“When You Find The Right Bike It’s A Love Affair”

Prior to GEM, I have had three Harley’s. Each one has a distinct significant meaning to me but all have had a commonality to each other. Not in the way they are all Harley’s, more of the feeling you get when you have met the love of your life.

My first Harley was a 2006 Road King Custom in Midnight Pearl with chrome everywhere you looked and hard sided leather saddlebags.

When I was looking for my first Harley, I test rode all kinds of bikes all over Northern California from private sellers to dealers. One day on my way home from the bay area where I tested an anniversary Road King. Which was a priced well but it had a lot of poorly installed after market crap on it. Feeling a little discouraged I popped in to Iron Steed Harley in Vacaville, California. There it was among the used bikes parked under a canopy in the parking lot. It sparkled and glimmered as if to say “look at me, look at me”. I threw my leg over and saddled up. The seat cradled my ass perfectly. I stood him up, the large chrome beach comber handlebars fit my reach as if it were custom-made for me. I set him down on the side stand and dismounted. I started inspecting him closer. His paint was pristine, not a scratch on him. The chrome was polished to shiny perfection. And then the Thunder Cones True Duals caught my attention. I had to hear him, I had to Ride him. Just then a salesman appeared and handed me the keys. When I fired him up I had to put my absolute best poker face on in front of the salesman as I knew before I left the parking lot for the first test ride the King was my bike. The love affair had begun much like when I locked eyes with my husband all those years ago I fell in love.

That was September 2012 by April 2013 I put 7800 miles on the King.

April 2013, I was at Folsom Harley, on one of my scouting expeditions for the perfect birthday present for my husband. You know any excuse to go look at bikes. I just had to walk through the used section in order to exit the store. That is where I met Scarlet, 2010 Street Glide, she was sexy as hell in Sun Glow Red. The week before I found the King, I sat on a Street Glide back at Iron Steed. Coming from riding enduro’s and street bikes I stupidly convinced myself a Street Glide was too big for my stature. My husband tried to convince me otherwise but he knows how stubborn I am and I have to figure things out sometimes the hard way.

Scarlet was there calling to me like a new lover, I knew I was going to cheat on the King but the hardest part was calling my husband up and eating crow telling him he was right all along. In all honesty though I had a moment of heartbreak when I fired up Scarlet and didn’t hear anything. I left her running and set her back on her side stand to inspect what the hell was wrong with her. Her disgraceful two in to one exhaust system sounded like a sewing machine. I walked around her and really contemplated “Can I live with this?” It was like you meet this really hot guy and he opens his mouth and he sounds like Urkle. Then it hit me, I was like one of those NASA guys on the six million dollar man, I could rebuild her, make her better, stronger and LOUDER. The next six months was great, I put Vance and Hines Power Dual’s on her with Harley Davidson slip on’s. I put over 7000 miles on her, until the October day in 2013 when Scarlet went to Harley Heaven (Scarlet’s Last Ride) covers the details. I mourn the loss of Scarlet and I still miss her.

The Purple bike with Flames I sat on the week before I found King and stupidly convince myself was too big for me came available. This time from a private seller and as luck has it it was owned by a friend. They contacted me when they heard about Scarlet. They offered me a killer deal for the 2012 Street Glide I named “Jewel”. This is the exact bike I flirted with for almost a year and finally sat on just the week before King. I was still on a walker when I bought Jewel so I didn’t get the first ride but my husband was sweet enough to ride her home.

May 2015 with just under 40,000 miles on my husband’s 2012 Road Glide Ultra, he decided to sell it. With no plans of replacing his bike we rode two up on my bike, Jewel. My husband wasn’t having a love affair with Jewel. And to be honest I was falling out of love with her too after riding bitch. He lasted a month and I agreed to turn Jewel in for a new 2015 Road Glide Ultra CVO. After all it was only fair as Jewel was my third Harley to his one. My husband was sweet he called it “Our” bike.

The plan was to financially recover after the big purchase. Then in about a year buy me a new bike. The problem was nothing really caught my eye. Also, in preparation for my husbands retirement we bought a truck and a toy hauler. Which was perfectly fine because although I was looking I didn’t find the perfect bike.

After three and a half years we decided to get more serious about finding the bike. We drove all the way down to Orange County to look at a 2015 Road Glide Ultra CVO. It was beautiful and I was very excited but there was something missing, it was missing sex appeal. I backed off for a couple weeks. Then we made plans to just go look at dealers, we even promised not to buy anything.

We mapped out a Harley Davidson dealer tour in Northern California. First stop Iron Steed Harley Davidson of Vacaville because I found the King there and was looking for some good luck. Then to McGuire’s in Pacheco where my husband bought his CVO and Shawn always has amazing deals without all the bullshit. After McGuire’s next up was Oakland Harley because a buddy has a hook up there, they have the largest law enforcement contract in California. Lastly, was Eaglesnest in Lathrop.

Iron Steed has a ton of inventory but it was either used or 2019 with black out. Well, I am a chrome girl and after all it’s my favorite color. Next was McGuire’s to see Shawn and see what he had in his inventory. Usually, I am drawn to the red bikes so I scanned the show room floor and saw a couple used red Road Glide Specials. Probably out of habit I started walking towards them. To get to the used bike section from the front door you have to walk through the new bikes, there is where the electric blue 2018 Road Glide Ultra caught my eye. I ignored the impulse to go to it and kept walking towards the red bikes, side by side. They were really sweet Rides. One even had a tour pack with quick connect mounts. As I was checking out the red bikes, the electric blue bike across the show room floor was winking at me as if to say “Hey baby, check me out”. Just about then Shawn showed up, we haven’t seen each other since I turned in Jewel for Andy’s CVO. I asked about the red bikes but nothing special about them except the one with the tour pack had Rheinharts. Then I circled back to the electric blue bike, I was drawn to it like a moth to a hot flame. I sat on it and my ass was cradled in the seat like no other seat. All the while having mental olympics over the promise I made not to buy a bike on this day. There was a big ugly green sign on it that said “additional $4000 off due to delayed delivery”. Shawn saw I was giving this bike a lot more of my attention and came back over to me. Out of curiosity I had to ask what exactly the sign meant. He explained all the 2018 bikes had a recall and the parts were on backorder and because of having to wait two weeks to take delivery they were knocking off an extra $4000. Shawn knew he had me, he asked if I wanted out the door price. Without hesitation I said yes. As he was writing it up he kept saying take this amount off for this, this amount off for this and this amount off for such and such, this, that and the other thing. I was sitting there reminding myself again and again of my promise. He showed me the out the door price and my heart almost exploded with glee. Sadly, I told Shawn about touring the Harley dealers in the area and of my promise to Andy. He said in his non-pushy way it’s cool and hope to hear from you soon.

We left McGuires with my promise intact. All the way to the next Harley Davidson shop I was talking about the blue bike. How sexy it was, what a great deal it was, oh did I say how sexy it was, blah, blah, blah, my poor husband.

We got to Oakland HD and had a great time with the new sales manager, he gave us a tour of the shop but they didn’t have anything I liked, not even a little, not one chrome bike. Afterwards, we ended up at 21st amendment where I proceeded to get completely shitfaced, as I was yammering on and on about the blue bike.

We decided to stay at this cool little hotel a couple blocks away overlooking the marina and finish the HD tour the next day.

Sunday morning after a pitstop at the Black Bear diner in Oakley, we continued on to Eaglesnest in Lathrop. They had more of the same as all the other HD shops. All the new bikes were blacked out. They did have a cool used bike the white with black “skunk” but they wanted several thousand dollars more than the new blue bike.

In the parking lot of Eaglesnest I said to my husband I know I promised but this is an amazing deal and in the three and a half years since turning Jewel in for your bike this is the first bike I really like. See what I did there? (I pulled out all the stops reminding him I turned my bike in for his bike and it was a really long time ago.)

He agreed it was too good of a deal to pass up. Right then and there I called Shawn and left him a message telling him I wanted the blue bike, will call him back in a couple hours with the pertinent information for financing.

When I called back it literally took five minutes to close the deal.

Now the hard part waiting two weeks to take delivery.

Meet my new love affair “GEM” 2018 Road Glide Ultra.