Hello. My name is Phil and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my '05 R* Silverado Midnight Star. The only thing I am going to have done to it prior to riding it off the lot is I will add some Hard Krome 3&quot; big straights. I've had a Virago 750 and a V-Star 1100 Classic. Both were good bikes, but always wanted to get a Road*. Figured it was time to get out of the shaft drive and get into something a bit larger and better. <br><br>Post edited by: SemperFiPhil, at: 2005/05/15 07:37

Welcome Phil

I'm sure you will enjoy your new ride. I too did not like shaft drive and am glad to get back to a belt.

Doc<br><br>Post edited by: DocShadow, at: 2005/05/15 12:39

Welcome to the Clinic Phil!

You are going to love that 05

GRAM

Hello again all. Well... I finally got my Midnight Star Silverado and loving it. I has been about 3 years since I last rode and don't remember being this much on edge. Allot has changed in my life from getting married to finding the new improved me. Anyway... the Road* is great, however, my dealer said I need to get through the 600 mile break-in period before they install my 3&quot; Hard Kromes with jet kit. That should be in the next several days. One thing is for sure... once I get the new pipes, I feel it should be orgasmic. (Maybe not for my neighbors or my wife on those early weekend morning rides though. lol) Gotta run.<br><br>Post edited by: SemperFiPhil, at: 2005/05/25 20:02

Hi Phil, glad to have you aboard. It is great to ride again, isn't? I started riding on a Yamaha YZ-125 at the age of 13-14 and was hooked on bikes ever since. I love my 2000 RoadStar and the globs of torque it makes. Anyways, have fun with your new ride, oooraah.

Hello again... Just an update... put about 700 miles on my 3&quot; Hard Kromes and have about 1200 on the Road*... it's just keeps on geting better! I am satisfied with my new exhaust... not sure about one of my neighbors tho... he is looking at me differently now...lol. Just &quot;baptized&quot; the bike by a 50 mile ride in hard rain with lots and lots of wind. It rode better than expected. All I can say is... thank God for windshields for some of us older guys.

Post edited by: SemperFiPhil, at: 2005/06/25 07:35<br><br>Post edited by: SemperFiPhil, at: 2005/06/25 07:36

G’day,

(For Americans, “G’day” is short for “Good day”, pronounced “g’dye” in Australia.)

Allow me to introduce myself. I am long-winded, so relax.

I am a baby-boomer, born 1950, in Crow’s Nest, Sydney, Australia. Not in “a crow’s nest”, but in a suburb called Crow’s Nest.

In 1969, my mother made the mistake of loaning me the money to buy a Honda 90 motorcycle to ride to university, to save on petrol (gas), even though gas was only about 40 cents per gallon then. I thought it was a good idea anyway. Later she tried to correct the mistake by giving me a VW Bug, knowing I couldn’t afford both a car and a bike. It didn’t work, I gave away the car to my brother.

In 1974, she made a second mistake by showing me an ad for a summer camp-counseling program in USA. I ended up at a summer camp in Ozark, Southern Illinois, amid a wild and crazy bunch of Americans, many of whom are still my friends, one of whom is my wife.

Thirty-one years after that Honda 90, in 2005, I am onto my lucky 13th motorcycle, and live in Belleville, Illinois, with my true love/ soul mate/ best friend/ girlfriend/ wife (lucky for me, they’re all one person, Sara) whom I met at the summer camp in 1974. Sara loves motorbikes and vegemite (and me). She leant to ride two years ago on a Honda 250 Shadow, but now rides a Honda VT750.

My bikes - Honda CL90, Triumph Tiger 500, 1942 Harley-Davidson WLA, Triumph Trophy 650, Norton Commando 750, Yamaha XS650, Yamaha XV1000, 1984 Harley-Davidson Evolution Wide Glide, Harley XLCH Sportster, another Yamaha XV1000, and a 1975 Harley-Davidson FLH Shovelhead, and a 2005 Yamaha Road Star..

Sara and I (my name is David) are reasonably fit, middle-aged people. Sara is on the young side of middle age, and I am on the middle side, the Age of Colonoscopy. We actually enjoy walking downhill and uphill with heavy backpacks (preferably in the Grand Canyon). Sara is a Biology teacher, and is beautiful, smooth, outgoing, female and American: I am an Autocad drafter for architects, and I am rough, hairy, quiet, male and Australian. It’s a mixed marriage. We have a thirty-year-old son who was smarter than us and became an engineer, a graduate of U of I. He is self-sufficient finally. He likes visiting Belleville because he says it makes him realize that he made the right decision to move to Chicago.

I work for 49 weeks out of the year in front of a computer. I get three weeks vacation after 8 years of service (two weeks before that, one week in the first year)! Americans don’t know what a real vacation is! Three weeks is peanuts!

For three weeks a year (more if I take off without pay) I have LIFE, which means riding a motorcycle some place far away with my wife, backpacking for several days and nights, and riding back home. In recent years it has been to the Grand Canyon and Rocky Mountain National Park.

The three most spectacular roads I have ridden on are Highways 12/ 24 in Utah, the Trail Ridge Road from Estes Park to Grand Lake in Colorado, and the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. But I feel in my guts that even I-70 across Kansas or the 90-Mile Straight on Highway 1 on the Nullarbor Plain in Australia are spectacular on a motorcycle compared to any road in a car. Any vacation not on a motorcycle or walking with a backpack is a waste, in my humble opinion.

Our longest trip in the USA was to Los Angeles and back from St Louis, via Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, about 4,500 miles in about 1992, on the Shovelhead. Our longest motorcycle trip ever was 13,000 miles around and through Australia in 1996 for three months on the second XV1000. My longest trip on the Roadie has been about 4,200 miles to LA and back, in April-May 2005 (see “A Big Trip” post in the RSR Forum). It was cold, wet in places, windy, and I did the 4,200 miles in only 6 days (with a trip to Australia in the middle) and I loved every second.

Advice for Americans visiting Australia:

It’s too far to go for a weekend.
Don’t try to say “G’day”, you can’t do it.
If someone asks you if you’re a “Septic”, the correct answer is, “Yes, and proud of it.”
Don’t say you “root” for the football team, unless you mean you have sex with them.
If you ask for a “rubber” in a store, you will get an eraser.
Don’t ask for a “fanny pack”, unless you’re at a gynecologist’s.
You don’t really have to eat vegemite to get into the country.

Shep

G'day mate! (I'm not American )

Nice to meet another rider on the middle side. Enjoyed reading your humourous intro.

I can't believe you work 49 h a week and only get 3 weeks off When do you get to party? Or ride? I work less, get 5 weeks holiday and that's still not enough time for me.

First bike I rode was a Honda Super Cub back in '68. The next summer I bought a Ducati 160 but unlike you, my mom did not know anything about it until I brought it home. Interesting times.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your R* as much as your other bikes.

Doc

Not 49 hours a week! 49 weeks a year. But I do work a full 40 hours a week. 8 to 5 with an hour for lunch. I'll bet you work 35 hours, maybe with flex time!

5 weeks vacation! Work for government? Is little Johnny Howard about to dump on you?

Yeah, decent riding time is a bit hard to find. One of my three weeks is always a camping trip between Christmas and New Year. Yes, dead of northern winter! No motorcycles. One year it was 10 degrees F with a foot of snow on the ground. Convert that to Celcius and centimeters!

Sure do miss Sydney winters! Year-round riding was great when I lived in Phoenix.

I have a local Star club I have just started to ride with on weekends. A good fun bunch of septics.

Seeyalatermate,
Shep

Hey Folks!
Names Bruce. Just traded in my 01' Drifter for a new 05' Road Star. Loved the Drifter but it was going to cost a small fortune to make it comfortable for two up riding. Am a member of VDOG (Vulcan Drifter Owners Group), a site very similar to this one (wonder if they'll miss me). Bought my first big bike in 75', a 73' CHP Moto Guzzi, right off the police. $701.00 dollars! It now has 143k on it and I still take it out often for a ride. Since then I have owned 2 GoldWings, 2 Ventures, a Harley Electra Glide, Royal Star, Kaw 1500 Drifter, And of course my Guzzi(so many bikes, so little time). I bought the 5 year warranty with this so I promised my wife I would keep it at least that long. So far it seems like everything I have been looking for- comfort, power, looks, feel, and from my research-dependability. My days of wrenching to make it run are over, that's why I only had the Harley 1 year! I'm hoping in 5 years the bike still has all these characteristics so that maybe I can finally say I found the &quot;right&quot; bike for me.
Great site here, I'm already going to build my own driver backrest from plans on Tech Tips.