Spontaneous Riding

Winter weather can dampen your riding spirit for quite a length of time depending
on where you live. In North Texas, we are fortunate to have nearly year-round riding.
During the months of January and February, it can be quite cold and rainy which can
keep you off the road. There are times where the weather will surprise you and make
for a very nice day to take off and ride.

Yesterday was one of those days. I knew from the forecast it was going to be in the
low 80’s. At first, I was just going to ride to work. As I cruised along the highway and
neared the office my spirits took a turn for the worse. I almost made the decision to
just ride past my turn and keep going. My sense of responsibility kicked in so
I exited the freeway and went to work. Upon arrival, I powered on my laptop and sat there
looking at the screen. A sinking feeling came upon me which could almost be likened
to a state of depression. I just didn’t want to be at work. There wasn’t a positive feeling
or initiative I could muster up that changed that emotion. After 10 minutes of fighting and
struggling against the negativity, sense of responsibility, duty, whatever you want to call it,
I packed up my laptop, got on my bike, and left for the day. It was a renegade decision and
quite frankly I didn’t give a damn. I needed the time away.

Keep in mind my day begins at 5 am so it was dark. My first thought of destination
was the Koffee Kup restaurant in Hico, TX. A nice 2 hour ride for breakfast seemed
like a good start. No freeways was the idea and I pretty much managed to hold fast to that
the entire day. From Cedar Hill, TX I went through Venus, Maypearl, Itasca, Covington,
Blum, Morgan, Walnut Springs, Iredell, and finally Hico, TX where I had a fantastic
breakfast. Up until Iredell all was not shiny fluttering butterflies though. There was a very
thick fog during this part of the day and the ride. That caused a heavy mist and made those
farm and market roads slick and dirty. My shins were soaked and my bike became
unbelievably dirty. The cool morning air felt good though and the air was fresh. It was
very quiet on those back roads that early in the morning and the thickness of the fog
muffled perimeter sounds. The Harley was running great and cast its lonely rumble along
the empty stretches of back road. This was one of those rides where you know something
special is happening, the feel of the road and bike is right, and the joy of life reaches a
momentous height.

While eating a superb breakfast at the Koffee Kup I read some news and sent an email
to work that I would be out for the day. My next stop of the day was going to be Waco.
There is some good country riding you can take to get there from Hico and I wanted to
make the best of the day seeing as I took off to ride. The skies had cleared completely
by now and it was as sunny as any summer day. The next stretch of roads took me from
Hico, TX to Fairy, Cranfills Gap, Clifton, Valley Mills, and finally Waco. I went to Waco
Harley Davidson to hang out for awhile and look at the new line up of bikes they had.
It was surprising how many people had stopped at the dealership and were out riding.
By now it was noon, sunny and 75.

While in Waco I stopped by the Texas DPS driver license office to get my renewal
since it was almost due. The Waco branch isn’t nearly as long a wait as the branches in
DFW so it seemed like a good time to take care of that. While waiting I plotted my journey
home. I could have just taken an interstate from Waco and been back in less than 2 hours
but it was just too beautiful out to do that. So again to keep the ride alive, it was back roads to get home.

From Waco my ride went through Elm Mott, Gholson, Aquilla, and Whitney. In Whitney
I took a route across the Lake Whitney Damn into Laguna Park. From there I headed north
to Kopperl, Brazos Point, past Cleburne State Park, Bono, Godley, and finally back into
Fort Worth. From Waco, TX the day remained sunny with a slight wind at my back,
and touched 82 degrees to make for a phenomenally perfect day of riding.

Today I am back at work writing this post. Today I am depressed again, wanting to be
on the road instead of at work.

Progressive IMS Dallas, TX 2019

The Progressive International Motorcycle Show in Dallas was a huge success again
this year. The organizers made some event changes that brought more interactivity for
attendees into place. This year Yamaha had electric motor assisted bicycles that you
could ride and experience. After riding those, you could step over to the
Zero Electric Motorcycle and take it for a spin to get a feel of the possible future of
motorcycles. After that since you had your wristband, you could ride a Zero and perform
a wheelie where you could get a sense of the full potential of the bike.

Every year also brings the worlds largest motorcycle manufacturers to show their newest
lines for the year. Harley Davidson, Indian, Kawasaki, Honda, BMW, and Suzuki were
the big names that represented motorcycling at the show for 2019. There was a surprise on
the circuit this year that I was excited and surprised to see: Confederate Motorcycles
brought their line to demonstrate. They are a very unique style of motorcycle and one
that you just don’t see often unless you look them up online.

This year also featured a lot of gear and tool vendors. It seemed to me more so than
previous years though I could be wrong without an actual count. The vendors this
year had some of the newest designs and technology on the market. Parts manufacturers
such as Arlen Ness, Vance & Hines, Michelin, K&N, and others had displays with their
latest designs.

There was also a better line up of prizes and give away’s from advertising companies
than usual. State Farm printed custom metal signs with whatever you wanted on it,
Margaret got one made that read “This Lady Rides” and I had one printed
for “Ride It Wrench It“. There were fully printed books filled with articles and
beautiful pictures of motorcycles that make for nice inn table pieces, Progressive had
very nice T-Shirts and Hats as give away’s as did some other booths. There was also the
usual swag you could fill your bags with.

This year we spent 2 days at the show. We are usually able to see everything in 1
but this year we needed more time. We also went on the opening day, Friday, and it was a
very good decision to do so. There were less crowds and for the most part any of the
activities we wanted to try we were able to just walk up and participate without any
wait in line. The manufacturer reps were more available to talk to due to less people
asking questions.

As always there was a custom bike build competition. This year sported quite a few
different bikes than we have seen in the past. It’s nice to see the ideas builders have
which they integrate into their designs. Some of the builds were extreme customization’s
while others were restorations that were chromed and painted outside of the original.

I had a favorite pick this year of what bike I would like to own and ride.
You might be surprised that it was not a Harley! The Kawasaki Vulcan Vaquero was my
top pick. That means if I was going to trade my Harley in for a new bike this year,
I would trade it in for the Vulcan. I liked everything about that bike except the side
opening saddlebags. It was 1700 CC’s, 6-speed, heavy, had a great strong well built feel
when you sat on it and moved it around, it was ergonomically perfect without any mods,
and it has beautiful lines. Here is a picture of it below:

The 2019 Progressive IMS was our favorite of all we have attended in the past.
The organizers did a fantastic job in their lineup and we were excited to be part of it in a
press related role. As always I compiled a video of the highlights to give you a feel of the
action that was taking place and to encourage you to try to attend one of the shows as
they move around the country.

The Future of “Ride It” in “Wrench It”

Moving forward with information for riders, Ride It will begin taking on a stronger
role on my site. For years I have provided free maintenance tutorials which fell under the
Wrench It portion of the channel. I will still be making wrench it videos moving forward.
Ride It has always been a bit weak and unfortunately hasn’t offered riders much in the way
of being useful. We put some videos up of our adventures on the road and published riding
routes of some of those rides but they never really did much.

I have always wanted to teach prospective riders how to ride and do so safely. If you go
online there are hundreds of videos on riding safety, proper riding gear, and riding
techniques so I was apprehensive about moving to Ride It in that direction because of all the
other people already making those types of videos.

As I reviewed other instructor's videos I concluded there is a place for more of these types
of videos. My method of instruction might be presented in a manner that a rider could follow
more easily or understand better. Learning and instruction takes on many forms and
people learn from different methods of information delivery.

The future of Ride It is near! This spring we will begin publishing videos that
provide information on riding techniques, skills, safety, strategy, and anything other
content that might help riders be safer. I am very excited about doing this and am
hoping it will be helpful to the riding community.

Motorcycle Toy Runs 2018

Incredibly Christmas is only a month away again! For me 2018 went so fast it’s hard to
believe were coming up on Christmas again. I look forward to Christmas time in regards
to the motorcycle community because of the Toy Runs. In North Texas were just coming
into our winter about this time so riding slows down for us until around mid March. Local
Toy Runs provide a great opportunity with purpose to get the bikes out even in the cold and
spend the day amongst other riders.

The local Toy Run I’ve always supported is the Wise County Toy Run. It is always well
organized and is police escorted which provides a lot of safety from motorists interfering
with the column of motorcycles. I’ve written a couple articles in the past about the
Wise County Toy Run being a community event that extends beyond just the motorcycles
in the ride. The route is great as well extending from Decatur, TX to Bridgeport, TX for
about 13 miles. It’s a long enough ride to accommodate the 1000+ motorcycles that usually
make up the event but short enough that you can still have a nice ride and attend the
post-event while getting home at a reasonable time. I also like that is is always run
on the 2nd Sunday of December. Most Toy Runs in our area run on a Saturday so very
few of them interfere with the Wise County Toy Run. That means you can always make it
to the Wise County Toy Run and another that might be running on Saturday the day before.

With that being said, there are a couple of Toy Runs this weekend on Saturday to choose
from in North Texas. The Mesquite Santa-Cop Toy Parade rides out on
Saturday, December 1 as does the 13th annual Buddy Oney Toy Run in Rockdale, TX.
There are a couple of others as well. A new Toy Run that I will be participating in on
Saturday, December 1 is the 2nd Annual American Valor Toy Run. The run is supported
by both Stampede Harley Davidson in Burleson, TX and Fort Worth Harley Davidson in
Fort Worth, TX. It begins at Burleson HD and is a police escorted to Fort Worth HD.
Last year the ride attracted about 300 bikes which is impressive for its first-year kick-off.
The ride distance is 20 miles which is perfect for a toy run and ends with a block party
to close out the event. I am excited to see how much it will grow this year.

I’ll get some video of both these Toy Runs and add them to this post by mid-week.
I hope to see you at one if not both of the Toy Runs!

Got Pads? Replacing Brake Pads on a Harley With ABS

This has been a long requested maintenance topic for over a year. How to replace
brake pads on a Harley that has an anti-lock brake system. There are differences
in the process for successfully changing the pads but nothing most people wouldn’t be
able to perform on their own at home and save a load of money doing so. Lets take a
look at the differences.

The biggest point to be addressed is with the Dot 4 brake fluid in the brake lines.
Because of the anti-lock brake module it is critical that the system remain free of air.
Any small amount of air that enters the line will cause the anti-lock brake module to
become ineffective in its purpose of pulsing the brakes to bring the bike to a quick stop.
As long as you keep the brake system sealed and not allow air into the line then changing
the brake pads can be done at home.

When changing the pads you will need to first pump a little bit of brake fluid out of the
master cylinder to make room to the brake fluid that is in the calipers. You only want to
pump out just enough to bring the level down to about halfway in the master cylinder.
This will keep the brake system sealed and free of air.

There is also a wheel speed sensor on the left front caliper area and also on the rear
brake caliper area. Not to worry though, these are only cables that will need to be moved
out of the way so you can work on the caliper. There is really nothing you can do to cause
harm to these sensors unless you physically cut them which unless your purpose
is to do so, isn’t going to happen.

Once you get the caliper off, depress the pistons into the cylinder bore to make
room for the new pads, your at the halfway point. Depressing the caliper pistons
will push brake fluid back into the master cylinder which is why you need to remove
some before removing the calipers. You don’t want brake fluid over flow from the master
cylinder getting all over that beautiful paint on your bike.

Install the pads as you would any on any bike whether it be ABS or non-ABS.
Reinstall the caliper. Once you have done all brakes related to the same master cylinder
it is time to compress those new pads to the rotor. Gently and fully compress or pull on
the brake handle or peddle, release, and repeat until you have brake action. Doing this
will push the fluid back down the line into the caliper from the master cylinder. It will
take a few runs through the process before the pads make contact with the rotor and give
you a tight brake. While doing this be aware of the fluid level in the master cylinder.
If it gets too low be sure to add some brake fluid. You don’t want to take a chance on it
getting low enough to allow air to enter the line. If air gets into the line you will have to
take your bike into the dealership and have them bleed the line digitally using digital
technician II software to purge the ABS module of any air that could have collected inside
that won't come out by conventional means. Once you have good tight brake on the lever
or pedal, refill the master cylinder back to the full mark and close it up.

Take it easy for about 100 miles to allow the pads to burn in before really grabbing
on them hard. The process can be done both front and back in its entirety in less than an
hour. This is a great money saving process, familiarizes you with your bike, and maintains
the safety factor of the brakes.

I got my brake pads online at Get Lowered Cycles and had them shipped to my front door.
This is a great convenience so you don’t have to spend time going to a parts house or
dealership. You can have them shipped and delivered to your home so they will be ready
for installation at any time.

How to Replace Brake Pads on a Harley with ABS

Ride Strong Wrench Proud