The Sabre Modifications and Upgrades- Floorboards

When I rode, after awhile my legs felt cramped. I thought part of this was the cold, my lack of recent riding but I also feel that the bike seat height is a little short for me. I've never ridden with floorboards but thought I would like to try them. I checked online and while many sites were good very few if any showed my bike and what it would look like with floor boards. It seemed that most of the offerings were generic floorboards that needed a mounting kit that adapted to a particular bike, definitely my bike. Hondaline boards were available new for $369.

Luckily, I found a guy in Lancaster PA that was selling his for $180. I actually met him when I delivered the GL to the buyer up there. We settled on a price of $160. I like riding with the boards. They give your feet and legs the option of moving around within a larger area, albeit a small, larger area.

I think they look good, if a little on the plain side. The guy I bought them from said that he was selling them because his wife wanted boards when she rode so he switched to another model. I'm wondering if I might have to do the same.

Later Note: I've wondered if crash bars with "highway pegs" might not be the answer to a more comfortable ride. However there are issues that I address later on.

The Sabre Modifications and Upgrades- GPS

Of concern, other than weather and my lack of recent riding experience was the route I would take and the traffic around Orlando. I felt that a GPS would be mandatory to get me to the highway with as little problem as possible. I checked out motorcycle GPS', they were waterproof, had handlebar mounts and were bluetooth enabled. They were very expensive starting at about $400. I have a perfectly good GPS, it isn't waterproof it has a suction cup mount. I wouldn't be riding in the rain and I would rig a safety strap to it in case the suction cup came loose.

I had to get power to the handle bars for the GPS and possibly to charge my iPhone. I purchased a 12V accessory outlet that clips to the battery terminals. I snipped off the alligator clips and attached a ring terminal which was then attached to the battery terminals. I ran the cord up under the gas tank securing it with zip ties along the way. The 12v socket is run to the handlebars and attached with zip ties. I left a fair amount of the coiled cord free in between the bike body and the handlebars so that when the handlebars are swung to their stops there is no binding.

In the photos you'll notice a "plug" in the socket. This is an old wine cork with a screw eye in it. I wanted this so that if I encounter wet conditions the socket will stay dry and not short the system.

The Sabre Modifications and Upgrades- The Cold

On my BMW I had a full fairing, lowers which cover the knee area and "Hippo Hands" which are large sleeve like affairs that cover the hand grip area, they keep the wind off your hands and lower arms. These were all great for cold weather.

Why worry about warmth in Florida? There was a cold front covering the East coast down into Northern Florida. It was predicted that it would get as cold as 33 degrees in the Sanford area. With any wind even at 30 or 40 mph. the wind chill can quickly go to zero. I checked into "lowers" for my bike. What I found would have mounted on the front fork under my windscreen. The problem was that they were made to mount in conjunction with other fairings/windscreens but not mine. After thinking a bit, I felt that while nice they'd be marginally useful, as I intended to only use the bike in warmer weather. The ride from Sanford was fairly short and if it was too cold I could simply wait for it to warm up. As it turned out I needn't have worried.

The plan for taking the bike to Florida

In 1980 I had a BMW R100T. As the Christmas break began I was asked by friends and family, "what are you going to do during the break". My answer, not unlike the super bowl winners was "I'm riding the bike to Florida where it's warm". Little did I know that the weather had some surprises for me. There were snow flurries in Miami! When I got to the Keys the highest temperature I saw was 43 degrees. I froze the whole way down and the whole way back.

With age hopefully comes wisdom and experience.

Kari and I had planned a trip to our house in Juno Beach Florida during the February 12th Presidents Day weekend. I thought it would be great to have the bike down in Florida. Oddly, I thought that the Autotrain was very expensive, in the $800 area. Of course the last time I checked was probably when I was in college and no matter what the price it was too expensive. Consulting the Amtrak website I found that it would cost about $180 for the bike and $120 for me, about what it costs to drive down with an overnight stay at a hotel. The bike and I would board the train in Lorton VA the next morning we would be dropped off at Sanford Florida, just North of Orlando. This would leave a ride of about 180 miles just over 3 hours to "drive". However, that route uses interstate 95 for most of the trip, about 120 miles.

I'd gotten a little time on the bike, but only about 10 minutes on the highway at speed, I didn't feel all that confident on the bike and I felt it needed some modifications and or upgrades to be suitable for the trip to Florida.

Getting the Sabre On the Road

When you go for tags on a used vehicle including motorcycles you have to have it inspected. I thought my friend Ed Coby might be able to do it, he inspected my boat trailer. However, it seems that motorcycles are a different type and have to be inspected my a motorcycle inspection station. I checked at the Harley store but they weren't open even though their sign said they were supposed to be open. I decided that it would probably be best to have the bike inspected by a Honda shop. The closest Honda Dealership to me is the one in Crofton, Crofton Power Sports. I took the bike over by truck. It only took a day to get the bike inspected. Unfortunately, the bike needed a few things. The big item was the rear brake rotor, it was thinner than spec. I'd never heard of this so I went over to the dealership and had them mic it, it was thin. The other thing was some grommets on the rear shocks. The last thing was the right front turn signal was cracked and "might come off while riding" making it a ding on the inspection. The rear tire had some dry rot and was close to needing replacement; I decided to have it replaced while it was in the shop. The total bill was just over $600. Bringing my total for the bike to $2900. While they were very accommodating they don't stock any parts so they needed to be ordered which took a few days.

The problem arose again with the weather. This time because it was nice weather, I wanted to ride! I again went over and picked the bike up so I could ride on the two nice days. I put about 100 miles on the bike in two days. Not only did I want to get experience on the bike but I wanted to know what kind of gas mileage I would get. With only a 4.1 gallon there isn't much room for error. I was planning to take the bike to Florida in February, any experience and knowledge I could gain would be a plus.

Getting the Sabre Leagal and Home

Week of January 16 through 22

When I bought the bike I paid Mark, the seller, cash for the bike. In turn I got the signed title and a bill of sale. The problem of course was that he didn't want me to go home with his tag and in spite of what he'd heard, I'm pretty sure "you can't ride it home without a tag"

One of the first things I had to do was get the bike registered, insured and tagged. Insurance was accomplished with a phone call to Billy and Terry. I spent a short time at the MVA because I'd downloaded most of the documents needed to get registered and tagged. It's gotten very expensive to get a new vehicle. Once I got the tag I could pick up the bike.

However, the weather wasn't cooperating. Since I hadn't ridden in quite awhile I didn't want to ride around the DC beltway shivering and cold.

I opted to bite the bullet and buy a ramp for the pickup. I'd remembered seeing ramps at Harbor Freight Tools. Mark had a ramp for his truck that was 3 panels. He had to put some thin plywood over it to keep the bike wheels from going into the rungs. I looked at the various ramps and thought like Mark's ramp they were better suited to four wheelers than motorcycles. I decided to buy a ramp that's was only two panels 30" wide but with a solid metal deck. As it turns out it is just wide enough to get my feet down while loading. I'd recommend this ramp for loading bikes onto a truck. Although a little more expensive than others at $135 it works.

http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/ramps/1200-lb-capacity-convertible-aluminum-loading-ramp-94057.html

On January 22, 2012 we rode down in the truck and picked the Sabre up. I bought extra tie downs for the job. Mark showed us how he does the tie down. The pictures of the bike are from that day. I did actually take the bike around the block a few times.

Under the Carburetor and Dreaming...No More

January 16, 2012

Although this post will be listed for February 23, 2012; on January 16, 2012 I bought a 2000 Honda Shadow Sabre 1100! Unlike the Goldwing this bike runs.

I bought the bike from a retired (45ish) Navy guy down in Alexandria. I was the first person to talk to him. He had it listed for $2500, I paid $2300, the bike has 40,000 miles on it.

When I went down to look at the bike it was a cold overcast day. He let me take the bike out for a test ride. The problem was that I hadn't ridden in 30 some years, well a couple of test rides here and there. This bike had a very different feel than my BMW, the front seemed to over steer at low speed.

I ended up selling the GL for $1100 to a guy in Lancaster PA, I may have lost $100, or I may have made $100! I delivered the bike for him. It snowed from the MD line for about 20 minutes up to York. Luckily, the rain and snow let up for the un-loading. I'm hoping that he gets the bike running.

I'm including some pictures of the bike when I got it home on January 22, 2012. Yes that is SNOW on the ground.