Back In The Saddle Again

Discussion in '8th Generation 2014-Present' started by Samuel, Feb 26, 2017.

  1. Bubba Utah

    Bubba Utah Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2016
    Messages:
    1,384
    Likes Received:
    324
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Utah
    Map
    I Agree with you!
     
  2. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2007
    Messages:
    15,047
    Likes Received:
    52
    Trophy Points:
    48
    This is the list of songs from "Sleepless in Seattle". I got to see some of the exterior shots done on Queen Anne Hill.


    Sleepless in SeattleSongs


    1
    As Time Goes By
    Jimmy Durante
    2:26
    2
    A Kiss to Build a Dream On
    Louis Armstrong
    3:00
    3
    Stardust
    Nat King Cole
    3:13
    4
    Makin' Whoopie (feat. Rickie Lee Jones)
    Dr. John
    4:07
    5
    In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
    Carly Simon
    3:14
    6
    Back In the Saddle Again
    Gene Autry
    2:35
    7
    Bye Bye Blackbird
    Joe Cocker
    3:28
    8
    A Wink and a Smile
    Harry Connick Jr.
    2:46
    9
    Stand By Your Man
    Tammy Wynette
    2:39
    10
    An Affair to Remember
    Marc Shaiman
    2:30
    11
    Make Someone Happy
    Jimmy Durante
    1:51
    12
    When I Fall In Love (feat. Clive Griffin)
    Céline Dion
    4:21

    If your pinkies are not blistered from typing in WORD, a few observations on "Haulbike" would be welcome. I am finding that some websites that promote goods and services are being "written" by IT dudes with language laxative problems.

    i
     
  3. Samuel

    Samuel Member

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2006
    Messages:
    856
    Likes Received:
    337
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Los Angeles County
    Map
    Ok, my experience with buying out of state (I’ll try to make this relatively brief).

    Originally, I hadn’t planned on buying out of state – had never done it before. There were several VFRs on Craigslist that I had been eyeing around LA and San Diego. I happened to check Cycle Trader one day and saw some pretty nice 8th gen VFRs, many of them brand new, for decent prices in other parts of the country – significantly cheaper than the local dealerships around me.

    One problem with CA is that they view any motorcycle with less than 7500 miles as “new” and my understanding of the DMV regulations is that we can’t import one with less than 7500 miles - unless it has a smog/emissions sticker that states it’s a 50 state bike or is CA smog/emissions compliant. Initially, I wasn’t sure about the 8th gen VFRs (49 vs 50 state) so I was looking for one with over 7500 miles (turns out, IIRC, that all the 8th gen are 50 state bikes – CA compliant – so I could have purchased a brand new one…).

    Anyway, I saw an ad for a 2015 deluxe with just over 9k miles (9153) at Nielsen’s Enterprises in Lake Villa Il for a tad under $7k. I phoned and got ahold of Mike Fouke and was informed that they were an authorized Honda M/C dealer and had sold bikes to buyers from other states before. Mike assured me that it had never been down and nothing was damaged.

    Next, I wanted to find out how much it was going to cost me to get it shipped to me in LA (and my wife had already ixnayed all ideas of me flying out somewhere else and riding it home – San Diego would have been the limit), the first option I found online was Uship. https://www.uship.com/

    For Uship – you register with their site and enter what you desired shipped, from where to where, an approximate time frame, how you would like it shipped (e.g. open carrier, closed carrier, etc) and the website lists your request. Then various shippers/haulers look through shipping requests, contact you, and offer bids on handling your shipment. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Uship also gives you an estimate on how much money you’ll be paying. In my case, Uship told me that I should expect to pay anywhere between low $300’s and mid $600’s, with an average of a little over $460 (so I was budgeting that figure into the bike purchase). Only problem was that the initial two offers/bids I received were around $1000 and $900!

    I relayed my annoyance to Mike and he suggested HaulBikes https://haulbikes.com/ because they were only about 45 minutes away from his dealership and they had picked up bikes from Nielsen’s for customers before. (The customer hires the service/makes all the arrangements for shipping – the dealer holds the bike for a reasonable time for the shipper to come pick up).

    I called HaulBikes, told them the specifics, and they quoted me a flat fee of $600. (They also offer a few discounts - http://haulbikes.com/discounts/ ) I was so ticked off at Uship and the attempted ass reaming their vendors were trying to give me that I stopped looking for other alternatives. With HaulBikes, IIRC transporting motorcycles is all they do. All their carriers are fully enclosed and custom set up to transport motorcycles and they offer insurance. (With Uship, you are pretty much rolling the dice on what you will get – what kind of vehicle, what kind of previous experience, what kind of guarantee/insurance, etc).

    When I later/eventually met HaulBikes’ driver, Bruce, he advised that they are the official transportation service for Harley Davidson and Ducati among a few more brands and groups/teams.

    HaulBikes told me that time frame for delivery would be 2-3 weeks.

    I decided to finalize everything – bought the bike from Mike/Nielsen’s and hired HaulBikes to ship. I paid a $100 deposit to Mike, then sent him a personal check, he sent me paperwork overnight via FedEx that I FedExed back to him and then I had to wait for the check to clear. That was like the first week of February. For HaulBikes, I verbally hired them over the phone, they emailed me a link to online forms that I could sign electronically – once I did, they were automatically submitted back to them.

    Communication with HaulBikes and Mike was pretty good. I got regular email updates on pending status and was notified that the bike was going to be picked up on IIRC Friday, Feb 9th. (it was picked up either that day or Saturday, forgot which day – my CRS…  ) After the pick up, both HaulBikes and Mike confirmed – HaulBikes said it was going to their primary holding location in PA (they didn’t say exactly where) pending a driver/truck heading out my way – estimated delivery of about 2 weeks.

    It took a few more days of waiting, with one apology email for a slight delay. Once they got everything arranged on their end, they notified me that my bike was loaded up and their driver was en route and would arrive some time during the window of Saturday, Feb 25th to Monday, Feb 27th and that he would call me the day before to finalize the meeting. (Customers can also specify delivery specifics, e.g. M-F only, no evenings, etc).

    I ended up meeting Bruce and taking receipt of my bike on Friday night, Feb 24th. Bruce had called me the afternoon before to let me know that he was in Phoenix AZ and was going to route through San Diego and then to LA – he would either be dropping off Friday night or possibly Saturday. That Friday afternoon around 5pm, I hadn’t heard from him so I called and left him a voice message asking whether or not he was still coming or what time frame if Saturday. He called me back about 10-15 minutes later and told me that he was still on the road and that LA traffic was terrible (tell me something I don’t know – haha), that he had to make a drop at the Harley Davidson dealership in Baldwin Park and then he’d be with me.

    There was a little more delay and his time estimate was a little off but I got my bike ok – I think around 8:30 pm ish. He told me that he had started the trip with 40 motorcycles (I couldn’t clearly see into the top half of his trailer but I think he had maybe half a dozen bikes left) and I think he mentioned that he was headed up to San Luis Obispo next, that same night.

    Bruce’s rig was pretty sweet – double decker arrangement (he told me the same company who manufactures transport trailers for auto racing teams makes HaulBikes’ big rigs) and fully powered lift/tail gate. I didn’t get to see exactly how my bike was prepped/secured in the truck but I haven’t noticed any damage or problems from the ride. HaulBikes does have a rule that they won’t carry/ship anything that’s Not part of or attached to a bike (e.g. a box full of parts or accessories might move around and damage other bikes). My bike came with Cortech soft saddle bags attached across the rar seat and a rear seat cowl that Mike had thrown into the deal which was placed (mostly) inside one of the bags – that was ok.

    Anyway, I think that’s about it. My experience was positive and I will probably call on them again when I retire and move out of this screwed up state… lol
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2017
  4. Outboard John

    Outboard John New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2011
    Messages:
    860
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    Escondido, Ca.
    Congrats on the new to you bike Samuel. I know to each there own, but I think that your new ride looks perfect as is, and Imo stickering it up will be a bit like graffiti. Just my 2 cents. Good write up on the transport. Glad you had such a positive experience. I just purchased a used truck out of state and looked into the option of having it shipped. I filled out the form online to get bids to see what it might cost, then started reading reviews on the various companys that submitted bids. Most all had positive, and negative reviews. Some of the negative reviews were real horror stories! I could only imagine the anxiety that I would have so I ended up flying/purchasing and driving the truck home.
    Again, congrats and enjoy the new ride.
     
  5. Badbilly

    Badbilly Official VFRWorld Troll Of The Year!

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2007
    Messages:
    15,047
    Likes Received:
    52
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Good stuff.. not much guesswork on who to use if the service is needed.

    Nice also to hear of a straight up dealership too.

    Thank-you Sir..
     
  6. Samuel

    Samuel Member

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2006
    Messages:
    856
    Likes Received:
    337
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Los Angeles County
    Map
    Hey John, you know the more I look at my bike, the more I see your (and others who have said keep it "clean") point! I have a ton of stickers saved up - all shapes/sizes/colors/subject matter - but the more I look at the bunch I had picked out to put on this bike, the more I'm reluctant to put them on. I've put on a couple already, nothing gauche or risqué (IMO lol) but don't see myself putting on very many more (definitely nowhere near what my 87 looked like!). Might be blasphemous but I'm actually considering spray plasti-dipping a couple of panels matte black, just to break it up some (stock is an awful lot of white lol). Here are a couple of decals I still might order and put on: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/252484751881?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true :D
     
  7. GatorGreg

    GatorGreg Honda Fanboy/LitiGator

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2016
    Messages:
    1,984
    Likes Received:
    342
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Orlando
    Map
    I made the mistake of clicking on BB's link - now I'm scarred for life - LOL
     
  8. GatorGreg

    GatorGreg Honda Fanboy/LitiGator

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2016
    Messages:
    1,984
    Likes Received:
    342
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Orlando
    Map
  9. Samuel

    Samuel Member

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2006
    Messages:
    856
    Likes Received:
    337
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Los Angeles County
    Map
    You're Welcome Sir, anytime! For me, it was a pretty easy decision - YMMV... :)
     
  10. Samuel

    Samuel Member

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2006
    Messages:
    856
    Likes Received:
    337
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Los Angeles County
    Map
    Hey Greg, I normally fill up with Shell so I think the sticker is pretty cool - for me though, it would seem lonely down there by itself... lol I'd have to put more motorcycle/sponsor related stuff along with it (e.g. NGK, RK, Dunlop or Michelin, Monster, etc)... I might cut out the logo and use that by itself or with "Shell" underneath the logo... I have a couple of Rothman's racing stickers lying around... hmmm haha
     
  11. Samuel

    Samuel Member

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2006
    Messages:
    856
    Likes Received:
    337
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Los Angeles County
    Map
    Been ordering a bunch of different parts, waiting for stuff to come in. Had time to put on some fork protectors just now. Very simple install, IMO easiest to tighten down while close to being aligned and then gently muscle it the rest of the way. I forgot to measure these before I put them on but they are tall enough that they will hit the bottom of the oil cooler at close to full lock (for sure if you want to park and lock your steering). I ended up snipping an 1" off the top of both - probably could have done 7/8". Aren't as protective as the sleeve type but I think these look pretty clean. Please excuse the crappy cell phone pics...

    http://www.shoptriumphparts.com/products/Triumph/Fork-protector/9930829/A9641000.html

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  12. VFR4Lee

    VFR4Lee Member

    Country:
    United States
    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2016
    Messages:
    1,100
    Likes Received:
    530
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Reseda / LA
    Map
    Very nice. I suspect the white will grow on you.
     
Related Topics

Share This Page