Valentino Harley Swanepoel - Harley Bear

This is the official announcement of the birth of Valentino Harley. This Harley Bear was born on 14th of February 2012 (hence the name Valentino). This picture below is of Valentino Harley Bear next to his birth certificate.

 His mommy is Marilia Swanepoel, known to all as Lila.

Mommy loves to see all the animals in nature, and daddy takes her travelling often.

This is when they got married on 18th February 2012 & that is one of the Harleys they travel on.

We all live in Durban, where we have a beautiful view of the sea, Greyville race-course & golf course, & Moses Mabhida Stadium. Greyville race course has some naked people running on it at night in July. The golf course has had a few more water holes after all the rain the last couple of weeks. Moses Mabhida Stadium was built for the TopGear show with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, & James May. Mommy & daddy & my two brothers saw the show in June this year. The stadium was ready last year already, and they tested its readiness for the TopGear Show by hosting some soccer matches last year. It was part of the FIFA World Cup.

Anyway, I am going to be sharing some of our adventures when we go out on Harley rides with you. They have lots of pictures of good people having lots of fun. Here is just one of them that I am going to be telling you about.

Insurance Claim

Most Harley riders in South Africa have no experience of dealing with insurance claims on repairing damaged bikes (they don't drop their precious investments). However, occasionally riders like me, who use their Harleys as their basic transport, will end up claiming for damage.

No, I didn't fall, or even drop my bike. It was parked in the car park of a factory I was doing accounts consultancy work for. I was called out of the office to the car park, and found that their Hyster driver had ridden into the back of my Chrome & Blue Beauty, buckling the back mudguard into the tyre & knocking it over on the right-hand side. No biggie, you say. Hunh!!

I had to go to the local police station and fill in an accident report (to get a case number for the insurance). notify my insurance company, fill in their claim form, and show their claims inspector the damage for confirmation. Who are my insurers. They were a broker firm that was bought out by the international AON Insurance group. (Yes, the same one you see on Lewis Hamilton's McLaren in Formula 1, and the Manchester United Football Team. Apparently Hamilton needs insurance more than Alonso at Ferrari).

Also included was a visit to my local Harley dealership to get a quote for repairing the damage. 

Note the date - 1st June 2012

All the replacement parts required were available..........except the blue mudguard. This had to be ordered from Milwaukee, to match the original colour. After many visits, and phone calls, the mudguard arrived on the 7th of September 2012. SHEESH!!!! 

The bike went into the dealership on Tuesday 11th September, and I fetched it on Monday 17th September. I had to pay my excess (5% - R1198.00) & my delightful Dyna is back - rides & sounds great!! Insurance people all very pleasant & competent, as were all my friends at the Harley-Davidson dealership.

The only issue was riding a damaged bike for more than 3 months!!

Love my wife and my Harley!!

What Tyre?

We all need tyres replaced on our gleaming dream machines from time-to-time. It is one of the aspects of bike riding safety that we shouldn't compromise on. The advice we are given that a tyre needs to be replaced when there is only 1mm of tread left anywhere on the tyre, is good advice (unless you have dome kind of death wish). With only 2 wheels on the ground (unless you ride a woosie 'trike) & brakes that can never match those of a car, you need to make sure the rubber you have on the ground is good.

I have done about 130 000 km's of riding on my Harleys in the last 8 years, and have had tyres last as little as 9 000 km's and as much as 17 000 km's, but have had to replace quite a few.

Now most of us will just 'phone up our local dealership & arrange for a new tyre to be fitted when it can be done by the workshop. I did this myself for many years. We also see some of our friends at the breakfast runs with different looking tyres and invariably hear that they are much cheaper. I was always sceptical of fitting anything other than the official "Harley-Davidson Dunlop" to my bikes & coughed up between R2 000.00 & R3 000.00 for getting this done. Yes R3 000.00 for a standard back tyre on my Dyna Superglide Custom - because the dealer insists on replacing the tube and the tyre for safety reasons. Harleys aren't cheap!

In 2011, a few friends, my then fiance', Lila & I decided to do the 2 Passes Rally in Plettenburg Bay, which meant a 3 500 km round trip from Durban. Yes, I needed a new tyre on the back of the Dyna. The dealership had no stock, so a Michelin was obtained from another bike garage to keep me on the road. This tyre just didn't work for me. I was never comfortable with it (it felt like the back end was squirelly and lacking grip on the corners) & it only did a bit under 9 000 km's before being replaced.

This year, 2012, after a honeymoon trip to Knysna on the Harley, I needed a new tyre on the back again. I got a fright when I noticed how worn it was & contacted our dealership. I was told that they had no stock, & the official Dunlop suppliers had no stock in the country either, but I would be 'phoned when some stock arrived!! That don't work for me!!! The casual "lump it" attitude by the dealership staff turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I contacted the bike shop that sells second-hand Harleys at lunch-time & by 3 p.m. had a new Goodyear fitted for R2 145.00!! Great service, great price & what a good tyre. I was surprised at how good the grip felt, how solid it cornered and thus improved the ride. Probably won't last long, I thought. It is still on, & has done about 5 000 km's. The wear on it seems to be quite good. Whether it gets the 12 000 km's I like to get on a back tyre remains to be seen, but I think I will stick to Goodyear in future, even if it only gets 10 000 km's.

The attitude from the Harley dealership this time, it must be noted, is not the normal treatment I get there. On the contrary, many of the staff members have often gone out of their way to make my riding experience the best possible. Harley-Davidson tattoo's are commonplace, and while I don't believe I will ever see fit to deface my body with any kind of tattoo, I am pretty sure that logo is on my heart!