My longest ride (Long Story)
A lot of you know that I have a lot of miles on my 05 Chopper (over 43,000 now). I can ride this thing all day long but most of my miles came from commuting in Kalifornia when I was stationed in San Diego. I rode 100 miles a day, 5 days a week. Something you can do there when you have 360 days of good weather per year.
Anyway, I got an assignment in Millington, TN just NW of Memphis. For you Navy guys I went to sit a E-7 advancement board (my 4th). I was there for about 28 days.
I headed out from Oceanside, CA on a Friday morning and rode across HOT Southern Kalifornia on I-10 into VERY HOT Arizona.
Cut up through Prescott and Sedona to I-40 that I would follow the rest of the way to Memphis.
As I'm leaving Flagstaff I can see black clouds looming in the distance. Well Thunder and Lightning forced me over in Holbrook, AZ. 560 miles for day one. I wanted to make it into New Mexico cause my intention was to get to Sparks America in OK for my second stop.
Saturday morning I wake up to a beautiful morning you only see in the high desert and take off about 7 am. I shot across the rest of Arizona and enter New Mexico and then into Texas.
Had to stop here for a steak. Anybody else eaten here?
Finally it's starting to get dark after spending all day on I-40 at about 75-80 mph. I pull into Shamrock, TX (#8 on the map) and unload my bike and head to the restaurant for a drink. Know what I found????
It's a dry county!!!! In Texas???? But being a good resourceful drinker I get some Coke and dig a bottle out of my pack and try to drink the tingles out of my body from two days of vibration!!!
I did 607 miles this day. I didn't make it to Sparks which was still 230 miles away.
I get an early start on Sunday morning knowing I have to be in Memphis tonight. It's over 680 miles and I want to stop in Sparks for a little bit.
I get there at 11 am and restrict myself to just one hour. What a rally, check out the photo's in my gallery. But back on the road and I cross the rest of Oklahoma and into Arkansas and into Tennessee. I get in just after dark and find the base and get my room and sleep for a long time!!!!
At this point I can't sign a CC receipt! The vibration has made both my hands and feet go numb. Took a couple days for them to return to full use!
It was 1850 miles from Oceanside, CA to Millington, TN and 3 days of riding hard.
My scariest incident came in OKC. I was in freeway traffic and going through a turn and out from under a car comes a big black block about a square foot in size. I evade it so my front tire doesn't hit it but it's goes under my frame and bounces me up as you can imagine. I get the bike over to the side of the road and can't find any damage other than shreds of rubber on the bottom frame rail. It was one of those rubber blocks that are between the guard rails and the post to absorb the shock. Turns out later it created some damage that I never noticed and could have been catastrophic to the motor! I never found this damage till I rode all the way back across country and had my bike service by my dealer later that year in November. Only the thin lining inside the shielded cable was holding all the oil in for over 6 months!!
Oh yeah, BDM didn't warranty the oil lines but they replaced my worn out rubbers pegs!
Anyway, Mid July I and several friends I knew there went on up to Kentucky for the Little Sturgis Rally.
Great rally that I want to go to again. This is where I broke a clutch cable (only problem I had) and this is where it only took four guys to lift in the truck and drive off. Only take seconds!
Return home was okay but for running into thunder storms again but this time in New Mexico. It dumped like a monsoon!!!
But got home no problems and saw some beautiful country in the process.
Put over 4200 miles on the bike in a month and had a great time.
Can't wait to do it again. Maybe this summer. Wanna come along????
My short video;
Message - Big Dog Biker Photo Gallery
as usual......sounds like a hell of a trip!
