Spring is arriving and the winter projects are finished, well, mostly finished. I wrote last fall about my coming back to Honda after a stint with Harleys. I thought I would fill people in on what has transformed over the winter when idle hands and minds are at work.

When I last left you we had gotten back from a trip to western Canada and the swing through Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and Utah. That trip was mechanically uneventful thanks to Honda engineering, however it did bring up the fact that I was used to hard, waterproof, lockable bags. I had bought a tank bag and after getting used to the handiness of it wondered how I had managed all these years without one. But still I longed for my hard bags. I called a friend in the Midwest that travels with a swap meet promoter. " Tell Bob I need a set of dresser bags." Two weeks later, a large box was delivered and inside was a set of late model Harley dresser bags. Two small cracks easily repaired and needing a new lock set installed. OK, I knew what to do now, a quick fix with the epoxy and grabbing a set of saddlebag mounts I had hanging on the wall, this was gonna be a snap. Wrong, man these bags are big, they won't fit between the shocks and turn signals, the mounts will require major surgery, but, I had all winter. Did I make a mistake? Should I get smaller bags? On to EBay land.

Well I didn't find smaller bags but I did find a pair of Saddleman bag mounts for a Valkyrie, new and the price was cheaper than two weeks labor rebuilding my old mounts. OK, now I'm ready to go, but first I have to mount the mounts, I built studs instead of the fender bolts for the "rapid release" method of on and off. Actually by this time I had almost worn out the bolts figuring out, excuse me "engineering" my winter project.

Well, yes by golly, it will work, ready for paint, you bet.

Paint, thanks to the www I found proper factory color for the Valk. My gosh paint sure has gone up since I had the body shop. I really wasn't to fond of the purple on the tank anyhow. Time to swing a deal.

Casually mentioning to my girlfriend that I could probably paint the complete bike for what they wanted for just enough to do the bags, she fell for it. "You paint the bike and I'll pay for the paint." It was a trick on her part, I'm still waiting for the money for the paint. But we forge on, the bike is stripped, sanded, prepped, primed, re-sanded. Then we wait for good weather, just give me a 50 degree day, I'll have it painted and slicked off before anyone from the EPA sees me painting in the back yard.

Finally, a warm day with faint gusts of hurricane. Hey, I was a professional, I can do this.

In the meantime for Christmas, my sweet lass surprised me with a new Bushtec Genesis for being sweet and kind to her and allowing her to share in the joys of the biker world.

No, "I'm not painting the trailer too." This is getting way out of hand, do you know how much you owe me for paint? I asked.

OK so the bike is painted and put back together. It would look nice if it did match the bike. Alright, but I gotta order another quart of paint. That's another $44.00 you owe me.

I snuck her NEW helmet out and was painting it along with the trailer when around the corner she comes bouncing. Not completely new at this, I could read her mind, "why is he painting his helmet and not mine." I calmly extinguished the rapidly expanding smolder in her eyes with a quick, "well there goes your birthday surprise, I'm painting your helmet."

"You are? Why aren't you painting yours?" I explained that I have had custom painted helmets and they are not immune from, falling off the bike, seat, trunk rack, mirror, or even while sitting on the ground, impacting with, gravel, asphalt, concrete, curbs, or even flying off to get scratched, dinged, gouged, and generally lousing up a lot of work, time and effort. To which my lovely companion made a statement that shall go down in all the annals of history in the biker world with the words, "My helmet will never crash!"

After cleaning up myself from blowing snot, and running in to go to the bathroom before I wet my pants from laughing so hard, I got back to the business of finishing her paint job.

Well yes,  they are all done, and look quite striking all together. The bags look like they belong and get peoples attention when they read Harley Davidson on them, with no other markings, (I took the tank emblems off,) they quiz what year Harley is it. When did they come out with this model? What do they call it? Is this one of them V-Rods?

Oh and remember how I was going to convince her we should get a Gold Wing for "her" comfort on trips.

Well, the price was almost right, it was only 2 hours away to pick it up. No, it isn't new, but it is thousands of dollars less, and only has 20,00 miles on her, and yes, she does like the comfort although she has only been on an afternoon ride. Yea, we have a Gold Wing now too.

AND NO! I'M NOT GONNA PAINT IT UNTIL YOU PAY FOR THE LAST PAINT JOB!