The Squamidian Report – June 16 / 07
Issue #264
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Buying a Harley is not like purchasing any other vehicle. When you buy a Harley, you buy into the whole image and mystique of the ‘Legend’. The H-D Company has done an incredible job of building the brand name and logo recognition. And you pay dearly for that name and logo. When a Harley dealer has exhausted its limited supply of bikes for a given year, it relies on the sales of their branded customizing parts, clothing and collectables. All at exorbitant prices.
When you buy a Harley, you buy into the ‘family’. Unlike at most car dealers where they really don’t want to ever see you again, Harley dealers encourage you to come back as often as possible, hang out in the lounge, browse the racks of high end jackets and other items, and have your bike sit in the ‘bikes only’ section of the parking lot for non-owners to admire and be envious of.
When you buy a Harley, you are automatically a member of the international H.O.G. That’s Harley – Owner’s – Group. The membership is for one year, after that you PAY yearly dues. The H.O.G. organization is so tightly intertwined with the H-D Company that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other starts. The group organizes rides and events and encourages the promotion of the Harley bikes and products. There are local chapters of H.O.G. as well, sponsored by the local dealers. However, you have to be a member of the international chapter in order to join the local chapter, and of course you pay dues each year. The whole thing is pretty ingenious; they have managed to make owning a Harley not just a choice, but also a privilege. They have created an elite class of motorcyclists, but it is a class that almost anyone can ‘buy’ into.
It wasn’t always like that. While Harleys have been around since about 1903, they have not always been the cream of the crop. There were decades when the only people that wanted them were the rough tough grease balls. They were the bikes of choice for the motorcycle gangs. They were big and loud and intimidating.
Then in the ‘70s Harley was taken over by AMC. That nearly did them in, just like it nearly did in American Motors. At the same time that the Japanese were flooding the market with inexpensive bikes that ran very well, handled very well and were extremely dependable, Harley was building bikes that wouldn’t make it home from the dealer’s show room, and if it did make it home without breaking down at the side of the road, it probably would start again once it was turned off. Bikes were being shipped that were missing parts, were assembled wrong and were engineered poorly.
Then when the H-D Company was on the brink of going under again, the employees took over, bought it out and turned it around. And then Harley became what it is today, the ‘Legend’ that you WANT to buy into. Now they are well-engineered, dependable machines. They are still big and heavy and loud, but once you are rolling, they are like silk on rails, smooth and stable. That’s when your realize it - - Wow, I’m riding a Harley!
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I had my Geezer Glide out for it’s first ride in the rain. It was inevitable and you tent to avoid it as long as possible. But now I’ve ridden it in the rain and gotten it over with. Life can go on. I’ll back up a bit here. My Harley is an Electra Glide Classic, the big posh Cadillac of bikes. The people who buy them are the Silvertips like me, gray hair if they still have any, getting up in years and in weight. We still want the thrill of a motorcycle but we also want armchair comfort. So its us Geezers that buy the Glides.
Back to riding in the rain. I’ve done my share of motorcycling under less than perfect weather conditions. I’ve ridden in snow and cold. I once rode all the way home from somewhere in Alberta in a driving ice-cold endless rain that soaked us right through and never let up. We gave up trying to camp at night and spent the nights in gas station washrooms. Pure misery. And this was in the days when we were too stupid to have windshields on our bikes. So its not that I’ve never ridden in the rain, its that this was the first time for my shinny new bike to be ridden in the rain.
I’d had her back at the dealer of her first servicing and check-over. We went down last Sunday to pick her up, rather than bring her home the day before in and endless downpour. However, Sunday was rather rainy as well, with showers here and there. My jacket is rain proof and I have rain pants and the bike has a nice faring so I was comfortable. The concern is visibility and handling. Bikes don’t have windshield wipers and over spray from car tires can make things hard to see. Wet roads can be slippery. But the bike handled just fine and the only heavy rain was from Burnaby to about Taylor Way on the Upper Levels highway, then from about Porteau Cove on into Squamish.
The only real problem was that by the time I got home the bike was covered with wet road guck and that meant I had to wash her, again. And we all know how much I enjoy washing things like bikes. Oh, when they did the oil change, we switched to the ‘highly recommended’ synthetic oil. You can hear and feel the difference, that bike wants to GO now. Really have to keep an eye on the speedometer.
doug
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Hello everyone! What a night we had on Saturday June 9. Check out the
following and you’ll see what I mean.
http://www.thedougsite.net/Misc/truckfire.htm
Enjoy!
I just thought you might like to see what's left of Adams 1997 Ford F150
Lariat pick up truck!
He had parked it on the street this afternoon and around 9pm I said I'd
bring it into the driveway for the night. I took his keys and went out and
started the truck. It ran just fine. I pulled it away from the curb and decided
to back it into the drive. I backed it up to the door of the garage and
realized I could smell gas. I looked out at the street and saw a big wet stain
at the curb as well as in the pattern of the thee point turn I made to back the
truck in. I realized the truck had a major gas leak. I opened the truck door
and looked down at the driveway and it was covered in gas as well. I thought
I'd better drive it back out onto the street so the gas wouldn't bugger up my
driveway. I parked it across the street from our house and shut it off. I went
inside and got Adam and we went back out to see if we could tell where the leak
was coming from. It was dripping on the road from under the hood somewhere. He
opened the hood and we could see wetness at the back of the engine. I told him
to get in and turn the key so I could maybe see where the leak was. I stood
back a little and he turned the key. POOFFFF.... up went the engine compartment
in flames!
I told him to grab his valuables if he had any in the truck and get the
hell out. He then ran back in to the garage and phoned 911. The dispatcher took
his information and address and put him on hold. She then came back on and said
the trucks were on their way. It took about 10 minutes before the pumper
arrived on the scene. They told me that the station just around the corner from
our place was at a medical and couldn't respond so they were sent from HQ about
3 kilometers away. By the time they got to us the truck was a write off anyway.
It's amazing the people that come out of the woodwork when something like
this happens. I just kept everyone back but there was a guy that pulled up a
few houses away and he had a fire insignia on his license plate. This usually
denotes a volunteer fire fighter. Most of the full time guys don't like these
plates. The guy jumped out of his car and walked up with a 2 gallon foam
extinguisher. I told him to stay back and not to bother risking his safety
because the fire dept was due to arrive any minute, we could hear them coming.
He said "I am them!" very emphatically! Then he started squirting the
fire. I thought if he's that stupid then to hell with him if he wants to take
the chance of getting hurt. He surprised me and actually got the fire about
half knocked down. Just as he did that, the pumper came up the street. He still
went back to his car and grabbed two more extinguishers. Before the guys on the
pump could get their lines stretched, he dumped two more dry chems on it. There
were two other guys that came running down the street with a dry chem each and
I told them to stay back but the just ignored me and walked up beside the front
fender and dumped their extinguishers on it too. The one guy was in bare feet
and shorts too! How friggin' stupid is that? Anyway, the firefighters charged
the line and started hitting the fire which had suddenly become huge again. It
took them about another 3-4 minutes to get it out completely. As it turned out,
I knew the captain on the rig. His name is Terry and I've known him for about
14 years. He's a good guy and agreed with me that the "do gooders"
were a pain in the ass and did nothing to help the situation but we both know
that this happens all the time and for the most part people like that can't be
told anything. They just go deaf when they're on a mission like that! LOL! As
it turned out, the guy with the foam extinguisher is NOT a fire fighter but
volunteers his time to drive a truck to fire scenes that carries food and
coffee and other hot and cold drinks to help rehab the fire fighters when they
get a chance for a break during a major incident or fire. This truck was
donated to these guys by Kitchener Fire Dept. It’s an old rescue truck that is
painted red and still has their fire dept markings on it. The guys that
volunteer to operate this truck and service are what we call “Fire Buffs” or
“wannabe’s” so it makes them feel important to be a minor part of the fire
service. They are NOT employees of any fire dept. This “service” is called Box
690 as in an “numbered alarm box” like cities used to have on street corners.
Anyway, they do a much appreciated job of bringing refreshments to fatigued
fire fighters and that’s all they are supposed to do. This guy approached a
very hot fire with no protective gear on and really was taking a chance of
getting hurt. Not to mention the other two idiots that were there in bare feet.
As it was, one of the pressurized pistons or shocks that extend at either back corner
of the vehicle hood to hold it open got very hot and exploded. Luckily it went
downward into the engine bay and didn’t hurt anyone. However I’ve seen them
shoot the rod part of this device strait out like an arrow and if you were ever
in line with the front of it, it would most certainly kill you! This dork was
just lucky he didn’t get hurt!
As I was writing this article, I heard a loud siren right outside our
window. A pumper just went screaming by heading up the street to a call. Carole
was looking out the front door at the wild party that's going on across the
street from us because the cops are there breaking that one up too. She said as
the pumper came along, someone sitting at the stop sign in front of our house
tried to turn their car out in front of the pumper and they hit the siren to
warn them off. WOW! How exciting! Parties, fires and more fires...... what
next? LOL!
This was
one interesting evening for sure!
Anyway, I
must go for now. Thanks to everyone for tuning in and I look forward to talking
to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report.
Bye for now.. Greg
PS:
Something to think about… “Is your smoke detector in working order?”
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The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
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