Making Baby Blue My Own

Baby Blue and I have been together for just over one month—since 03 January 2022.

She’s the seventh bike I’ve owned but only the second legacy bike I’ve owned. The first was a 2002 V-Rod I received from my late brother-in-law’s estate. I called the V-Rod Hi-Ho Silver.

On 09 Nov 2020, a distracted driver plowed into Hi-Ho Silver and me, totaling the V-Rod and nearly totaling me.

Over a year later, around the first of December, I went to my friend who owns a bike leather and accessory shop and told him that the insurance money was coming in and to let me know if he knew anyone selling a good used bike.

I’d looked at a few others before talking with my friend, but none of the other bikes “called” to me.

My friend said, “Let me show what I have in the back.”

There she was: a midnight metallic blue 2008 Heritage Softail Classic—calling to me.

My friend explained that the Softail had been owned by a 91-year-old biker named Grasshopper who hadn’t ridden in years, and he was wanting to sell her to someone who would take care of her. “That’s you,” he said without hesitation.

I told him I’d have the money in a couple of weeks and asked him to hold on to the Softail till then. “I’m not selling her to anyone else,” he replied.

When I came in with the money, my friend told me that he had spoken to Grasshopper about me, and Grasshopper had said, “He’s the one who should have her.”

Grasshopper had taken great care of the Softail and added a few niceties to her.

I rode her for a couple of weeks, and then gave her name: Baby Blue, after the Badfinger song and the last scene of Breaking Bad, one of my favorite series. The lyrics fit how I felt about not riding for 14 months and the catharsis of Walter White’s death is pure Greek tragedy.

I then began to plan to make changes to her to make her my own. I decided what I would keep from Grasshopper and what I would change so she would know she had a new caring rider.

I don’t ride with anyone on the back, so the pillion had to go. I wanted to add a black luggage case that I had had on the V-Rod and which had survived the smash-up. I thought all I had to do was take the pillion off and attach the luggage case.

Nope: the pillion was the linchpin holding itself and the small luggage rack to the rear fender. The luggage rack wasn’t threaded—only the pillion.

I took off the pillion and the fender braces and put the black luggage case on the fender.

It looked good. I rode around for several days this way. One day I was coming from a store, and something didn’t look right on her. She had to have the small luggage rack.

But, the luggage rack’s holes weren’t threaded. Easy solution, I thought, just push four bolts through the luggage rack and the frames and use nuts and locking washers inside the frames to secure it all together.

The problem was the frame’s openings were so small I couldn’t get a pair of pliers inside to hold the bolts while I tightened the bolts into them.

So, I pressed a wood screw into the hole to ensure the nut wouldn’t run as I tightened the bolt into it.

The first one was a success, so I started on the other three, and they were all well secured to the frames.

The problem was two of the screws were wedged in so tight, I couldn’t pull them out. So, I just broke them off inside the openings.

I attached the frames and luggage rack back on the rear fender and then secured the small black luggage case on the back of the seat pillion and the luggage rack.

I then added my blessing bells (what some call charms) and crystals that had survived the V-Rod smash-up.