Glad to hear your trip was safe. Isn't the rain so much fun? At least your roads are designed for it. The one time a year we get rain down here, it's horrible. I swear the raindrops are bigger in AZ. All the rain does to the road is make the stripes disappear, and brings all the oil to the top. The first few minutes of the rain are the worst. After it rains a while, most of the oil washes off and you're good to go. And even though we only get like 10 inches annually, I still manage to fill my boots every now and then. Our monsoon season is in july-august, so I am relegated to the car on extremely inclimate days for my 30 mile trip to work.

When I joined the forums, one of the first things I did was post about the light bar bulbs. You should go to NAPA and get some 4411's. I've had mine running for the past 16,000 miles and haven't had a problem. They're way brighter at night than the stock bulbs, get you noticed during the day, and are cheaper, too. Here's the post.

If you do decide to come this way sometime, let me know. There's some cool places to check out down here. Now I gotta find out where the closest buider is...

Stay safe,
Tim

For me, the Mustang was well worth the money. Yes, I can now ride all day with my rear and lower back pain free. My wife was only on this seat once and only for a little while. She just said that she can't remember if there was that much difference between the Mustang and OEM Suzuki C-90 seat. I remember that she really liked the C-90 pillion over the C-50 when I changed that out...

The Americade ride started off chilly. I wore leather chaps over jeans and a winter leather jacket over a tee-shirt when I left the house. Ten fire-fighters from my dept rode their bikes - two had passengers. One of our Capt's just picked up an old - really old - Suzuki last fall, but he only got on the road after April. He didn't feel comfortable enough, so he took his car with his sixteen yr old son. Two different daughters rode together in another car following us. We also had four 'friends' riding their own bikes along with us - one of which is a Chief of a neighboring Vol FD.

When we got to Lake George, we stopped for lunch. My eldest ( who was already staying up there in a motel with some of her friends ) came to visit at the restaurant. When we finished, I wore my heavy jean jacket with the embossed fire malteese that Our Designs sells. It was only a couple of miles to the Expo, and I wore just the tee-shirt to walk around in. Not much later, and many of us were looking for somewhere to cool off- shade, A/C - anything... Lots of fire-fighters walking around......

Eighteen hundred hours - we leave to head for Warrensburg for more vendors. Stop to get gas, and it is already cooling off - and it starts to sprinkle! Back on with the leather jacket. One of the guys tells me that one of my light bar bulbs has burned out. Warrensburg ( only a couple of miles away from Lake George ), and the sprinkle gets more intense. Some guys are getting all suited up for the rain. I was too lazy to follow suit, but I put a shield on my 3/4 helmet.

Perhaps 10 miles to Old Forge for supper. Raining harder and getting much colder and much darker. Twilight and all of a sudden I see lots of brake lights go on and lots of arm waving up in front of me - I see a deer that everyone is pointing to cross the road. Getting much colder and much darker..... I am starting to shiver. We get to the restaurant, and I get my Dept sweatshirt out to take inside to warm it up and put a plastic garbage bag over the seat to keep it dry. We go inside, and I change my mind and put the sweatshirt on right away. The shivers left after about 15 min. The good news is that the C90T comes with a larger windshield than the C50 had, and it comes with lowers. I have Desert Dawg splash guards that go over the crash bars. While some guys were soaked and had their boots filled with water, I was only slightly damp on the lower part of my legs. When someone at the rear of the ride asked how close the deer came, our leaders wife said " I could have reached out and petted it ." Her hubby is one of older and more respected fire-fighters, and he said that it did a number on him, and that the rest of the ride will be slower and on more open road. I have never noticed him to be shook up in almost 30 years....

Lots of great bikes, trikes, sidecars, trailers, choppers, spyders (sp?), painters, etchers, good food, and very interesting people - just wish my wife could have made the trip this year!

OCC's new shop should be done this season, I hope. Vinnie and Cody have their shop only a few miles down the road from OCC. Don't know when we will ride down this season. You have a number of famous chopper builders down that way, too I think...

Stay safe & God bless

Bruce

Sorry for the delay getting back to you, I got kinda busy there for a while.

I hope you wife feels better soon, back pain is the worst.

Funny you should bring up the mustang seat, I was gonna post about it. I read some reviews that you could go all day and still be confortable, but was skeptical. Is it that good? The wife and I had a big ride coming up in a few weeks, we'll be on the bike all day, and I'll order one if it's worth it.

How was Americade? Maybe if I had a mustang I could ride out and go to OCC with you guys sometime. I'm dying to go one day.

You need to send pics of your bike when you get some work done, it's sounds like it's gonna look sweet.

Stay safe.

Glad to see that you are "still alive."

I have traded in the C50 limited for a C90T last year following an over-night trip with my wife. The C50 was great for local trips 2up, but neither of us were very comfortable after hundreds of miles together on it. It seemed as tough it didn't like the harder workout either. It had about 10,500 miles on it when I traded it in with the stock tires still on it. The rear tire was showing some wear, and the sides of the front were scalloping, but the dealer (inspector) thought that they were plenty good still.

I ordered a Mustang wide touring seat to help my wife be more comfortable, and I am sure glad that I did. It comes with a rider backrest, and that has to be one of the best inventions ever! The seat is harder when you first sit on it than the OEM was, but you can ride it all day and still be very comfortable...

The bike is black with blue flake. I was going to paint it the same as the C50 limited, because I still think that they subconsciously designed that for fire-fighters. Absolutely everybody begged me not to paint the bike myself, and then I watched an American Chopper episode where they made their own badges for the bike. I am now going to cut and hammer my own fire maltese badge for the left side of the tank and scramble badge for the right side with flame badges coming back off them. On the front fender, I will do a crossed fire axe badge with flames coming backward. And on the actual gas tank covers under the seat (C90 is weird), I will do horse drawn steamers ( two horses on one side and three on the other).... All of these will be in candy red with darker red flake in layers of clearcoat and transparent black edges. Now instead of a flat paint job, the metal will be in 3-D and the paint will have an additional 3-D effect to it!


I have no idea how long this will take, because I haven't done any sheet metal work in 4 decades... But, it will be a fun project and not store-bought stuff!

Ironically, I traded up to the C90 for my wife. Now she is laid up with her back and leg pain. She hasn't been able to ride at all this season. In fact, she can't sit for more than a couple of minutes. We have company, and she can't sit for a meal together. She has to pace and is almost in tears about it. Monday, she will be going to Syracuse for pain management. If they can't get her comfortable with a Cortisone shot to her disk, they will probably make an appointment for surgery.

Ok, keep the shiny side up. Sure wish that we had your riding season... It seemed as tough we had to wait a century for the salt to get off the roads this winter. Had a very wet and cold charity ride a couple of weeks ago, but it was for a good cause. This Tuesday about a dozen from my dept will be going to Americade. A great ride through the mountains for about a 300 mile day. Later in the summer, we will go to OCC for about a 400 mile day...

God bless

Bruce