A NEW MEMBER IN THE FAMILY!!

A NEW MEMBER IN THE FAMILY!!

After quite a lot of hunting around for a bike to upgrade into, I finally found one that I liked.  I originally had two other bike types that I liked, the Softail Slim and the Switchback but I ended up landing on this 2009 H-D VTWIN Softail Deluxe.  I love the vintage look it has and this isn't a color you see out on the road a lot, but it reminded me of classic cars from the 50's & 60's and I love that.  Since my last Harley was straight black and chrome I wanted to go a completely different direction this time around with some color.  Looks like I achieved that!

(56 Ford Fairlane)

(1960 Corvette)

I stopped by three different Harley dealerships to check to see if they had any Pre-Owned Softail Deluxe in stock but wasn't finding anything in my price range.  I decided to go the pre-owned route because it doesn't make sense to buy a brand new bike when there are SO many used bikes in California that are in immaculate condition and have barely been driven.  This was the first thing I regretted when I bought my last H-D.  For example, a brand new 2013 Softail Deluxe would cost around $18, 129 for a two-tone paint job like this.  I found tons of bikes online in the 12-15K price range, with all fairly low miles.  That's at least a $3000 dollar difference right there.  The bike I financed above only has 4,048 miles on it!!  This is about 600 miles less than I had on my 2010 Sportster before I sold it.  The other benefit here is that I won't have to pay for the five-thousand mile service because the place where I bought it has already done it for me.  That's more savings of at least $3-$500 dollars depending on where you take it to be serviced.

I had to pass on the private owners selling their bikes on Craigslist and Ebay because I wanted to finance the bike rather than pay that large sum up front.  Especially because I have good credit and know I can get a pretty low interest rate.  This was the next thing that separated one company from another.  Some places I called said their rates ranged from 14-24%, others said it would be a minimum of 13%, but finally I found something reasonable when I found the Chopper Gallery in Temecula.  My credit score is about a 692, which put me at a fixed rate of 7.29% through the company they use to finance (LBS Financial Credit Union).  This was considerably lower than every other place I'd checked.  I could have gotten it down even lower if I'd financed for 48 months rather than 60 but it wasn't going to be a big enough difference to merit a higher monthly payment amount.

It was a true gem finding this bike as the miles were low for the year and the condition was flawless.  If you are willing to look, there are some great finds out there.  The whole point of upgrading into a bigger bike was so that I am able to go on long rides and not have to pull over every 60-70 miles to fill up my gas tank.  The peanut tank on the Sportster was really great for around town but I have other bikes for that now.  I can even cruise down to LA without worrying about getting tossed around by the wind or running out of gasoline.  The front of the bike has a windshield so that will be a nice change from having bugs, rocks, and cigarette ash flying in face.

The feature I'm most excited about would definitely be the keyless start.  There is a small round puck that I just have to keep within 5ft of the bike in order to start it.  My keys and keychains won't be rattling against my paint job or frame, scratching it up any longer.  This is really convenient!  I will most likely be buying some sort of holster that clips onto the handlebars so I can put my phone up there for navigation purposes as well.  All in time.

The foot boards are so much more comfortable than pegs, it's unbelievable.  I'll be curious to see how my second passenger (girlfriend) likes riding on the back of this over the Sportster.  I may invest in a removable sissy bar down the line, but right now I don't want to add to much clutter to it.

What do you think?  Do ya dig it?