Pipes

Tina has been wanting to "pipe" the bike for some time. As they say, to "make it sound like a Harley." I thought it voided the warrenty, but she talked to the service guys and it doesn't. Yesterday I took the bike in for scheduled maintenance, and found out last night was "HOG Night". Given we would get at least 15% off on some parts, and 25% on others... we went for it. Got the parts, waiting for one more to come in, and then we are having it piped. Before the big trip to the AZ Rally in May.

As part of having it piped, they are doing a dyno-tune on it. Which should give us some more power and make it a bit easier to take the hills when we are both on it, with full bags plus the T-bag. That should be cool. They asked if I was thinking about doing any other work to the engine. Such as moving it from a 88 to a 96 or 103. "Not right now"... We'll see. :)

I did talk to them about the fact that I'd like it louder with a low-rumble (Harley sound) but I don't want it backfiring all the time like some bikes. And they said that was possible - its based on how they tune it.

So... its exciting... We'll see how it turns out. I think we'll take it in next week. Which will give us a chance to put some miles on it before the trip at the beginning of May. We will also need a new back tire... but we might put a few more miles on the one we have before the trip.

~8250 miles on it since July. So less that a year, w/o all the Spring riding, and with a hard winter. Looking at probably 10K miles a year or so... Guess we are going to go through some tires. :)

Oh... and the official line isn't "Because it sounds cool" or "Because it makes it sound like a Harley" - but "Loud pipes save lifes! In other words - If they can't see ya, but they can hear ya, they know you are there." Which I totally agree with - but I think the first two play into it as well. :)