I got the Sporty done at 11pm on Thursday nite. Left out on the Hot Bike Power Tour the next day.

I figured it was going to be a little over 2000 miles, ended up being 2143 miles in 7 days of riding.

First day was to Little Rock, AR

Here's a pic leaving out. Only 250 miles into the 500 mile break-in.



First gas stop was a bit west of West Memphis, AR. Everything seems to be holding together.

I did make two concessions for the long days of riding. I replaced the struts with the stock shocks and also used my Airhawk on the seat.

This gave me 1.5" rear shock travel and 1" seat shock travel, plus the Airhawk. It was comfortable for my 55 year old bones, except on the big bumps, and even then it was not too bad.



The first check in was at Landers HD in Little Rock. I was pre-registered, so I picked up my package, got my card punched showing I was at the beginning leg.

On the way over I had noticed that when I went over 20% throttle in 4th or 5th the clutch was slipping. I was pretty sure I had adjusted it properly, but I went ahead and had them check...yep it was dead-on, just not strong enough for the 1250 conversion...and they did not have a heavier spring or clutch.



Lots of folks arrived Friday like myself. The first leg did not leave until Sunday, so on Saturday I looked around town a bit, picked up some oil and found a corner of a parking lot. Changed the oil and cleaned the oil filter. No pics, did not think about it...it was 95* and 90% humidity...just wanted to get it done.

Oh, I also met all the editors and writers of Hot Bike Magazine and Baggers Magazine and dropped off some DK Custom parts that were given away during the Tour.

Sunday morning at 7:45 everyone gathered up at the meeting point to leave for the first leg.







This first morning, and the last morning were the only times when pretty much everyone was together at the same time.

It was not required to leave together, or to travel the suggested route. Only requirement was to check in each day at the new city and get your card punched by 6pm.

The gold bike is an 89 FLH owned by John Zamora, editor of Hot Bike Magazine. It had only 30 miles on the rebuilt engine when we left Little Rock.



This first day I opted to Not ride the suggested "scenic" route...it went thru a lot of roads I ride regularly, and also some pretty straight, flat parts of the delta.

Instead I ran up the interstate to the next city, Jackson, TN. Here's a pic at a gas station a bit northeast of Memphis, TN.



An hour later I was at Bumpus HD in Jackson. Got my card punched, looked around a bit.

Lot is starting to fill up with local bikes, and riders on the Power Tour.



I headed over to the motel and got checked in, then back to Bumpus HD. There were a LOT of baggers.




More in next post.

 

By this time most of the Power Tour riders had arrived. There was a bike contest, some give aways, music...everything wrapped up by 6pm.

A pic of one of the few non-bagger bikes at Bumpus. He was a local, not on the Tour.




Back at the motel, the Sporty is lost in a sea of baggers that are on the Power Tour.



A little bit of info about the Hot Bike Power Tour:

186 bikes were signed up to ride the entire tour. 2 of them Sportsters. A few Dynas and Softails, and a few Trikes. The vast majority were baggers, mostly HD's.

In addition to the 186 that were signed up for the entire route, in each city there were new riders coming on for a city or two, and some dropping out.

The ones signed up for the entire route were referred to as "Long Riders".

It really was not very much distance to think of it as a Long Ride...only about 1200 miles. But the suggested routes were mostly secondary roads which added quite a bit of saddle time. Then every evening was essentially a bike night in a different city. It made for some pretty long days.

Here's a bunch of us in Jackson around 7:30 am getting packed up. lol, it's a lot different to pack up the Sporty than it was to pack up a bagger. Lots of bungee cords.



Here's the first of us at Bumpus HD Tuesday morning getting ready to head out for Bowling Green, KY.



I thought this was a classic shot.

A new Indian, and a new Victory, both in front of an HD sign.

Polaris loaned two Indians and two Victorys to the magazine staff for the Tour.



I took the suggested scenic route this day. Rode most of the time with John at the back of the pack. Here's a pic of us stopped on the side of the road doing a little carb adjustment.



We got to Bowling Green, KY. The check-in and the venue were at the Corvette Museum.



For a reason still unknown to me, Mark (Story808) wanted a pic of me punching Chuck in the neck. lol



A pic of the DK Sporty with Ms. Hot Bike Power Tour, Tashia.



The next morning, before heading out to Anderson, IN, we stopped at the RC Components facility. They had breakfast for us and gave us a tour of the plant.

I did not count how many CNC milling machines they had, but it was a bunch!



More in next post.

 

There were dozens of shelves with different parts in various stages of completion.




They don't make the blank slip-ons...they arrive like this, then they do the finish work to them.



They do form the headers, and there is an entire section of the plant just for that.



Just some of the many racks of wheels in various stages.



They used to have 30+ humans hand polishing the wheels prior to chroming (after being cut in the CNC machines). They now have two robots like this and only 3 humans doing the final polishing before chroming.



They do their own in-hose chroming. All their parts have a 5 year warranty on the chrome finish. It takes about 1.5 hours for two wheels to go down the line being dipped in a series of vats.





Then they end up on the shelf, ready for shipment.



Still more shelves of various components.



More in next post.

 

Parking lot at RC Components. Everyone starting to head out to the bikes for the ride to Anderson.



The Magazine had a chase vehicle with a trailer that traveled the entire route with us.



Upon leaving RC Components it was discovered that a bunch of bikes had not filled up with fuel. So we waited on the side of the road while they filled up.



By this time I had had so many comments about me still being with the Tour, and how am I doing, etc. Most did not seem to think a Sporty could make this trip...or maybe they thought a 55 year-old on a Sporty could not do it.

Really the ride was quite easy...the only difficult part for me was getting up and being ready to roll at 8am every morning. lol

Anyway, today I decided to ride near the front of the group so they could see what a Sporty could do.

Well, that lasted about half the day...I got so frustrated. They would speed up in straight aways and slow down in the curves. Those of you that have ridden with me know that this is the opposite of how I like to ride.

I could care less about going fast in the straights, but I do want to accelerate thru the curves....and today the roads were great, lots of long sweepers, and even some curves bordering on twistys.

About half-way thru the day I waved everyone past me and dropped back to right in front of the chase truck. I would slow up in the straights, giving plenty of room between me and the bikes in front of me. Then I would hit the curves hard, catching up with the bikes in front as I came out of the curve.

This worked out perfect with the chase truck also...by the time I was coming out of the curve they were a dot in my mirrors and would barely be caught up with me by the time we were hitting the next curve.

This day between Bowling Green and Andderson was probably the most fun roads on the Tour.

There were about 100 bikes that stopped at this gas station. I think there were only 6 pumps and most everyone had to fill up. lol Took a bit of time.



We arrived at the Anderson, IN horse track and casino. There were hundreds of locals on their bikes. Great music and time visiting and checking out all the rides.



Led Sled guys were there...was nice to see something besides baggers.





Led Sled is where I got my rear fender blank from.



More in next post.

 

Wednesday morning we are headed off to Racine, WI. Only 30 miles from the HD 110th Celebration in Milwaukee.

There really is no great way to get from Anderson to Racine. But the planners of the Power Tour had picked one of the worst routes possible. It included 35 miles of stop lights on Cicero Blvd in Chicago. Besides bad road, constant signals, hot temps and high humidity, it also went thru some less savory neighborhoods...the ghetto to be specific.

The route was a planned 8 hours of riding to cover 240 miles. More than a few of us let them know this is not the route you want to go...lol

Myself and some others went a variety of different routes, I took the interstate the whole way.

Since I knew I was going to take about half the time, this was the only morning I did not meet up with everyone at 8am. I slept in til 9:30 and did not leave until 10:30. That was NICE!

They had already been on the road for 2.5 hours when I left.

In this pic you can see I taped the directions to the tank.



The traffic, even on the interstate and toll roads I took was pretty gnarly...reminded me a bit of Cali. Also got a little bit of rain, the only rain on the whole trip.

I got to Racine, WI and went to the HD Dealer.

Chuck and his wife (orange bagger and Tri-Glide) were already there.



Took a few pics of some interesting rides at the dealer.







Then I went and checked into the Motel 6 across the street from the Dealer, and headed down to the park at Lake Michigan where the venue was for the day.



I got there about 3:30 and it was mostly local bike there.

It was around 6:00 that the folks that took the route thru downtown and the ghetto started arriving.



There was a really good turn-out of locals also.



More in next post.

 

The next morning (Thursday) there was a meeting for the Long Riders. Those who had started in Little Rock and rode to each cities stop ending up in Racine.

Of the 186 that started, and said they were going the whole route, 116 of us made it.

There were some awards, some swag, each of us received some patches, decals, certificate, and an Inaugural Hot Bike Power Tour LongRider Card that entitles us to ride the Power Tour any time we want at no charge.









It was a great time! Met a lot of folks, had some good riding, some folks have new respect for Sportsters, and a bunch of folks got to see what they can do with a Sporty using DK Custom Products.

Of the 30 things that are different on the DK Sporty from a stock 883l, 21 of them are DK Custom Parts.

You can see the list HERE.

Ok, now it is Thursday morning, I am only 30 miles from the 110th Celebration that starts Friday. I really would like to go...but I've been away from the shop too long to stay gone any longer.

It is 750 miles back home. I consider trying to do it all in one day, but decide not to...don't want to be traveling at night in deer country.

Good thing I broke it up into two days...most of the way it wss 100+* and 90+% humidity. I ended up making most gas stops last 30-45 minutes, just to drink enough water and to cool myself down.

I did 425 miles on Thursday and the other 325 on Friday.

Here's a pic Mary took when I got home Friday afternoon.



Definitely looking forward to next years Hot Bike Tour. Will probably take the Softail so Mary can go too.

 

Had to be the first in...

Words fail me but ...AWESOME, and the oft-overused nextgen term (only in this case fully deserved)...EPIC!



Some things I loved about the storyboard..

1) The Beard
2) The Bike
3) The Biker
4) The Bling on the Bike (not the shiny doodads, but y'know, all of it)
5) The Blah (you know how to spin out a nice tale with pics, you do)
6) The Beard (did I say that already)

Seriously Kev, fantastic pics and storyline - followed you and Mary's pic-o-blog on the Alaska tour too - almost made me feel like I was there!

And yep - bravo to being Sporty with the Sporty in a Bushel of Baggers. Showed 'em there - righteous stuff, that. Interestingly, the only scoots that merited a second look and many a drool (IMHO), were all Sportys ...just sayin'

Ride safe, ride more and post often!

Cheerio,
A

 

XL-LENT!! Loved it. Glad to see some still ride "Motorcycle"s" on rides like this. Good on ya. Great pics and really like your bike. Very nicely done.

 

great pics and post! awesome

 

Love it! And that is one hell of a bike you've got there. Great write up with pictures!