[Tnicean]

I have been reading this forum for a while. Just got home from my longest ride. I have owned my Heritage Softail Classic for four years now. Last year in May, my fiancee and I visited my old service buddy near Baton Rouge, LA riding the Heritage (3K round trip the way we went). My buddy saw my bike and got the hots for a bike for himself. He had never really ridden a big bike before. He considered a metric that he could get cheap. I told him I would make fun of it. He went with us to Harley Davidson of Baton Rouge for us to get T-Shirts and he fell in love with with a 2005 Black Cherry Road King Classic. Two weeks later it was delivered to his house and he started to learn to ride it.

We met last year in Chattanooga for the National Hog Rally which was about a550 mile ride for each of us. That sowed the seeds for this years trip. We decided to see if we could take a month off work and take a trip to Billings, MT. Not so much for the rally. We had seen Bubba and the Cossacks last year. We wanted to go for the ride.

We decided that Glacier Park would be our turn around point. We met in Hays, KS and proceeded to ride west to Colorado on I-70. We took Highway 24 to Colorado Springs. It was the windiest, most desolute road I could imagine. When a big rig passed going in the opposite direction, the blast was so great it nearly knocked us off the road and was so hot it just sucked the life right out of us.

We finally got to Colorado Springs and met a nice fellow on a metric at a red light and he told us we should check out Southside Johnny's for some suds and grub. We ended up going there twice to eat.

The next morning we were ready to tackle Pike's Peak to buy a T-Shirt and take some pictures. The Travel Lodge where we stayed was well located and we rode the seven miles to the road up to the peak. After stopping to pay our $10 / head fee, up we started. The lady at the booth eyed our Harleys and said, "Ya know the road is not paved, don't you." We did. I asked if they were working on the road. "They're always working on the road, she said." Oh well. Here we go. We had an early start so we were almost alone riding up the paved portion of the road. The grade was steep the higher we climed. We stayed mostly in first gear, sometimes changing into second for a bit. I was riding two up, me about 260# and my lady not too skinny, but the Heritage kept it's head down and charged up the mountain. My buddy on his King kept pace in the rear.

On and on we climbed. The paved road become packed gravel which was not too bad. We just ran in the tire tracks. Some of the cutbacks were really sharp and we just had to wrestle the bikes around with enough momentum to keep from spinning the rear wheel. About three quarters up the Peak, we encountered the road construction crew. Three dump trucks were climbing ahead of us hauling dirt and gravel up the road. They were going so slow that I could not keep the Heritage rolling behind them. I finally stopped and let them get a lead so I could keep the bike rolling at walking speed till I caught up to them again. Each time I stopped, I had to slip my clutch quite a bit to get rolling again. I was a little afraid I would get it too hot, but stopping and letting the trucks get a lead kept me from having to slip it too much.

Pretty soon we came upon the rest of the constrution crew who were repairing a portion of the road that had slipped down the mountainside. Here they were spreading dirt and watering it down. There was about an inch of mud and made it a bit slippery going. No one was really guiding the traffic, so when I saw the trucks stop at the cutback above us, I saw there was enough room for our motorcycles to squeeze by and keep moving.

After we passed the construction, it was reletively easy riding on to the Peak. It was about 20 miles up the mountain. The Peak is 14,110 feet. My girl has a t-shirt that says so. A short walk around the visitor's center left me a bit woozy but I didn't feel sick. We took some pictures and looked around for a bit. While we were there, the first people from the tram made it to the top. A couple, probably in their 50s, saw us with our bikes and asked how the trip up the mountain was. They asked about whether we had overheated the motors. We said no, no problems. The fuel injected bikes had no problems at all. The guy said, "Dammit, I knew we should have ridden."

Both my buddy and I had head a lot of horror stories about burning up brakes on the trip down the mountain. We were a little apprehensive, but after we took our pictures in front of the Pike's Peak photo place, purchased our patches that said we rode to the peak and our t-shirts, we gathered our nerve and started down the mountain. The Road King took the lead and my buddy hardly had to touch his brakes on the way down. We stayed mostly in first gear and let the engine handle the braking. My Vance & Hines, BSS were popping pretty good, but I only had to use my brakes lightly.

We say some animals up above the trees line. I think they were Marmots. I guess they ate the flowers that we saw growing there. It's amazing how life manages in even the roughest environments.

Anyway, we were all feeling quite full of ourselves after we got back down the mountain and went for a dip in the hotel pool and then back to Southside Johnny's for a beer and some grub and a lot of self satisfaction. We had done it and it wasn't as difficult as we had feared. Isn't that the way it usually goes. I am glad I wasn't the man who rode the tram up to the peak only to say, Dammit, I should have ridden my bike.

The next day we crossed Colorado on Highway 50, continued on into Utah and the Great Salt Lake, then up into Idaho, through Stanley and rode along the Salmon River, then up to Glacier and rode across the Going to the Sun Road which had opened the day before we arrive. We were feeing golden.

My buddy had to buy a rear tire in Butte, MT. A really nice dealership. Then back south to ride through Yellowstone, toured some of the geyser fields and, of course, Old Faithful. Then we rode along Yellowstone lake and up Mount Washington. A thunderstorm blew up and it was sleeting so much that there was significant accumulation on the rode. It looked like slushy snow. Water was running across the road and traffic in the other lane splashed muddy water on the left side of our bikes and on us. But we kept going and exited out the northeast entrance to the park and spent the night in Cooke City, MT.

The next day we rode the Beartooth Highway. Spectacular!!

We caught Kenny Wayne Sheppard at the rallly in Billings and wandered around the rally site. It was a nice place.

Three days later, we were on our way to Deadwood. Stopped off at Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore ($10 to park a motorcycle), and stopped by the Harley Dealer in Sturgis for a T-Shirt and a photo op in front of the dealership. We had lunch at One Eyed Jacks. They had enlarged the building according to our very nice waitress, getting ready for the rally in August. Already a lot of bikes wandering around. Some overflow from the Billings rally, I am sure. While you are there, might as well run on over to Sturgis, we thought.

After a couple of days in Deadwood, we were ready to start for home. My buddy took off first to meet with family in Oklahoma City. We had to wait for McKenny's Gold to open so we could UPS home a box of t-shirts we had accumulated. While we waited, we walked into the cemetary and took pictures of Wild Bill Hickock's and Calamity Jane's gravesites.

After we left Deadwood, we rode through the Badlands and then it was all about getting home. We went through South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West, VA and then back home to Richmond, VA. The last day we left Champaigne, Ill. at 7:45 AM and rode 873 miles through hard and sometimes sprinkling rain and arrived home, early this morning at 1:00 AM. That is my longest one day ride and my finacee didn't speak to me after we left the service area in West By God Virginia near the turnpike. If looks could kill I would have been dead.

My Heritage is in the shed and is filthy. I will clean it up this weekend. If anyone doubts whether the Heritage is a cruiser, well, let me tell you. We were two up, not lightweights, about 70 ~ 80 pounds of gear. I had 21K on the bike when we left. We traveled 7,026 miles in 21 days. I have records of my mileage and gallons of gas at each fill up and I plan to see what my over MPG were. I used AMSOIL MCV 20-50 in all three holes and did not change the oil on the road. The bike didn't use any noticeable amount of oil. I have Vance & Hines BSS with quiet baffles, power commander III, big sucker air cleaner and had the bike dyno tuned before the trip. I had a new set of Metzelers 880 WWW installed the week before the trip. The Heritage is a very comfortable cruiser and handled very well all we threw at it. It took a licking and kept on tickin'.

It was great that both the Heritage and the Road King performed flawlessly on the entire trip. Fired up at the flick of the starter button and ran great the entire way. What a trip. My head is still spinning. I plan to write up things in a lot more detail after I rest up a bit.

Happy motoring.
Tnicean

[SK]

Great trip. I've done some of that ride out West, including Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming..beautiful country. Glad you made the trip safe without incidence as 7k is a good deal of riding. Seeing this country by motorcycle is best way to see it!

[EPS]

Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure. I rode some of the places you mentioned and your report brought back good memories.

[bikerjim1]

Tnicean,

Bet the fingers were smokin' after that post!

[FLHTbiker]

Tnicean, I was at the same rally in Billings. We rode to some of the same places you were at and got caught in a pretty nasty storm in Idaho. When we were in Cody we eat at a place called Irma's that had all you can eat prim rib. I asked for an end cut and the guy brought me over what looked like a pot roast in size. Another great place to eat and have a few suds. The rally was OK but like other rallies its not so much the destination point but how you get there and back.
Good reading, makes me want to head out again.

[CD]

Great ride report!
Riding up in Wyoming and the black hills and up through Cody, Yellowstone and Jackson Hole....Easy to ride off the road as your eyeballs wander around.

[FLHTbiker]

Your right CD, there was another group from our HOG chapter that was doing some of the same areas we were in when heading for Billings. Their group had two such accidents: one in Yellowstone, a couple on a ultra drove right off the road down a ravine and both wound up in the hospital. The second accident: guy riding his Fat Boy going up (thank goodness) Beartooth Pass ran straight into a guard rail in a corner, looking at the sights.

No accidents in our group thank goodness.

[Tomflhrci98]

Tnicean

I can’t believe I read the whole thing. It was good. You beat my longest day by 23 miles and you did it with a rider…..and an angry rider at that.

If there is one lesson I learned the hard way is to always think about your girl on the back because if you do one wrong thing you hear about it for the rest of your life.

Your story also reminded me that I have not seen all of Bear Tooth pass yet. I only did a part of it. So I will try to do that this year on my way to Sturgis.

Thanks, T

[SPORSTERBOY]

DAME YOU CAN TYPE! cool ride my ? is BACK IN B.R. DID YOU GO AROUND 6 TH ST. MY OLD HANG OUT, YA KNOW GO ON VACATION LEAVE ON PROBATION.

[scooter]

Look forward to you resting up so I (we) can read all about the details of your trip, I know that after 7K miles, you've go alot more to write about than that!!

Thanks again for sharing, look forward to more.

scoot

[gumby321]

Great Reading....wish I Was There.... You Kind Of Start To Drull Over Some Rides....that Was One !!!! Thanks