Texas Christkindl Market

A couple weeks ago on a Saturday night the weather was cool and clear so we took a short ride to Arlington, TX to visit the Texas Christkindl Market. This was the fourth year the market has been set up and we went with high expectations from the write-ups we found online about it. However, and I really don't like going down this road, it was a complete disappointment and nothing short of overblown hype.

The market is supposed to be based around a German American theme. German wooden toys, ornaments, wood works, beer, bratwursts, sauerkraut, you get the idea. We were surprised to find so many non-German shops rounding out the market. If you were looking for wool woven scarfs and head gear from Tibet, this was the place to go. If you wanted miscellaneous trinkets from the street markets of Nepal and China, you found it. There were geodes from the Texas hill country and jewelers that made your typical cosmetic bling, and of course Christmas tree ornaments aplenty. The primary "German" shops we found were a goblet maker, a wooden toy carousel shop, and a wooden cutting board craftsman. Other than those the majority of "German" related theme items to be found were the shop signs.

There was a marionette show that we wanted to see but we had just missed the start and they wouldn't let you in after it began. The marionette show was a unique attraction and one you almost never see. Though marionettes did not originate in Germany or America they have roots in German culture even today.

Aside from the 200 yards or so of world culture and general junk shopping, there were a few food vendors as well. Coca Cola was selling at the ridiculous price of $4 a bottle. Hot chocolate was a healthy $4 for a small coffee cup serving. Coffee was $2 a cup, finding itself being the only reasonable value of the night. There was the ever favorite Kettle Korn, not sure if that has German roots or not, but it is an American favorite so it had its place in the market. They did have bratwurst though, if you were willing to  pay $8 each for a small store packaged sized wiener on a Mrs Bairds bun. Definitely not the wursts I was accustomed to seeing when I lived in Europe. And I thought everything was bigger in Texas... There were side orders available too but at $4 and higher each it was unreasonable. They did have an excellent serving size of beer though that would cost you $12 and you got to keep the glass mug it came in. I don't mean to harp on the prices because it's expected that you usually pay more at a fair type event. The prices at this "German" market were simply unreasonable considering the commonality of the items being sold. In our search for Apfelstrudels, Bienenstich, Frikadellen, Currywurst, Bavarian Pretzels, and foot long Wursts which overflow generously from the ends of a bun, we never found satisfaction, leaving us dumbfounded as to how people were bamboozled into paying outrageous prices for non-traditional food you can find packaged, ready to microwave from Walmart. I have no problem paying a premium price for extraordinary food, but just because average food that is being tagged as German-American and is being served at a seasonal event doesn't justify price gouging.

The following video is more along the lines of what we were expecting. Take note of the giant wursts and buns at the far end of the serving counter and at the giant wurst the guy is walking with at the end of the video.

I am usually not this harsh about the events we ride too. Margaret and I have gone to craft fairs, street corner festivals, bike events and gatherings, country markets, peach festivals, strawberry festivals, and other types of craftsy things for years. We ride weekly to eating places all over North Texas and know what good food is and where to find it. We have never been more put off by one of these types of events. We did have a nice ride Saturday evening to and from the Market and made a nice dinner once we arrived home. I made a short video of the market and because it was supposed to be a "German" themed event I used a traditional German style music to get you in the mood for what the Texas Christkindl Market was failing to be.

Wise County Toy Run 2014

Yup! It was that time again for the Wise County Toy Run! What a great event to attend for the year and for a wonderful cause. Riders from all over showed up to give toys for children. It's exciting to see so many riders come together to support a great cause. 

The toy run starts in Decatur, TX which is the staging area. Admission and the ride is free if you bring a toy or $10 if you just want to pay. Margaret and I pay instead of bringing a toy. The organizers need funding to run the event so we contribute in that way instead. When the ride portion begins it is police escorted for the safety of the riders and heads to Bridgeport, TX. The Santa on the Harley leading it usually arrives at Bridgeport about the time the last of the attendees leaves the staging area in Decatur. The ride is 10.8 miles long so when you consider the amount of bikes it takes to cover that distance from end to end its quite impressive.

It's such a big event that people park along the road in preparation to see the bikes. You'll see people along the entire route taking video, waving, and enjoying the bikes as they pass. I like that its not just isolated to riders. When communities get involved the entire run becomes more of a landmark event than a bike event alone. Riders will carry bags of candy and throw it to the kids as they ride by which brings excitement for the kids. This really helps to make the ride a community event with everyone participating and showing their supporting. It's basically a 10.8 mile parade that stretches between the two towns.

Once you arrive in Bridgeport, TX and park you head to the pavilion where all the action is taking place. This is where you drop off your toys as well. It is incredible to see the amount of toys everyone is giving. The workers are almost frantic trying to keep up with how many toys riders are being dropped off. There is always hot chili to help take the edge off the chill from the ride. Various booths are scattered around that sell leather goods, patches, t-shirts, and other miscellaneous stuff. The usual 50/50 and raffles for items are present as well. One MC had a tent setup with support gear as well. I am also very grateful that the event organizers are still American patriots and pause the event for the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the National Anthem.

That's only an overview of the toy run. When your involved it becomes much larger. The attendance was huge this year. I can only speculate as to the number of bikes involved. I'm sure the organizers have a better grasp of this than I would possibly be able to. Suffice to say though, it seemed to be larger than the previous years I have attended. This year one of the Christian MC's brought a huge trailer and provided live music along with prayer at the staging area.

There was tremendous support from area MC's along with independents and riding groups. We tried to get pictures of as many of the clubs that rode in the event as possible so we could highlight their involvement. While roaming the staging area we took as many pictures as we could in an attempt to capture the essence of the event. The more media we can make available means possibly more attendance next year as people can better visualize whats going on.

Because Margaret and I were both taking pictures we decided to combine our photo media and link to the same album from both of our sites. Video however will be independent of each other so you'll have to visit each site for that, and our write-ups too! Visit This Lady Rides for Margaret's write-up and video. We uploaded the pictures at a very high resolution so you can download them if you see something you like and want to make a print from it. The pictures are free but we do ask if you use them that you give us credit by including the link to our sites as a courtesy.

Wise County Toy Run 2014 Slideshow

Wise County Toy Run 2014 Video

How Far will it Go

So I'm about to roll 60k miles on my 2012 Street Glide. I have had it for 2.5 years. As I mentioned before, this is my first Harley and I am the first in my family history to ride a Harley and I am still curious as to how far will it go?

It's interesting to hear the variety of opinions on the longevity of Harley's. I understand there were issues historically with Harley's. They required a lot of wrenching to keep on the road. But how about the newer Big Twins? I suppose we wont really know how long they will keep running until some future time when people begin looking back and talking about how good or bad they were. Right now about the only answers I hear are speculations.

The majority of riders I talk with about mileage of Harley's state they will trade in their bike between 20-30k miles. The usual response to my question of why are you going to trade it in that soon is the same. Because it's getting "Up There" in miles. Well......What does "Up There" in miles really mean though? The factory Harley Davidson warranty on a new bike without purchasing an extended warranty is 2 years, 75k miles (Which ever come first). That's actually pretty good in comparison to some other bike manufacturers. My Yamaha V-Star 1300 only had 1 measly little year for the factory warranty. So if Harley is taking their warranty to 2 years or 75k miles my translation of that is they believe their bikes can run pretty much trouble free for at least that amount of mileage. So why are riders trading their bikes in so early? Are they stuck in a programmed mindset from other peoples opinions and speculations that Harley's simply won't make it much past 30k miles? Was this opinion formulated over the historical problems Harley has had with its bikes that is still lingering in peoples minds? If I subscribed to this theory I would have to trade my bike in every year since I put an average of 25k miles on it per year. At that point it would be unreasonable to even own a bike.

It's fun to read forums over this question too! If you search" How long will a Harley run" you'll get days worth of reading and opinions. So many that you won't know what to think and you'll be more confused about the question than ever. The opinions can also place a lot of doubt in your head about how long the bikes will last leading you to consider trading it in to avoid future issues. All I can do is quote the well known saying "Opinions are like assholes and everyone has one".

I believe in riding or driving my vehicles into the ground. I want to pay them off, and then get my money's worth out of them afterwards. I don't mind repairing or if its beyond my capabilities, paying to have repairs made. Every bike will eventually break down in some way. But does a breakdown mean the bike is at the end of its life? To be discarded and left to die in some motorcycle graveyard? I have had a few breakages on my Harley which were covered under the warranty which the dealership repaired. The list is short and I find it quite acceptable considering the amount of miles on the bike.

-Rocker box gasket leak

-Broke engine mount (the rubber mount cracked and had to be replaced)

-Voltage regulator failure (this was a known issue and was a recall item on some bikes)

-Oil filter housing leak

-Wire that stopped conducting current and caused my speedometer and tack to stop working

Should I have given the bike up at any one of these breakages and purchased a new bike? At what point does a breakage warrant a trade in? Again, it's a matter of opinion. One of our Chapters Road Captains has over 160k miles on his Road King. He refuses to trade it in. Like myself, he performs his own maintenance and has had no major breakdown issues. One of the parts employees at our local dealership has over 150k miles on his bike, does his own maintenance, and wont even consider trading his bike in.

How many breakages are caused from maintenance neglect on the owners side too? That is a very good question worth investigation. For instance, my bike will burn 1 quart of oil between every 5k mile oil change. I check the oil level every week and over the course of the 5k miles and keep it topped off. It doesn't leak, it just burns that 1 quart and has done so since it was purchased new off the showroom floor. On our summer trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway I checked the oil at 2700 miles and sure enough, it was half a quart low so I topped it off. I know of one time when riding with someone, they checked their oil level while stopped at a gas station and it was showing a half quart low. So my bike isn't the only one that does this. Keeping that in mind, consider the rider that does nothing maintenance wise on their bike. They take it to the shop for everything. If they are not checking and possibly topping off their oil they could be riding with an ever increasing low oil level before it goes in for the next oil change if their bike does the same thing. Low oil means more wear on internal parts which will translate to breakdowns earlier and possibly to an extensive repair. And there are a LOT of riders that wont do any type of maintenance on their bikes. Owner neglect that contributes to break downs don't apply to the reliability or longevity of the bike in my opinion.

What I do know is my Street Glide has been a good bike. It's fun to ride, comfortable on long trips, and easy to maintain, and has been reliable up to this point. I am also happy to have proven nay sayers wrong who say a Harley wont run much past the 30k mark, or that it needs a rebuild at 50k. We shall see as we move forward past the 60k mileage mark into the unknown and speculative future of How Far Will it Go!

How to Change the Rear Brake Pads on a 2012 Harley Davidson Street Glide

As stated in the title this post is about another maintenance necessity. We were working in the garage last weekend cleaning out stuff we had stored for years and never used. I had to move my bike out of the way and instead of starting it, I just put it in neutral and rolled it around. That's when I noticed a soft grinding sound coming from the brake area at the rear tire. I never would have heard it if I had started the bike over the sound of the exhaust. Oh my! It was kind of embarrassing because of all the maintenance videos and posts I have done. But truth be told, I simply didn't pay attention to the rear brakes lately.

Sunday morning we headed to Harley and bought new pads. I figured this would be a good time to make a video that might help someone as well. Even though I have a video of doing the front brakes and bleeding the brake lines, performing the pad change on the rear is a slightly different process.

I won't go into details on this post in writing about the process. It's all covered in the video. Hope this helps!

How to Change the Rear Brake Pads on a 2012 Harley Davidson Street Glide

How to Bleed the Brakes on a 2012 Street Glide

I thought it might be a good post to talk a bit about brake fluid and show the process of flushing your brake lines. Obviously brakes are a critical system to your bike and some care needs to be taken on them at regular intervals.Something I have discovered in the Official Harley Davidson Service Manual for my 2012 Street Glide is that every maintenance point is not listed on the maintenance interval chart. What? You would think it would be but it's not. Brake fluid is one of those maintenance points they do not list. I can only speculate as to why they would leave this critical point off.

The average rider from what I have seen might put 8-12 K miles on their bike yearly. This number might be disputed by some readers and that's fine, but this is the average that is clocked on the odometers from the 900 or so members of our local HOG Chapter per year. This means their not riding enough to wear their brake pads down enough to need them replaced every year or even every 2 years. If the brakes aren't being replaced, you can almost be sure the fluid isn't being flushed either. Now put 2 years, around 20 K miles on the same bike, it still doesn't need brake pads but now the fluid needs replaced. If the owner doesn't do it themselves or take it in and specifically pay to have the lines flushed and refilled with new fluid they may begin to experience a difference in the braking of the bike. So even if your not changing out the brake pads, you still need to keep up with flushing the lines and refilling them with new brake fluid. This maintenance point should become a regularity at the minimum of every 2 years and be taken as seriously as changing your oil.

Why brake fluid needs to be changed

Glycol-based brake fluid  is hygroscopic. This means that the fluid will aggressively absorb moisture. As soon as the seal is broken on the bottle, the brake fluid will begin to absorb moisture from the air. Even once it’s sealed in your system (though it’s never truly sealed) it will continue to absorb moisture from things like rubber seals and hoses. So don't use a bottle that has had the seal broken because it will have already absorbed enough moisture to affect the brake fluid.

Over time as more and more moisture is absorbed you will get a build-up of water in the system, and it is the water that changes the performance characteristics of the brake fluid.

Fluid in its natural state is not appreciably compressible, but when that fluid is vaporized by high temperatures the resulting vapor can be compressed. This means the fluid is then less able to convert force into pressure. It is for this reason that brake fluids have very high boiling points to combat this, but when moisture is absorbed into the fluid the boiling point drops dramatically. This can cause your brakes to have a squishy feel. You may even have to push harder on the brake pedal or pull the brake handle in further to get a brake response.

DOT 4 brake fluid has a boiling point of around 445 degrees Fahrenheit, but once the fluid absorbs enough moisture to the point where it is then made up of just a few percent water, the boiling point can drop as much as 175 degrees F.

This is why it needs to be changed.

How to Change the Brake Fluid on a 2012 Street Glide