Ride Home

 When I awoke this morning I was greeted by fog. Once on the interstate I was lucky enough that the visibility was just a bit further than my braking distance at speed. The best part of the fog was that I didn't have to bore myself looking at the Illinois landscape. Really, it's almost torture droning along that stretch of road counting the miles tick off the odometer. When the fog lifted I was greeted by dark clouds and later rain. I was reminded of this same return trip a few years back on my Aprilia Futura. It rained so hard and for so long on that ride and I was completely miserable. I associated that misery with the Aprilia and really never rode the bike much after that. In fact, I sold the bike. I was hoping the rain today wouldn't get that intense. I didn't want some mental issue I have about Illinois rain to tarnish my feelings about my new Ultra Limited. The fact is I've ridden this bike in heavy rain and it does all right. In the nine days I was on vacation I put 2900 miles on the big hog. That's not iron butt pace, its vacation pace. I enjoyed a mix of 200-500 mile days in 65-90 degree weather. I had the rain gear on a lot but didn't get rained on much. I guess I prefer to have it on before I get wet and a couple times I put it on just to stay warm.

 How did the bike perform? I did just fine. It's a bit of a pig in the twisties but no worse than other full size bikes I've been on. It's heavy at stop signs but I haven't dumped it yet. I have no complaints about the radio and gps. They worked flawlessly and I like the way the electronics package is presented in a clean way with minimal switches. The lighting is good too. I was comparing features of this bike to others I saw this week. If it's lacking anything as a touring rig I'd say that might be an adjustable windshield and an on board compressor for the shocks.
 I enjoyed the week on the Harley and I'm looking forward to the next time I can get out on a big ride with it. I need to go through the bike and clean it up and make sure everything is tight, but first I need to catch up around the house starting with a burnt belt on the washing machine. That's the only bad part of vacation...at some point it has to end.