Phil Tarman
Site Supporter
When I bought Horse from Joe Forstie (Frostie on the Forum) in 2019, he had farkled it almost exactly like I wanted it. During my ride home from Spokane, I decided that since I had lost about 65 pounds since I had bought my heavy duty Russell Day Long saddle, that I didn't need the "heavy duty" part of that great saddle. And it turned out that Russell had come out with what they call a Sport Seat -- no spring, and the height of a stock saddle after it gets broken in. I got it and it's great.
Frostie didn't ride much at night and he'd put on the smallest Denali driving lights. They just weren't bright enough when it got dark, so I installed a pair of Clearwater Darlas that have 2400 lumens each. They having a dimming feature that is adjustable between 10% - 90% and to to 100% when high beams are on. I'm running them at about 30% with my low beams. I also added LED headlights. They're a good bit brighter and don't pull as many watts as the H7 bulbs.
The McCruise on the bike when I bought had a vacuum-actuated servo. The first cruise control I had on my first '99 Concours was vacuum actuated and worked pretty well, but the higher my altitude or on steeper grades, it couldn't hold a steady speed. I replaced that with an electrically-actuated Audiovox cruise control and it worked much better but still with some limitations.
The vacuum-actuated McCruise would hold between 60-65 for me. Frostie said it had done better for him. We figured out that I probably weighed 70-80 lbs more than he did, plus I had larger windscreen. I noticed that up in Wyoming where the altitude was above 6K feet, it would barely hold 60 if there was any wind or grade.
After Ken and I rode together I observed that it accelerated at a pretty good rate when I asked it to. It held 75 easily and the speed didn't vary more than a mile or two. There is a little tweaking left to be done. When I push the set/accelerate button to resume speed, it just sets the speed I'm at when I press the button. The other negative thing I noticed was that on two occasions when I went down a fairly steep hill, the speed would creep up and when it got to 6-7mph above the set speed, the cruise would disengage. I'm pretty sure I can do some reprogramming and fix those things. Other than that I was very impressed with its ability to hold a steady speed and I think I'm going to be very happy with it.
Frostie didn't ride much at night and he'd put on the smallest Denali driving lights. They just weren't bright enough when it got dark, so I installed a pair of Clearwater Darlas that have 2400 lumens each. They having a dimming feature that is adjustable between 10% - 90% and to to 100% when high beams are on. I'm running them at about 30% with my low beams. I also added LED headlights. They're a good bit brighter and don't pull as many watts as the H7 bulbs.
The McCruise on the bike when I bought had a vacuum-actuated servo. The first cruise control I had on my first '99 Concours was vacuum actuated and worked pretty well, but the higher my altitude or on steeper grades, it couldn't hold a steady speed. I replaced that with an electrically-actuated Audiovox cruise control and it worked much better but still with some limitations.
The vacuum-actuated McCruise would hold between 60-65 for me. Frostie said it had done better for him. We figured out that I probably weighed 70-80 lbs more than he did, plus I had larger windscreen. I noticed that up in Wyoming where the altitude was above 6K feet, it would barely hold 60 if there was any wind or grade.
After Ken and I rode together I observed that it accelerated at a pretty good rate when I asked it to. It held 75 easily and the speed didn't vary more than a mile or two. There is a little tweaking left to be done. When I push the set/accelerate button to resume speed, it just sets the speed I'm at when I press the button. The other negative thing I noticed was that on two occasions when I went down a fairly steep hill, the speed would creep up and when it got to 6-7mph above the set speed, the cruise would disengage. I'm pretty sure I can do some reprogramming and fix those things. Other than that I was very impressed with its ability to hold a steady speed and I think I'm going to be very happy with it.
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at "only" $826US. I know I'm keeping Horse for as long as I can ride and my kids will have to worry about getting rid of him when I'm gone, so I figure I might as well have the perfect bike for the time I've got left. 