A new motorcycle enters the family on April 1, 2004.  It is a 2003 Goldwing (GL1800A) and I picked it up on 4/2/04.  The girls begged me to show the bike off to them, so I grabbed the digital and took some pictures while they were checking her out.

Dad, this is way kewl. 

Can I drive it NOW please?

GG thinks that if she looks cute, I'll take her for a ride.  She almost had me. ;-)

Nap time

This is a bike just begging to be ridden.

Syd tries to smile the days after she had oral surgery.  She had a wisdom tooth extracted, a back molar pivoted around to clear the rearward molar, and some excess tissue was removed from another molar.  It hurts just writing about it.

Lets see, a smile is supposed to have the corners of the lips turned up... Ouch!

This is a great shot.

Man this is really big.

My how time flies.  It seems like just yesterday they were playing in the sprinkler and dressing up dolls.  These pictures below were taken almost 9 years ago.

Gianna plays in the sprinkler at 20 months.  Trishka waits for the sprinkler to get her one more time, then she'll take it out!  Syd and Gianna just having fun.

Gianna loves her blue jean hat, and Syd plays dolls with Serena (the neighbor's grand-daughter).

On Saturday, April10, 2004, Val took a longish ride with me on the new Wing.  She said she only almost lost her cookies twice.  She did really great and I am so happy to have my partner with me on the bike.  After the ride and during our talk about it, she said it was the most we talked in quite a while.  When we got back, Syd captured the moment of Val suited up, in digital form...  She also took a few of the local hambone... :-)

Now its time to figure out what to do with the motorcycle EZPass device.

Uh Oh!  The Lollirocket got her first booboo.  I came around a corner on the Blue Ridge Parkway (northbound at about mile post 93), and three doe were standing in the middle of the road at 3pm in the afternoon.  I managed to slow to about 35 and move to the right side of my lane, but that was not enough.  Her wheels were spinning, but she was not moving.  I clipped her in the head and neck and spun the deer around 4 or 5 times.  It also knocked the poop out of her.  What a shame.  She did not have a chance.  I stopped at the James River ranger station at milepost 63 and filed an accident report.

The wing held up fairly well considering.  I did not loose control or wobble.  But the impact of her shoulder into the side where the radiator is did some real damage.  I did not notice it at the scene, but the radiator got crunched.  It held up OK for most of the ride home, but at 90 miles to go (~300 miles from where the accident happened) she sprung a leak (I noticed it at a gas stop).  I shut her down and called my HRC dispatcher (the Honda Rider's Club is great, but I must admit that I was more than a little concerned when I saw the tow truck roll in, but it worked out).

Mounted a few goodies over the winter of '04-'05.  Hear are a few shots of the new Kuryakyn ISO II Pegs.  First, the configuration.  I mounted the main bracket to the  horizontal crash bar, then replaced the normal 6" arms with 4.5" arms.  I am 6' tall and needed a little more stretch/relief.

The next shot below, shows me in my normal seating position.

Now for a little stretch, I lift my foot up and rest the ball of my foot on the peg.  The next position would be to rest the bottom of the heal on the peg.

The final position would be to rest the back of the heal on top of the peg, just resting it up there like so.  For me, this is as good as I need to have it.

Here are the details on the pegs from Kuryakyn.

The 4060 Arms work best for me:

These pegs as mounted do not reduce the lean angle as far as I can tell.  Your mileage may vary.  Picture below is courtesy of http://www.ridersrally.com/

November 4, 2005

Added a new Corbin Seat

The driver and passenger seating areas are heated.

April 23, 2006

I had the rims powder coated with Tiger DryLac Silver Vein.

For information on Tiger DryLac powder coatings, see www.tigerdrylac.com