California Dreaming–The Motorbike

We hired a Harley Davidson Electraglide motorbike for our road trip from California Motorcycle Adventures, just south of San Francisco.  As well as renting us the bike, they helped put our trip together and plumbed our route into a satnav/GPS.  Well, it just had to be a Harley in California didn’t it?  Here’s how it looked before it got dirty, all shiny and sparkly, quite a machine eh?

Maurice had never ridden a Harley before and was a bit concerned about the weight.  It weighs 900lb, about double the weight of the bike he usually rides!  But the weight is very low down, and Maurice was soon manouvering the bike successfully. 

It is by far the most comfortable bike we have ever ridden.  Just look at the comfortable seat!  I have an armchair on the back.  I usually have to get off the bike every hour or so because of a ‘numb bum’ but I could have sat all day on this bike.  Just as well, as I did sit on it all day!

We had to fill up with petrol/gas every day.  The tank is not very big, but the bike reasonably economical so did about 170 miles between gas stations.  Just for the record, petrol costs about half as much in the USA as here in the UK.  Bit of a tricky comparison calculation, as while we buy our petrol in litres, the Americans buy their gas in US gallons, which are slightly smaller than UK gallons!

It got a bit dirty – we rode through 2 days of rain!  And right at the end of the holiday, the front gear lever came loose.  Maurice managed to change gear using the back gear lever, but we had to tie the front lever up out of the way – nothing my bootlace wouldn’t fix!

Would we ride a Harley again?  Maurice says NO!  He found it’s lack of power and clunky gear change very frustrating, despite the comfortable riding position.