| Author | Message | ||
     Sanchez |
Tuesday, August 15th: We set out from Atlanta about 2:30 PM headed for Somerset, PA. It rained off and on the entire afternoon and into the evening. At one point, the rain forced us under a bridge when we couldn't see anything but each other's tail lights. Point of interest: Buells have no hazard lights. After packing for the trip, I still had most of a case empty, so my Uly became the official Rain Gear Mule for the three of us. We put in 350 miles (the half way mark) and stopped for the night in Virginia. Status: Dale, 2006 Sportster: Posterior devastated by stock Sportster seat Truman, 2006 Softail, Rearend annihilated, wrists decimated, and hands completely numb Sanchez, 2006 Uly, READY FOR ANOTHER 350 MILES! | ||
| Sanchez |
Wednesday, August 16th: The weather was gorgeous all day without a single rain drop. We headed out about 10:30 AM to cover the second half of our trip. The scenery was excellent all through Virginia and West Virginia. The transition from VA to WV was a tunnel right through a mountain, and the change in weather was shocking. We went from sunny skies and 80's to overcast, fog, and 70's in the space of a mile or so under ground. We stopped every 80-100 miles to let the Harley guys recover. My back and shoulders began to get sore today, but my butt remained in fine shape, if I do say so myself. I really can't say enough about how comfortable this bike is. We made it to Somerset about 7:00 PM and met up with Dale's brother. We had a moment of panic when Truman and I discovered he hadn't booked us at the same hotel, but we turned out to be in one right across the street. Price tonight: $80. Price tomorrow night when most of the rest of the riders show up: $177. Way to gouge the pockets of patriotic citizens showing their respect to fallen heroes, Quality Inn. | ||
| Sanchez |
Some observations after 700 miles: - Joe Rocket Blaster perforated leather pants work great for distance riding. They stick to the seat well, have plenty of padding in the rear, and flow lots of air. Maybe I look funny riding a Uly with knee sliders, but I don't care.  - I picked up a cheap pair of bicycling shorts at REI before I left, and I'm glad I did. The padding isn't really in the right spot for a Uly seat, but the lack of seams really helps out. - Best MPG: 51, worst MPG: 46. I'm probably averaging about 49. I expected more, but admittedly the bike is heavily loaded with full luggage plus another bag in the passenger seat, and I'm not a small guy. - Buell traction grips feel great. The stock Uly hand grips give me a right wrist ache pretty quickly, but I don't get it at all with the traction grips. Throw in a throttle rocker with them, and it's perfect. My hands got a little sore at the end of the first night, but I've had no numbness whatsoever. - Who needs highway pegs when your bike is so tall you can stretch your legs out and let them dangle straight down while you ride? | ||
| Bosh |
Bicycle shorts are the shit for longer rides that's for sure. I've got some of the older Joe Rocket blaster pants. No knee sliders on mine. I wear em with my perforated J.R. Sonic jacket. Great stuff at a reasonable price. Sounds like you're having a good ride, keep up the report!! | ||
| Dano_12s |
Sanchez,I hope to be up there tonite.Sounds like Highland HD/buell is having some entertainment+food. | ||
| Sanchez |
Dano, hope to see you there. I'm heading over to Highland right now. Dale's getting new pipes on his Sportster today, and both Dale and Truman want new seats. Here are some pictures from yesterday. Me:  Dale:  Truman:  We stopped at the New River Bridge, which is 876 feet tall. You can take pictures from an observation platform on the side of the canyon, and man that thing is huge.   Fully loaded Uly:  The Emgo bags are cleverly designed. My only gripe is the crappy zippers. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Looks like Dale is trying to kill himself before the Sportster seat does him in. | ||
| Sanchez |
Thursday, August 17th: Today was an emotional day. Dale met up with his surviving brother Kenny, and the four of us went out to the crash site. There's a temporary memorial setup about half a mile across the field from where the plane hit. People come from all over the country to leave small tokens and notes. So many people visit that the curators have to clean off the fence from time to time and archive the momentos. Nothing is thrown away, and eventually everything will probably be displayed in the permanent memorial.   Because we were with family members, Truman and I got to visit the actual crash site. It's marked by a small bail of hay, to which the family members have added small tokens.  Dale and Kenny planted a tree on the site in memory of their brother, and it's growing tall.  The site was calm and peaceful with a gentle breeze blowing through it. I stood there and tried to imagine the violence and noise and Flight 93 plummeting into the ground upside down a 500 miles per hour with the passengers fighting the terrorists in the cabin, and it really broke me up.  I'm choking up just typing this, so that's all for this morning. I can't imagine how much harder this must be for the family members. | ||
| Retired_cop |
We feel for you and all that lost loved ones. Great story so far, keep it up. | ||
| Sanchez |
Friday, August 18th Today we began the official memorial ride, and it was grueling! I expected it to be easy because it was only 200 miles, but riding with 800 bikes is a whole different ball game. We left Highland Harley-Davidson about 7:30 AM. Fifty or so police officers riding two by two with their lights flashing and sirens howling led the way. What a sight! We stopped for a rest break about 80 miles out, and I snapped some pictures. The entire field of bikes wouldn't fit in my lens, but I got most of them.  We stopped for lunch and fuel in Hagerstown, then set out again. The second leg was brutal! Our pace car was a fire truck, so we rode 35-40 mph for 80 miles. I'm quickly learning that the difficulty in distance riding is the time you spend on the bike rather than the miles you cover. I enjoyed myself nonetheless. Everywhere we went, there were people in front of their houses or on bridges waving at us. Leesburg particularly touched me. They had two fire trucks with a huge American flag hung between their ladders over the road as we came into town, and the streets were lined with cheering people. We made it into DC about 4:00 PM and about 40 of us who'd signed up for it headed out for a tour of the capitol. Riding in a small group with a police escort rocks. I wish I had a police escort everywhere. One of the officers' bikes had a license plate frame that said, "Smile! I could be behind you." Eric, the vice president of the memorial foundation spent five years working in the capitol at one point in his life and was just as informative as our tour guide. | ||
| Ikeman |
Hey, Dale and Kenny are famous! I caught the 2 of them on Fox News Sunday morning. | ||
| Sanchez |
Saturday, August 19th We rallied Saturday morning at the pentagon to head out for New York. On the 2004 and 2005 rides, the Foundation collected over 90,000 signatures on 3,600 t-shirts to send to our troops in Iraq. Some of the soldiers signed a shirt of their own and sent it back, and the Foundation awarded it to the girl who designed the shirts that went out. We rode from the pentagon and set a much better pace than Friday, running about 55 mph. After a fuel break at Maryland House, we stopped at Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson for lunch. Our family and friends group headed out from Mike's with the advance team instead of the main column of riders. Kenny, Truman, another friend named Rob, and I got separated from the rest of the group at a toll booth and had to do some "interesting" navigation to get back where we were supposed to be. This is Kenny's "I'm not lost, I swear" face:  We rallied again at a Home Depot where we met up with a group of vintage police cars. Truman struggled valiantly with his left turn signal and lost.    The last leg of the trip was 30 miles into New York City. We rode by Ground Zero and back to our hotel a couple of blocks from Times Square. The Manhattan Sheraton was probably the low point of the whole trip. The staff was rude and several bikes were vandalized. I suspect next year the ride will return to the Hilton, where it's been in previous years without a single negative incident. Rant: What the hell is wrong with New Yorkers? I expected to receive a warm welcome in NYC. Instead, flags were broken off of bikes, helmets were stolen, a trailer was puked on, and some worthless drunk kicked over three bikes. | ||
| Sanchez |
> Hey, Dale and Kenny are famous! I caught the 2 of them on Fox News Sunday morning. Cool. Did anyone happen to tape it? I'd like to see it. | ||
| Sanchez |
Sunday, August 20th: We caught a lucky break Sunday. Eric Sjurseth, the vice president of the foundation, lives in southern VA right on our route home. He generously offered to trailer our bikes half way home, and we took him up on it. His truck has no air conditioning, but after 5 days on a motorcycle, it didn't bother us a bit. The ride out of Manhattan with a group of 4 trucks, 3 trailers, and a dozen or so motorcycles was a blast. Ted Sjurseth regulated traffic for us on his Ultra Classic with a white 3/4 helmet and a t-shirt that read "SHERIFF" in big white letters. He split lanes, rode down sidewalks, and parked himself in intersections to keep our group together. I wish I had it on video because his riding was truly awe inspiring. We stopped for lunch at Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson again and parted ways with Kenny and the rest of the group.   We rode in style till we got to Eric's house around 10:30 PM, then we grabbed dinner and crashed for the night. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
I love reading these ride reports. It's like a magazine without the cost and tailored to the ULY rider. Thanks. | ||
| Sanchez |
Glad you're enjoying them. Here's the last entry for the trip: Monday, August 21st: After our day in the truck, we were rested and ready to go. We set out down I-85, and I ran into trouble at our first gas stop. I was making a tight, low speed turn on a steep hill, and I overbalanced to the left. Gravity and luggage took over, and I dropped the bike. I let it down slowly, and the luggage saved the shift linkage, but I snapped the clutch lever right off and wrenched the hell out of my back. Fortunately the lever snapped in a spot that left it enough leverage to disengage the clutch as long as it was lined up. A little bit (ok a lot) of scotch tape held it where it needed to be, and I was back on the road:  My back hurt pretty badly while stopped, but once we came up to speed and got some wind to lean against, it felt just fine. Here's my last photo of the trip. We stopped for lunch just north of the Georgia border, and I just had to snap it:  We made it into Atlanta about 6:00 PM, and I rolled into my driveway about 6:30. My pulled muscles from Monday morning hurt like a sonofabitch, but other than that I'm in great shape. I'm completely impressed with the comfort, performance, and reliability of the Ulysses. I clocked nearly 2000 miles in the course of a week, and I'm ready to jump right back on it. I can't wait for next year. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
attaboy! The ULY really seems to hold up when crashed. | ||
| Kdan |
Good job Sanchez. I'm glad you're back and OK. As we get older, we learn to carry Ibuprofen every where we go. Nice job on the journal. I'm jealous. | ||
| Retired_cop |
As I said before, OUTSTANDING JOB!!!!!! | ||
| Sanchez |
Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Here's a link to all the pictures Dale, Truman, and I took over the course of the week: http://www.incorrect.org/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=8 |
