So I asked for some ideas on riding out of Vegas on one partial day and one full day, so thought I'd come back and post results...

I didn't have a lot of time to plan, or join memberships, so trying to get a HOG fly and ride wasn't going to be possible, I wasn't sure my friend was gonna even rent a Harley,
he's always been a Honda or other rider, so I figured we'd rent from Eagle Rider. He did end up getting a Harley though, more on that later. They did give us a 12% discount
for AAA membership, had to pull some strings to get the discount on both bikes, since only one was a member, but we pulled it off.

Started out the first day headed to Valley Of Fire, here are some pics of that area:










On the way back to Vegas for the night, we came back a different way, swinging by Lake Mead. While I'm sure there's more to the lake in other areas, here's a remote
spot we stopped by on the way back...






So I'm limited on images I can post, so I'll post another message w/ the rest of the pics, hopefully that will work, then I can try to remember what else I was gonna say...

 

So the next day, we headed out to Death Valley. Took a ton of pics, but here are some of the highlights regarding scenery and what not... This is just a point and shoot camera,
but at one point I did mess w/ the panoramic function, a couple of them turned out ok, but I am not a photographer. Maybe if I take some more rides like this it will inspire me to
learn how to use a camera properly...

Informal Death Valley sign



Formal Death Valley sign



Coming into DV



Road down into DV



Another stretch of road into DV



Panoramic attempt 1



Panoramic attempt 2



Mountainside road



Coyote?



Beginning of salt flats



More salt flats



Below are two pics from Devil's Golf Course in Death Valley, where salt deposits and occasional floods left a unique terrain w/ rock hard crystallized soil and salt:



Sorry about this next one, only 2 of the 3 pics lined up right, I might be able to fix it in photoshop or something, but aside from the minor misalignment, this is what it
actually looked like, w/ the mountain in the background sloping to either side, and the endless field of lumpy salt crystallized soil...




A little further down the road is Badwater, where the animals wouldn't drink the water, hence the name, it's a few hundred feet below sea level, while at the start of the
day we were 3500 ft above sea level...



There's the 'sea level' sign up on the rocks above us


And the so called 'bad water'


There was a lot of the sun ray through the cloud action out there, and at the time it was gusting to about 75 Mph if I had to guess, at one point it blew some of my stuff
about 100 yds away, yeah that was fun...

 

So, we had a good time for sure. Some interesting notes about the trip etc.

Things that were good and bad...

It was nice not worrying about your bike on some of the back roads, since it was a rental, although I treated it well, I didn't worry when hearing the occasional rock chip off the road or something.
But my bike is definitely more comfortable for me, and I did miss it sometimes.

The 08 Ultra Classic I rented from them was fine. It had cruise control, thank God, and a decent radio w/ an MP3 plug in.

I ride an 03 RKC. I had test ridden an 06 and an 09 Street Glide, and found it comparable to my 03 RKC, except the windshield stock is too short causing severe buffeting around my head at the top of
my 6'1" frame. I wanted to try a fairing bike, so I figured the UC would give me enough protection, in the event we had bad weather, or we got caught out at night since I knew temps would be <50 after sundown.

The problem I had w/ the 08 UC was the seating position. It pushed me forward into the tank, so the majority of my weight was resting on my inner thighs against the front portion of the seat.
This proved to be painful after 500 miles or riding over 2 days. Additionally, I think it contributed to significant heat gain in the crotch and inner thigh area, along w/ the full fairing I guess, because
even in 60-70 degree weather, I found myself wanting to stand up, or sit up and back onto the passenger pillion, while going down the road, in an effort to cool off the boys. This has never been a
problem on the 03 RKC. At first I thought it was just the added heat from an 08 vs an 03, and the effect of the full fairing. But after I realized how soar I was getting from all the weight being on the
inner thighs, I realized this could contribute to the additional heat. On my bike, my thighs are up off the seat w/ my feet resting on the floor boards, and my weight distributed across the whole seat
area, especially on the RKC sundowner seat.

The other problem was the handlebar reach. I guess I'm a little too tall for the stock bars to be comfortable for me, esp after having experienced the mini apes on my RKC which are higher, wider,
and come back more. It was ok for a couple days, but I would like them to come back more and be higher.

I seemed to feel most comfortable around 3k RPM as for cruising, give or take 500 RPM, then if staying at either end of that for awhile, I'd up or down shift to get back to around 3k. I didn't seem
to get into 6th gear until up around 80 MPH. I don't have a tach on my bike, so this was new to me, seeing the actual RPM.

Turns out my Garmin Nuvi 350 has an MP3 player function, I brought it as a back up in case we needed it, ended up throwing a $10 2 GB card in it and dropping some tunes into it, even though I
couldn't mount the GPS to the bike, I just kept it in my pocket and used it as an MP3 player, and could have pulled it out to look at a map if I needed to.

I had the Ultra, while my friend only had the EG standard/classic. So I had 4 speakers and cruise, while he had 2 speakers and no cruise. He wanted the red bike, so I didn't care I ended up w/ more
'stuff'

If I were to rent again, I'm not sure what I would rent. Since it's unlikely you'll get a higher than stock shield on a streetglide, or an ultra w/ a deeper/further back bucket on the seat, I guess I'd go
w/ a road king of some sort and just bring my own tunes if needed. It's too bad the stock set up on these isn't more friendly towards the bigger guys, or that rental places won't have ways to
accommodate us. Let me know if anyone else has any ideas for future.

I was glad I went w/ a friend, but at the same time it can be challenging if you're not on the same page. He was very inconsistent when it came to speed and comfort level. Sometimes he was
confident and going faster than I would want on a back road, like gravel or something, but most of the time he was very slow riding 10-20 MPH below the speed limit on some highways, especially
the 70 MPH ones, and he wouldn't take curves very fast, so I would end up going through the twisties on my own, and waiting for him to catch up later.

I was glad I brought the layers I did, since it did get chilly at night, and we couldn't get it all done while the sun was up, especially this time of year w/ shorter days. I am glad we didn't hit any
real rain though, we got lucky there.

All in all, it was a great time, I think I'd rent a different bike next time, and I'd like to be w/ someone that has more experience than I do, or at least equal.

 

all I can say,,,,,,,,(peeks outside at the schidt),,, I HATE YOU!!!!






Nice story!!

 

Thanks for sharing the pics and experience - Valley Of Fire - This is a great place. Visit it everytime I'm in Vegas. It is so quiet out there - like the earth is standing still.

 

look's like an awesome trip...great pics

 

Great pics Karz! So it was a little breezy.....What about the temps?
RR

 

First day was probably 70 and down into low 50s I guess. Second day seemed colder, probably due to the elevation in the morning and evening coming back, so it might have been around 60 at higher
elevations during the day, maybe up to 70+ down in DV in the middle of the afternoon, and as low as 45 after dark coming down the mountain into Vegas where it was back up into the low 50s I think.

I brought a fleece neck warmer that I bought just before the trip. That did the trick at night and early in the morning, and allowed me to breathe right through it. I could adjust it under my chin,
bring it up over my mouth under my nose, or cover my nose entirely, giving me different degrees of warmth etc. Unfortunately, w/out realizing it, I think it blew away in one of those 75 MPH gusts
in bad water, when I got off the bike to use the bathroom. Driving along the zig zag road at the base of the mountain, coming into bad water, sometimes it felt like 60 MPH winds were hitting me
from a side angle, out to the side of the fairing, then the other direction was like no wind at all. When I got off the bike, I parked it at and angle where the wind would hit the rear and right side of bike,
so it was parked w/ the wind, so to speak. I put the gloves down on the passenger seat and the helmet over top of them, so they were protected by the wrap around tourpack, or so I thought.
The wind at the time seemed fine, but once inside the bathroom, we got one of those gusts and I thought the roof was going to come off the building. I came out to find my helmet and gloves had
gone in 3 different directions, 50-100 yards from the bike. Nice. I went and got the helmet first since it was in the road, then went up the side of the hill to get the gloves. I thought I took the neck
thing off then and put everything in the tourpack, but I never saw the neck sleeve again, so I guess I took it off before the pitstop and lost it in the wind when the other stuff blew away.

So I had to stop at a shop in Pahrump NV and buy a pseudo bandana thing for the chilly ride back that night.

Kudos to a couple people/places are due.

JMAR Customs LLC (Motorcycles, Parts, Service, Repairs) 1271 S Hwy 160, Unit C, Pahrump Nevada 89048 775-751-2266

They tried to help my friend track down a part he needed right before closing, and I bought the bandana thing and a better doorag there. They showed me their shop,
seemed like cool people.

Also, the LV Harley dealer, a new guy there, Bryan or Ryan, he put a clutch handle on my friend's ride out in the parking lot for him, right at closing time.

And to Eagle Rider, for my friend that rented the bike from them, he lost his keys somehow, and I don't think they charged him the full boat on that. I think they could have charged him like $300,
and only charged him about $200 (it's not just the bike keys, but keys to the disc lock and cable lock too, so those two devices are worthless once the keys are gone).

I didn't post pics of it, but there's a place called Furnace Creek, after you pass Devil's Golf Course, and Badwater and all that, there's this little oasis where there's green trees, a golf course,
tennis courts, basketball courts, some rooms/cabins to rent, they have a cafe there and a steakhouse. We ate lunch there. Not cheap, but the food was good, down to the lemon meringue pie.

I was thinking that this would be a nice place to stay on your way somewhere else like if you had your girl w/ you or whatever. You could leave Vegas on the way through Pahrump, Death Valley,
stay at this little resort, and then onto other areas of Cali or Nevada another day before heading back to Vegas.

http://www.furnacecreekresort.com/

I think the 'INN' is the fancier looking building in the pictures on the side of the mountain, we rode by that, but did not go inside. Then, I think the 'RANCH' is where we went to eat and where
the golf course and other stuff is, it's on more flat ground, has a couple restaurants etc.

There seems to be a lot to see out here that we only road through. There are various hiking or jeep tours at various destinations in the area, so I would think one could ride out here from Vegas
for example, and spend a day or two here doing different things, and then ride back also. [/quote]

 

I'm with electraRick, I hate you too!

Actually I'm just jealous. Awesome pics!

 

Glad you had a good time. That is one of my favorite rides. Just did the same route last November. You've just reminded me of why I can't wait to do it again. Nice pictures by the way.