A lil over five years ago Lucy and I were sitting on the front porch and I saw a pic of the new
2013 Indian Motorcycle Vintage Chief , Limited Edition of which 35 were to be built and sold. I was mesmerized and couldn't take my eyes off of it. Showed it to her and got a similar reaction. My B'day was a few days from then when she told me "It's your Birthday ... get it. My present to you ......" ... BAM!!!
So, a quick phone call and the deal was made that Saturday, with signatures, etc on Monday. It wouldn't show up on my doorstep for about a month due to shipping, etc.. but Happy B'Day to me!
I still remember when it showed up. Pure Beauty, and piece of artwork. But ... noticed the fender tip on the rear had been nicked. Also, noticed on the rear fender a small nick between the saddle bags and seat, which had been touched up ( poorly ). Still, I was a smiling. So, the next day with my neighbor on his bike and we on my new Indian mount up and head to Strokers in Dallas. I'm not 20' down my driveway when I hear a weird sound and see my dipstick flying airborne across the driveway . WTF? Well, it must have been loose, but still .. how strange is that? So, I clean it off , put it back on and we try again. This time I make it less than a mile from the house when ... 'whoooosh' .. there it goes again. Okay. We've got a problem. So, I do the unthinkable and ride bitch on the back of my buddies Road Glide and he runs me back to the house. I grab a trailer, grab the bike and get it home..and we head to Strokers. Luckily, no pics of my being on the back of his bike.. and .. I might have gotten on my own Road Glide that day, pissed off at Indians that day .....
Upon return that day I start doing a lil' research. A quick check on forums leads me to believe something in the oil system is plugged up and causing a high pressure. So here I am looking at my new bike think " are you fucking kidding me?" . I just had it shipped upwards of a 1000 miles and had no desire to ship it back for warranty work. So, I ran down to my local wrench's shop and chatted with Jimmy down at American Iron and ran the scenario by him. He listened, not saying a word as I was whining about my troubles. When I finally finished he asked an obvious question. "Did you check the oil level? Sounds like it's overfilled...." Funny thing is .. when I put the dipstick back in both times, I didn't take the time to do that. In retrospect, one would assume I would .... out of curiosity if anything. But I hadn't. He handed me a tool he uses, just in case. Sort of a turky baster looking thing that allows you to retrieve the oil if you overfill. Well, I get home and.... yep, that's the problem. Now, besides feeling stupid .. I'm pissed. I just paid all that money for a bike and they overfilled the oil?? I pulled out my paperwork and looked it all over. Sure enough they supposedly performed an inspection on the bike as checking the oil level was one of them. They either didn't do it at all, or .. my guess is .. did it incorrectly. Either way, they had their heads up their asses. Now the real kicker to this is before it shipped the owner of that dealership made a comment that they would would do a test ride on it before shipping. He said they always do this and would go out and put about 20 miles on it. I'm thinking .. "WHAT?" I didn't want anyone on my bike. And .. I've never heard of that, ever. The icing on the cake is one of the guys up there made a joke how he'd be smoking that rear tire while doing the test ride. At the point, I was adamant that bike would go directly to the shipper. I didn't see any humor in any of it. The kicker is.. had they done a test ride, I'm guessing the oil issue would have been discovered? Who knows..............
Well, I'm not happy. I call up to the dealership and complain about the fender chip. The fender tip damage. The oil issue. Turns out the Service manager saw the fender chip so touched it up on his own. Unacceptable. No one could explain the fender tip. And excuses were made about the oil level. On a positive note, they did a warranty claim on the rear fender and I received a brand new painted one. Now... no one had an answer of who was going to replace it for me. Who was going to pay for it. One of the many headaches... of buying from an out of state dealer, that isn't really focused on the customer and.... is a thousand miles away.
Well, soon afterwards and to this day, all is good. But every time I go out to ride the damned bike ... the I need to put air in the tires it seems. From day one. Now the funny/sad part of this entire thing is ... the bike is over FIVE years old... and I'm just now coming around to the solution on it. Why? Because it was never my main ride. It's a garage queen. I take it out on sunny, dry days. I recently converted it to a solo setup for a cleaner look. But, I just don't put enough miles on it so I just .. air 'em up and off I go. But yesterday, I finally put in a place a possible solution
Few months ago I stumbled across this product and it looks to be a great option. Not only 'should' it seal up the leaks I'm experiencing, but folks use it to balance their tires. This bike has Chrome Spoke Tubeless wheels, so I'm assuming a spoke connect point is allowing the air to seep out. And if that's the case this should solve it. The process was pretty simple. I put it up on a motorcycle frame jack, yanked the valve stems innards, and simple 'poured' the solution in (okay .. squirted it in via a tube they provide). Closed 'em back up, put in the air, then spun 'em around to get it to flow around in there and now .. it's time to ride. This is something that needs to be done ASAP to ensure you get it all spread around correctly and the tires heated up. But.. the battery is dead. WTF? These KM's eat batteries and to be honest, if you don't keep an AGM on a battery tender, you risk killing them off early in life. Then couple that with Texas heat, setup for failure. Kicker though ... I'd swear I swapped this out a few years ago.. but ... that receipt and is long gone. Good news is, I'd bought a battery for my '09 ages ago, never put it in and it's over in the corner.. on a battery tender! Ten minutes later, it's swapped and I'm off and down the road! Put a quick 50 miles on it, when a mandatory stop for a couple of Shiners then... a quick buzz cut. Beautiful day out to ride yesterday. Tonight, it's bike night. Mama is planning on coming out with me so the LE will stay behind this time. Maybe.. tonight..... it's Willows turn?
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| Looks best w/o Windshield |
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| Stopped in to get the Flat Top trimmed up |
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| Gilligans. One of my fav' stops for a cold one |
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| Beautiful day today . Sunny and 70s |
Well, soon afterwards and to this day, all is good. But every time I go out to ride the damned bike ... the I need to put air in the tires it seems. From day one. Now the funny/sad part of this entire thing is ... the bike is over FIVE years old... and I'm just now coming around to the solution on it. Why? Because it was never my main ride. It's a garage queen. I take it out on sunny, dry days. I recently converted it to a solo setup for a cleaner look. But, I just don't put enough miles on it so I just .. air 'em up and off I go. But yesterday, I finally put in a place a possible solution
Few months ago I stumbled across this product and it looks to be a great option. Not only 'should' it seal up the leaks I'm experiencing, but folks use it to balance their tires. This bike has Chrome Spoke Tubeless wheels, so I'm assuming a spoke connect point is allowing the air to seep out. And if that's the case this should solve it. The process was pretty simple. I put it up on a motorcycle frame jack, yanked the valve stems innards, and simple 'poured' the solution in (okay .. squirted it in via a tube they provide). Closed 'em back up, put in the air, then spun 'em around to get it to flow around in there and now .. it's time to ride. This is something that needs to be done ASAP to ensure you get it all spread around correctly and the tires heated up. But.. the battery is dead. WTF? These KM's eat batteries and to be honest, if you don't keep an AGM on a battery tender, you risk killing them off early in life. Then couple that with Texas heat, setup for failure. Kicker though ... I'd swear I swapped this out a few years ago.. but ... that receipt and is long gone. Good news is, I'd bought a battery for my '09 ages ago, never put it in and it's over in the corner.. on a battery tender! Ten minutes later, it's swapped and I'm off and down the road! Put a quick 50 miles on it, when a mandatory stop for a couple of Shiners then... a quick buzz cut. Beautiful day out to ride yesterday. Tonight, it's bike night. Mama is planning on coming out with me so the LE will stay behind this time. Maybe.. tonight..... it's Willows turn?
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