Eversince I was little, now 24, I always wanted to own aHarley. Growing up my father would take me to my soccer and baseball games onthe back of his 80 superglide. He would tell stories of riding it to early 80sDaytona bike week, Sturgis and other bike events along with all the extraquarts of oil in the saddle bags because Shovel Heads leak, just the nature ofthe beast.
Flash forward 14 years and my wife and I are living inHawaii and started to seriously think about buying a motorcycle. I enjoy the look,style, and culture that is an old leaking oil Harley, while my wife enjoys anice comfortable seat. Since living on the island there isn’t much “road trip”opportunity and spent most of Kailua’s rainy season on google maps planningroad tips in the 48.
Flash forward to about 12 months ago and the purchase of ournew Harley. Before moving to Annapolis Maryland the shopping of motorcyclesbegan about a few months prior. After searching the state side craigslist andebay a stock appearing pan or shovel seems to be a rare jewel, a lot had framescut and welded, instruments missing such as speedo or a tach (which isn’t a bigdeal but I wanted to ride to work on base and need to have those items) and thebikes didn’t have much of a paper trail or history. I would feel a lot betterbuying an AMF bike from the original or 2nd owner, not some guy fromcraigslist looking for an easy flip.
While being a stock holder in HOG I felt obligated topurchase a new bike and help support the MOCO and the American workers, sadlyit was after the end of the 2015 model year and most of the showrooms had 16ssitting around. On Harley’s website a Hard Candy Cancun Blue was offered on the2015 1200V aka sportie “72”. This was the bike I HAD to buy. It’s a new bike,the 2year warranty is very appealing, knowing its all stock and not someone’sbasket case and its blue like my dad’s superglide. Trying to find a last yearcolor bike is pretty difficult even in todays age. To view dealer’s inventoryyou have to go to each dealer’s website. I couldn’t find a companywide inventorylike there is for Chevy or Ford. (unless there is one and I don’t know) Finallyabout a month into my search I found a 2015 sportie 72 (that was still new,with no ABS/SEC )in a dealer up in Brighton Michigan, about 570 miles from me.The distance wasn’t an issue, the buying process was. Every time I called andspoke to someone about the price (website said “call for price”) they insistedthat I “come in and you won’t leave disappointed”. After about the 3rdweek of calling I spoke to the store manager who gave me some real numbers and thetrigger was pulled. Took about three weeks to figure out logistics and titlework, and rode it back to its new home.
Now about a year and 10K miles of ownership later, my wifeand I are planning to take about 20days off and ride to the west coast, hencethe title of the thread. My idea is to take 70West and then 15N then intoFrisco. I have a few stops in mind, such as the GateWay arch, the Harley plant,Pikes Peak, Salt Flats, Highway 1, golden gate, a few national parks.
Anyone have other ideas? Suggestions? Anyone live along ornear the route that has a yard to camp in lol?

We are planning this trip from July 31st to Aug 20th....

 

This was one of the very first pictures of the Harley after riding it down from Michigan. I always remembered my dads bike inside and thought I should do the same. Here is my bike in my mom's bedroom..

 

Man good luck and be safe

 

one of my wife and I first big road trips from Annapolis to Shenandoah, just took the bookbag with water and snacks.....we learned a lot from that trip.

 

Last September/ October we traveled north to Gettysburg and Adam's county Apple Festival. We were lucky until then, that trip was our first real experience with rain and cold weather....my wife might be silly in the photo but we sat at that Mcdonalds for hours waiting for the rain to stop and the opportunity to dry out. The festival was pretty neat and is defiantly on the books for this year.

 

Late last august we were blessed with the luck of getting a camping spot at Assateague National Shore line. The horses really seemed to like the bike! For this trip we added a chrome rack to the back of the sissy bar, this helped keep all of our gear off my fender and helps protect the special Hard Candy Paint.

 

with that tiny gas tank you'll be stopping a LOT for gas . at least your wife has the right attitude , even has a smile in the rain !

 

Sounds like a great trip. But, if it was me, I'd avoid riding the interstate highways all the way. There are often two lane roads that roughly parallel the interstates, like the old US 50 through much of the country. A little slower, but more scenic, and the mom n pop restaurants in the small towns are way better than the generic chain places at the exits off the highways.

 

Warning...

1. There's a 102 mile stretch I-70 from Grand Junction CO to Green River UT. You'll need gas in between. Fill up at Thompson UT.

2. There's a 107 mile stretch I-70 from Green River UT to Salina UT without services. You'll have to make a side trip off I-70 into Emery UT for gas. Emery is 70 miles from Green River. There's always a strong head wind. 70 miles might be a stretch for a peanut tank riding 2 up against a strong headwind. Pack a small 1/2 gallon gas can and fill it at Green River.
Unless you're going 191/6 north from Green River to I-15 which has stops along the way.

After you hit I-15 you have no problem.

Have a great ride

 

The weekend before Myrtle Beach bike week we rode down (about 450 miles one way) and went camping at the state park. It rained from Annapolis all the way to the NC boarder, there were several stops for gas where we got off the bike and couldn't stop shaking from the cold.....at that point you really start questioning your life choices.

You can see how prepared we were with the contractor grade trash bag to keep our stuff dry.

The ride back was wonderful, sunny,80 degrees and barley any traffic. With the small tank we were stopping about every hour (80 miles) for gas, with only having to pump 1.5 gallons the gas stops were less than 5 minutes and we caught back up to the traffic we were pervious with.