Had a treat this past weekend – went on the Perewitz Fall Foliage Ride, held annually in Cape Cod, MA. Dave called last week, asked if I was busy and could I accompany him, some of his friends and a slew of yellow shirted Hamsters on a ride around the Cape.  Not needing much of an excuse to ride my motorcycle, see friends, eat seafood and meet new people – I checked with the Central Command to see if it was cool, it was, and so the plan was set. I asked Dave if I could travel with, and bring my most favorite of wingmen, Pupkin on his nice new (maybe not so new, 3,500mi. in three weeks) Road Glide. Dave being the consummate generous host said “absolutely”.

Ha! Pupkin and I busted out early Friday AM to head East towards Dave’s shop in Bridgewater, MA. I was digging the new Baker DD7 and Alloy Art Stabilizer, what a difference….smooth cruising – always in the right RPM, no weebling wobbles when I took deep sweepers at speed, man, it is a revelation to ride a well behaved fully loaded bike. I know that all the camera gear I put in the back exacerbates the weebles, but I have to do it, it’s the job.  With that said, the TXR Alloy Art Stabilizer we installed at Rosa’s Cycles is the beans…really works for my FLHX application, but has eliminated the possibility of me curb hopping (NYC style) again on this bike due to it’s placement under the bike. With the TRX bolted on, I took sweepers with great gusto, or as Pupkin stated in his usual to the point style –  ”you were going fast”. Yes, it seems that the engineering team behind Project FLHX is picking all the right parts to take this machine to the next functional level.

You will read about the nitty gritty granular details of all of this mechanical chicanery in upcoming issues, but suffice it to say, some good stuff has been going on and more to the point: used, abused and tested in real world applications. Not simply happy with improving the road going manners of my machine, Biketronics made this trip a bit louder and more amusing due to my installing a set of their 6.5 inch Titan speakers in the batwing. I can’t help myself, I like music and on the bike I like my music loud. These speakers absolutely kick major booty.  We will be introducing you to these units formally in the January issue.

So fully gassed, geared and psyched, Pupkin and I pointed the Garmin 660 Nuvi towards MA and made time to Cycle Fab. Got there on time and hooked up the new video unit – V.I.O. POV 1.5 that I’ve been experimenting with. Pretty cool unit that I will be reporting back on in great detail in future issues, but you can see my first real go with it here and tag along with me as I ride round the Cape with the Cycle Fab/ Hamster team.

Lots of great food, plenty of frosty adult beverages, it was all good, all fun and many laughs with new friends. Saturday night treated us to a killer dinner spread, an auction and a touching moment of memory for a fallen friend. Next morning came all too quick and we pointed wheels towards our home state, saying adieu to our new friends.

Pupkin and I’d like to thank Dave, Jody, the Cycle Fab Team, Joe Pro (Joey!!!!!) and the Hamsters for a real good time.
You guys know how to show great class to a stranger(s), ride your bikes like professionals, how to laugh, support the cause and have fun – our kind of folks, thanks again!

-stephen berner