Loud pipes save lives. Seriously.

[lds]

I decided to take advantage of some record-high temperatures today, finish up some maintenance on the bikes, and take a spin. Heading down the interstate out of town, I got into a little bumper-to-bumper traffic going about 60 (speed limit is 65), with me in the leftmost lane (of three). The left lane was going a mile or two faster than the middle

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[lds]

A guy at a local independent shop just offered me an almost-complete Ironhead for $700 two days ago. I'm addicted to Sporties enough that I considered it for a few minutes, but I don't really need a fixer-upper project bike. I just like 'em. But I had to pass.

If you don't mind, I'll add ya, and maybe you can post pics when you finish your project? I'll enjoy seeing your work, however it turns out. And though I actually find straight pipes horribly uncomfortable to ride with, I am quite sure from my own experience that you will find fewer people trying to merge into you. You're welcome to correct me if you find this not the case, but so far, I'm quite confident in my observations.

One other thing I didn't mention in my post above that's very, very important: deer. You will notice them shying away from the roadside rather than darting across in front of you. That's important where I live, where the deer are super-thick and super-frightening to me when I'm on two wheels.

I wish you many safe miles, and a good pair of "foamies" earplugs to protect your hearing with those straight pipes. :) You'll need 'em!

[ehintz]

Hasn't really changed much externally since I bought 'er. But the engine has had a pretty complete rebuild now, both top and bottom. Just got it back in about 3-4 weeks ago.

http://www.hintz.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1444

At this point I just need to put in a fresh oil filter, rebuild my front master cylinder, and then go through all the legal rego stuff.

As for the earplugs, I started wearing those back in '89. The wind makes too much noise. :) Even under a full face helmet it's still too loud for my tastes for any sort of reasonable highway run.

I'm real tempted to try to score a Shovel from the states. I see 'em going cheap as chips on ebay, and down here they're pretty pricey (which is why I ended up with the Iron, simply couldn't afford the big twin, tho I do like the Iron quite a bit-just like the Shovel better). Also the US dollar has been in the dumps lately which makes a huge diff. Probably going to be back for hols in Dec but I doubt I'll have the scratch to pull it off yet. Apparently Shovels and Irons down here were going pretty cheap a few years back, but the Japanese were buying them up by the truckload, so they've gotten pretty scarce now and are climbing in price.

Ultimately I'm thinking of a Shovel for myself and converting the Iron into a trike for the wife. But that would be like the 10 year plan. :)