Third Day Challenges
Yesterday afternoon I called the Harley dealer nearest to our hotel in Batesville, MS and made arrangements to have them look at my bike first thing this morning. We were up early and arrived at Southern Thunder Harley in Southaven, MS, a half-hour before they opened. One of the techs brought us cold bottles of water while we were waiting.
It didn’t take them long to assess the problem – lots of things are rattling and it needs a new motor. Fortunately the extended warranty will cover a new motor. It’s just going to take time for the process to play out.
Much to my surprise, they offered me a 2025 trike as a loaner until July 20th at no charge! They have a number of loaner bikes available for service customers. They have to put 5000 miles on the bikes before they can be removed from fleet service. This trike has only 1400 miles on it, so I’ll be helping them out by putting a lot of miles on it.
Beth is pulling the trailer with her bike and keeping the RPMs up in a good range.
Lunch was at the same park we stopped at last year in Jonesboro, AR. This park is huge and immaculately groomed. The restrooms are air conditioned!
There were some dark skies to the west, and we got spritzed on, but that was all.
The day was pretty hot. It was 97 deg. all afternoon. We stopped at a Love’s/MacDonald’s for coffee and a snack.
We made it to our campground by about 6:30, so we had plenty of time to setup and have supper.
Tomorrow we are headed for Omaha, NE.
Statistics: Miles – 382, Hours – 11.
Unbelievable! Hope that’s the end of the bad stuff!
So do we. thanks for following.
Hey Tim, how was the ride on the new trike compared to your independent suspension trike?
The Harley trike is a ’25. It has a straight rear axle and low-profile tires. It’s worse than independent rear suspension designs. It was downright harsh on some sections of roads today. The wishbone suspension on my trike is very good. The totally independent suspension on Beth’s California Sidecar is excellent.
You should feel a significant increase in power and first and second gear are lower on the trike than the touring bikes. Your trailer is not small and puts a heavy load on the drive train. If the extended warranty company catches up with the trailer towing, you could have a battle on your hands.
I also worry about the towing/warranty issue. Have heard stories…
Enjoy the tri-glide and happy riding! We finally leave tomorrow (shipping delays).Carry on!
Safe travels
Time will tell. The crew at Southhaven seemed very competent and helpful.
Worked out nicely! Continued safe travels!
Hi Tim is there any difference between the loaner bike and yours with the air flow coming across the wind shields?
No difference, Gary. Beth windshields are pretty tall.
Lucky break on the loaner. Hopefully that’s the end of your problems for awhile. Happy trails and be safe!
Thank you. We’ve had two good days in a row.
What warranty do you have? Have you had any issues with ? I have discount ESP I have never had to use it thankfully
We have the ESP that Harley sells. We’ve used it often.