I went to start my bike, turn on the ignition switch, hit the starter switch, thunk, nada, no juice, no lights, nothing. I hook up the battery tender for a while, still nothing. I figure it must be the battery. It's Saturday morning, I want to ride, so I pay uber-retail at the Harley dealer for a new battery. Put it in, problem solved -- for about 2 weeks. I go to start the bike, same problem again! This time I think to check the battery voltage, and it is over 12 volts. I wound borrowing a couple of friends and a trailering to a good indy one of them knows. Turned out the battery cables were loose. Probably the problem with the first battery. Now I am out the cost of the battery, some cash to the mechanic for his trouble and a couple of dinners for my friends. It will probably cost me more than that, because we started talking about Power Commanders, air cleaners, cams, ch-ching!
On the good side, this mechanic was terrific. He has a place behind his house in the middle of nowhere. Coming up to it I thought my friends had to be kidding. Turns out it's the kind of shop where you could eat off the floor. He has his own dyno equipment and everything he needs to completely build-rebuild anything.