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I thought I would give a bit of feedback on my previous posts.

African Bureaucracy or African Corruption?

Due to the rising number of cases involving corruption amongst petty officials in our government, our President, Mr. Jacob Zuma has opened a “hotline” to help ordinary citizens overcome such issues.

There is the option to telephone or e-mail this “hotline”, and as a last resort I wrote to him about the problems I was having getting my Softail registered.

I thought this would be the last I would ever hear and resigned myself to a life of riding an unregistered bike.

Imagine my surprise, when, ten days later I got a phone call from our local traffic chief!

He asked if I wouldn’t mind popping in to see him the next day. I had visions of him booking me for riding without plates, could it be that he reads this blog?

Then I thought, maybe my letter to the President got into his hands and he was going to arrest me for treason or some such violation.

With trepidation I went to his office the next day where he had documents on his desk which he proudly told me were the registration papers for my bike! He apologised for the delay in registering the bike and explained that “he” had moved hell and high water to help me!

What about the roadworthy (vehicle safety test) I asked? Not to worry says he, you have waited long enough.

I paid the princely sum of $50 and walked out with the bikes douments and licence. To be kind to this wonderful man I promptly bought number plates that are smaller than the legal minimum size.

Apathetic Dealers

I got a call, only 2 days after getting my Softail registered, from Harley Clearwater telling me that the accessories for our FLHTK had arrived and could we bring her in for them to be fitted.

I thought that I had travelled through time and that Christmas had come early!

I arranged to take both bikes through as the Softail was in need of a service.

On arrival, we had a chat with the service manager and I explained that I had modified the intake on the Softail and could he please re-map the Power Commander to cater for the change in gas flow?

We don’t do Power Commander he said.
My heart fell.

But he said he could send it to the other dealer in Johannesburg who has the software for this.
Wonderful I said, please can you arrange it for me.
We will do the service on Monday he told me and send it to Rivonia (the other dealer) on Tuesday for mapping.

We went through the accessories to be fitted to the FLHTK and everything seemed to be in order. They agreed to clean and detail the bikes for me, which is a blessing as this is about 2 days work for me and the chief bike cleaner (my partner in life)

As I have mentioned before, we live some 200 miles from our dealer and it isn’t easy to deliver and collect the bikes, especially whilst I have a job to hold down.

They offered to send the bikes back on a trailer by Saturday, maybe earlier, but certainly by Saturday.

Friday comes and we get a call that the bikes are on their way home. The trailer arrived at about 7pm with both bikes on the back, looking nice.

Can it be that Harley Clearwater have got their act together? Do they read this blog too?

Being dark, we waited till the next morning to have a look and take them for a spin, the Softail first. I noticed when I got on that the grips were covered in a fine film of oil that was now all over my hands. Closer inspection showed that the whole front of the bike was covered in oil and no-one had bothered wiping it down, never mind detailing.

I took a look at the FLHTK and the same story there, the front was covered in a fine mist of oil. We took her for a spin and heard a rattle.
When I put down the highway pegs the left one dissapeared and my foot nearly hit the ground, which is not good when you are travelling somewhere above 80mph!

I got her back to my house and took out the toolbox, where I reset the highway peg that was loose, and fixed the rattle, which was a loose muffler (also on the left side).

Do different technicians work on different sides of the bike?

This is concerning to me. I don’t want mechinics working on my bike that don’t know how to tighten bolts.
What if it was a wheel nut?

We had chrome lower fork sliders fitted, and closer inspection showed that the axle clamp was not chrome.
Where is that I wondered? We have lovely chrome forks and an alloy axle clamp sitting at the bottom of the forks.

It also turns out that the Softail never got re-mapped!

So a big onion to you Harley Clearwater, you still haven’t got it right, and you still have $850 of my money.

I think I will spend that on accesories and take the bike to Rivonia in future and see if they know how to give customer service.

Other Stuff

Thanks to this site we have “found” a great radio station that can be found at Bikerlowdown.com.

DJ L J James runs a great show for bikers and his guest for the day “bag lady Sue” had us in stitches. Keep it up LJ you have two big fans in Africa, Oh Yeahh.

Till next time, Ride Safe

The current ‘Rave About Your Ride’ contest ends the evening of the 31st (end of month extension), so you’ve got about 3days left to vote on contest entries or enter your own. The prize is a $50 H-D Gift Card. http://www.harleysocial.com/contest

Click the link above for information on submitting your ride!

Contest Entries:

West Coast Thunder 2010 by PeteLeClair

How I Got The Name Cookies by snackdog

Readying For The Ride by BobByington

Long Distance Coffee by Spadgesmum

Good Luck!

The Harley Social Network