Gremlin's Tall Stories

Yeah, fine, OK, so I’m dragging out the trip by one more blog. Look out for the book and souvenirs coming to a store near you. We’re gonna commercialise the hell of out of this. I can see the headlines now… “Harleys survive a trip with a BMW”.

Well, if you’re still reading my blogs, I’m impressed. By now you have read more than 98 pages of writing (I write the blogs in MS Word first), in excess of 64,500 words, and viewed more than 2,200 pictures. Originally, I wrote my blogs to be able to read them back in the years to come, as a way of recalling all the nuances of the trip. Since then, I’ve had other KB’ers and family reading it, to see what the places are like, and from the feedback, really enjoying it, which in turn, I enjoy.

So, to wrap the trip up, I thought I would make one more blog, summarising some of the key details and things I learnt.

Six weeks in the USA… I saw less than a third of the country (and a piece of Canada). It’s a seriously big place, and places that look close together aren’t (at least not by NZ thinking). If you’re wanting to go there, don’t sit on the Interstates. Sure, they are quick and you get places fast, but you see very little compared to riding the back roads. The USA is a country of diversity. There are many mountain passes at heights in excess of 10,000 feet. In back to back days we had desert one day and 50+ C, then the next it’s back to forests and mountain lakes.

We climbed Mt Evans (along with other high mountain passes), reaching heights above 14,000 feet. Mt Cook isn’t even this high and yet we were on sealed roads. At the other end, Badwater Basin was 282 feet below sea level. Temperatures ranged from as little as 8 degrees (usually at the top of passes and mountains) through to a dehydrating 53 degrees. Typically, it was in the 20s in the mornings, but in the warmer areas of the USA it was not uncommon to never drop below 30 degrees, even at night. Most of us have come away with some tans that would make the winter bound Kiwis envious.

National Parks, while requiring fees to enter, have abundant wildlife, sometimes even crossing the road between the vehicles or standing on the road, either used to the traffic or oblivious. The parks are popular, sometimes perhaps too popular, with people thinking nothing of stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures or crawl along at 20-30mph with a queue of traffic building behind them. Don’t forget that park rangers will be patrolling, the equivalent of the police, with powers and equipment to match.

Americans themselves are generally a friendly bunch, always interested in foreigners visiting, asking how we were finding it and recommending routes and places to explore. After helping a couple of bikers with some zip ties when one Harley was having issues, they wanted to offer me somewhere for the night, but I already had pre-arranged accommodation. I had a silver fern on the back of my helmet and an NZ flag on the both sides of the front of the bike. I figured identifying myself as a foreigner would have more advantages than disadvantages, which appeared to be correct. I did get asked a lot of times if I had ridden there… and often I said yes, I had a really long snorkel.

Motorcycling in the USA is noticeably different to NZ. There seems to be a much higher percentage of the population who are into bikes, used to be, or wished they were. I didn’t have a single person mention how motorcycles were dangerous things and people were much more accommodating of bikers, either on the road, parking spaces or directing us to areas of parking at attractions. Sturgis and the surrounding areas and towns, while an important source of revenue I’m sure, went a long way for the bikes, blocking off some roads to everything except bikes.

I’ve also seen Harley Davidson in a different light. All the branding, styling and design are genuine, and some of us discussed this during the trip. You can see Harley drawing on their Heritage of Indian culture, the guns and sense of individuality. Visiting the large Bartel’s store in Los Angeles, it was open on a Sunday, a large presence of bikes outside, with everyone dressed in Harley gear, head to toe. Do be aware that riding a Harley in the USA may lead to you visiting every shop in sight, or even travelling out of your way to visit another.

Handling the USA roads was initially difficult, compounded by having to be on the right. Walking through our first hotel in LA I was constantly telling myself to walk on the right and when encountering people, to move to the right. Throughout the trip, I didn’t have many issues, the only ones usually occurring in motel car parks or leaving service stations. They have very few roundabouts, instead using a lot of all-way Stops. First person at the intersection is allowed to proceed first, but all vehicles must stop, and so it alternates around the streets.

Some of the signs continue to remain a mystery as to their intent, and the closest shaves I had were turning into a main street on the green, not realising the opposite side also had a green and were going straight, and having no idea who had right of way when another vehicle and I were turning into the same side street. Both times a quick wave in lieu of an apology, hopefully they noticed I wasn’t from around there.

Food was well priced, the portions usually much bigger than NZ and often too big, resulting in food waste, which was a little disappointing. I did like the usual presence of salad or fruit in selections, which allowed healthy choices.

Most days I didn’t ride with the group, deciding they were starting too early for my liking and stopping too often. The beauty of Ken’s tour was that you could indeed do what you wished to a certain degree. All accommodation was pre-booked (and had to be when you have 30+ people), and there was a recommended route for the day. You could leave early and take your time doing the route, stopping wherever you liked, or start late and power through to the night’s accommodation. You could also decide to do your own route if you wished, the freedom was yours. Ken’s route was actually excellent, avoiding a lot of Interstate use and making the ride much more interesting, and preparing us slowly for altitude and heat, rather than heading straight into it.

As for Jessica, my 2010 BMW R1200GSA, I couldn’t imagine a better bike for the job. The large panniers meant I could have been independent if I needed to be, by laying my large backpack on the back seat, but it wasn’t necessary. The large fuel tank meant most days required only one fill, electronic suspension making countering the luggage weight a mere push of a button. When I explored a gravel road, I simply had to stop and change the suspension to off road which raised the ride height.

Doing the rough road and despite the higher ride height, I still managed to dent the bash plate, but considering the punishing terrain, the fact that nothing broke and all the spokes were fine is testament to the toughness of the GSA, and I’m satisfied I’ve finally found the bike for me, that will truly go anywhere (except perhaps soft sand… no engineering can quite overcome all physics).

Karen the GPS once again proved invaluable, guiding me around a strange country and directly to each night’s accommodation. The other accessory I’m going to thank the most is the crash bar extensions, now worth their weight in gold. If you have a GSA and haven’t heard of them, go look up advdesigns.net. They’ve protected my cylinder heads several times now.

On the whole, it was a great trip, where we realised near the end that suddenly 5+ weeks had already passed and the trip was almost over. I would say it’s almost inevitable that I will be exploring more places in the USA again, and the scenery of Nova Scotia and Alaska beckons.