New Bike from Harley Davidson

Harley-Davidson has been busy covering all of their bases over the past year or two. There has been the tremendous hype over their electric bike, the LiveWire. They have floated pictures of a streetfighter bike and a big adventure bike. The FXDR showed up in dealerships last fall and was advertised with videos of the bike on a race track. Now the Motor Company is reaching back into its roots with the latest version of the Electra Glide Standard.

The EGS has not been in the model lineup for several years. If a buyer wanted a touring bike with a fairing the only choices included at least a radio and speakers. The Road King continued to be available, but it only has a windshield. So the new EGS is offered as a bike for those who want the comfort and advantages of a full touring motorcycle at a reduced price.

As noted, one major difference is the lack of an entertainment and Bluetooth system. The hole is there in the dash if a buyer wants to install a system. It seems as though Harley could have manufactured some sort of cover for the gaping hole so it could be useful for storage. The bike does not come with driving lights, only the single halogen headlamp. The 107 cubic inch engine is the only option and will be more than enough power for most riders. The suspension is identical to the other touring bikes in the lineup.

An interesting note about the introduction of this bike is that no one, not even the dealers, knew it was coming. I spoke to a salesman at my dealership, Vandervest Harley Davidson in Green Bay, and they found out about it the day before it showed up. It must have something to do with marketing and sales of the new products when the decisions are made about announcing their arrival.

I have not had an opportunity to ride this new bike, but I plan to try it out this summer.

How Late is Late?

As early March turned into mid-March I became more and more anxious to get out and begin the 2019 motorcycling season. The prior two months had produced some impressive, if not quite record breaking, amounts of snow. The March temperatures were not doing much to melt it all and the riding season got shorter by the minute. It was not until March 21st that I was able to get out on my 2011 BMW R1200 GSA for a ride. I put on 150 cold and windy miles, but at least I was riding again.

In the next few days I commented to a few people that it was the latest I had gotten out in quite some time. Their disinterest in my observation was quite obvious, but I began to wonder if what I felt was really true. Fortunately, I have a trove of riding data that I could examine.

At Christmas in 2000 a friend gave me a leather bound Harley Davidson Hog Log. The book features photographs from the Harley Davidson archives, maps and pages for logging anything you want about your motorcycle and riding it. My first entry is from April 4, 2001, and describes putting in the battery and taking it out for a short ride. The last sentence of the entry is one that shows up often in the next seventeen years: "It was cold".

I have kept a journal of my riding adventures ever since April 2001. There were years when I would miss a few weeks of notes and then try to catch up. But after reading through them all again recently I get a flavor of what each summer was like. Those years took me through job changes, beginning retirement, the passing of my parents and a new bike or two. Around the beginning of 2013 I had filled the Hog Log. I went on a search for a new one, but they were only made for a short period of time and are long out of print. Any that are still in new condition bring a premium price, so I began using a small spiral bound notebook.

Even though there may have been some gaps in my notes through a particular season, I was particular about noting when I began riding each season and when I took the last ride. So I thought it would be interesting to find out if in fact I was out later this year than other years. I went through each of the log books beginning in 2001 and all the way through to the spring of this year. Armed with this data I built a spreadsheet to include beginning date, ending date and miles ridden.

The results of my examination showed that while I was out a little later than recent years, there is a likely explanation for it. First, I can say that 61% of the time my first ride was later than this year and was, in fact, in April 40% of the time. Further analysis shows that of the seven years that I rode earlier than March 21st, four of them have come since I retired in 2014. When I was working I usually had to wait for a weekend riding opportunity, but in the last few years I have been able to ride whenever the weather allows it.

So it is true that the weather prevented me from getting out as early as recent years. I recall those last years of my work life, watching motorcycles rumble by on the first decent day of the spring. I often thought that soon I would be out there too, and I am happy that I have been taking advantage of any early riding opportunities.

Winter Musings

This Wisconsin winter is one that would make even the most diehard "change of seasons" lover think about becoming a snowbird. The winter weather did not start until New Year's Eve when we received about five inches of snow, but that was a harbinger of what we would endure over the next two months. Instead of the old saw about it's not the heat, it's the humidity, this winter it's not the snow, it's the ice. Bags of salt and sand are in short supply in the local hardware and convenience stores. Yesterday there was a 131 car pileup on the local interstate and a 25 year veteran of the sheriff's department said it was worst driving conditions he had ever seen.

It has been a good weather for snow biking, though. The trails at the Brown County Reforestation Camp have gotten better each week and I have enjoyed my rides. As a newbie at this activity, it has taken me a while to figure out just how much air pressure to have in the tires. Right now I am down to five pounds and that seems about right. The park department does a great job of grooming the trails and encouraging riders to run with low air pressure.

Sharing the road with bicycles

The Chicago International Motorcycle Show was held a couple of weekends ago and that is an excellent mid winter bike fix. Some of the manufacturers passed up the show this year and I suppose it is due to a weaker market than they would like. BMW was there, though, and they showed off the latest iteration of the S 1000 RR. The bike has been almost completely redone and the one they brought had all of the high speed M parts installed. The reps on hand had no information on how much it will cost, but it is rumored that it will be in showrooms by September. They were not letting anyone sit on or otherwise caress this beautiful motorcycle.

2020 BMW S 1000 RR

I picked up a few brochures from the vendors at the show and one was from Michelin. Since my 2016 Harley Davidson Lowrider S is shod with Michelin's I thought it would be interesting to read a bit about the rubber I entrust my safety to each time I ride. After looking through the pamphlet my curiosity was piqued and I went out to the garage to inspect my tires. The bike is hooked to a Battery Tender and covered up in a cold garage. I pulled the cover back and knelt down to look at the rear tire. Surprisingly, the tire appeared to be flat. A quick check with a gauge confirmed this and I soon found that I had run over a nail or something that punctured the tire. It must have happened on one of my last rides of the fall before I put it away. My local dealer will pick it up and replace the tire once the driveway is clear of ice.

Which brings me back where I started. March is only a couple of days away and the first day of spring is within sight. Tomorrow I will be back in the woods on my fatbike trying to make the best of another Wisconsin winter.

Riding Season Wrapup

I tried to extend the 2018 riding season as long as possible, but it came to an end around Thanksgiving weekend. The weather had turned cold in late September and never really warmed up again. What with northeast Wisconsin receiving 24 inches of snow in late April it made for a pretty short riding window. But the season did have its highlights.

The Slimey Crud Run west of Madison, Wisconsin, has been a ride I have been anxious to experience. Family commitments have prevented me from taking part, but this year I was able to participate. It is held the first Sunday in May and this year the weather was perfect. I rode over to visit some of my old haunts at Fort McCoy before going south to Madison on Saturday. After spending the night on the west side of Madison I arrived in Pine Bluff in plenty of time to check out the multitude of bikes that showed up. A friend I met there seemed to know every twisty road from there to the destination in Leland, so we had a great ride. The ride home featured more curves and it was an excellent motorcycling weekend.

Post Headquarters at Fort McCoy

This S1000RR had all the goodies on it

My brother and  I rode up to Duluth, Minnesota in June for our aunt's funeral. We stopped at his friend's farm in central Wisconsin on the way. It was a great reminder of just how labor intensive it is to operate a family farm. It made me think that many people who rail against Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), or corporate farms, may have never experienced life on one of the family farms they rhapsodize over.

July brought a trip to Iowa for the BMW International Rally. It was held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, a beautiful rally site. The weather was brutally hot, but we enjoyed the ride and the rally.

This was a good stop on the way to Des Moines

While these were all rides on my 2011 BMW R1200 GSA, I did get out on my Harley Davidson over the summer. It is not equipped for long trips and overnights like the Beemer, so they were all day rides.

One that I particularly enjoyed caused me to write a couple of letters to my state representatives. On a rare warm day in May, my route took me west on Highway 21, north on Highway 45, and south through the Menominee Indian Reservation. I must have passed a half dozen waysides that were closed along with an unoccupied ranger station on the Wolf River. My state senator's office wrote back saying that some of the sitesw were closed for budgetary reasons and others would open after Memorial Day. A recheck in the summer showed that some of them did open up.

I also took the Harley down to Bike Night in Menasha  a couple of times. All in all it was a good summer on the big Dyna.

One of the closed waysides

The last big ride of the season was in September. I took the BMW into southeast Wisconsin in search of some Rustic Roads. Over the course of two days I rode seventeen of them and put on about 550 miles. I spent the night in Waterford. Most of them were paved, but there was enough dirt and gravel to make it interesting for me.

Rustic Road Five on a misty morning

The bikes are under cover and hooked up to the battery tenders for the winter. While I sometimes think it would be nice to be able to ride year round, the winter break provides an opportunity to look back on the rides past and begin to dream of the rides to come. Yesterday I created the 2019 Vacation folder in my email account, so plans are already being made.

The Winds of Change Blowing at Harley Davidson

It was the spring of 1998 when I was walking through the East Town Mall in Madison. I was in town for a National Guard drill weekend and was looking for a St. Patrick's Day gift for my wife. One of the shop windows had a new Suzuki Marauder in the window. I do not remember what the store was selling or what the motorcycle had to do with it, but it re-ignited my interest in getting a motorcycle.

My life had been motorcycle free for 25 years and I had not been in a bike shop for nearly as long. Several people I knew had recently bought bikes and they were Harley Davidsons. They seemed to be the brand of choice for middle aged men like me.

This was the heyday of Harley Davidson sales, and new bikes were not in showrooms. If you wanted a new one you had to order it and then wait months for it to come in. I was not in a waiting mood and bought a used one that turned out to be a great bike.

2004 Lowrider ordered in October 2003

Those days are long gone for The Motor Company. The middle aged crowd that fueled those sales in the late nineties and early aughts are aging out of the riding life. The prices of the bikes have increased steadily while the motorcycle buying demographic has less disposable income. Competition for big American-made v-twin motorcycles arrived in the form of Harley's oldest rival, Indian. For all of these reasons Harley is developing and marketing the types of motorcycles they used to leave to other manufacturers.

A couple of months ago Harley Davidson released pictures of an adventure bike, a streetfighter, and an electric bike that they will bring to market as 2020 models. The details on the bikes are still murky, but they are a departure from anything they have built in their first 115 years.

Air cleaner  on my 110 CI 2016 FXDL S

Last month the new FXDR was introduced as a 2019 model. The Harley website shows the bike being ridden on a racetrack as a way of proclaiming that this is not your father's (or grandfather's) Harley. It has the big 114 cubic inch motor and an improved suspension over the other bikes built on the Softail platform. The clip-on bars and solo seat are indications that this bike is aimed at the track day rider rather than the bar hopping, fingerless glove rider.

The new FXDR features clip on handlebars

What surprised me about the bike was the amount of plastic on it compared to my 2016 Lowrider S. The new bike's radical air cleaner is all plastic instead of powder coated steel like the one on mine. Other pieces are made of cheaper looking materials than I am used to seeing. The styling does not seem to flow like the now discontinued Dynas did and it does not look much like the Softails that were so popular for decades. The new bike is priced north of $21,000, so it will take a committed rider to buy one of these.

In the past Harley did not seem concerned about how their products stacked up against other manufacturers. Indian was not the competition that they are today. The metric bike builders tried to imitate Harley with their cruiser offerings, but could make no inroads on the Motor Company's share of this market. But Indian has continuously improved their bikes and built out their dealership network. As the biker demographic has aged, big rangy adventure bikes like the BMW R 1200 GS and Ducati Multistrada have become hot commodities.

Plastic air cleaner on the big 114 CI engine

The younger riders are not attracted to the big, heavy bikes that Harley built its brand upon and prefer sport bikes or cafe racers. So now the trend seems to have shifted. It's Harley that is trying to build bikes like the German, Italian, and to an extent, like the Japanese are producing.

It is apparent that Harley is concerned that it is losing market share with its legacy model lineup. These new bikes, while still having a big v-twin as the center of attraction, are a distinct departure from the old way. It remains to be seen whether or not this will attract the coveted millennial demographic and allow Harley to maintain or increase its market share.

The Wisconsin Motorcycle Memorial

It is easy take for granted the beauty and richness that is in our own backyard. As a Green Bay resident and game day employee of the Green Bay Packers, I am reminded of this every time a fan walks into Lambeau Field with childlike wonder in their eyes. After 60 years of having the Frozen Tundra as a neighbor, I don't have the same reaction when I enter the stadium.

It was with this in mind that I decided to finally make the turn north off Highway 57 in Door County and visit the Wisconsin Motorcycle Memorial. The sign for the memorial, about a mile past the point where Highways 42 and 57 divide north of Sturgeon Bay, indicates it is less than two miles off the highway. It has always seemed that there was not time to stop and whatever was north or south was more important. So one Sunday this summer I resolved to make a trip to visit the spot.

It was a warm day and there was a good deal of traffic around Door County. This is prime vacation time and people were in a hurry to relax. I past Sturgeon Bay on the bypass and was soon on the county road heading to the memorial site.

I had seen a few motorcycles on the road, so I was surprised that I was the only person there. Parking my BMW R1200 GSA in front of the gate, I lowered the kickstand and prepared to take a look around. According to the website, http://www.wimotorcyclememorial.org/, the Wisconsin Motorcycle Memorial Park was established on this one acre site in 2004. Its goal is to be "a place to recognize and honor the memory of loved ones".

Grab a seat!

A piece designed by "Doc" Hopkins.

The first thing I noticed was how well-kept the grounds were. The grass was freshly mowed and the flowers well tended. There were picnic tables spread around and motorcycle art was in abundance. A good sized open shelter with tables indicated that the site hosts some well attended events. Two sheds and a beverage machine said that there is someone who regularly tends to the memorial.

A great site for any type of event.

A Swedish rider honored.

Passing through the gate, a visitor is walking on memorial stones. Many of them are memorializing riders from local clubs, but not all. Some of them had been visited recently by friends and family and they had left remembrances of their loved one. A quick check of the memorial's website revealed that a stone can be purchased and engraved for $150.00.

The peacefulness of the place is in sharp contrast to the machines that many of the visitors ride and the bikes of the honored. The sound and the fury of a motorcycle is what draws many of us to the riding life, but this afternoon it was quiet enough to contemplate the joy and the feeling of freedom that come with the ride. The silent stones represented the everlasting peace that we all will find one day and the importance of living in the moment.

I took one last walk around before mounting up and turning the bike south. As I rode, I took in all of the sights and sounds around me, appreciating the beauty and richness of life in northeast Wisconsin.

The 2018 Riding Season is in Full Swing

I am at about the midpoint of the riding season here in northeast Wisconsin and so far it has been an interesting one. It began before the biggest snowstorm the area has seen in almost a century and continues through weather hot enough to almost convince climate change deniers that something is afoot.

The first ride on my BMW R1200 GSA was on March 14th and I got out a few more times later that month. One cold day I rode down to Madison. Easter was in early April and April 13-14 the area received 24 inches of heavy, wet snow. The weather warmed a bit after that and it began to melt, but it was a slow process.

Lots of snow for late April!

I took the Harley Davidson out from under wraps on April 23rd and rode it to Vandervest HD to have a swingarm bag attached. I bought a new jacket from them in January and had a chance to try it out this spring. It was called a three in one, with an outer shell, a rain liner and a warmth liner. It must have become popular, because it is in their latest apparel catalog and named the "Killian". I tried out its cool weather features on a nice ride into central Wisconsin. It has been a great jacket, especially in this warmer weather. 

Langlade Ranger Station in northern Wisconsin

In May I went to the Madison area to ride the Slimey Crud Run. The ride occurs the first Sunday in both May and October each year and draws all types of bikes and riders. Riders meet up informally on Sunday morning in Pine Bluff and then ride a route of their choosing up to Leland. Food and beverages are available at both locations. It was a beautiful day and I am glad I finally made it down there for the event.

Getting ready to leave Pine Bluff

In June, after a week of fishing in Canada, I got the opportunity to try out my new Shoei Hornet X2. I have always thought about getting an adventure helmet and finally made the buy. My aunt passed away in Duluth, MN, so I took the opportunity to ride the BMW up to the funeral. The helmet was pretty tight and after two 350 mile days I was a little concerned about it. But it broke in after a few more rides and now I am glad I have it.

Nice fish!

On July 12th my brother and I rode down to Des Moines, IA, for the BMW International Rally. It was 95 degrees in Iowa. We stopped at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, IA, on the way down. It has a wonderful selection of motorcycles and information about the history of several manufacturers. The eclectic nature of the collection makes it a good stop for all motorcyclists.

The rally itself was held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, an excellent venue. It was nice to talk with some of the people who run the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America organization and the editors of the BMW Owners News. Many of the vendors who advertise in the BMW ON were there and it was a great opportunity to examine their wares firsthand.

The midway at the fairgrounds

Some vendors were out in the heat

The ride home was a little cooler and we stopped in Mount Horeb for a nice lunch. Trolls seem to be their thing, and the names of a lot the businesses work in the word "troll". After a quick look inside the Duluth Trading Company, we were on our way back to Green Bay.

I have a few more riding plans for the summer and look forward to many more miles on two wheels in 2018.