Sixth & Cruise

I am remiss in taking more pictures of my new Harley, but I'm going to blog about a wonderful experience with it yesterday.

I was an invited speaker at a conference held at one of our federal government's major training centers. This center is located about 65 miles north of where I live, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Once I get on the highway, it's a steady cruise "up the road" to get there.

And man oh man, does this bike love to cruise. Harleys in this class now come with six gears instead of five. When you're up in sixth and cruising at 66mph (105kph), it's only revving at about 2500 rpm, so it's smooth, fairly quiet, and produces no vibration at all.

The bike came with factory-installed cruise control. I never thought I would want it or use it, but I thought since it had the feature, I would try it out. Traffic was light, the road was wide open. I got up to the posted speed limit (perhaps a couple mph over), engaged the cruise control, sat back, put my boots up on the highway pegs, and just cruised.... sweet!

This bike is so heavy that it practically rides itself while cruisin' along. The stock seat is comfortable, too. And the best thing of all is that my right hand didn't get tingly. What I mean is that in the past, when I had to keep constant pressure on the grip to maintain a steady speed, my hand would get tingly and sometimes even go numb. Now on a long cruise, I can let the cruise control keep the speed steady, and relax my hand so it doesn't restrict blood flow and cause the tingly feeling and numbness. I'm gonna really like going on longer trips with this bike! Just kick it up to sixth and cruise....