ROOKIE RIDER

HOLY COW! What a ride! Never mind about the Valkyrie’s impressive horsepower numbers, etc. Those are just statistics. It’s what she does for me at a visceral level that makes every ride exciting. I flew jets for the Air Force and have had the experience of standing a bird on its tail with afterburners blazing, streaking out of sight and "slipping the surly bonds of earth". I never expected to ever get that rush again—then I met the Fat Lady.

A lot of the posts on the F6Rider and other sites are from people "born in the saddle", who have owned 10 or 20 bikes, and have ridden for 30 years. I think that’s great, what a resource to learn from. But I know there are guys (and gals) out there just like me. All of my life I’ve been interested in bikes, and have ridden friends’ and relatives’ bikes, but the Lady is only the second bike I’ve ever owned. Just after the completion of a difficult divorce (is there an easy kind? Just empty your pockets and walk away. Sorry, I digress), I was told by the company I worked for for over 23 years that I would be "downsized". Things were definitely not looking good.

When I bought my first bike in ’97, a Honda Shadow Ace Tourer, I actually looked at a Valk and decided it was too much bike to start out on. It was probably the right decision from a left brain standpoint, because I learned some riding skills on the Ace. (Took the MSF Experienced Rider course, even though I was not an "experienced" rider, it was the right one for me—HIGHLY recommended. ) The Ace is a decent-enough bike, easy to ride, Honda reliability, but not much personality. (No disrespect to you Ace riders out there, but if you’re lurking on this board, you know what I mean.) Not enough power, a Harley knock-off without any of the mystique. I just never got into it. The right brain didn’t connect to the Ace. In two years I had ridden less than 3000 miles, and it was so "stock" that I hadn’t even taken the orange warning sticker off the tank. (Took some ribbing for that.)

My last day of work was a "down" day. I had a lot of friends there, and actually liked what I did. I was really low. I needed a boost. Then it hit me. The last time I had been to the dealer, I had looked at a Tourer, but hadn’t been able to get a deal done. I knew the Interstates were coming in, and this was what I wanted. Went to the dealer, and he had 3 of them. I loved the green/gray color scheme, and decided that I would ride that bike home! I know they were glad to see me, because I didn’t even bargain. I probably left a grand on the table, but I had my Valk!

Got her home, cleaned her up, rode around for a few days. Definitely a load at slow speeds, but once she’s rolling, light as a feather. It actually feels lighter than the Ace. Then one day, backing it out of my garage, down my fairly steep driveway, it started leaning to the right. Quick, get your foot down, can’t hold it! Oh, no, it’s down! But it didn’t go all the way over, leaned about 60 degrees and rested on the engine guard and saddlebag guard. I ran around to the right side, backed up against the seat and started lifting. Now I’m not the strongest guy in the world, but I was so upset right then I think I could have picked the Lady clean up off the ground. Back on its wheels, start looking for damage. What, nothing broken? Thank you Honda, you may have made the Lady a little clumsy, but at least she falls gracefully. I learned my lesson, now I treat slow speed maneuvering just like I was flying an airplane. I don’t stop the Lady, I land her.

Unlike the Ace, I immediately started to make the Lady mine. Get rid of the orange sticker! I’m more interested in making her fit me than in dressing her out. She’s pretty enough already. I’m kind of short, and I can’t flatfoot her so I ordered a new Corbin seat with studs and conchos, (well, gotta dress her a little) because it was supposed to lower me a couple of inches and it had a backrest. After I ordered it, I learned that a lot of places sell the seat cheaper than the factory. On the other hand, the factory e-mailed me twice with questions about saddle options, and was intense about getting it perfect. It came in about 3 weeks, which was a week earlier than they promised, and it was gorgeous. Funny thing, even though it definitely sits a couple of inches lower, it’s wider, and doesn’t help me at all for flatfooting, maybe even a little worse. No matter, it’s all-day comfortable and I’m keeping it. Got to look for elevator boots!

I decided to buy the Kuryakyn Ergo Dually pegs. Lots of different opinions about whether they fit the Interstate, because they won’t mount on the straight part of the engine guard. I mounted them on the angle, as far up as they would go. The arms are built with a slight angle out, and if you reverse them (switch sides), you pick up double the effect to reduce the angle of the engine guard. The pegs actually line up with the way your feet naturally go.

But now a new problem. I couldn’t sit all the way against the backrest on the Corbin seat because my arms are too short. I had to nearly lock my elbows, which wasn’t very comfortable. When I put my feet on the pegs, my knees were up, but since I wasn’t leaning back, I felt like a pretzel. Next I needed to get the handlebars back.

Again to the VRCC boards. There is a lot of sentiment for Custom Chrome, and I wanted the largest pullback I could get without having to completely reengineer the handlebar controls. This is a little more scary, because I’m not a great mechanic, and I may have to take some things apart, do some drilling, figure stuff out that’s not in the book. But if the Lady is going to be mine, I want to make her fit. So I trudged off to the local Harley dealer and ordered a 5 inch pullback riser. Unfortunately it had to be backordered and didn’t come in for six weeks. I wanted to have it on before I took a planned trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway, but with all the hurricanes this fall, I took off on the trip based on a good five day weather forecast (sure enough, they called about my part the day after I left). In order to get more comfortable with the reach, I put a couple inches of foam rubber in my kidney /fanny pack combination belt (which I got from Roadgear) to support me against the backrest. This idea paid unexpected dividends, because with the foam in it, it provided excellent lumbar support—at the end of a 400 mile day, I felt better than if I had done the 400 miles in my cage. When I got back from my trip I picked up the risers and set about to install them. Thanks to the posters on the board, I knew exactly what I was up against, and the risers went on with no problems. I was a little concerned with rerouting the throttle cable, because you have to disassemble some things, but my mediocre mechanical skills were up to the task. Finally, I’m there. Now I don’t get on the Lady, I wear her! We are a team.

Then on to unwanted noises. There was a great article by John Marshall on disassembling the fairing to stop creaks and whistles. A disappointing piece of engineering by Honda, but definitely fixable. Now if I hear a whistle, it’s from me! The other thing I did which helped with noises was to go to synthetic oil. Again a lot of posts on the board with different opinions, but I decided to wait 3000 miles to ensure proper seating of engine parts, then went to Red Line 10W40. What a difference! Tranny whine was greatly reduced, and the engine itself was quieter. Shifting is smoother and more positive. There are lots of opinions on which oil, but my mind’s made up. The bike hasn’t used a drop of oil in 2500 miles.

Other accessories I have added:

Hondaline Trunk Rack—WAY overpriced , but useful

Hondaline Trunk and Saddlebag Mats—WAY overpriced

Kriss Hot Shot—Flashes the rear turn signals when you use the brakes. Helps visibility and has good installation instructions (see below)

Throttlemeister—Very fussy to install, still fiddling with it. Called the factory, they have been very helpful. Should help on long trips. Takes a lot of getting used to, because it seems like I’m always turning it on inadvertently. Still in the "tryout" period, don’t know whether I will keep it. You may see it in the classifieds.

Rivco Hidden Air Horns—Quite loud, straightforward installation, I’m not too crazy about the way they sound The compressor really cramps things under the right side cover.

Dowco Cover—Fits well, looks good

Heritage Tank Bib with pouch—Looks nice, the Heritage people called to see if I was satisfied. Yes but would like something to hold a map.

Things I am looking at:

A little bit more chrome (radiator cap, dipstick, oil filter cover, engine hangers, etc.) Get rid of the little black blotches in the middle of the chrome. I don’t think she needs more body chrome, (side covers, engine gap covers) it might be too much for my taste.

Two Brothers triple clamp—I have read a lot of positive things about this, sounds like it stabilizes the bike at low speed and corrects an engineering flaw (or at least a tradeoff I would have made differently) on the part of Honda. Don’t know if I want to take on installation myself.

Aftermarket grips—Heard good things about Kuryakyn Iso grips, but they are apparently not compatible with the Throttlemeister. Will go one way or the other.

Metzeler Tires—Looks like I will get about 7-8 thousand from the Dunlops. Then on to the Metz.

Audio and Communications—I am hoping that someone will figure out how to connect an aftermarket CB and CD player through the control unit on the handlebars. (This damn thing has at least a dozen buttons and switches on it—it ought to be able to connect to everything). I talked to Sierra Electronics, they think it will be at least February 2000 for the CD, didn’t commit to ever getting an aftermarket CB setup. Even with the best discounts available, the Hondaline CB is WAY overpriced.

Pipes—Thinking about the Glass pack/Trombone setup that Mark Tobias is doing. Don’t want the bike too much louder, but would like a different sound. Maybe next year.

I almost got in over my head on one accessory. I bought a turn signal cancellation unit from Kriss Industries. The instructions were OK, but I made one BIG mistake. This device runs a wire to the starter relay. Listen to me! Disconnect the battery before messing with the starter relay! Even with the key off, there are hot wires. I shorted one out, blew a 30 amp fuse, and blew out a clutch switch and clutch switch diode. The bike started and ran normally, but the radio and console display were screwed up. Took it to the dealer, after 3 ½ hours, the mechanic had found the clutch switch problem, but this didn’t help the radio, so he finally disconnected the unit. When I went to the Kriss website to find out how to return the unit for analysis, I found a troubleshooting link which said that the Interstate radio was grounded through the turn signal (?) and you would have to reground the radio before the unit would operate normally. Thanks for 2 weeks of agony and a useless 3 ½ hours of service time, Kriss. Put it in the instructions!

What is the point of this story? There is just one point, and that is that there is no reason to wait and no reason to be apprehensive. If you have problems, there are solutions and people around to help. Even if you are a rookie, the experience on this bike is impossible to match. When you twist that throttle, and the Lady starts to roll on, the feeling is orgasmic! You owe it to yourself to ride the Lady!

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