Back to Biking - On a Harley-Davidson!
An old pal had been talking about a group trip to Arizona on Harley-Davidsons for many years, but then the Wild Hogs film starring John Travolta was released and almost knocked the whole project on its head. Well, it all seemed such a cliché for middle aged men. However, un-phased by Hollywood cinematic fiction, planning continued...May 2008 was the time set for the Canyon Run; five grown men (no pillions) on a week-long jaunt around the 277-mile length of the Grand Canyon on a selection of muscular Harley-Davidsons. We’d start in Phoenix, Arizona and tour through the hills and plains of Arizona, Utah and Nevada, staying in hotels and motels en-route. All absolutely fantastic, but as some of us hadn’t ridden big bikes for a while – and they don’t come much bigger than Harley-Davidsons – it was decided to take a day’s tuition with Harley-Davidson’s UK-based training school; Riders Edge at Builth Wells in mid-Wales. Riders-Edge offers a variety of motorcycle-related courses and we plumped for the Back to Biking day course. As we were soon off on a 1,200-1,500-mile ride, we needed proper touring bikes, which effectively gave us a choice of Softail Classics, Road Kings, the Street Glide or Electra Glides.
Riders Edge
Riders Edge has all the current models available and this enabled us to sample them all and make our choice so that the equivalent US models would be ready and waiting upon our arrival in Phoenix. With crash helmets and biking apparel provided, our day at Riders Edge began with a briefing. As we were on the Back to Biking day course, we were taken back to basics, and being based at the mid-Wales showground, we were able to ride on tarmac roads without the hindrance of other traffic. We started off on the smaller 883cc XL model and followed our instructors Ian and Anne around the showground. This allowed them to evaluate our basic skills prior to moving up to the bigger Harleys, in my case a Heritage Softail Classic. We then rode around the showground for another 20-30 minutes to gather confidence prior to tackling Welsh villages and the surrounding hills. The rest of the day was spent riding in convoy, up and over the Brecon Beacons on some of the most scenic and best country roads in the UK. The bigger Harleys we’d short-listed for our US trip were 1,584cc V-twins and weighed almost third of a ton, so a degree of riding ability and confidence would be essential. We also swapped bikes frequently and by the end of the day felt ready, willing and able for our forthcoming Stateside adventure.
USA, here we come
BA whisked us from a chilly Heathrow to a late afternoon temperature of 109º F (43°C) in Phoenix. Not surprising really as it’s in the middle of a desert and it’s like walking around inside a pizza oven. The city is 1,135ft above sea level, is spread over 515 square miles and is home to 1.5 million people and the city is currently growing at 12% per year. Our tour was booked through Eagle Rider, which specializes in biking tours and Harley-Davidson hire in the USA. We turned up at Eagle Rider’s base and duly collected our bikes. Three of us had opted for a Road King Classic, while two chose the Heritage Softail Classic. Both these models come with panniers and retail in the region of £15,000 in the UK. With a week on the road ahead, we had to carry all our gear with us, and so, in addition to the panniers provided, I took a soft bag strapped across the rear seat which also doubled as a comfy lower back rest. As well as clothing for eight days, I also found space for a laptop, two cameras and a large tripod. And then, within an hour or so, we were off, headed out on our first, 170-mile leg north.
Canyon fodder
Phoenix is situated in a vast, arid plain skirted by hills and mountains, so heading for the cool of higher altitude made sense. This first day gave us the flavour of freeway riding as we rumbled north on Interstate 17. Then followed some more demanding ‘switch-back’ roads that would have better suited a sports bike, but the Harleys coped well. After a 4,000ft (1,220m) climb we stopped for lunch in Prescott – an old, brick-built territory capital at just over 5,000ft elevation (1500m). Fortunately Prescott enjoys a four-season climate, with much cooler temperatures than we’d endured in Phoenix. Our second overnight stop was in Williams, Arizona, a climb of another 1,500ft (460m) out of Prescott, and gateway to the Canyons. The Williams area has some of the biggest Ponderosa pine trees in the USA, and the famous Route 66 passed through the town on its 2,448 mile journey from Chicago to LA. By the end of day two we’d had a good taste of the driving conditions we’d encounter for the rest of the week and were beginning to really enjoy the torque these 80bhp machines transmit through their toothed belt final drives (as apposed to a conventional chain). We also learnt to hit only the back end of passing storms as we could often see them blowing across the plains and so timed our runs to miss the worst of the rain.
Vegas and beyond
The rest of the week followed a similar and very rewarding pattern, with long drives across plains around the Grand Canyon edge and truly stunning scenery, particularly to the north of the Canyon. In the spectacular Zion National Park region we also got to appreciate our Harleys in their natural habitat. The bikes’ hefty weight certainly helped whilst crossing windy plains, they were solid and reliable all week and were relaxing to ride, even at speed. In some ways Harleys seem almost over engineered, but as the guys at Easy Rider said, they need minimum servicing and they don’t leak. We entered Las Vegas at the tail end of a storm, and locals said they’d had almost half their six-inch annual rainfall in the past couple of days alone. We’d earlier been advised that it wasn’t a great idea to slowly cruise Vegas’ strip in extremely high temperatures as our engine’s rear cylinders could possibly overheat. No chance of that on the days we were in town. The evening was everything we’d expected of Vegas – bold, brash and flashier than a strobe on steroids. Chances are you either love or hate the place, but one thing’s for sure its unique. The next day we moved on to the Hoover Dam. This massive concrete structure took five years to build and was completed in 1935. It stores an average two-year flow from the Colorado River in Lake Mead, which itself stretches back over 115 miles. The dam’s seventeen generators produce 2.8 million kilowatts of electricity, and the water behind the dam supplies 25 million people in the southwest.
Over the edge
A new highway is under construction way above the dam that will ease traffic heading for ‘Skywalk’, one of 21st Century’s new visitor attractions. We headed over there but found that, although it’s technically ’in service’, it’s still very much ‘work in progress’, and that also goes for the 14-mile road that leads there. Skywalk is pricey too, (some of the proceeds go to the indigenous Hualapai tribe), but if you’re intrigued by the notion of walking on a glass platform over a 4,000ft (1,220m) drop, then give it a go. It almost goes without saying that the view is breathtaking in every direction, especially if you look down.
Memorable days
A quote from a book, The Ultimate Harley-Davidson by Mac McDiarmid, pretty much sums up our week; “Few experiences can match that of thundering a Harley-Davidson across the surreal moonscape of Utah”. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Our trip cost little more than a week’s skiing in the Alps. Our last day’s ride between Flagstaff to Phoenix was memorable too, a day enhanced by the sweet scent of pine as we dropped down towards Sedona for an early breakfast. It was Memorial Day, and with campers and RVs all cooking up breakfast, we could conceivably have been in the Alps, although with BBQ smoke and essence of maple syrup hanging in the breeze, this was true America.
Gary Bigwood, TestDrive it Limited
