Howdy friends,
As some know from my posts, I am new to my 2012 TriGlide although I'm not new to riding motorcycles or riding Harleys. I have been riding since I was very young and the bikes I rode were affordable used dirt bikes at that time in my life. Lots of good learning during those years on knobbies. But, as my income grew, so did my ability to add several street bikes to the list and the ride continues. Bottom line, I love the open road, especially long distance road trips.
Now I have a new trike to add to my list of former bikes. I sold my '97 Heritage Springer in January of this year and sold the sidecar that was married to that ride seprately. Let me tell you, loads of fun can has been had on my cool sidecar rig.
But, they're gone now. i still have my '03 Ultra Classic and have been removing lots of the chrome and gadgets that made that bike a personal pleasure machine for me to ride. That Ultra has 100K miles while the Heritage Springer has somewhere between 60 - 70K on the clock. I've had two bikes in the stable during the last three plus decades. Like I said, I am much like so many on CVOHarley forums as far as the love to burn gas in the most enjoyable way, on two wheels and for a while on three wheels although the truth is my new '12 TriGlide is a very different beast to ride than the '97 Heritage Springer sidecar rig.
Anyway, as I have been changing over so many things from the Ultra to the Triglide, I am amazed on how different just 9 years has changed the fitage between the two Harleys. I've slowed on the removeal of parts on the Ultra a bit in the last several days, but today I managed to remove the chrome cover on the key knob that I had on my Ultra. It was still stuck on the knob pretty good and after finding the Harley package that held the chrome cover for the key knob from when I bought and installed it, back in '04 or maybe '05. Wow, the price was still on the package and the cost back then was $89.95. Shortly after I bought it I saw that it became obsolete. But really didn't know why or even care.
So, I thought I'd be a pretty lucky guy to still have that obsolete part right there for the whole world to see on my trike. But, believe or not, the key knob has been changed in size. It still has the same shape but, although the chrome cover fit on my '03 Ultra perfect, but it was to small for a proper fit on my '12 TriGlide.
How or why that change took place is just simply beyond me and I'm not sure what year the change took place or if maybe more than one change. The key knob has been changed and that would explain why that chrome key knob cover became obsolete. I sort of liked the cover and will miss it as I look down at the gauges and so on, but I'm going to add it to the ever growing list of parts that I'm going to sell that fit so well on my '03 Ultra.
I also thought the resizing was a bit strange and I'm not sure if the change is only on the TriGlide or on all H-D bikes that have the same key knob. I just don't see any practacle reason for the change and all the tooling that must take place with such a change. Amazing!!
So long for now,
Sam aka chappy