San Francisco to Seattle on a Harley Davidson

I remember the morning that I picked up the Harley very well. I was up very early with excitement! I arrived at the Harley rental place (coincidentally only 8 blocks from where I was staying) at around 9:30am and joined the back of a queue of 6 British guys from some up north. And one by one (except two of them) they all had problems with their credit cards and had to call their banks. I was beginning to have doubts as they would soon be trying to take out £1,000 as a security deposit......But once it came to my turn it went through with no problem, phew!!

So there I was sat on a £30,000 motorbike that weighed 400kg's without, my luggage or petrol! Luckily I found it quite easy to ride with the massive weight disappearing moments after movement. The only thing I had to get along with was the gearbox, which was truly awful! However, what the gearbox lacked in smoothness the '110 cubic inch Screamin Eagle Twin cam motor' made up for in amazingness! What a sound! Like Thor gargling with nails! Very impressive!

So for my first days riding it was around 185 miles up to Fort Bragg where I'd rented a small cottage. The ride up there was so pretty and I passed through some breath taking redwood forests



As you can see I've just figured out how to put pictures into my blog too! :D

My second days riding was a rather longer one, 385 miles in one hit. The most I've ever done in one go was 240 miles from Woolacombe in North Devon back to Walthamstow in East London. However this was one straight road with no junctions. It took me the best part of 8 hours and it was dark by the time I got to my next destination, a small town called Coos Bay. The room was rather nice and there was a pool but it closed soon after I arrived, and I was very tired, all I wanted to do was sleep!

I woke late the next day and went to eat breakfast, wasn't that great...I was on the road by 11am and in Portland, Oregon around three hours later. The hotel I was staying (The Northrup Inn) was stunning (I decided to treat myself) Portland itself almost doesn't feel real, like it's just been created in a computer simulation. Everything looks perfect, there are seemingly no homeless people, crackheads or crazies. A bit too sterile for me. However the hotel had a free cheese and wine night and ate wonderful hummus at a Lebanese place, oh and had the most amazing Guinness float (that's Guiness with vanilla ice cream!) Much yummier then it sounds!)

The next leg of my journey ends me up in Seattle where I will be staying with my good friends Daniel & V. But that story is for another time. Till then go safe Y'all!


Good things about the Harley Davidson Electra Glide:

The sound of that engine! Blat blat blat!!! :D

There was plenty of space in the panniers

The stereo was good. It adjusted the volume automatically according to my speed!


Bad things about the Harley Davidson Electra Glide:

The breaks were shockingly bad! Like really really shit! I think they were made of tin, or possibly something a bit heavier?

The gearbox was out of a tractor. Getting it into neutral was sometimes just to difficult so I would remain at the lights with the clutch in and the engine vibrating like some awful American motorbike!

At anything over 70 mph it drank fuel pretty quickly!

It does do 100mph (I checked) but you wouldn't want to do it for any length of time as it was a little scary!