Only 67 miles per tank, what's up - wtf -

WOW, for over thirty years I've been easing into neutral coming up to a stop light simply because it is more comfortable to not have to hold the clutch in waiting for the light to change. The safety aspect never occurred to me. Now stop signs are another matter, especially if I can time it so I don't have to put my feet down. BTW I once had a cop tell me I couldn't come to a complete stop without putting my feet down. I asked him if he would care to make a wager (probably not smart) but advised him that first he should ask a cop on the motor patrol. He let me go. AL

Excellent point to bring up.When at a stoplight I'm as far out to the left as I can be ,so I can see past the cage behind me and am constantly looking in my rearview mirror. Trust No One!!

You guys are great. Each recommendation adds to the development of my own style of riding. Lucifer, I haven't been looking in the rear view mirror much at stoplights, but I'll start doing that more often now. So funny you mentioned the "feet up/full stop", Al. I actually practice doing that at stop signs. Here in Manhattan, there aren't many stop signs, and the ones that are here, are usually not too heavily traveled. So, I sometimes try to make a full stop for a split second, keeping my feet up before moving. If I think a cop could be near, I put a fake foot down, just for appearances. There's a police station on my street, one block away and sometimes a few patrolmen sit and have lunch on my corner. I'm actually glad to see them here and I know most of the guys pretty well now, so they wouldn't hassle me, but there's always some rookie who wants to stand on ceremony, just itching to put that mighty pen to use.

Some ass in a new SUV knocked down my bike while parked last night. They took off before anyone could see the license, they had enough space to park a truck. It's difficult to think about MPG, now that they've cost me serious $$ to get my Sporty back to spec.

Sorry to hear that man. That really sucks! Maybe they will return to that area. Did you get a make and color of the vehicle? >AL

Thanks Al. The guy who saw the SUV knock me down knows my friends. If I see the same make and model in the same area again, I might be able to track the *astards down. Oh well, it's a sunny day, so I'll take her out as soon as I finish work and take a closer look at the damage.

what goes around comes around. they'll get theirs.:rant:

I believe that too Skull, thanks. Their reward is their miserable friggin' life. Meanwhile, even though it stings, I'm thankful I have my health now, a job and that I have enough money to make repairs and focus on what's great about riding a Harley. Surprisingly one of the best things I've discovered is how helpful other Harley owners are and how NOT full of it they are. Glad to be a small part of that.

I'm curious. Never having been involved in a hit and run, I would suppose you would file a police report to get it on record but then does a full coverage insurance policy cover it. I should ask Geico. Hope your damage is minimal. I had an incident happen to me in Yuma where me and my bros were in a bar at the run and someone asks who owns the brown and white shovel it just got knocked down. I went outside and see my bike knocked down and this nerdy looking guy standing there and just as I was going ballistic my bro grabbed me. Good thing cause that was just when the cops showed up. One of the cops says "lets take a walk so you can calm down and don't do something we will all regret". Turned out the cop was a Goldwing rider and belonged to a cop club. He actually helped me by noticing some damage that I had missed, it was all recorded. Turns out the guy that did it was on vacation from France with his wife driving a Hertz rental. Luckily by clamping a vise grip onto what was left of the clutch cable I was able to ride back to Phoenix. I actually came out on the sweet end of the deal, new paint job, new chrome primary cover etc; etc; the HD dealer spared no expense and Hertz never blinked an eye. Hope in the end you get justice. AL

Thanks guys. I've got a $500 deductible on my policy, so I don't know if it's worth reporting. Still I'll file a report tomorrow, just for the record. Only thing that makes me hesitate is that sometimes insurance companies raise rates once an accident is reported. I'll check on that before filing.

Yeah that sucks big time, If they were in neighbor hood once thay'll probably be back . Your right about reporting it to police, insurance companies sometimes do that(Insurance Companies= legalized Extortion)Sometimes better to take care of business yourself.Hope the bike is not hurt bad.

Sorry to hear about the Sporty Hellboy. I hope it all comes together for you better than before. Like others have said just be glad you weren't on it at the time. If I came out and found my Sporty on her side I don't know what I would do.

Back to mileage though, I just ran 172 miles before hitting reserve. Took 3.4 gallons to fill back up.

Again glad you weren't physically hurt, and hope your bike is back to better than new ASAP.

Whoa, 172 miles? That fantastic! I just made it to 90 miles and thought that was OK. Before I did any research when I first bought the Sporty I thought I'd get something like 50 MPG.

You should be getting . Sometimes I get that on the Road King riding 2 up. It is EFI. I consistantly get close to 50 on the fat boy and it is a 96" motor carburated. AL

Uggh... wil keep checking into it. I'm still reeling a bit from the knockover, but all will be right eventually. It was a good excuse to look around on ebay for some chrome

Off topic question, what exactly what is a "Derby". I would eventually like to get a chrome primary cover, but don't think Harley made one for the 2003 XLH 883. I might have mine chromed this winter, but I'm thinking of getting a 100th Anniversary Derby cover in the meantime.

Derby cover = primary cover. Took me a minute to figure out what you were after on the primary cover LOL.

Thanks wvac, I figured the "Derby" was a part of the primary cover, but with such a funny name for a motorcycle part, I thought I'd ask. Here's a link to the part I'm thinking of buying:

eBay Motors: HARLEY DAVIDSON 100TH ANNIVERSARY SPORTSTER DERBY COVER (item 300217349181 end time May-18-08 04:08:54 PDT)