more leather woes

I collected my new  jacket from the Post Office. (for the 2nd time around) on Saturday morning. I was really excited about it getting here as I had been waiting for it for days and had received a card, to say it was sitting waiting to be picked up, two days earlier.  I tried a couple of times but kept missing the post office shutting time. Work is a pain in the ass sometimes!! I didn't go out on the bike on Wednesday just because I didn't have a leather and thought that would be no big deal as it would be with me any time. That was because I had sold my old one on e-bay to help fund my mikuni carb. (that's an expense which will need to wait until I can get more funds together)

So, when I finally did get to the Post Office, you can imagine my disappointment when I opened the box and tried the jacket on. I swear it is exactly the same size, if not bigger, as the one I returned. The label on it says 42 but there's no way that's accurate.

I was tempted to just keep it but as the sleeves were almost four inches too long and that there was space inside for me to wear another leather under it, I doubt if it would have been comfortable on the bike. Plus, having forked out £189 I want a jacket that I feel happy with.

I then toyed (for all of two minutes) with the idea of returning it again and ordering a 40" chest. But as I haven't been that size for many years I'm convinced that one would have arrived too small. It's just like the two pairs of JTS leather jeans I bought second-hand from e-bay. The ones in a style  that I like, are far too tight for me even to consider zipping up, yet the other pair fits well despite them both being labelled as the same size!

So, now JTS is a company which is not on the top of my list any more. Don't get me wrong, I definitely cannot fault the quality of their garments but, and it's a big but, they are a company which was, according to the blurb on their web-site, set up because the founder couldn't get leathers to fit him.

Well, maybe if they did a bit of quality control, they wouldn't have customers going elsewhere who can't get leathers to fit!

And, until I get a new jacket, I'll have to wear a combat jacket on the bike!

two and a half minutes

That's the approximate time it takes me to switch my bike from solo to pillion-ready.

I've got it all sorted, including drilling and fitting the third, seat retaining fixture. When the rack's on it is just a bit too much bling, with all three fasteners being different but until I can get black thumb screws, it will do.

Here's pics of the rear seat and sissy-bar.

leathers

Got my new leathers (well new jacket, jeans from e-bay) through the post today.

But, in typical "me" fashion, the jacket was too big and the jeans were too small. Both of them were, coincidentally, from JTS leathers and the quality was excellent. So much so that I've sent the jacket off immediately for a size smaller.

The jeans I've put straight back on to e-bay and if and when I get them sold I'll just pay for a new pair from JTS as the quality is exceptional. Also, by then I'll have found out what their customer service is like but I can't imagine it will be anything other than a match for their gear.

rack

Here's a couple of pics with the rack fitted on the bike.

I'll definately need to drill another hole in the fender to fit the pillion seat, so once I've done that, I'll post a picture with the bike set up for a pillion.

been a while ...

... since I last posted. That's mainly because I'm busy doing other things and if I do get any time to myself, I prefer riding my bike than writing about it.
I still haven't got the interchangeability of my rack and pillion seat sorted. It looks as though I'm going to have to drill another hole in the fender to accept the rear fastener on the pillion seat. I will then probably need to have three retaining nuts fitted as the seat and the rack wont fit in the same rear hole. It seems to be something to do with the shape of the LePera seat which must be different length from the HD brawler one which the pad should fit with. If they are that different then I doubt if the rack would have fitted with the Harley seat, so it's probably just as well that I settled on the LePera.

One thing I was busy with was working at the weekend. This meant I couldn't ride in the bike parade down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh last Sunday. It was part of the 3rd Rifles Homecoming Parade and a bunch of Harley riders had been asked to do it by the Mark Wright Foundation.
Ironically, I was working in Edinburgh, so although I couldn't ride, I did manage to get to the start before they set off. It was good to see (and hear) several hundred Harleys, as well as other bikes, going as a group through the city centre to show respect for our troops home from Afghanistan.

got some pics.

and one of a bike with a really wide front end. It's almost the style which I'd love to eventually have on mine!

something fits

At last I've gone and bought something to customise my bike and it fitted right off. There was no bashing, bending, drilling or general botching needed at all to fit my new rack to the fender. It went on straight off and looks like the dog's proverbials!

It's a crossbones rack from Motherwell products. The gloss black it's finished in isn't so glossy after all. In fact it fits right in with the matt black of my fender.

Both the Motherwell site and V-twin Mania whom I bought it from had stated that it would fit an '09 up Crossbones or a Fatboy '06 up with a solo seat, so I was a bit worried when I ordered it that it wouldn't fit. I was pretty sure that the fender on the night train was the same as the crossbones but with HD you can never take these things for granted. The idea of interchangeable parts seems to be an anathema to the MoCo.

But when I offered it up it went together perfectly.

Wish I could say the same of the brawler pad, which I'm hoping will be quickly interchangeable with the rack when I want to take someone pillion. It looks like that will need some tweaking.

More on that soon (with some pics).