Just got back from a 23 day, 5355 smile road trip with the wife on our new 14; Oak Harbor, OH to Sacramento, CA and back, through 15 states. Only one glitch on the new trike the whole time.

After a dust storm in the Nevada desert, the trunk latch was "sluggish" to return to fully latched, and it caused the lid to pop open on us twice. Fortunately nothing fell out, we caught it right away, it has a distinct clunk when it falls. A couple of de-icer/lube squirts and all better now.

Better than I could have imagined, this is my first HD, I was expecting worse but hoping for the best! But that was it. It ran great through the mountains with the elevation and cold up there, and in the 100+ degree heat in the deserts and valleys.

Great trip, had a blast.

 

That is a good trip. I would call that preaty much no problems.
Completely Stock Trike?
Hap

 

Stock functionally, with limited time to get ready I didn't want to do a tuner or anything that might cause issues that would need to be addressed on the road.

It ran well, averaged 35mpg. It was struggling a bit at higher altitudes (over 7000'), but only because I asked it to, however without really spending any time at full throttle (kept the revs up) and left speed sag if really needed.

Heat wasn't much of an issue except for in towns at long lights when it was already hot out. Maybe 20 minutes of getting legs roasted total. The fans came on a couple of times in traffic like that, or when shutting down from those conditions, but other than that they stayed off.

Added a lot of convenience and comfort stuff; Wider brake pedal, floorboards extended out an inch, longer front shift peg. Heated grips from the dealer, I made two nice cup holders, made an extension for the tour pack sitting it back 1 3/8", added a 2-bag ATV fender bag to the right outer fender front (attached to the dealer-installed lighted fender rails and an under-fender bracket I added.) Front mud flap, an aux rack on the tour pack to hold our big waterproof (supposedly, leaked a lot) bag and spread the weight out on the lid, got the Leatherman trunk cases, those worked great. We could carry over 5 days of stuff without going to a laundry.

I put four 1" felt/velcro strips nearly twice around each grip side-by-side for my big hands to make them larger diameter, a throttle rocker (best investment ever, getting one for the left side some day), lots of those space-saver bags you squeeze the air out of. I also made a set of pockets on a backrest cover from an old pair of jeans, the wife kept her camera, glasses and my wallet, toll change and some other stuff in it, very easy to grab something from it.

Ended up buying an AirHawk R at a dealer along the way, that made life much easier or at least less painful. Then I used my home-made pad behind my back against the backrest; moving forward like that helped my shoulder pain. Hey, I'm 58, everything hurts occasionally! I'll probably look at those handlebars that set back and come up 2" before the next one.

I did get an oil and filter change in Salt Lake even though it was well before 5000 miles on the trike; my dealer's shop advised me to do that if we hit much heat because they knew I wouldn't get in for the 5K until about 7K. and boy did we hit some heat. I also stayed with conventional oil, will go synthetic everywhere at the 7K.

GPS worked fine for single destinations, gave up on the trip programs early. Everyone at the rest stop knows where you're going when you've got it cranked up through the speakers for speed and you're stopped! Wish it had a pause for rest stops and gas stops and such or she becomes a real nag.

The audio system worked fine, only had one volume lockup. Com worked well most of the time, but it has some quirks. On noisy days (crosswinds) you'd go to lower the audio volume but the com would pick up, so you'd end up lowering it's volume instead; by the time you bring it back up, it would shift to audio and you'd end up chasing that around. Also, if you had the audio through the speakers and had it cranked a bit, when you slow down now it's the major noise, and the headsets keep shifting to intercom, so you can't lower the audio!

Having almost a thousand tunes on an SD card in the phone slot worked great.

I guess the only thing I really wish I had done was to install the rear lift kit thing; quite a bit of pipe-scraping, and it would have made the twisties more enjoyable. Although my arms did get a nice workout every day.

 

Sounds like you had a great time, and have done a lot of mods for comfort and long distance traveling.

Nothing better than a road trip! Wishing you many more miles of smiles!

 

Edited for dup post...

For Coronetracer65

I would not be without my airhawk...previously broken pelvis causes SI pain and the airhawk changes me from 5-6 not so comfortable hours in the saddle to 8-10 very comfortable hours.

 

you can adjust volume of voice commands from gps only when she is speaking ! Sounds like you had a fun trip. Have you got any pics of your cup holders ? Also I am contemplating getting an Airhawk R for a aggravated tailbone , so they work good ? Thanks ! Ebert

 

never been in any dust storms but my latch button sticks to if I don't watch it , no uncommon from what I have found our , I keep mine waxed good and seems to help as I think it is the seal that sticks , glad all went well and you had a good time , hope to do some more trips myself before I get to old

 

The Airhawk helped a lot with the tailbone issue, might for you, too; still had some pain from my sit bones, never did find an optimum setting for the pad. No ***. Tried different positions; just changing it was better than keeping any one. I had a sheepskin that helped some, too, but it tended to give me a little pain behind the tailbone, which the other pad I made has a cutout for, plus we put it away a lot because of rain. I guess I need a freakin sofa or something, but I've never been able to sit for long.

In a car or on a plane I have a two-bladder pillow with a gap betweenthe tubes that helps a LOT, but it would not work on the trike seat and it would squish around too much on curves. But I can't sit for long on anything. the longest we can ever get is about 100 miles before I have to pull over, stretch, and get the blood flowing again.

The cup holder is a PVC pipe coupler cut down and reinforced, held onto the bar with a pipe clamp, bolts and a piece of steel, and the lower portion is an old belt cut and pop-riveted into place. It worked great but would rotate down on the bar when holding large, full cups, so I put a ty-wrap around the top of it and the clutch tube fitting (the boss on the housing, not on the tubing) and that fixed it.



The prompt volume was set for road levels, too much trouble to turn it down when pulling over.

 

Thanks Oogie Wa Wa ! That cup holders looks pretty simple and ingenious , I am going to get an Airhawk R for sure . I bought the Harley ventilator before we made our 600 one way trip to Branson and it helped alot with the wet butt problem, although I still need some tailbone relief. I'm like you and have no butt and can't sit for long without moving . Only problem we encountered was the trunk lock has a plastic sleeve over the barrel which holds the assembly in. I went to unlock it and the whole lock came out with the key stuck in it. It took me a half hour to get the key out of it. I was starting to panic because spare key was in wifes purse locked in tour pack and fork was locked also. Stopped at a Dealer in Mo. and they couldn't help , so waited til I got home and my dealer fixed in about two hours. Again on your prompt volume you can turn it down with the toggle on the left handlebar , but only when the prompt lady is speaking ! Ebert

 

Sounds like a great trip and a good time, but as we all know....if there's no pictures it really didn't happen. . Just kidding but some pics are nice to see...

As for seat issues, I do like the Alaska Sheep Skin. Sometimes I put a ProPad gel pad under it, just for different feeling...I've even heard people use the seat cushion from Wal Mart..what ever works , right?

Great write up...looking forward to a long trip with ours...
Just back from a 1500 mile trip to Rochester NY from KY..Blue Knight Toy Run for kids in a hospital...makes the heart warm...