Trip to Sturgis and Deadwood  

Sometimes the singular focus of a road trip is what we need to escape, balance the hard job of the life we have. Riding a motorcycle takes major focus just to survive let alone, get where we want to go. Having a destination to ride to with or without friends may be less important than the ride itself. 

But I digress. After a year and a half of recovery from a 20 yr. old idiot pulling out in front of me and me slamming into him at 45 mph, I felt that I needed to take back what was mine from my early years……. My freedom to ride my motorcycle and feel the joy of that singular focus.
So this year seemed to be a good time to take a road trip to see an old friend from my youth. An old friend that not only shares a passion for old bikes but is a master craftsman whose main focus is restoring houses. Living in Deadwood South Dakota he has 2 turn of the century homes, one finished that is his main home and the other a project that may never end. The latter being a tri-level Victorian on a hillside overlooking the town of Deadwood. So off to Sturgis for some R and R from L.A. and family problems and the general lack of humanity we live with here.
So my new ride after the Dimwit totaled my rather nice Road king is a 2015 Street Glide. Seemed like a good idea at the time…. Really beautiful bike that turned out to be un-rideable for any distance. I heard a very apropos statement (Harley’s marketing is far greater than their product) that apply’s here. The suspension is so bad that anything more than 100 miles is to much. I had taken the bike back to a few dealers to sort out the harsh ride and was always given the same response. The tech would say Ant it great! People love these things. The Harley Kool-Aid at work I presume. In a desperate attempt to fix it, I installed some 412 progressive shocks on the rear that I had from another bike. Big help but really exposed the front end. We live in a day that motorcycles have some of the best suspensions with adjustability for compression dampening, rebound and ride height. My Buell Ulysses comes to mind. Harley should have paid some attention to that bike before dumping the Brand.
So for 3,100 miles I put up with the worst handling beautiful Bike I’ve ever had. Singular focus…. Get there!
I’m a cynic… it’s an acquired thing. I’m always waiting for something to go wrong, be wrong or have to fix something that goes wrong. I really need to focus on things going right, So the nice thing about a road trip is, as you have this singular focus you drift off in a multi-focus of self-therapeutic awareness. You try to work out stuff and as the miles go by, the layers life start to fall away. So like a movie you can create this image of how it should be. And if you have the benefit of music on your bike, you have your own movie soundtrack! Modern day Easyrider…
I really wanted to re-trace the Easyrider route for this ride but, time constrants and wanting to see Monument Valley changed that. I’ll save it for the next ride to New Orleans.
I hate the heat in the desert when trying to get out of L.A. It’s always 300 miles to get to where the trip starts. The angst just to start can be overwhelming but once on the road all seems to fall into place. From the heat and dread of getting through Barstow to Needles, finally arriving in Flagstaff changes your attitude to, my adventure has started. Those dark ominous clouds up ahead, bring it on! Then I realized… in my I’m going… I’m not going bullshit, I forgot a rain suit.
I had a really patient riding partner. A Zen master in the making. The opposite of my Cynical, L.A. urban war zone chronic PTSD. As the monsoon started, we just made it off the fwy to find a service station to take refuge from the rain. An hour of waiting and 2 cups of coffee later we set off when there was a break in the down pour. 20 miles ahead was a Harley dealer with rain suits…. On sale. Things were working out. I started to think about Monument Valley ahead and began to settle in and enjoy the trip.
I had been thinking about riding through Monument Valley on a bike for some time. It just seemed like the way to see it for the first time. Really an awesome part of the country. Like looking at the pyramids in Egypt. Even similar names like Valley of fire, Valley of the Gods and Valley of John Wayne.
This is Navaho Country and beef stew and Navaho bread are the staples of dining while traveling through these parts. A stop in Cameron was the first of this cuisine but not the last.
So we made our way up through Moab to Cisco and on to Rifle, North up to Craig where we spent the night. That night we bumped into the crew from the Indian Sponsored Wounded Warrior ride and were invited to breakfast at the VfW in the morning. Maybe my favorite part of our ride. As we met and talked to the vet’s that made up this ride, I was struck by the great spirit and adaptability these guy’s carried with them. I have my own disabilities that cause me issues, but I felt inspired by this bunch and an instant kinship that I won’t forget. I’ll see where this leads to.
The boring uneventful ride through Wyoming to Deadwood is always a pain in the ass, so I’ll save you the details except we almost hit two more deer coming into lead SD. You know the Forest Gump Deer that go (oh here comes a motorcycle I think I’ll just jump in front of it).
So 3 days in town and ready to move on. I have the typical traveler’s mindset, can’t wait to get there, can’t wait to leave and this always holds true with Sturgis. Once back out on the road that singular purpose and focus to get there kicks in and I’m happy again. I will say that I prefer to ramble a bit more while on a motorcycle, but when you have time frames to be somewhere and are covering 400 to 500 mile a day, the focus is… get there. The trip home was completely a different ride covering territory north of our route through Wyoming. We followed the Bighorn River from Buffalo down to Thermopolis, then picked up the Wind River and wandered in to Dubois for dinner and sleep. I really enjoyed this part of the country and found myself finally starting to relax into the ride but I still could not relax on this bike though. The problem was that my concerns about the bike’s ride, might be something is wrong with the front end. My riding buddy and I had been sort of comparing our rides throughout the trip. He on an Indian Chief and me on my new 015 Street Glide. We noticed the difference in ride thru so many varied road surface’s, he was always happy, me not so much. Like I said earlier I changed out the rear shocks which helped my back, but the front seemed to be getting worse. It was. We decided to make a stop in Jackson Hole at the Harley dealer to have it checked out, only it turned out to be a non-service dealer. Really! So much for the notion of Harley support while on the road. The only dealer close was in Idaho Falls, so we rode HWY 22 over the Teton pass down into Idaho Falls to find the dealer…..we never found it and by now I figured screw it.
I must say that Jackson Hole and the country around it is some of the most beautiful I’ve traveled. If I could get past the cold winters I would really consider living there. Well that and lots of money.
So by now I’m thinking let’s just focus on getting home and the game plan is to cut across Idaho to Twin Falls, head south on 93 thru Nevada to Vegas. I had some apprehension with this route because I have never traveled in this part the country, but I have to say I really enjoyed the solitude of this straight as an arrow road for another 400 miles. From solitude to terror is how I’d say descending the 15 into Vegas was. The posted speed limit was a mere suggestion for the mass’s heading into Hell. It’s now 112 degs. and the traffic is building…. Focus, focus it’s just a little farther….
My riding bud had made a reservation at South Point 5 miles outside of town and it was all I had left in me to get there and park the bike. Anyway once in the room had a shower and met with my buddy’s friend to have dinner and prepare for the assault on Los Angeles in the morning.
You all know what Leaving Las Vegas is like, earlier the better, so…..
Finally, home a day of rest and off to the dealer to sort out what’s up with this bike. On my there the front pushrod tube O-ring which had started to leak then stopped out on the trip, let go and spewed oil all over the side of the bike. Lucky it held till then I guess. So……
Front axle nut loose, front wheel bearing going south, steering head bearing out of adjustment and pushrod tube O-ring all fixed under warranty. I started this trip with 3,500 miles on it and traveled 3,170 so this work was done at around 6,700. I need some Harley Kool-Aid please.
To recap, had a good trip, sorted out some head stuff from before the trip, enjoyed my riding pardoner’s company and always enjoy staying up in Deadwood at my old pal’s place.
Back in Los Angeles the same old shit is building and I’m starting to feel a…………..
Another road trip brewing. But this time I’m feeling another bike maybe in store and it might have 111 inches…… Yeah that’s the ticket!