Well, I finally ordered some saddlebags for the bike. Been wanting (almost needing) them since last year. So many times I would have liked to picked something up, but had no way to carry it home on the bike. Or wanting to take the leather jacket off on those days pushing triple digits, but again, no place to stow it. With the Harley being the only mode of transportation, the space is becoming critical.

My friends at Art in Motion hooked me up a deal for the Saddlemen Tattoo bags I’ve been pining for. It will be nice to have some on-board storage. And glad that it looks like I’ll have them available for the upcoming trip to Sturgis.

And while I’m excited to finally be getting some bags, I’m nervous about actually getting them on the bike. My friend’s blog post (Dakota Biker) provided some good information about things to look for during the installation, but I can’t say that it eased my fears about the difficulty level of this project. I wish it were as easy as just throwing it over the fender and securing it under the seat. Supports are supposed to keep it off the shock and swing arm, but I’m not sure how/if they connect to my side rails. And for me, the biggest issue is the turn signals. If I have to move those, it’ll be time to visit a shop. At this point, I’m giving it a 20% chance it’ll be a driveway project as opposed to a paid-labor project. I hope I’m wrong. Any dollar spent at the shop is one less dollar for the Sturgis trip and there aren’t many of those in the first place. Well, I should probably get a shop visit before Sturgis anyway, so at least I can make a day of it. 🙂

Odometer: 6836 miles