Nathan's Famous Frankfurters

Having made it out to Coney Island Beach it was time for some lunch; what could be better than Nathan's Famous Frankfurters?

Yes, for those of you who only know the super-mart version of Nathan's Famous Frankfurters, there IS a real Nathan's at Coney Island. The historical establishment is looking a little run down, but I suppose that is part of the charm. There are always a lot of people in line when ever I've been out that way. I got a cheese dog - ultimate comfort food after fighting my way through irritating traffic and pan handlers - and I have to say it was very good. Messy, but good.

Ride out to Coney Island

A "quick" ride out to Coney Island Beach. The quotes around the word quick are because the 20 minute ride took well over an hour. Got to love NYC traffic. In this case, the traffic was due to people slowing down (or rather in the case of several motorists, failing to slow down and rear-ending the car in front of them) to look at the surf crashing over the break wall near the highway.

The photo, which is not of CI, is from a road side stop off of the Belt Parkway over looking Gravesend Bay.Very pretty, worth the stop, and not just because of hand cramps up from riding the clutch. Unfortunately my photo doesn't seem to have captured the spray ... use your imagination, crashing waves, gusting winds, then yell "Pepe! get away from that salt water!"

Some minor plans

Clean profile with solo seat

Some random thoughts on making minor improvements to my FLHTP:


Windscreen

With the stock windscreen I got wind buffeting when over 60 mph. I don't know if this is normal for others, possibly I just have a taller than average torso, but it's a real distraction. Looking for a taller windscreen.  However, previous experience with a large windscreens has shown there is a very narrow sweet spot between not enough and to much - the later can lead to an annoying vacuum effect that pushes you into the screen/bar for endless push ups. Considered an after market windscreen that is higher but narrower and tapered. Time will tell.




Passenger seat

While I really like the single seat look, there have been a few times where I'd have like to been able to take a passenger. If I didn't have the nice air seat I'd likely have gone with one of those tapered "once in a blue moon" passenger seats suitable for quick trips only.

But I did like the air seat - consider it one of the better features of the bike - so I  found a passenger seat that matched - item number 79436 at motorcycleseatdealer.com. A quick placement of the seat indicated I'd need a the mounting bolts and had been cautioned that the passenger seat might interfere with the travel of the police air seat - time will tell as I just haven't gotten around to mounting it yet.



Passenger pegs

If putting on a passenger seat, then putting on the passenger pegs is a must. For pegs, seems I'd need to first get the tour bike extensions and then the pegs. The plan was to get simple bar style pegs in order to (a) easily fold up out of the way, (b) keep the minimal appearance, and (c) act as "reverse highway pegs" for those long rides.





Undecided on a tour-pak

As mentioned in a previous post, without the police radio box, the rear deck is not overly attractive and the police side bags make mounting a standard tour-pak a custom process. What I do like is that the space between the bags, and between the single seat and the tail, is very generous for strapping down a travel bag (I'd used both a sports bag and my old US Navy sea bag). I also liked the clean lines without the tour-pak look and also the ease of swinging a leg over. Again, time will tell.



Backrest

I haven't seen a backrest for the police air seat. Makes sense since the seat travels - guess the back rest wouldn't? Probably just haven't look long enough, but to be honest I'm not sure I'd want a rider backrest ... never had one so do't know the pro/con of the choice.

No decision yet on a passenger "sissy bar" backrest. From previous experience having the sissy bar adds a nice mounting point for luggage, adds confidence for passengers, but detracts from the bikes lines.  It is also redundant with a tour-pak back rest.

An option that others have expressed was to swap off the tour-pack for a sissy bar when the need arose.  However, storing the bike in a public garage doesn't lend itself to switching components to fit the ride - there is nowhere to store the components that are taken off.

Plan to wait until after mounting the passenger seat to make a decision on the sissy bar/trunk issue.