the input.  It will get ridden frequently.  My plan is also to use non-ethanol gas when possible and shut the petcock off when the bike is off.

[HayHauler]

Sounds like a good plan.

Hay 
Jimmyt

[f-Stop]

Howdy Road Scholar!

Congrats on your new ride! 

As far as the stock petcock goes, it's my opinion that those Honda engineers are pretty smart when it comes to fuel delivery.  But even with tip top maintenance, that fuel valve diaphragm (Cover Set) will eventually go bad.  Luckily, it's easy to replace, inexpensive and you only have to do it every ten years or so.  Hildr the Valkyrie is on her third cover set. 

Could probably go longer than ten years between cover sets on ethanol free fuel.  I've been filling up with ethanol free fuel at the Valero just west of Dripping Springs on 290.   At $4.12/gal it is no deal, but Hildr seems to love it.  Luckily, there's a brand new QT at 290 and FM1826 with ethanol free fuel.   I live just off of FM1826 so yeah, the new QT is in the hood!  I recently got ethanol free fuel at a QT in Kyle for around $360/gal and I assume the new QT will be at about the same price.

I ride through Blanco all the time and enjoy those restaurants on the square, plus I'll occasionally pop into Liz's on the square to shop.  The courthouse has clean restrooms, too!  Don't forget, the Marigold Festival is just around the corner (Oct 31st - Nov 2nd).



 

[Road Scholar]

Thanks for the welcome F-Stop, good to have another Valkyrie rider close by.  I pulled up ethanol free gas  on https://www.pure-gas.org/ and the nearest to me is in Drip, followed by New Braunfels.  NB is good since that is where I work.  Actually rode in today, perfect weather this morning and will gas up on my way home at the QT on 306.  My guess is $3.75 / gal for ethanol free but will report back.

We have a few decent restaurants in Blanco:  The Bistro, Uptown ($$), Chess Clubs (now a steak house $$$), Texas Cannon, Old 300 BBQ,  El Charro but I prefer Red Bud over them all.

Nice pic of your bike on the square.  My first Valk had the same paint scheme.  Sold  it to a guy in Ada, OK.  I hope it's still on the road!