Hey all,
First, thank you to everyone who is taking the time to comment on this journey of mine. While I may not respond to all the comments, I am reading them all. By the time I sit down to write, I’m pretty tired, and so I try to get my latest post written and then turn off the netbook.
I want to start today’s post with something I realized about three hours into my day today. It’s this: ride your own way. Or, ride your own style. Something like that. Let me explain. As I prepared for this trip, I had a lot of advice from a lot of different friends. Each meant well, and in the end, may prove to be right. For example, a number of my friends offered me their bikes for the trip. Incredibly generous of them to do that. Road Kings, Electra Glides, full fairings with stereo systems, etc. were all available for me if I wanted them. And, in some ways, I was tempted to take them up on the offer. But, I wanted to do this trip on my bike. Yes, I own a 94 Wide Glide with a few thousand shy of 200,000 kms on it. Yes, my seat is a beautiful “bar hopper” but certainly not designed for more than a few hours of riding. Yes, I would have to be creative in how to pack the bike to get everything I wanted to take in. That’s all true. But, it’s my 94 Dyna Wide Glide. And I wanted it with me. This was a journey we would take together. To understand that better, you would have to read my post about Shopping Cart Handlebars. This Wide Glide was the bike I grew up dreaming about for me. Again, I may come to regret the decision to take this bike, but for now, on day two, I couldn’t be happier with it.
I was also told by many that I was crazy not to put a windshield on the bike. Now, for the most part, I’ve never had a bike with a windshield. But, it made sense that I should use one for such a long trip. I had a home made windshield that I put on and tried out a few times before the trip. I hated it! I made sure it was cut to the right size, and yet still found it bugged me more than it helped. I would have to put an elastic in my goatee if I was going to use it, or I’d be getting tickled in my nose by my beard! Not a good thing to have happen. At the last minute, I decided to pull it off and not use it. I was worried if I would regret not having it on the bike. Heather offered a good piece of advice when she said to me, “Rob, you’ve never used one. You don’t know what you’re missing. So, ride the way you are comfortable riding and you’ll be fine.”
And that’s the point of my ride your way comment.
So, today’s ride. I had to wait around until 9 am for a Harley shop to open in order to see if they could help me with my broken speedometer. I was certain that it was the drive mechanism and not the cable that was the problem (since I had taken the cable off last night and it seemed to turn fine). Well, the first shop didn’t have the drive mechanism. The parts guy told me that I would have a hard time finding one, since my bike was so old! (Old? A 94 is old? I guess it is)
He directed me to another shop that might have one, but I wasn’t able to follow the directions and finally gave up. I headed down the I-71 figuring I’d see a Harley shop from the highway. And sure enough, I did. So, I pulled in to see if they could help me. It was 10:10 am. Turned out that dealership didn’t open until Noon on Wednesdays. Noon! The shop was massive — bigger than any shop I’d ever seen, and it didn’t open until Noon. I kept going.
The next shop I saw was open, but didn’t have the part, but called another shop about half an hour away. They had the piece and told me they would install it for me as soon as I got there. So, I headed off to that dealership, which was South East of me (I wanted to go SouthWest).
I got the part installed and after catching my breath at the ridiculous price the dealership charged me (it was a $60 part and they charged me $80 to install it. It took fifteen minutes to install it), I was off again.
By now it was after 3 pm, and I was frustrated because I had made very little distance. In fact, by the time I pulled over for the night, I had only made the Ohio border. That is where I am tonight: Richmond, Ohio.
I’ve decided to push through the next few days and do mostly interstate. From what everyone tells me, there is nothing like the Rockies and the West Coast for riding. The mid-west is basically flat corn fields. So, if all goes well, I’ll get through the day tomorrow and end up as close to Kansas City as possible.
Oh, the highlight of the day was riding without a helmet! Now, I realize that many reading this will favour wearing a helmet, and that’s great for you, but I have always loved the feeling of riding lidless. I do it every chance I get (which isn’t often). Ohio has no helmet law, and so my lid was strapped to the bike the moment I got up and I rode the entire day without it. It felt amazing! From what I can tell, I’ll get to enjoy that feeling all day tomorrow as well.
However, I will definitely need sunscreen on tomorrow. Wow, my face is burnt.
On that note, it’s bedtime. Hopefully I’ll continue to luck out with wifi spots and will keep this up to date.
Enjoy the ride!
