Ya got me there! I did ride the Bullet home after purchasing it sight unseen, but Salt Lake City wasn't what I'd call a vacation destination. It was mid-summer and hotter than a habanero, too. I discovered how much heat a Valkyrie can toss out on a triple digit day in the middle of the desert.
I somehow have kept the bikes running, but not without lots of cursing and skinned knuckles. Sometimes I learn things, but I've discovered on several occasions that it doesn't make the same process that much easier the next time around. I wish I had that old Valkyrie dude mechanical skill and patience. It eludes me. Lifting the girls on my little Craftsman rig makes me pucker up a bit every time. They look like hippos balancing on toothpics.
I FEEL old and I NEED a vacation. I may be younger than you, but I'm already a curmudgeon. My prerogative, damn it!
Yea on the heat, I was surprised at the amount of heat a Valkyrie puts out. I figured it'd be a lot cooler on a hot day than my Harley but it's the opposite which blew my mind. I suspect it's because the Valk radiator and block is in front of the rider and the heat is always coming at you, moving or stopped. On my Harleys the heat is only cooking you when you're stopped, underway it's being blown back.
The mechanical gurus are the folks who have muddled through their mistakes until they became gurus. I think you just have to put your head down and do the task in front of you and avoid thinking about 'the rest'. I'm most comfortable with guys who muddle their way through working on their own bikes just like me, which is why I like this type forum, I guess dumb people are naturally attracted to their own kind, huh?
