I received the taller sissybar for the Roadie, yesterday. I spent the evening taking the worthless, OEM sissybar off and putting the taller one on, with the luggage rack. It looks GREAT!! It looks more proportionally correct, and it's tall enough to support motorcycle luggage. w00t!! I want to install a 12V adapter so I can run a GPS and/or charge my cell phone, and I'll be ready to start hitting the road for really long road trips!

That installation went so well, I thought I'd go ahead and hook up the Stebel Nautilus horn that I bought a couple months ago, to replace the anemic OEM horn. That installation went pretty smoothly until I got to the point of hooking up the battery terminal cable, which should have been the easiest part of things, but no... As usual, NOTHING can ever be easy! As I was screwing the bolt into the battery terminal, it slipped out of my fingers and disappeared into the engine, somewhere.

G'ahhhhhh!!!

I hunted for it and hunted for it, in vain. I had to have that bolt. One little bolt. Or else the motorcycle is worthless and inert. With a sigh, I pulled the side covers, hoping I would see it. I didn't see it. Grrrr.... Then I pulled the battery out. I still didn't see it!

In short, I basically tore the motorcycle apart, looking for this one stupid bolt. I fished a magnet down into all the wiring and stuff, hoping I could find it, but the bolt is zinc-plated, I think. Anyway, it's not magnetic. (Of course not! THAT would be too easy!) I straddled the bike and shook the piss out of it, hoping to dislodge the bolt from wherever it had fallen. No luck.

I finally went over to my drawer of miscellaneous fasteners and found a bolt that fit the battery terminal and put the bike all back together. By this point, I was tired, dirty, greasy, and very pissed.

I think that bolt went to the same place that single socks go, when you put them in the dryer. You can put ten socks into the washing machine, take ten socks out, put ten socks into the dryer, and when they are finished drying, you only have nine socks left. WTF???

There are some mysteries that science will never solve...

So... Anyway: This morning, I'm riding to work and think, I haven't tested my new horn... So, I hit the button. HOLY CRAP!!!!! It about scared me into wrecking the bike! OMG!!! I guarantee that the oblivious cellphone-yacking, SUV-driving soccer-moms who are trying to kill me out there, will wake the hell up, should I have need to get their attention!




Anyway... That bolt is gone, gone, gone... I just hope it doesn't decide to become dislodged when I'm doing 80 mph down the highway.