Point in life bud where you just have say f**k it, and do your own dance, time isn't waiting on any of us.

 

In the last few years my garage has gone from having 5 H-D bikes down to 1 bike and one trike.

We all know bikes are NOT investments and I lost a "bundle" on two of those bikes but the hardest for me to see go was my wife's '08 Heritage.
We put a lot of $$$$$ into that little bike "making it hers" and it was a beautiful, well taken care of bike but she hadn't rode it in 5 years and she was the one to make the call to let it go.

My CVO Ultra left a couple of weeks later and hadn't ridden it much after I got my '18 Tri-Glide.
I still have my '98 Heritage Springer but it hasn't been ridden in a few years, mainly due to a "space problem" in our garage and it's a PIA to move all of the toys around in order to make them accessible.

As for the Tri-Glide, things can be done to make them ride "softer" but overall, considering "bumps" they do ride "stiffer" than a wo-wheeler but the trade-off of course is the "stability and safety" factor and for trips I much prefer taking the Tri-Glide especially when rain may be a consideration
I just got home from a 4-day trip and a friend and I are planning a 5-7 day trip to PA this month.
He also rides a Tri-Glide and he has a "lot of metal" inside his body but with the upgrades the he (we) have done to our trikes he's very happy that he switched to "three wheels".

He has one convertible in his garage and I have two in mine and we've only had them out ONCE this year and due to the weather I didn't even "drop" my top but he did and got wet before he cold get off of the highway and put his top up!

 

Back in 2000, at work I ended up severely tearing every muscle and tendon on the left half of my back below the shoulder blade and crushing two discs. I didn't know about workman's comp, and actually tried to go back to work the next few days, but the pain was so bad by the time I made the 40 miles in my '67 Chevy p/u, I was literally in tears (I worked construction, form carpenter, etc). So, for four years trying to get disability I had to depend on friends and family for a place to live and eat. Found out during those first four years (also with absolutely no insurance so no doctor and no pain meds other than aspirin like it was candy!) that family is the first to screw you over!

Anyway, 8 years go by, and of course I'm sure I'll never sit a bike again simply because I'm in pain 24/7 (even with pain meds now). Then one day a buddy comes over during a nice warm day in the Spring. He's on his Harley. We stand around shootin' the **** and I ask if I can lean/sit on his bike as we didn't want to go inside it was too nice out. He says 'of course!'. I try to lean and get comfortable, but my back won't let me. I ask if I can try to straddle it and sit and he gets a sort of worried look on his face, like I might either hurt myself bad or drop his bike getting to a sitting position, but he lets me try it.

The relief in my back was almost instantaneous! It was almost like a friggin' miracle (and I'm a die-hard viking atheist! LOL). The pain was still there, but it was simply far *less* of it. He could see it on my face too. I asked if I could ride it down the road and back and he said go for it!

Three minutes later, I pull back in, and almost had tears in my eyes...not from any pain, but because I found I *COULD* ride still! It hurts, but it hurts almost immeasurably *LESS* compared to sitting in a car or truck! When I pulled in, I got off the bike and first words I said to him 'I'll have a Harley by the end of the summer', and I had one a little later, September, an '09 FXD Super Glide. Worst Harley I've ever owned. Electrical system gave me nothing but trouble the whole time I owned it. I did put 87,000 miles on it though before it blew up on me. I think I had it for 8 or 9 years. Figured I'd get back to roots and got a '98 FXD after that. Best move I'd made...until two years ago a cager plows into me and T-bones me. Compound fracture of both bones in the left calf, all the ribs broken on left side, and a punctured lung. A year of learning to walk again with a metal rod inside the bone from knee to ankle and several metal things holding the ankle bones together. A year learning to walk and waiting on the lawyer to get my settlement from the guy who hit me. I did get one, but it wasn't much because it was a guy who had the bare minimum of insurance. Totaled the bike but I kept it and my own insurance paid me a whole $1200 for it. I was pissed about that, but I got enough to get another sled (my current '97 FLSTC that had only 14,000 miles on it) and a riding mower.

After all that, you just never know what will happen. You might just find that you *CAN* still sit a bike eventually, like I did. Only, don't wait like I did to find out, keep testing it every two or three months to see if there's any change in how much it hurts to sit one.

 

I had to make that decision 2 years ago. Replaced with this: