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I thought I should give you an update. Rentals were a bit hard to come by. I could have a 1200 Sportster in Nashville or an 1800 Goldwing in Franklin. The Sportster was less money and only 15 minutes from the airport so it won out. Kelly at Boswell HD was great to work with, she let me have the Sportster for $240 plus tax for three days. They use a 24 hour period so picking it up at 10:00 on Thursday gave me three days with return on Sunday. Since it wouldn't be going back out, I had until 2:00 pm to return on Sunday. The normal rate was $350 but since this was all she had and no bags or shield she gave me a deal. She is going to have a much larger rental fleet next year as it was well received.

Though I am only 5'6" the Sportster was way too small. I felt like I had my knees in my chin for four days. I think it's designed for petite women. It ran well with its fuel injection and the mileage was always 55 to 60 mpg. My son's 900 Triumph Scrambler consistently beat it by 5 mpg at every fill up. He got as high as 65 mpg but we mostly cruised at 50 to 55 on the little winding back roads of KY and TN. The Triumph would also blow the wheels off the Harley up to any speed we went (70 max). I think my T has more punch than the Harley and is definately more comfortable. It's tough to travel with no bags and no place to strap anything to the little banana seat.

We had a great time, put on about 800 total miles and saw some pretty country. Even though they are in a huge drought, it looked much prettier and greener than NE Colorado where I live. Hopefully when I get my wheat planted I can post some photos before I get started picking corn.

I will attempt the photos tonight. I did take my little sheepskin pad and that made a huge difference, even had to fold it in two at times to add more comfort. After the second day I noticed the exhaust had burned the inside of my pant leg cuff on the right side. I ruined two pairs before I realized it. I had that problem with my '66 Honda CL160 but Honda solved that problem long ago. Maybe I'm the first one to ever ride a Sportster long enough to get the pipes warm.

Joe