What's the ride you will remember for the rest of your life? The one you tell folks about. It can be the best or the worst, but not necessarily crash stories. (Yeah, I'll remeber my crash for the rest of my life too, but it's not what I'm looking for, when I'm talking to folks about motorcycling, it's not the story I tell.)

Set it up, tell the story of your most memorable ride.

Have fun with it.

 

It had been a hard day at work but a good one. We had gotten alot accomplished. After work my customer and I went out to dinner, where most of the conversation centered around motorcycles in general and Harley Davidsons in particular. He was a big HD fan. At the time I was riding a Gold Wing, and of course I had to stand up for my ride.

We finished dinner by 7:30 and left the restaurant w/o the customary after dinner drinks. I found this odd, because it had been his usual custom to take advantage of my expense account when I was in town. On the way back to my hotel he asked if I had any particular plans for the evening. I told him not really, maybe just wander around town a bit. He asked if I minded if we stopped off at his place to drop some stuff off and see his wife. I said sure, wondering what I was letting myself in for. We got to his 8th floor condo and he dropped his stuff and he had a short conversation with his wife. I didn't understand a word they said, she didn't speak english. Then he grabbed his coat and keys and said "Let's go!" and we headed back down to the parking garage.

When we got to the garage, he threw me a set of keys and told me to go get the white one around the corner and he would meet me at the door. I said "What?" (He didn't speak real good english either.) "Go get the white Harley around the corner and I'll meet you at the door" I went around the corner and there sat a white Heritage Softail, just waiting to ride. I fired it up, went to the door, and here comes my customer on a red one. He was riding his wifes bike. It had been lowered to accomodate her smaller stature, and he thought I would be more comfortable on his.

We rode all over that night. From Happy Valley, around and over Victoria Peak and down to Port Stanley. We stopped in Port Stanley at some little seaside bar and sat watching the Pacific Ocean while drinking excellent 12 year old scotch and smoking fine Cuban cigars. (The only time I have consumed alcoholic beverages while on a bike!) We continued on around through Repulse Bay and another place I can't remember the name of, through the Central Business District, and finally back to my hotel. He told me to park the bike in the bushes, which I found to be stange, but this night was already surreal. When I pulled into the bushes, lo and behold, there sat another half dozen Harleys. Seems almost the entire hotel staff rode. He told me to keep the bike for the rest of the week and ride it as I wanted. I responded that we would ride again while I was here but I would not take his bike out without him. After all, I wasn't used to driving on the wrong side of the road!

All in all, a great night in Hong Kong!!

I finally got back to my room at about 1:30 AM and called home. Told my wife all about the ride and ended it with "Babe, when I get home, we gotta buy a Harley!.

 

I keep trying to tell the Honda owners.......they just don't listen.

 

That is one hell of a story.

My most memorable will always be the first 'Ride for the Cure' I went on. Ladies of all ages coming out of their houses, parked alongside highways, on overpasses, you name it they were everywhere. All crying and waving and saying thank-you. Hard to keep a dry eye when you see that much appreciation and raw emotion. For what? I was just riding my bike. But that day I was riding it for them and they let you know it does matter.

Take care,
Baldman

 

Had to be back in 79 when i bought my 1st Harley..a Sporty..and a friend and i decided to ride from N.W. Ohio down to Gatlinburg,TN. and explore the Smokies. I'll tell ya...i learned a lot about riding on that trip....from the joys of a 6 hour downpour in Kentuckey to riding with food poisoning in Tenn...to coming down a wet, twisting mountain road with traffic lined up in front and behind us...to feeling the pride of having every gas stop draw comments on our bikes. A great trip but, being a novice rider, i was glad to get home.

 

Harley Davidson 90th reunion parade....First time in history they shut down I94 from the fairgrounds to downtown. I still couldn't believe the local turnout for this. Milwaukee is one party town! We Saw ZZTop in concert that evening....Everything was simply incredible.

I went to the 95th, but everything was soooooo crowded that I didn't want to attempt the parade route. I didn't even consider going to the 100th. Mostly because I didn't want to tarnish the great memory of riding my 93 Harley back 'home' in 93.

 

2900 miles to Sturgis and back - First trip to Sturgis and no trailer!

 

My first trip to Sturgis in August.

I had the option of taking the superglide or the inronhead. Of course I chose the Ironhead, I mean c'mon nothing on the road can compare to the heart and soul I put into my first bike and I wasn't goin to Sturgis without it. It was a 400 mile ride to get there, Dad and me left around 2:00 in the afternoon thinking we'd make it before it got too late. So off we go the first 150 or so miles was about 100* the next 50miles were perfect then 50 miles of pouring rain followed by about 30 miles of nickle size hail. Since we were in the middle of nowhere SD there was nothing to do but keep on going, the hail died out and then we were left with a little drizzle. We got to Wall SD around 9:00 after going through the Badlands and stopped for something to eat. So now it's pitch black out on the interstate not raining anymore but I'm so damn cold from being wet that I can hardley sit still. Well we made it OK and the rest of the trip was a blast. rode at least 300 miles everyday, went through spearfish canyon, devil's tower, rode into wyoming and montana and took in the sights in Sturgis. The old bike ran fine, except for a pushrod that needed an adjustmant. the trip home was pretty uneventful but the weather was good. I don't think I've ever been as sore as I was after a 1500 mile weekend on an old ironhead

 

My 'best' ride was an across desert ride on my Honda XR600R with a riding buddy on a KTM 525 EXC. We intended to ride a desert wash for about 45 miles and then take a powerline road for another 40 miles to Goffs, California. We hit 1 day after an all night soaking rain. The wash surface was smooth and firm. There wasn't going to be any dust. We fired up and started out at a reasonable pace. After a couple of miles we started racing. We wound up in Goffs in 1 hour and 12 minutes. We averaged over 70 mph on a course that neither of us had ridden before. After a beer and lunch, we went back at a more reasonable pace. It was a perfect riding day and both of us were at the top of our desert riding skills. .................. BC

 

I've been on some pretty nice rides already but I hope the the ride of my life is yet to come.