First trip on the Sporty

And also my first long bike trip in 18 years.

Just arrive at my destination (Salzburg, Austria) after a 1003 mile ride. My partner riding pillion has only ever done an hour or so MAX on the back of a bike so for her it has been a bit of a 'baptisim of fire'

Took it easy on the first leg. The boat arrived in St. malo, France at 2030hrs, so we just road for a couple of hours, to make a start. It rainied all the way.

For those that are interested, it was from St. Malo via Rennes to Laval
We were aiming for Le Mans but opted for Laval

Google Maps

Next day was the big push to get most of the way. We were on the road at 0720 and got to a hotel in St.Gallen, Switzerland at 1900, so not far off 12 hours solid riding. I had originally planned to stop in Mulhouse or Basel, but it was still light, and wanted to get as much road behind us so we could take it easier the next day on the backroads and mountain passes.

So the first section was all motorway and major routes and toll roads at a pretty contant speed of 70 -80 mph all the way. Never stopping for more than 10-15 minutes to refuel. In the end something like 700miles.

Again pretty much rained all the way, and if it was not drizzle and light rain it was raining even heavier. I expected my partner (Su) to complain and ask to stop, but no she did enjoy the trip and that night she was already planning the next trip in the summer.

I was glad of the extra lights I added at the last minute on to the crash bars, and was also very glad of the electrically heated gloves Gerbring Hybrids. Not as warm as I expectdt them to be, but they were warm nough...and dry.


Hotels in Switzerland are expensive, we found the cheapest we could and that was 120 euros per night. The previos night we stayed in a cheap Formule1 motel and that was 26 euro.

Laval via Zurich and then St. Gallen

Google Maps

The next day we had a later start but only had 300 miles or so to get to our destination. First stop was in a town called St. Anton in Austria, but this was my first mistake of the day, that cost us time. Rather than use the planned route I had put in the GPS, I just did a ' Navigate to' and put in the name St. Anton...unfortunately there was ANOTHER St. Anton In Switzerland, about 30 minutes up the road from where we were. Before I got there, I knew I had done something wrong....we were meant to be going to a skiing resort...and where we were headed was definetly not right...so anyway we stopped had a coffee and then carried on to the correct destination, Occassional light rain and also a couple of sunny periods, climbing higher in the mountains, colder and snow everywhere, at last we were on the right track.

We ended up taking all the smaller roads that day, until the very last 50-80 miles, when we went o nthe German autobahn and made a final dash to our friends house. Fully loaded with all the baggage and two of us on the bike I managed to get it up to a constant 98mph on the flat and it would have held there. That was throttle wide open with no more to give. On a gentle downhill incline I managed for about 3 miles to hold it at around 103 mph.

After my little blast I rolled the throttle off and continued at a more sedate 70-80 again.

Around home with standard exhaust and filter I used to get about 95 miles to a tank (3.3 USG) before having to switch to reserve. With the Krome Werks HP Plus pipes and the Big Sucker, CVP kit and V-Ductor I pushed that up to about 115 miles per tank. I managed a couple of tanks of fuel where I never slowed below a constant 70-80 mph for the complete tank of fuel, and hour and a half constant throttle riding at that 70-80 mph gives me about 130 miles per tank.

Yesterday I forgot to switch off reserve and go back to the main tank, and the trip counter now reads 167 miles on the single fill up....but I do not know what is left in the tank...but I must be running on vapour by now. I have a 5 litre can full in one of the saddle bags, so i am going to run the tank dry. I want to find out how many miles I can get MAX before I have to start pushing!!

Was going to post some pics, but the camera is refusing to talk to the PC here, so cant get the pics off the bloody thing!! and unfortunately the cards are these xD types and no one here has a card reader for them!

Gottta do the whole trip again in reverse next week, back at work next Monday!

Hi Neilp
Now that was a ride. After 4 hours of rain im looking for a bridge to live under. That rain will make's me cold to the bone.
Later Ol Ted

Frozen mountain run off

Glad ya got everything working and you made it OK. - Did you have any problems other the heavy hand on the twist grip. lol

when ya get back post some pics!:worthless:

When living on the island of Jersey, getting the bike up to 60 or 70 mph is an achievement and you can generally only get to that speed for a couple of seconds at the most before you run out of road, so this has been the first time I have ever had the chance to open it up. plus we wanted to get the middle bit of france out of the way quickly to get up in to Austria and the Swiss Alps.
No other problems, I put an extra half a quart of oil in to get it to the top on the first day, and it does not seem to have used any. it had been using abit when back at home, but this is probably the first time in its 4500 mile life that the bike has ever been properly warm. Plug colour looks OK, but will check again tomorrow. there is a Harley dealer in Salzburg, so am going to drop by there and have a chat.
Oh forgot, just one problem but that has been ongoing since before I left. The fork seal. I replaced both before I left and checked the upper tubes, no obvious pitting or visible scratches, but the one that was leaking before is still leaking now, so there must be something on the leg that I missed.

Will post more pics as I get take them The ones in my previous post are the only ones I have taken so far...Only taken about 4 or 5 so far...always been too wet to get the camera out

Hey Neil,

Sounds like a rough trip with all the rain but i'm sure the scenery is well worth a bit of wet road. Lookin forward to seein more pics of the trip. Stay safe and enjoy.

Wet yes, but we stayed very dry and warm. We knew it was going to be a bit rough so bought a load of new gear. Wore my old leathers underneath, also with thermal ProSkins lycra type layer underneath, all very warm. All these modern fabrics totally waterproof, not like a leather jacket, no matter how good, and well proofed eventually the they start absorbing water and leaking round the seams and then weighing twice their weight.

Spada Magna jackets, 2 removable liners, but not the heated ones, matching trousers, electric heated gloves, I even went for a full face helmet, one of the flip up ones, A Shark Evoline, the chin piece flips back all the way, and not just sticking up in the wind

At the bottom of the mountains it was relatively warm



A lovely Plus 4 deg C 39F



But it got a little colder as we climbed. Roads remained mostly ice free

NeilP - Nice pics - looks like it's still winter over there but with the gear your using you should stay warm and cozy - specially with SU along!

Neil,

Nice pics. Looks like keepin the beer cold was a breeze.

The salt on the bike is going to be a killer though. They salt the roads twice a day up there.

Just before I left for this trip I put a new set of rear shocks on the bike, and sprayed them all over with a protective film lube stuff...ACF50. By the time I had got to Austria...but before I had got in the snow and salt, I could see small spots of rust forming on the chrome. I have noticed that the quality of the standard harley chrome is poor, to very poor or shockingly poor. There is not one bit of chrome on it that is not pitted or bubbling up in some way, and this is one a bike that had only 4000 miles, only used in the dry and kept garaged all its life. I dread to think what my regular use of the bike at home and the road salt from this trip is going to do to it.

After each trip up in the hills, I washed it down and dried as much as I could then took the bike for a quick blast up the highway to blow the remaining of the water off, and put it in the garage where we were staying.

Will stick up some more picks when I get the bike unloaded.
Glad you like the ones so far.

Neil

I have a plater have used in the past over here, but will not be doing anything on this bike. A good ride, yes, but just not worth spending that sort of money and time on.

Japanese bike chrome is better by far. My old Kawasaki 450, from 82 has chrome on it that is no worse than the 04 Sporty .
Guess I'll just have to keep it as best I can, and keep the exterior well oiled. OK, it picks up dust, but helps protect

OK, now I am back and have had a chance to give the bike a good blast down the open road, and just hold the throttle open wide for a while, it feels like a different machine to ride.

When any one with a bike gets off this little island of ours, the first thing most of us do is open the the throttle wide a bit and just ride like that for hours, it is such a novelty to be able to ride for more than a minute or so in the same gear, let alone top gear, without having to stop or slow down all the time. In the case of this bike, with 4000 miles on it when I got it, this is probably the first time the engine has managed to get properly warm.
I had been burning almost a quart of oil every 300-400 miles before I went away riding locally. By the time I had got to Austria (900 or so miles) I put in half of a quart bottle. I put the rest in before I returned, to make room for a few bottles of French wine, and it was just at the top mark on the dipstick. I used as much oil in 2250 miles as i would normally use in 400 or so.

Our holiday time was limited, we wanted to spend as much time with the friends in Austria, so getting there was the important bit. We did about 150 miles or so of night riding the very first evening, and then the next day, just hammered it for about 12 hours, just stopping for 10 minute breaks to refuel...70-80 all the way. On the way back we took a more relaxed attitude, riding maybe 5-6 hours per day, and a lot of that local roads through the villages, with frequent coffee and breakfast stops, usually follwed by a couple of three hours motorway ridign to get a bit closer to home. We came back in 4 days, rather than the 2 days on the way out.


The fork seal i replaced last moth is still leaking, so i will have to get it off again and check the fork tube a bit closer this time

Anyway enough of my ramblings, here are a few more pics







Typical German breakfast. I put on 10 pounds weight in 8 days

Interior of Salzburg Cathedral