Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Working at Harley

The first week back with Harley-Davidson folks at Montana Harley-Davidson, Buell & Ducati went well in my view. I learned their computer system, the layout of the building and personally met most of the staff, except for a few of the technicians in the service department. I got some time to talk about the history of this dealership with a few individuals as well. With Sunday being the exception, I have been able to not spend any discretionary funds there. Sunday and Monday were my scheduled days off, so Sunday I drove out there to pick up a battery charging wiring harness for my Harley as I had the battery out and bench charging. The old trickle charger I had gave up a few years ago and the bike still had the old wiring on the battery for that charger. I plan on getting the Harley model but not yet. I decided to put a compatible charging harness on the battery when I reinstall it, which I did on Monday. The weather was also overcast with light snow, but the bike needed a good washing, and I did THAT on Monday in front of the garage. After washing it, I rolled it back inside to dry it off. I borrowed Geri’s bathroom heater to use out in the garage and that really helped.
I feel a bit bad about not winterizing the bike in October or November but I think it will be OK. All the oils need replacing as soon as I can and I did not top off the gas tanks like I should have. Hopefully there has been no rusting on the inside of them. I would like to do something with my aging leather saddlebags as they have wrinkled and folded somewhat with age. New ones will be pretty expensive and I have considered switching to a hard bag style. Guess we’ll see how the money plays out over the next few months. Geri and I have discussed selling the Heritage Softail and getting a Road Glide instead. There are several advantages to that issue including more power to carry the both of us and all the gear we want to take with us in these higher elevations. Smoother ride with the isolastic mounted drive train. Ability to attach tour pack for added carrying capacity, just to name a few.
Now that we both have new jobs, it probably will be some time before we can both get enough vacation accrual to actually take a nice long trip. There are a lot of day trip or even two day trip places around this area that we will take advantage of this summer.
Valentines Day is tomorrow, and because I was at the store on Sunday, I brought home my sweetheart a dozen long stemmed red roses for her table. It has been way too long since I bought her flowers, and used to do so in Wisconsin regularly. She really liked them. She is working on something special for me for Valentines Day as well in one of the back bedrooms. I will not peak and let the surprise do its thing! I made reservations for us for a play that is put on by the University of Montana on Wednesday evening, and that should be very nice for us. Gets us out of the house and a little more ‘culture’ to our Montana existence!


Saturday, February 3, 2007

Looking forward to Tuesday…

YES! Tuesday I start with Harley-Davidson here in Missoula, Montana!
Today Geri and I took a ride out there in the car to check out the sign up for HOG members (Harley Owners Group). Today they were having a sign up day for old and new members. I met the HOG chapter director, Karen, who provided signup, dues and meeting place info. I signed up and paid my $20 annual dues while Geri looked around the store. We ate some free cookies and Geri bought herself a new pair of leather riding gloves and a coffee cup for me. I spoke with Scott, one of the sales people, and he took me out back to see the first Harley ‘
XL 1200N Nightster’ that came in. It will be on the sales floor by next Tuesday when I come in. This model Sportster from Harley is a nice unique model from the Motor Co., and I think it will do quite well.


The XL 1200N Nightster features:


  • Rubber-mounted 1200cc XL Evolution engine

  • Medium Gray powder-coated engine with polished and black treatments

  • Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection (ESPFI)

  • High-compression, high-flow cylinder heads

  • High-performance cams

  • Smooth, quiet transmission

  • Light clutch lever effort

  • 25.3-inch solo seat height

  • Low front and rear suspension

  • Black front forks with gaiters

  • Bullet hole rear belt guard and front fender clamps

  • Black, low rise handlebar with brake and clutch levers, turn signals and air cleaner insert

  • Side-mounted license plate holder (dealer-installed rear mount option)

  • Brake and tail lights integrated with rear turn signals

  • Black mid-mount foot controls

  • Black-rimmed, Laced Steel wheels

  • Chrome staggered shorty slash cut dual exhaust

  • Silver Satin finish fuel cap, headlamp trim ring and oil dipstick cover

  • Optional Smart Security System

This bike has a riders expression all its own!!!

I actually didn’t have to go back to work at DirecTV last Thursday after my 6 days of ‘floater’ time I took starting a week ago last Monday. I went in to work at 6:30AM Thursday intending to work that day and the next (Friday) to finish the pay period, then resign at the end of the day Friday. After arriving at work I looked up my time card status and discovered I had 16 more floater hours added to my balance, so I asked my team leader to schedule me for that time and I would come in on Monday to do the exit interview and turn in my badge. He gave me the go ahead for that so I came on home again. I stopped on the way to pick up a copy of

‘Fly Boys’ for Geri and I to watch. I had a near opportunity to see the premier screening of this movie while at Oshkosh last year. They had a nice display at the Airventure Fly In with several props from the making of the film, and one of the actors was there signing autographs. As it turned out, the evening of the special screening of the film was before I got up there from Pewaukee.
The film was great and the special collectors 2-DVD set has a lot of special features will worth the extra ‘ca-ching’ I spent for it. It is as close to a true documentary as you will see in this type of film about the first fighter pilots. I’ve watched it a couple times already!

So, we’ll see what Tuesday will bring at Montana Harley-Davidson. My friend, Kerry, who works in the Motor Clothes section of the store was confiding that the ‘family’ atmosphere there would be enhanced with my presence and she was looking forward to my starting there. I hope I can bring that type of feeling with me and be accepted as a part of that special family too!

Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up…!!!

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