I headed out on motorcycle trip with a buddy and currently I'm sitting in Rome, New York. (about 300 miles north of York, Pa.)
I usually store all my electronics in Ziplock bags. The Dell Mini 9 fits comfortably in a gallon Ziplock bag with room to spare.
Long distance motorcycle traveling appears to have dropped off across the northeast, perhaps it's because night temperatures in the mountains have dipping into the low 30's.
For 2009, Harley-Davidson is offering the Trike, or the Tri Glide Ultra Classic that was developed from the wheels up in combination with Lehman Trikes of South Dakota.
Harley-Davidson Open House Sept 25-Sept 27
The Tri Glide is powered by a Twin Cam 103 V-Twin engine with Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection, rated at 101 ft. lbs. of torque. It retains the 6-speed Cruise Drive transmission used on Harley-Davidson Touring motorcycles, but adds an optional electric reverse.
Harley-Davidson designed a new rear-axle assembly for the Tri Glide utilizing an aluminum center section with steel axle tubes. A belt final drive, and a rear suspension features dual air-adjustable rear shock absorbers. It's a wide stance touring Harley with a trunk.
Born out of the depression and in production until the early 1970's, Harley built another trike called the Servi-Car. It was used by mechanics, postal workers and police agencies; people who wanted a small functional working machine.
This trike has a solid axle to deal with 1930's road conditions.
The Servi-Car has an innovative hitch (see picture at right) on the front designed to mate with car bumpers of the time for car delivery and retrieval.
Sitting in the woods seven miles east of Morgantown, West Virginia.
Worker productivity is up while labor costs are down for the second quarter of this year; that combined with a use or lose week of vacation meant it was time for a motorcycle trip.
My riding buddy only has the weekend off starting Friday at 5 p.m. and this is the weekend Hurricane Hannah decided to take a whirlwind tour up the east coast.
Some of my most interesting adventures on a motorcycle have been weather related. You really don't care about weather in a car, but on a bike you are at the mercy of what the sky offers.
It can be the most miserable and the most inspiring of moments. The agony of bone chilling cold with rain driving into your crevices followed by the sweetest scents of spring blasting though your smile. The extremes are memorable, a privilege lost with life inside climate controlled buildings or behind tinted windshield glass.
The direction for this trip was easy. WEST ! and FAST !
I have to smile at people who interact with motorcyclists. The guy behind the counter at Hess said to me on Friday about 5 p.m., "the clouds are closing in fast" My neighbor told me, "it's going to pour tomorrow, did you hear the forecast?" There is usually at least one story about a nephew who was skewered by a chain link fence.
I really don't have a death wish. I just like living.
So as usual we hit the road two...ok, three hours late and the clouds are getting thick. I check the radar and can see the swirls of Hannah pulling up through Maryland. I figure if we can just get over the eastern divide, we will beat the rain by heading mostly west first via the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
It's a great night for riding. A couple hundred miles of interstate, temperatures in the 60's and not one drop of rain. As it turns out, we were even lucky enough to set up tents and get to sleep before a gentle rain that ended before dawn.
Memorable motorcycle weather
Frozen early morning fog on Interstate 91 between Vermont and New Hampshire. It was Summer.
Other motorcycle stories
Interesting thing about riding alone on a motorcycle trip is that you are never really alone. There is a bond formed by two-wheeled travelers. Perhaps it is the shared risk or the shared responsibility for each other. It's symbolized by "the wave", a synchronized passing of open palms in opposing lanes.
I decided to take the long way down to my destination on the coastal border of North and South Carolina. The Outer Banks of North Carolina connects back to the mainland with a system of ferries.
Motorcycles are strange creatures on small ferries. Ferries bounce and roll and riders are usually advised to stay with their bike.
With the first ferry, I shot past a line of 50 cars because there is always room for a bike.
With the second ferry, I was first in line with a Harley rider named Mike. We were tucked between the lines of cars in the center of the bow.
Two hours standing guard over land loving machines on choppy water. Two hours of shared conversation spanning a lifetime
My fascination with two-wheeled journeys began freshman year in high school.
Three buddies told their parents that they were staying over each other's houses; we hit the road and bicycled through the night. The exhaustion, the moments of fear, the laughing made it memorable. I don't even remember if there was a destination. We were just going far.
It was a world shared by no one. All those people trapped in their cars going somewhere or sleeping the night away were getting nowhere. We were kings ruling our adventure kingdom.
Motorcycle trips are usually framed by weather reports and last week was scheduled to fall apart right in the middle. It really doesn't matter if the weather changes because that often creates an place to stop and you might just meet someone you wouldn't have met otherwise.
There is an unwritten law about not leaving on a trip in the rain. That's just miserable. This week turned out perfect with windows of clear riding and a rain stop just as planned in the middle.
In the 1980's and 90's, I used to slam the vacation road in a VW diesel Golf.
My concept of vacation planning was to head west and make a right at North Dakota... or wander southwest until... I needed three days to get home.
Once I was having such a good time in Pitkin, Colorado after taking on a new identity for two weeks, that I left there on a Friday evening and had to be back at work Sunday morning in York.
For the past six years, my vacation has been motivated by a motorcycle. Sure there is something wonderful about driving a few hundred miles and filling up with $10 of fuel, but with simple frugality comes a richness of experience.
Smells are richer, those you come in contact seem kinder because of your vulnerability. Fellow riders strike up a conversation without pause.
Once you loose two wheels and let the air pour though your clothes, it's hard to hide in a car during a vacation again.
Cars are for work. Cars are filled with fast food wrappers and stress.
My bike is freedom.
Next: 1259 miles of adventure in five days.
It has a 100 cc engine, zips smoothly through traffic, can cruise up to 55mph, gets close to 100 mpg and has a price point under $3000. It has the support network of Harley dealerships in most every major town and people want to buy it because it's a domestically produced scooter that is designed by us to help us get ourselves out of a fuel crisis.
Ok, I know this doesn't exist and people will tell me labor costs are too high here to build something that cheap and it doesn't fit the Harley image... but Harley has made everything from golf carts to bomb casings and Holiday Rambler recreational vehicles.
A flag waving on a domestically produced, super-economy machine would bring a new found smile to many.
So Chuck checked out a local East York used car dealer turned scooter franchise and presented me with some figures. The Chinese made Roketa scooters sure have a low price point.
Scooters haven't been a big sale item in the U.S until the recent gas crisis. I remember my father buying an Austrian made Puch moped in the 1970's during that gas price escalation. Today, the Motorcycle Industry Council estimates that 50% of the world's scooters originate in China. In many parts of the world, a scooter is the dominate mode of transportation. Honda actually sells more motorcycles than it does cars.
New scooters can be purchased in four ways:
---Mainline dealerships that carry familiar nameplates.
---Independent motorcycle repair shops that carry a line of scooters.
---Business entrepreneurs (often car dealerships) that offer a line of (most likely Chinese made) scooters.
---Internet purchase with drop shipment (usually Chinese made)
