Hey All,

I am preparing for the longest few days of riding of my riding career. I am leaving Boston, MA a week from today (6/14) to head to Boulder, CO. The trip will be approxamately 2K miles and I will stretch it out over 5 days. I am planning to spend day 3 resting at a friends place in central IL (halfway there). So that means I will be doing 500 mile days.

I think I'm ready, but I wanted to get some last minute advice about what to take with me. My current bike set-up is the following.

2005 883XL with a Hurricane 2" filter and stock exhaust.
Quick detach HD windsheild
Soft bags and a tank bag
Airhawk small cruiser seat pad
GPS system on the handle bars
TBags round bag mounted on the solo rack

I am planning to carry the trip length worth of clothing in water tight containers, including full rain gear and warm stuff (you never know). All of my regular clothing etc will be shipped to Boulder, as I will be there for a month. I figure that if I take a spare set of plugs, some basic tools and my cell phone and credit card I can pretty much get anything else I may need along the way. I guess the list of Dealers that comes out from the complementary 1 year HOG membership will also be smart to keep handy.

I was wondering if there is really anything I am forgetting that you all can think of.

Cheers,
Dan

How are your tires? 2k miles one way in the heat will take off a lot of tread, are you prepared for new rubbers when you get there?

plastic bags to keep more stuff drier and a way to charge your cell phone and have a good trip and be very careful
Jim:tour

Flashlight in case you break down at night.

Pen to take directions, write notes or numbers.

Post your itenerary on the board and ask if people along the way are willing to give you contact numbers. It's amazing how much help people can be, even if they never leave their keyboard and just talk to you by phone!!!

How are your boots? Waterproof? If not, time to seal em.

You've got clear and dark eye protection yes?

A phone charger is key, but so can a pre-charged spare battery if you have one.

Spare bike key!!! (It can happen that you might need it).

Disc lock (handy if other things fail, like a lock cylinder - don't ask).

new, STURDY cargo net (always good for additional packing, as things tend to expand out on the road).

That's what on the top of my mind.

Oh yeah, a place to put some water bottles or gatorade! and some Excedrin Migrane (never know when dehydration, voluntary or otherwise, is going to lead to some pain).

Kev

Oh and, I've done something like this on my Road King, but the most I think I ever did in a day on my Sporty was more like 400 miles.

My wife just did a 450 mile day on her 883L and that was a bit rough on her!

So doing a bunch of 500s might get rough, so IFFFFFFF POSSSIBLE, put a BIG cushion in your itenerary so you can slow down and enjoy if you want to/have to.

Kev

I'm gonna try a 400 mile day this weekend with the new saddlemen explorer seat. I have to sell my backrest though, now I need a touring backrest setup for it to look right.

Don't forget the Toilet paper !!!!!!!!

You didn't say what you were riding? Do your regular check out each day before getting back on the road. You have to run pretty hard to make 500 mile days, and you will be on the road at least 10 hours each day; rise early, get something to eat and get on the road by day break. Stay hydrated, eat when you are hungry, stop and rest if you are tired and don't push for the 500 mile day if you are done in at 450 miles; not worth it. The chances for accidents increase exponentially after dark.

If you don't have a tire plug kit and a way to inflate a repaired tire, get one. I know shit happens and things break but if a bike is properly maintained and not a hyper sensitive hot rod, breakdowns are not really a problem. I worry more about weather, flat tires, and night riding.

Kevin's suggestion about posting the route on the board is a great idea. I have found that other bikers, yeah the other ones too, will go way out of their way to provide assistance to a fellow biker.

Woah, was he LEAVING on 6/14... if so he should have made it by now. Hope he reports back on the experience and how the sporty did!!!

Yea, he "should" be back, hopefully he's safe.

But just in case someone else reads this that's doing the trip I'd also take a calling card. You don't want to get stuck in an area where you can't use your cell phone and you don't have coins to call anyone. Of course if you find a phone there's a good chance you could get some change made, but I'd still take a little calling card just in case :)

Woah, was he LEAVING on 6/14... if so he should have made it by now. Hope he reports back on the experience and how the sporty did!!!

Prolly still sit'n in a bucket of ice :laugh
Hope all went well!

Hey All,

I am preparing for the longest few days of riding of my riding career. I am leaving Boston, MA a week from today (6/14) to head to Boulder, CO. The trip will be approxamately 2K miles and I will stretch it out over 5 days. I am planning to spend day 3 resting at a friends place in central IL (halfway there). So that means I will be doing 500 mile days.

Cheers,
Dan

How was the ride Dan??? Did the air cushion help?? :banana:banana:banana

any updates on the trip???

Hey Everyone,

Glad to see that there was interest in my trip.

I MADE IT. And more importantly I made it back!
Well... Where to begin. I guess from the beginning.

First Day: (Boston MA, Western PA)

I started in Boston, MA at 5:00 am on wednesday morning. Beautiful weather to start out. My plan was to go Rt. 90 west to Rt. 84, to Rt. 6 in PA. That happened and everything was great. Rt. 6 is really an amazing to ride. Unfortunately I was 7 hours into my ride, and I was no where near my final destination of Clarion PA. When I realized that 30 mph wasn't cutting it, I jumped on Rt. 15 S to Rt. 80 west. Unfortunately there was a major accident on the rode, so I had to sit and wait in traffic on the highway for 2 hours.... Talk about a first day! (4 more to go)

Second Day: (Western PA -> Chicago IL)

It had rained that night (very very hard) in the midwest and western PA. It had mostly settled down by the time I started out for Chicago (staying with my sister), but the rain gear was out and on regardless. I made the mistake of convincing myself that it was unnecessary about 120 miles out of Chicago. Totally a pain to have to stop multiple times to mess with it. Anyway, I got to Gary IN and then the traffic began. Construction on the Dan Ryan (90/94) had me at a standstill in blazing sun with full rain gear. Unfortunately it was just moving enough to keep me from stopping. And the damn roads there are so crappy that I couldn't pull over anywhere. URG! Oh well, after some delay I was on Lake Shore drive and Headed to Lincoln Park.


Third Day: (Chicago, IL -> Hannibal, MO)

This was probably the easiest day of the trip Rt. 55 SW across the state, really leisurely, even had time to browse around the Springfield IL HD dealer. Got to Mark Twain's birth town had a couple of beers and rested.

Fourth Day: (Hannibal, MO -> Colby KS)

This was a marathon! Big day (but not my biggest) I'm telling everyone out there, if you can do a road trip, and it involves going west across the country, take this route (even if you are in a car). I started out in Hannibal and trucked across MO in a few hours. I had a weird experience at a gas station with a local farmer and his wife (who ride). Their son lives about 3 blocks away from me in Cambridge, MA (INSANE), plus he does the same sort of science that I do at MIT. Very crazy. Anyway, once I got into KS on Rt. 36 I could not believe how pretty it was in a sortof minimalist way. I stopped for lunch in Marysville (awesome place called Carolyn's Buffet). Once I got to the geometric center of the US, literally, I headed south on 281 in Smith Center to a "more scenic" route Rt. 24. WOW Amazingly flat and unpopulated. I clocked distances between cars that I passed. At one point I noted that cars were separated by 40 mile intervals. That is barren. I stopped in Colby for the night (Rt 24 intersects Rt. 70).

Fifth Day: (Colby KS -> Boulder CO)

Started off early in the morning and headed out on Rt. 70 (interstates suck). Once I crossed into CO I could not believe that I was at 5000 ft and I could see for ~ 50 miles in any direction. High plains really means HIGH. I jumped off the highway and proceeded on Rt. 83 (the sign said 'get to denver the scenic way' so I figured what the hell). Talk about the right choice! Amazing amazing amazing. To experience the change in topography that way was incredible. I was going over these rolling hills (higher than Mt. Washington HA!) I finally crested on that was 7300 feet, and as soon as I crested it I saw the full front range! BOOM... full view of the rocky mountains. Unreal. I got closer to Denver and realized I didn't know any back ways north to Boulder. So I figured... I will just jump on Rt. 25 and make my way the direct route through the city and then hop on Rt. 36 up to Boulder. MISTAKE. I saw more cars and had more scares in 5 minutes than I had in the past 3 days. Rt. 25 is a super-highway (12 lanes) through Denver, and everyone goes 90 mph. NUTS. Anyway. I pulled into boulder at 12:00 on day 5... 2222.3 miles total.

I will post my return trip once this one gets digested a bit.

The bike did fantastic btw!

Are you going to come visit us at NRHS today. We are at Hwy 52 and I 25, exit 235. Right by High Country HD.

I'm actually back in Boston... I wish had realzied where you guys were. I would have asked about the Hurricane 2" I bought... I find that the element "pops-up" when I tighten the outer cover. I think it leads to a leak and therefore a lean condition. I went back to my stock AC for this trip because of that... Hrmf.

Getting there was only half the fun... :clap :tour :banana

Sounds like you had a few moments of sheer panic interspersed with hours/days of sheer pleasure... sorta like what they say combat or police work is like. :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack

Glad you had a good trip and that the Sporty did you proud. Waiting for part deux. :)

Btw, where's the pix?

Osci,
It sounds like you are not tightening your cover plate enough. You need to push the filter down into the proper place then tighten until the bolts bottom completely. On the bottom side this will cause the filter to distort a bit but that will not hurt it in any way.

It must be a badly formed element. No matter if they are bottomed or not, It always pops out. In any configuration. Additionally, I am going to have to use a new banjo bolt/vent tube configuration. It seems that the U-tube that I purchased is not compatable with the carb support bracket that was part of the package I got from you guys. When fitted against the heads the bolts are under so much stress that I was afraid I was going to strip the threads. There was also not enough clearance between the bracket and the outlet of the vent tube to actually get the vent hose on. Really not simple at all.

Sounds like a great trip Dan! Glad you made
a safe return. Hoping you have
some pictures to show us. :)

Sounds like you had a super nice trip! Sooner or later i want to make a trip from the houston area to denver. I have a cousin that also has a sportster that lives there. It sure whould be nice to visit and get a conversion north of the city at nrhs, might even shave a little time off the return trip!

Great trip report! Hope you have a few pics to share with us.