Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128245
Harley-Davidson 1DOth Anniversary Ride attending. I explained that I wou ldn 't because I would be e n route to Milwaukee. He said that he was mak ing th e Rid e Home from Phoen ix , Ar izona , and since we would be traveling th e same route , we agreed to meet in Oklahoma City. Richa rd c a lle d m e aga in a few days later and said th at two of their party wouldn't be mak ing th e trip. They had m ade room re s e rvat ion s in O kl ah om a Ci t y, Kan s a s City, and Spring field, Illinois. He said we c o u ld t ake the re s e rvatio n if we hadn 't alr eady made our own. I sa id th a t woul d b e fine, th ink ing tha t it wou ld narrow down the search area c o n s id e ra b ly wh e n he and I went looking for someone we ha dn 't seen in a long time . SR : As Dad told m e th at he was going to be hooking up with his old hi gh sc ho o l bu dd y , I wo ndered whether he wa s more nervous a bo ut th e ride o r the meet ing. He kept say ing, "Ma n, I hope I re c o gn ize him. I haven 't seen him in 4 5 years. I m ight wal k rig ht p a st him and not even know it." AR: Kathy a nd I flew to S outhe rn Ca liforn ia o n Augu st 14th from Reno , Nevad a , o u r hom e fo r th e past 29 years. Ou r pl an wa s to depart from Co sta Mesa on the m orn in g o f t h e 16th, but a last- m inute cha ng e in the m ot orc ycl e th at S c ott an d Sh a wn a would be rid in g , an d th e logistical pr ob lem s with getting e v e ryth in g re ad y to go , convince d us to wai t until th e 17th. Sa nd ia Peak - Albuquerque, New Mexico SR : Well, the plan was to outfit a Ha rle y-Da vid s on Road Glid e with a ll the go od ies to effect ive ly make it a fixed-fairing Ultra , or basicall y a Tour Glide fo r th os e of you who kn ow yo ur H-D m od el s. Prob lem wa s , half th e stuff never s ho wed up in time for the Ha rle y Fleet Center guys to get the thing finished . Instead , the y th rew me out the door on a p re p rodu ction 2004 Ultra Cla ss ic . AR: Tou gh bou nce! S R : He y, it's a dir t y job, but someone' s gotta do it.. . AR: Bef or e leaving on the tr ip , I spent a few ho urs several we eks earlier getting accustomed to th e fe el of handling a motorcycle as larg e as the Ult ra on the freeway as well as on two -la ne roads , and I also spent a considerable amount of time p ractic ing ba la n ce d stops in a pa rking lot , so the "ne w bike" jitters had been worked out, a nd I couldn't wa it to get s ta rte d on th e trip. SR: Aft er rid in g wi th him an d watch ing him ride , I was beginning to wo nd er if I'd made a smart d ec is ion turned ea st on 1-40. The p lan was to ride as m uc h of old Route 66 as we could. We cross ed the Colorado River south o f La ughlin , Nev ada , a t about midday , and th e air te m pe ra ture ove r th e a s pha lt felt like 135 degrees , a nd s in ce we we re all we a ring ja ck ets , helm e t s an d g love s , it wa s t oa s t y. Kath y ca me d arn cl o s e t o hea t stroke. so we stopped at a res t a rea and ga ve he r a c ha nc e to cool down using wet clot hs . I th ou ght at the time that we would b e a lot coole r if we didn 't have th e jac kets on , but none o f us were willi n g to part wit h a ny sk in o r flesh in the e ve nt of a la y dow n , so tak ing th e ja ckets off was no t an option. Saddli ng up again , we dec ide d to go as far as King ma n, Arizo na . We were ha ving tr oub le co rnmuni ca t ing b etwe en bikes, a nd we thought that th e deal er might be able to he lp us out. As it wa s still Sunday a n d th e d e a lers hi p was closed , we us e d t he t im e to re la x in th e s wimm ing po ol a nd soa k away the heat. in asking him a lon g . He ha d th e moving part down re a lly well, but whe n it ca me to sto pp ing .. . Let's just say th at it's a good thi ng th e Ultra corne s fit ted wit h an eng ine gu a rd. AR: S unday , Aug ust 17th, dawned c le a r a nd warm in Southern Califor nia , and we we re ready to leave by 9 a . m . We ha d packed our extra clothes into the two s ide bags and the tour pack, a nd were able to take m o re than we re a ll y n e ed e d . The downside was that we wo uld later find out that we had no roo m for T- sh irts o r othe r com memo ra tive item s tha t we purch ased on the tr ip. SR: Wh o' s h e kiddi ng wh en h e says we "we re able to take m or e th a n we re a ll y n e e d e d ? " He o bvio u s ly wasn 't tra veling with my wife! AR : Traffic was light as we he a ded east o ut o f Costa Mesa to connect with 1- 15 , whe re we then tu rned north for Ba rstow. The Ultra Classic was a n absolute d ream to ride a nd was very s ta ble wh en cross ing sepa ratio ns in the co nc rete. I ha ve ne ver been a big fa n o f whee l wo bb le an d wa s g lad that the s us pension of the motorc ycle e li mina ted t h is . At Ba rs tow , we SR: Umm , yeah, b a s ically , I thought my m other wa s go ing to croak on us . Not good . It was so ho t th at e ve n I was feeling it, and I ca n tak e quite a b it b efore dec id ing aga inst ridi n g a moto rcycle. You could have fried eggs on the fairings o f b o th o ur bik e s . I hav e to say, tho ugh, that it wa s p retty neat watch ing th e transfo rm a tion in m y mom . Ea rly in th e trip , she see me d to ha ve t ro u ble w it h t h in g s lik e climb in g a boar d an d dismoun ti ng fr om t he Ultra , the he at a nd long s tints in the sa d d le . Be fo re t he tr ip was o ver , th ough , she tou ghen ed up a lot , an d all th os e th ings we re no big deal. AR: Still ha vin g trouble with o ur radio co m m u nicat ions , we went to Rou te 66 Harl e y -Da vidso n in King man , Arizona , and tol d Bene to Lama rc a, the se rvice m anager , about our pr ob lem. He sa id he wou ld try to fit us in by 11 a .m ., b ut th e re we re five bikes al ready scheduled for service . He did n 't have a re place me nt radio in stoc k , but if he c ould ch ec k ours, at least we wo uld know if it was fa ulty . Scott decided to try to line up a re pl a c em ent rad io , so he called Pau l J am es to see if he c ou ld help. Pau l ca lle d back a s ho rt tirne late r and said he woul d hav e a radio sent to Albu querque , New Mexico, and we could have it c hanged out at the deale rsh ip there if we needed it. After ret r ieving the m o t orc y c le fro m Route 66 Ha rle y-Davidson , we packed up a nd headed for the Grand Canyon. It had be e n 35 ye a rs since Kat hy and I had be e n ther e , and Scott a nd S ha wn a had never seen it in pe rso n. It wa s a n excellen t side trip ; th e views we re spectacu lar, a nd th e two lane roa d was a welco me cha nge from th e intersta te .