7/30/2004 - It's 9:14 pm and I'm wrapping up my day, and it hit me just now. I rode 53 miles today on my motorcycle, part of which included a ride to where I work (which means my goal of riding to work is feasible!). What's funny about my ride today is when I drive somewhere in my car or truck I usually zone out and don't remember the drive... but riding my motorcycle requires a high level of alertness so today's ride is fresh in my mind and I can remember the details of the ride very, very well... I must have waved at 30 or 40 motorcyclists, and I saw at least 100 riders throughout the day (including when running around in my truck in the morning). I can still hardly believe I rode so far today, or for so long, and how comfortable I am starting to feel on my bike when two weeks ago I got my bike and dropped it the first day! Anyway, I really really love my Buell Blast, and am looking forward to continuing to learn about riding and especially looking forward to my ridercourse coming up in October.

7/30/2004 - Yesterday my new turn signal and headlight bezel for the Buell came in. I'd already fitted the black bezel (original one which I repaired and painted) so I just fitted the turn signal and tested it out and then left the house at 1:30 pm for a ride. I started out by riding over to Rodney's Cycle House, I figured it would be a good exercise in city riding since the trip was about 6 miles, and had alot of varied riding conditions and speeds. I made it there without incident, talked with some people in the shop and cooled off and then geared up and took off again. On my way out of the parking lot I noticed another Buell was in the parking lot being serviced (the owner must have been inside). Anyway this time I took the bike down Asher all the way over to the Rave Theatre and then headed up past Wal-Mart and where I work to hit Chenal and then on out to Pinnacle Mountain State Park and the Visitor's center where I got a drink of water and took a break to let my butt wake up from the ride out. After that I worked my way back and stopped in at Metric Bikes to show Steve my motorcycle and then headed home on Markham, I encountered two cagers who were complete idiots... One who kept edging up on me at the light until he was within a foot of my back tire on 12th street, and another who wanted to follow me too close over near my work (after I gave him the brake light enough he backed off and I sped off and left him in my dust later). I had alot of fun riding, there are some nice twisties out near Pinnacle, and it felt nice to lean into a curve for the first time and the rest of the trip. I started out with 44 miles on the odometer, and ended the day with 97 miles on it... which isn't bad considering I am a beginner biker who is just getting used to being on two wheels. I got home around 5:37pm.

7/25/2004 - Rode the Buell today in traffic for an hour. My wife followed me in the truck for an hour of riding, which included a trip to Harbor Freight tools where I picked up a generic dremel-type rotary tool and kit.

I started the day out by sanding and painting (four coats, with fine wet sanding between them) of the chrome headlamp bezel that I cracked on day one and fixed with JB Kwik. I fitted it to the bike along with the windscreen later in the day and aligned the headlamp... so minus the turn signal, and the new chrome bezel it looks pretty good. It just needs it's first wash at some point soon.

After that I geared up and we went out. I figured 10:00 AM would be a good time, since alot of people are in church and I wouldn't get run over by any Sunday drivers. I've worked the bike through all of the gears, and have been up to 50 mph. I also darted onto a highway onramp and off the following offramp for a bit, avoided road pizza (multiple times) and have been doing alot of right turns (none of them hard and into the pavement).

Made one mistake, I took the bike out later in the day for another ride, and it sputtered and died on me after I went around the block. I'd set the fuel switch to off when I put it up earlier (as you're supposed to do) and forgot to turn it back on. Newbie mistake, won't do that again.

I also put Marie (my wife) on the bike and pushed her on it in the driveway to acquaint her with how the brakes work, and walked her through the controls of the bike. I'm still a bit nervous about turning her loose on it, and she needs a helmet before that anyway. She has boots, and can wear my gloves.. but she needs a jacket.

I'm really looking forward to our Motorcycle Safety Foundation class coming up in October, I know it's going to teach me alot of things, and Marie too. She really doesn't want to ride until that class, and I don't blame her as they teach you clutching, and all the basics in it.

Anyway, today's riding totaled a little over 22 miles. The bike has 44 miles on the odometer, 40 of those are from me and 4 or so from when the dealership put on a show, so I'm 6 miles from the 50 mile break in period being over and being on to the rest of the 500 mile break in period on the bike. Someone at a stoplight asked my wife what kind of motorcycle I was riding (they'd never seen a Buell Blast before).

So far I'm really enjoying being a member of the 2-wheeled crowd, which are special people in my opinion.

Oh, and I heard my bell ringing today while riding. (Thanks Henry! :-)

Stephen

7/23/2004 - Today was a pretty busy day.

I got the plates for the Buell today and paid my sales taxes on it. I stopped by Rodney's Cycle House (great shop and great people BTW, mainly a Harley/Cruiser place, but I'll see what kind of stuff I can get in the coming months for the Buell there. I really want some hard or leather saddle bags and they have some which look like they'd work on the bike rather than going with the sport saddle bags which seem to be prevalent among Blast riders.

Last night I saw an auction on E-Bay where a Buell rider had put a Maier Sport fairing on their bike and had it for sale. I've seen this a couple of times, and it got me thinking of doing that myself as I like the Maier Sport fairing and it's only $80.00 from JC Whitney.

Anyway, at Rodney's I got a Chris Products Motorcycle License Plate Frame (chrome) and a license plate mounting kit by Drag Specialties (basically chromed acorn nuts and bolts to attach the frame and the plate to the bike. The Blast has a plastic license plate mount which includes the rear taillight assembly and a rear reflector but the holes for the plates aren't drilled so I taped the plate to it as a template and used my cordless drill with a 1/4" bit to drill the holes. It worked great, I mounted the plate with the frame and it looks very nice. I'll post a picture of the bike with plates mounted when I get a chance. My parts I ordered from Jones aren't in yet, but oh well, that's life. They'll be in eventually so I'm not terribly worried.

Anyway, here's a picture of the bike from E-Bay with the Maier Sport fairing... I think it looks sweet with that, of course he also has performance pipes and a performance air filter fitted... Related to that I got some JB Kwik today (it's like JB Weld, but cures quicker) and used it to fix the cracked chrome ring that was around my headlight. I fixed the broken screw mount that came off, and fixed the crack, and then used it to build up the scraped down part of the ring. I will put some more on it tomorrow when I can pull the tape off and then I'm going to sand the built up part smooth, and lightly sand the whole thing and spray it gloss black. I figure if I get the sport fairing I will take the new part off that I've got on order and put the gloss black one on as it'll be hidden in the sport fairing anyway.

I also got my Buell Brag membership card, patch, pin, and welcome kit in the mail. A one-year Buell Brag membership is included with every Buell motorcycle that is purchased new. It turns out my Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course is comped up to $50.00 by Brag, so I will send in the form and get a credit to pay for my next year's membership. The membership also includes subscriptions to Fuell, and the Enthusiast (two magazines, one from Buell for Buell riders, and one for Harley Riders from HD).

We're having a privacy fence put in at our house and it's coming along nicely, all that is left is for the custom chainlink gates to be installed on Monday and the final pieces of wood fencing to be installed to bridge the gap between the chainlink gates with privacy slats, and the rest of the wood privacy fence. It's all pressure treated wood, and I'm going to spray a sealer/treatment on it with my Wagner Powersprayer which is supposed to last 4 - 5 years. Our fence company is Security Fence and Iron in Sherwood, AR. They're really good guys, they work really hard and I'm thrilled with the job they're doing and the great price we're getting on the fence. I would highly recommend them to anyone needing a privacy fence, because our fence solution required some creative thinking since we needed a 30 foot opening (one slide gate, and one swing gate) and all the other companies wanted to do wood gates and wouldn't consider a chainlink with privacy slats or any other solution. Damon at Security Fence and Iron was willing to work with me, and I felt he really wanted my business and cared about us as customers.

Anyway, that's it for today's update.

Stephen

7/21/2004 - For the last seven months I have been researching motorcycles due to an interest in riding one for a long time. When I was a kid I had a dirtbike, a Honda QA-50 which I rode about in our yard alot and had alot of fun on but I had never owned a streetbike because my dad would never have approved of such a thing. Since the department I worked in reorganized I've met alot of motorcyclists at work, and a close friend of mine obtained a Virago-750 from a friend of his and began riding.

Thanks to alot of research, and sites like Beginner Bikes, the Arkansas Highway Department, and Arkansas ABATE I have gotten my learners permit, and decided on a bike and bought one. My new motorcycle is a Buell Blast from Buell, a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson. It's a standard motorcycle, not a sportbike or cruiser, and it's American Made. I picked it up on July 15th at Jones Harley-Davidson in Little Rock, and Wendy and Bryan at Jones treated me like I was a king and that made me feel really good about my first motorcycle purchase.

I bought my riding gear at Metric Bikes in Little Rock, Steve at Metric Bikes gave me an excellent deal on a HJC Symax Helmet in Pearl White, a Joe Rocket Reactor Jacket, and some Cortech GX-Air riding gloves to match. My boots are combat style boots with speed zips laced on and they come up and protect my ankles.

My first ride out was pretty good, the bike is very easy to ride with a LOW center of gravity.. But I had my first mishap. I was on my way back home from the parking lot at the local university and I used the front brake (newbie) while turning and went down at low speed. Being the idiot that I was and as hot was it was (97 degrees) I had my Harley-Davidson T-shirt on instead of a jacket or longsleeves and got some road rash on my right forearm. My head (Helmet) and Hands (Gloves) were fine, and the bike only sustained a broken right turn-signal, bent bracket, and cracked the chome ring around the headlight. Replacement parts are on order from Jones and will run me $48.00. I used light scratch remover on the plastic which fixed the light scratches, but I need a heavier (next grade up) to take the scuff out of the windscreen out of the plastic. The bike looks fine, and rides fine.. And I'm alive which is great.

I took it out on the following Saturday and rode around for an hour with longsleeves despite the heat, and it rides like a dream.

Preparing for the bike required ALOT of work, taking down shelves in our shed, building a door (16 hours of work, the first day of which was a 9 am to 9 pm stretch) for it to go into the shed, I am using concrete pavers to make a step over the small foundation our carport shed/room has where the door is and I can get the Blast out easily enough.

I'm taking a riding class from Arkansas ABATE in October along with my wife Marie, and I'm looking forward to it. My eventual goal is my Blast to be my daily commuter to work, and I'll tell you that I'm a bit away from that because going 30 mph seems like 60 at the moment, but it's a blast and I am having fun.. And my friend Henry has introduced me to alot of good people who ride recently.

Stephen

Some Pictures Click each picture for a larger image in a new window
Me in my riding gear.	The 'stable' for the little Buell.	Minor scratch on the tank cover from my mishap.
Minor scuff on the side of the bike towards the rear.	Bent bracket, and after I'd removed the windscreen, broken turn signal, and chrome ring.	Another shot with the parts removed.