Hi All, I have had such entertainment reading other peoples ride stories I thought you might like reading about "our" wee trip through Arizona, Nevada through Route 66, Vegas and back across the Hoover Dam to Phoenix.
I will have to do this story a bit at a time so bear with me and need to work out how to get my pictures up.
The trip, all in about 800 miles was to start in Phoenix at Buddy Stubbs Harley where I, normally an RT rider was picking up a HD Electra Glide Ultra. http://www.buddystubbshd.com/ provided the EGU (Electra Glide Ultra), lovely bike, spotless, well prepared and ready to go at 8am on the 9th October. It should have been the 8th but British Airways, a mess of an outfit if I ever saw one got us there a day late. I'll rant at the very end about them !
All in, the team was Brian, the birthday fella, Morag the sister, all the way in from Ireland and a wee bit north of 35 and never pillioned before so a big up to her on his RT, me and my son Conor on pillion on the EGU, Aidan, all of 17, with a full US bike licence on a minter R1150 R. Missing in action was Ciaran who couldn't get away from Uni, mores the pity. we'll come back to the 17 yr old on a big bike later but let me tell you the lad did good and seriously challenges the notion that teenagers shouldn't be allowed on big bikes.
Anyway, having never ridden a tractor on 2 wheels I was a bit nervous of the size, handling and weight so rode back from Phoenix to the brothers place in Anthem, north of Phoenix with no pillion to pick everyone else up and head on. First impressions, the bike was feckin heavy, the controls all agricultural and despite this being a Project Rushmore 2015 model, it was quite retro despite the LED lights, ShatNav, Stereo CB connections, clock, washing machine and tumble drier. Once moving though it wasn't so bad although the brakes (what brakes ? ) and the levers were all oversize and didn't really do much. The seat was comfy enough but quickly it became apparent that you need some tin foil down your right trouser leg to ensure its cooked evenly without the skin being too crispy.
Having had a whole 1/2 hour experience of a Massey Ferguson with two missing wheels I felt completely ready to load it up with 5 days worth of stuff for 2 and a grown up son. Morag did a inelegant climbing on manoeuvre onto the RT, we all loaded up and set off in 35 degrees of Arizona sunshine towards our destination of Sedona in the north of Arizona that night.
With Bran and Morag in the front, Aidan in the middle, I brought up the rear on the EGU. Second impressions : brakes ? what brakes ? no telelever so whilst not braking much at all, the front dives like a Man City player and the relatively high position of the rear not-brake-lever makes it feckin hard to smoothly come to a stop with all of 450kgs to balance. Whilst handling was better than expected, having a fairly poor preconception of HDs, it was worse than required. Acceleration ? in the same place as the brakes i.e. Missing in Action. the stereo ? A nice idea but at 70 ish I could hear feck all. To keep you company on a long run, theres lots of vibration and feet shuffling to manage the heel toe gear lever and avoid the uneven cooked right leg. Surprisingly though the wee half moon screen dose take the wind blast away which was, on this trip a bad thing as it was so hot. Panniers and top box though were great and my pillion was comfy and content.
I will have to do this story a bit at a time so bear with me and need to work out how to get my pictures up.
The trip, all in about 800 miles was to start in Phoenix at Buddy Stubbs Harley where I, normally an RT rider was picking up a HD Electra Glide Ultra. http://www.buddystubbshd.com/ provided the EGU (Electra Glide Ultra), lovely bike, spotless, well prepared and ready to go at 8am on the 9th October. It should have been the 8th but British Airways, a mess of an outfit if I ever saw one got us there a day late. I'll rant at the very end about them !
All in, the team was Brian, the birthday fella, Morag the sister, all the way in from Ireland and a wee bit north of 35 and never pillioned before so a big up to her on his RT, me and my son Conor on pillion on the EGU, Aidan, all of 17, with a full US bike licence on a minter R1150 R. Missing in action was Ciaran who couldn't get away from Uni, mores the pity. we'll come back to the 17 yr old on a big bike later but let me tell you the lad did good and seriously challenges the notion that teenagers shouldn't be allowed on big bikes.
Anyway, having never ridden a tractor on 2 wheels I was a bit nervous of the size, handling and weight so rode back from Phoenix to the brothers place in Anthem, north of Phoenix with no pillion to pick everyone else up and head on. First impressions, the bike was feckin heavy, the controls all agricultural and despite this being a Project Rushmore 2015 model, it was quite retro despite the LED lights, ShatNav, Stereo CB connections, clock, washing machine and tumble drier. Once moving though it wasn't so bad although the brakes (what brakes ? ) and the levers were all oversize and didn't really do much. The seat was comfy enough but quickly it became apparent that you need some tin foil down your right trouser leg to ensure its cooked evenly without the skin being too crispy.
Having had a whole 1/2 hour experience of a Massey Ferguson with two missing wheels I felt completely ready to load it up with 5 days worth of stuff for 2 and a grown up son. Morag did a inelegant climbing on manoeuvre onto the RT, we all loaded up and set off in 35 degrees of Arizona sunshine towards our destination of Sedona in the north of Arizona that night.
With Bran and Morag in the front, Aidan in the middle, I brought up the rear on the EGU. Second impressions : brakes ? what brakes ? no telelever so whilst not braking much at all, the front dives like a Man City player and the relatively high position of the rear not-brake-lever makes it feckin hard to smoothly come to a stop with all of 450kgs to balance. Whilst handling was better than expected, having a fairly poor preconception of HDs, it was worse than required. Acceleration ? in the same place as the brakes i.e. Missing in Action. the stereo ? A nice idea but at 70 ish I could hear feck all. To keep you company on a long run, theres lots of vibration and feet shuffling to manage the heel toe gear lever and avoid the uneven cooked right leg. Surprisingly though the wee half moon screen dose take the wind blast away which was, on this trip a bad thing as it was so hot. Panniers and top box though were great and my pillion was comfy and content.
