S/V FireFly: June 2014

Friday, June 20, 2014

Harley-Davidson Museum tour

HD Museum Milwaukee WI

American Icon-- I doubt any single entity demonstrates the true meaning of these two words better than the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company of Milwaukee WI. Founded in 1903 by two childhood friends, HD has grown into one of the worlds most recognizable companies. Love them or hate them, they have withstood wars, depression and many other challenges to personify the American dream of hard work, innovation and a never say die attitude. If you love motorcycles, the HD museum is a must. If you hate motorcycles, the HD museum is a must. It really is that good. The photo tour in this blog does not do the museum any sort of justice and is only a sampling of bikes, live demos and hands on display available for anyone to experience. Enjoy!!

Serial Number 1-- while controversial because of a few suspect parts (ie maybe not #1 in every aspect), it is the oldest Harley Davidson motorcycle in existence

1906 and 1909 Harleys- sweet!!

Mr.Harley on display with his invention

First generation V-twin

HD Late 1920's

My favorites--- the 1930's

In 1937, this Harley went 136.5 MPH !!

Special use and Military 1940's

Likely one of the most recognizable Harleys from the movie Easy Rider (a copy of the original)

Harleys racing heritage from various era's

The Rhinestone Hog--obviously from Texas

assuming the postion

hard charging with the sidecar

Warning! Hot Lady on bike

Saturday, June 14, 2014

HD trip to Cable Wisconsin and Namekagon River Kayaking

With the HD recommended 500 mile break in period completed, it was time for a real road trip! We watched the weather closely as neither of us were willing to ride in a rainstorm for 6 hours up to the North woods of Wisconsin. As Thursday arrived, it could have gone either way but it looked like we had a decent weather window to make it up there Thursday and Friday was going to be a great day for the entire state. Cable Wisconsin is the home of the famous Telemark lodge and the site of the Birkebeiner Cross country ski race, which takes place every February and brings in more than 10,000 cross country skiers from all over the world. It also boasts great summer activities and we happen to be lucky enough to have friends that have a house right on the Namekagon (pronounced Namakoggin) river. We rode up there in 5.5 hours (350 miles) with nary a drop of rain but it was fairly cold (high 40's) with winds gusting to 35 knots!! As we rolled into their garage, down the rain came--It's always better to be lucky than good ;). We had a great time visiting with our friends and even did a nice kayak trip down the river Friday morning ( video link below). The ride home Friday was simply amazing-the weather was perfect and it was smooth sailing all the way home. We ended up clocking a little over 700 miles on the odometer, I guess I better get it in to HD for the 1000 mile service. Enjoy the photos