If I Had to Explain, You wouldn't Understand!

------------------This is my 1994 Harley Davidson Fat Boy-----------------

It has been my dream of mine to ride through all 48 states on my motorcycle. Riding is entirely different from driving, in a car you can enclose yourself into a shell, surround yourself with music and or engage into a conversation if you have a passenger and basically create a tunnel vision with the goal of getting from point A to point B in some sort of a timely manner and in a great degree of comfort. Nothing wrong with that, but that’s just a way for us to commute.

However if you want to experience the road, if you want to see the sights and absorb the beauty that is out there being offered to us by mother nature, then the only way to go is by taking a motorcycle road trip. In addition if the motorcycle is a Harley Davidson it’s all the better.

Some may say that a bike is a bike! But that’s not entirely true. While the Japanese bikes are affordable and reliable, quiet and fast, they are still entry bikes. These are the bikes we start with; these are the bikes we buy first because that’s all we can afford. Some may keep theirs forever, but most are disposable, after a few years and some thousand miles later they are entirely discarded. Unless you are a true collector most of them will disappear.

The European bikes on the other hand are expensive because they are very well built, but most of them lack personality. Some of them are down right ugly and they normally require a special kind of owner that will love them and care for them. These bikes are not so common and therefore will be more sough after by collectors.

Now the American bikes, especially Harley Davidsons have established themselves as the bike to own. Long gone are the days of the “outlaw” bikers but the mystique and history of them still persists. Now anybody can own a Harley and we all love that freedom that they offer, the sound of the V-Twin engine is music to the riders ears, and if you made it a little louder than it should be it’s even better. The minute you put on all your leathers and start that engine you will be transported into a different world, a world that offers freedom and joy.

When you take a road trip, you don’t concentrate on the road but on its surroundings. You notice the little things like the abandoned shacks on the back roads, or the charming little towns with its friendly people, or the cows grassing by the road and not to mention the smells that surround the environment. There’s nothing like the smell when riding in the middle of a pine tree forest or the smell of the ocean when you ride by it, and if you ever ride through a canyon the echo produced by the pipes is loud and mind boggling. These are the things that you miss while driving.

I’ve ridden to California four times to participate in “The Love Ride”; this is a one day event that takes place in November. An average 20,000 bikes show up for this ride which starts at the Harley Davidson of Glendale dealership and end 50 miles north at Castaic Lake. Imagine all of a sudden a pack of 20,000 bikers merging into an unsuspecting I-10, one of the busiest freeways in the L.A. area and it’s not like they have a special lane for us, so for these 50 miles cars and bikes need to share the lanes as bikes use every available little space that can be found. In California it is allowed to ride in between cars so imagine the madness.

I have also ridden to Laughlin, Nevada to be in a part of the madness that is called “Laughlin River Run” These event takes place the last week of April and it used to be lots of fun, normally 75,000+ used to attend this run but now since the shooting some years back the police presence is too heavy and “patch holders” can’t wear their colors. I for one have not gone back since, the run in my eyes lost its charm and when so many restrictions are applied and you get the “I’m watching you” feeling it’s time to move on. I hear that they attendance drops each year.

Now when it comes to riding in my own state, we have been all over the place. Arizona has the best back roads and they all lead to some great destinations. We have Sedona, Wickenburg, Jerome, Williams, Prescott, Tombstone, Bisbee, not to mention The Grand Canyon; we still have so many places to go and to see but need time and money so we’ll just keep them in our “to do“ list for now. Another awesome thing Arizona offers to us riders is good riding weather all year round

Riding our bikes is not only our hobby; it is our way of life. Next time you drive down the highway and see a biker or a group of bikes don’t think of us as an obnoxious loud and rowdy group, but think instead of the places we have ridden to, the people we have met and the stories we have to tell of our adventures. If you take the time to say hi you’ll see that we are a nice friendly bunch.

So about riding the 46 states, well we have three out of 46 and that’s a start… a very slow one at that but a start.