One of the perks of my job is the opportunity to ride the new Harleys that come to the dealership. This one is a new 2007 FLHRI Road King that is one of the rental bikes we offer in the fleet of rental and Fly and Ride program. We will be getting several more new ones in over the next few weeks and all of them will need some road miles driven on them prior to rental. I was a bit envious of ‘Shine’, one of our performance mechanics riding one of our new 2007 FLTRI Road Glide models (one of my favorite designs, and the style I have my ‘eye’ on to replace my Heritage Softail) over the past couple weeks.
Here I am in the garage this morning in my ‘morning’ apparel. Geri is up early getting ready for her day shift at the St. Patrick’s Dialysis lab so I though I would bring my blog up to date as well as plan my day off. Hopefully my order for new fishing waders will arrive today!
I got home last night on the rental Harley (I left my personal bike at the dealership yesterday) and drove into the open garage. Geri had the day off and had been mowing our lawn, so the garage door was open when I arrived. When I walked into the house she mentioned the bike sounded ‘different’ some how so I invited her to come out into the garage and see ‘our new bike’…. Of course it was not ‘ours’ so to speak, but it was for the next couple days anyway. She looked it over and said “Where is the backrest for the passenger?”. I said “It could have one added but is not supplied on the base model. You’ll just have to hang on tighter to ME, honey!”. “Are you going to take me for a ride?” she asked. “Absolutely” I responded “In fact, my love, if you will get ready to go, I’ll take you our to dinner tonight on the Harley!”. So she got her riding duds on and I took her out to the Nine Mile House out west of town for a steak dinner. We had a nice trip out and back and a great meal. The air was still a bit chilly this time of year when the sun goes down, but not very uncomfortable at all, and since the Nine Mile House restaurant is just up in the canyon hills a bit, as soon as we got out of the canyon the air temps were a comfy 65º to 70º again. The bike ran very smooth on the freeway, and the 6th gear selection makes the bike purr along nicely. A couple drawbacks I noticed however is when your stopped at a stop light the isolastic mounted engine-transmission does vibrate more than my Softail, which is a solid mounted drive train inside the frame. I also noticed a bit of noise from the drive train in 5th gear on city street driving around 40-50 miles per hour.
My 90 day probationary status with Montana Harley-Davidson was fulfilled on Sunday the 6th of May so yesterday, Tuesday the 8th I asked my manager to do what he needed to do to make me a permanent employee… or fire me! It was a busy day at Harley-Davidson, so Bill (my manager/supervisor) managed to print out and complete a performance review for me, which he scored me highly on, I might add. I saw the forms he completed but we did not have an opportunity to discuss the review documents or for me to sign them and get my copy. I had also asked Ashley, our “personnel” person to prepare whatever paperwork I would need to apply for health insurance and/or other benefits of the permanent position. She could not get them ready in time by quitting time, so I will have to go in today, my day off, and pick them up from here. Hopefully Bill will have completed all he needs to do as well to finalize my permanent position status.
One of my fellow Parts and Accessories Associates broke off a plug end in the earphone jack on his laptop computer, and asked if I could help him get it out. He will bring his laptop into work today so I will check that out for him when I go in to pick up paperwork from Ahsley.
So, I better get some stuff ready to go for today. Geri’s cars ‘Check Engine’ light on her dash is coming on regularly so I need to check that out today. I found the hose to the PCV valve off the other day and reattached it, and the light went out on her dash display and thought that was the end of it, but NNNOOOoooooo….. More troubleshooting. I let her take my car to work this AM. I also have PACE tapes to do, laptop repair, work on Chris’ family pictures I scanned weeks ago, fishing…. Where will I find the time????
Here I am in the garage this morning in my ‘morning’ apparel. Geri is up early getting ready for her day shift at the St. Patrick’s Dialysis lab so I though I would bring my blog up to date as well as plan my day off. Hopefully my order for new fishing waders will arrive today!
I got home last night on the rental Harley (I left my personal bike at the dealership yesterday) and drove into the open garage. Geri had the day off and had been mowing our lawn, so the garage door was open when I arrived. When I walked into the house she mentioned the bike sounded ‘different’ some how so I invited her to come out into the garage and see ‘our new bike’…. Of course it was not ‘ours’ so to speak, but it was for the next couple days anyway. She looked it over and said “Where is the backrest for the passenger?”. I said “It could have one added but is not supplied on the base model. You’ll just have to hang on tighter to ME, honey!”. “Are you going to take me for a ride?” she asked. “Absolutely” I responded “In fact, my love, if you will get ready to go, I’ll take you our to dinner tonight on the Harley!”. So she got her riding duds on and I took her out to the Nine Mile House out west of town for a steak dinner. We had a nice trip out and back and a great meal. The air was still a bit chilly this time of year when the sun goes down, but not very uncomfortable at all, and since the Nine Mile House restaurant is just up in the canyon hills a bit, as soon as we got out of the canyon the air temps were a comfy 65º to 70º again. The bike ran very smooth on the freeway, and the 6th gear selection makes the bike purr along nicely. A couple drawbacks I noticed however is when your stopped at a stop light the isolastic mounted engine-transmission does vibrate more than my Softail, which is a solid mounted drive train inside the frame. I also noticed a bit of noise from the drive train in 5th gear on city street driving around 40-50 miles per hour.
My 90 day probationary status with Montana Harley-Davidson was fulfilled on Sunday the 6th of May so yesterday, Tuesday the 8th I asked my manager to do what he needed to do to make me a permanent employee… or fire me! It was a busy day at Harley-Davidson, so Bill (my manager/supervisor) managed to print out and complete a performance review for me, which he scored me highly on, I might add. I saw the forms he completed but we did not have an opportunity to discuss the review documents or for me to sign them and get my copy. I had also asked Ashley, our “personnel” person to prepare whatever paperwork I would need to apply for health insurance and/or other benefits of the permanent position. She could not get them ready in time by quitting time, so I will have to go in today, my day off, and pick them up from here. Hopefully Bill will have completed all he needs to do as well to finalize my permanent position status.
One of my fellow Parts and Accessories Associates broke off a plug end in the earphone jack on his laptop computer, and asked if I could help him get it out. He will bring his laptop into work today so I will check that out for him when I go in to pick up paperwork from Ahsley.
So, I better get some stuff ready to go for today. Geri’s cars ‘Check Engine’ light on her dash is coming on regularly so I need to check that out today. I found the hose to the PCV valve off the other day and reattached it, and the light went out on her dash display and thought that was the end of it, but NNNOOOoooooo….. More troubleshooting. I let her take my car to work this AM. I also have PACE tapes to do, laptop repair, work on Chris’ family pictures I scanned weeks ago, fishing…. Where will I find the time????
Later……
2 comments:
Time.. time.. time.... don't I know all about THAT little problem :-)
I often dream there could be a time when I would have nothing to do but sit at a stream, or lounge in the sun, looking at some great nature view......
...... one day.... I keep promising myself !
Having nothing to do but sit by a small stream with the sunshine in your face and the fish biting your lure....Ah yes...
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