|  | Topic : Man...that was short! |  |
| | | molinoman | | Set |  |  | | Reg. Date | : | 26/09/2010 | | Posts | : | 189 | | Location | : | Molino, Florida, United States |
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| | Posted : 01 Mar 2011 - 04:13 Post title : Man...that was short! | | | After returning to the sand box last Tuesday and getting re-aquainted with the altitude, rain, cold and even heat I have had a chance to reflect on my, way too short, 12 day stay at home on R&R.
The first thing I did after my wife picked me up at the airport, ate breakfast (those 16 hour flights can really make you hungry) and briefly visited my new grand niece (I think that is what she is) I went home got my jacket, helmet and gloves and headed to my Triumph dealer.
Man that bike was sure "purty", as a lot of you know this was my first time seeing the bike in person and I was "wowed" to say the least. Riding it home I stopped by one of my former employers (World Ford of Pensacola) and showed it off (and bought my new 2011 Ford F150 Lariat the next day). After leaving there I stopped by a couple of other places and then made sure I got in the 65 mph stretch of Hwy 29 north of Cantonment, FL to see how it's high speed behavior was. Again the bike rode like a dream and this was my first bike with a six gear and it felt pretty natural (not like my former Gold Wings and Rocket where it seemed I wanted to shift into another gear even though it was already in 5th).
The heated grips work as advertised and I liked the color scheme on it...white/off, hot/green and really hot/red...they felt real good as the first couple of days home it was still pretty cold.
The exhaust sounded pretty good and I could be happy with them but the Saturday before I came back here I rode with "Thunderbird Daryl" and we swapped Thunderbirds (he has the 1600 version but with Hogslayers) and I was kind of pressed for time (there definitely was not enough of that to spare while I was home) but we both rode back from Crestview on Hwy 90 (instead of the Interstate) to the road leading back to I-10 about 5 miles east of Milton, FL. I had a great ride (even though I was on the 1600) Daryl was a little non-committal on the 1700 as he didn't want to go to high up in speed because I was still in the break in phase on the bike so he didn't get to speed it up as much as it is capable of. But that is alright as, while riding his bike, I discovered that I kind of enjoyed the "bark" of the Hogslayers (to me...a little more distinctive upon accerlerating) and they were not annoyingly too loud so I think that is one of the changes I may make when I return in July or shortly afterwards when I am done with my vacation across the USA.
One thing that was a little annoying was that my left mirror was a little loose and while attemting to tighten it at Daryl's house the bolt broke off inside the stem so when we rode back towards Pensacola Daryl had no left mirror till we swapped and then I had no left mirror for the rest of my ride back to Molino, FL.
Overall it was really nice to get out and ride but I am a little disappointed that I didn't get to ride it more (I might have put on a little over 200 miles on it total while I was home) as I just flat out had so much to do (and buying a new truck occupied some time just in itself and carting stuff home in it while I was "stimulating" the economy, putting a new Gladiator Tool Cabinet System together (that I had bought in August and, again, didn't have enough time back then to put it together then) and all that shopping...I will make up for that in September after my vacation and also during my daily commutes to my job (if I can get one...if not I'll just do more leisurely riding).
Comparing it to my former Rocket is not really fair, the Rocket is blindingly fast upon initial acceleration and is/was a very capable bike in it's own right but from the short riding time I had I believe I can easily get used to this if this were my only bike. It's a different type of ride and is, in itself, no slouch either in the speed department, more than enough to enable me to enjoy it immensely.
But as some of you know I have plans that if everything works out I hope to also have a Rocket III Tourer in my driveway as well if (especially if) I get a job at my former place of employment (D&D Cycles...Triumph dealer in Pensacola). If I am unemployed for awhile then will have to put that plan on hold as I will/may (probably definitely) not be able to really justify it (other than I want one) if I am not working at the time.
In case you haven't read my other recent post I did post more pictures of the accessories as they are mounted on my bike in case some of you are curious as to how they look on the bike.
I know for sure one thing...I wish I was home right now riding it.
Dennis
120 dtg Dubai
121 dtg Home for good!
| Last bike owned:
2007 Triumph Rocket III (sold in April, 2010)
Have finally ridden my 2010 Phantom Red Haze Thunderbird, picked it up in Feb 09, 2011, enjoyed the ride...now I am back in the sand box.
| | Post edited by molinoman on 01 Mar 2011 - 04:23 |
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| | | Birdy68 | | Thor | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 16/07/2009 | | Posts | : | 3,352 | | Location | : | Bad Zurzach, Aargau, Switzerland |
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| | Posted : 01 Mar 2011 - 05:10 Post title : Re: Man...that was short! (Re: molinoman) | | | 
Nice read Dennis although I am sorry to hear that it was so short!
So if I understood you correctly - you didn't have chance to run her in fully! Wow - that would leave me frustrated...
But I suppose these things happen.
Just take care of yourself and plan those routes for when you return to the states.
| Birdy68
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Leave the pork pies for now - get the sausage rolls while they're hot!
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more info at Fuelly.com
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| | | narsisco_lopez | | Thor | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 09/09/2010 | | Posts | : | 2,765 | | Location | : | Golden (Showers!), Colorado, United States |
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| | Posted : 01 Mar 2011 - 13:28 Post title : Re: Man...that was short! (Re: Birdy68) | | | I'm sure we all feel for ya, buddy! How long till your next trip home?
| 2012 Storm (SOLD!)
Other Bikes:
2003 Suzuki DRZ400E (plated - my dual sport/mountain trail/camping bike)
Past Bikes:
2012 K13S
2009 KTM 990 Adventure
2010 Triumph Thunderbird 1600 (the Alien Queen)
2009 Triumph Sprint ST (another great bike!)
2007 Kawasaki ZX10R
2000 Kawasaki ZRX1100
1975 Honda SB550T "Clubman"
1981 Kawasaki KZ1000J
1985 Suzuki GS550E
1978 Yamaha 650 Special
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| | | DizzE | | Thor | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 12/07/2010 | | Posts | : | 3,141 | | Location | : | Sunnyvale, CA, United States |
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| | Posted : 01 Mar 2011 - 14:48 Post title : Re: Man...that was short! (Re: narsisco_lopez) | | | Those damn mirrors.  You can't fix them by tightening the bolt, as you found out the hard way. 
It's one of those crafty gotcha's and the manual says just get a new mirror.
But, if you took it apart you could fix it. Too late now.
There's a little, split band collar made out of spring steel. It's actually designed to be break away.
Then, of course you are supposed to "take it to the dealer." He will do this.
The band has to sit with it's split ends carefully butted together. The break away is when one end
slips over the other end. The diameter of the collar is reduced and the corrugations in the steel band no long
push against the sides of the hole. The mirror flops and no collateral damage. A feature!!
It happened to me the first week, also, but lucky I didn't quite get the bolt broken before someone
here help me out.
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| | | molinoman | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 26/09/2010 | | Posts | : | 189 | | Location | : | Molino, Florida, United States |
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| | Posted : 02 Mar 2011 - 02:46 Post title : Re: Man...that was short! (Re: DizzE) | | | I may end up ordering the Kuryakin (I think it was) Eclipse convex mirrors like I had on my my Rocket. Those you just run into the hole and tighten the stupid thing up and it stays. Sometimes in "their" effort to limit damage, in this case to the mirror, it makes it completely useless if you end up trying to do a simple thing like tightening it up.
So much for the "perfect" bike...but I'm still overall pretty happy with it.
Dennis
119 dtg Dubai
120 dtg Home for good!
| Last bike owned:
2007 Triumph Rocket III (sold in April, 2010)
Have finally ridden my 2010 Phantom Red Haze Thunderbird, picked it up in Feb 09, 2011, enjoyed the ride...now I am back in the sand box.
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