The Wanderings of a 36 year old Electraglide

Great RR.............love those old Harleys

Do you think you will make it to the next Ralley in the Crater on the 27-30 Sep.? link: http://rallys-r-us.com/Index.html :eek1

Thanks WayFar

Shovels are great. Mine is stroked to 88,some whoop de doo cam, super E carb, geared pretty high, and actually gets up and dances pretty good when I ask it to.

But for now I am taking it easy on the old girl . I am a long ways from home and am pretty good at breaking thngs. Maybe when I get home and know it better I'll do some stupid sh*t on it. But for now I am staying in the slow lane.

Thanks

She's a keeper all right. I have wanted another shovel for a while, and I am pretty happy I got this one :)

Thanks Paddygfw

Me too!!

That was the idea, but I am travelling pretty slow and still have a ways to go to get there.
I'll keep on heading in that direction and see what happens:)

I really enjoy seeing that old iron back on the road again where it belongs. Subscribed!

Really good report......I'm subscribed!

This morning I did my normal &#8220;check the bike over thing&#8221; and pulled the headlight to make sure I was getting power. I figured it was probably the light, but both high and low beam went at the same time, so I wanted to make sure. There were quite a few travellers wandering around wanting to chat about the bike while I was trying to check things out. One couple wandered by, him with a grey pony tail and her, an older hottie, and he says &#8220;Nice shovel. You don&#8217;t see many of those on the road anymore.&#8221; And I says &#8220;probably because you have to wrench them every morning.&#8221; And smile. And SHE says, &#8220;I know what you mean, I ride a Panhead.&#8221; And wanders away. Cool!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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I stop at the first autoparts store I find, install a headlight (another automotive one) and away I go.<o></o>
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I head south and stop at the tourist info booth in Jackpot, NV. It&#8217;s almost 10:30 and the sign says open Sundays at 10:30. So I wait till about 10:35, no one shows up, so I head out. About 5 miles South of town there is a sign stating you are now back in Pacific time. Hmmmm. Maybe Jackpot is on Pacific time as well, and it was only 9:30 at info booth&#8230;&#8230;<o></o>
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Info booth parking lot<o></o>
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When I got to Wells, I stopped for a bite to eat. I wasn&#8217;t sure what time it was, but it turns out it was NOW 10:30, so I had to order lunch. J<o></o>
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I headed East on the freeway, and went up and up and up.<o></o>
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I rode into Utah, and stopped here for a bit<o></o>
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I rode towards the speedway, and I followed a 2 lane blacktop road for a few miles along the salt, then the road just&#8230;&#8230;. stopped. There were a bunch of cars and people hanging around, and a few cars out on the salt. I stopped, looked around, and figured, well, I am not just going to sit here on the blacktop&#8230;&#8230;<o></o>
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I rode a couple miles out onto the sand. It was kind of eerie riding out there. I only got up to about 60 miles an hour, but the sand was so flat and so smooth, with no reference objects, you really couldn&#8217;t get a sense of how fast you were going.<o></o>
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NOT the world&#8217;s fastest Shovelhead<o></o>
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There were a few wet patches, and my bike got covered with salt.<o></o>
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As I came back to the parking area, lots of people were taking pictures of the idiot who took his old Harley out on the salt J<o></o>
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At the gas station, I asked for directions to a car wash. They must have had lots of people asking, cause he gave very good directions on how to get there.<o></o>
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When I ran out of quarters for the car wash, I headed towards Salt Lake City. As I got closer, I realised I didn&#8217;t have a plan as to where I was going. I knew I wanted to head South from there, but hadn&#8217;t looked at where I was going to go or what roads went South.<o></o>
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I figured I would find wifi or a map somewhere along the line. I saw a sign stating an exit for a Love&#8217;s travel center, and I figured they would have Wifi, or a map, or both. I was riding along, thinking about Love&#8217;s travel center, and how it got the name, and how, in Spanish it would be pronounced Low-vays and, crap, what exit was that again? Well, there should be another sign, right?<o></o>
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So now I am onto a bigassed freeway, 6 lanes going each direction, and no sign telling me where to go. Well, it&#8217;s Sunday, and the traffic is light. I&#8217;ll just ride through town and there will be somewhere on the other side. I see a sign that says &#8220;Las Vegas&#8221; &#8220;South&#8221; and, while I don&#8217;t want to go to Vegas, I want to go South, so away I go.<o></o>
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Well, Crap, the traffic gets heavy, everyone is travelling 75 miles per hour, people are weaving in and out. There are on ramps and off ramps and round and round ramps, with signs going here and signs going there. I follow the mayhem for a while, spot an off ramp offering gas stations, so I pull off, find the gas station, ask for maps. He&#8217;s out of maps, but &#8220;where did you want to go, maybe I can help&#8221;, he says. &#8220;Well&#8221;, I tell him, "that&#8217;s why I wanted the map, so I can figure out where I want to go.&#8221; He asks me if I want to go to Colorado, so I says, &#8220;sure&#8221; so he tells me where to go and where to turn and it&#8217;s a great road through the mountains&#8230;&#8230; perfect!<o></o>
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Back into the chaos I go for a few miles, and I spot a cheap motel. I pull off, get a room, then run down to a car wash to give the bike a REAL good cleansing to get rid of any residual salt.<o></o>

Nice. Mine recently went through a total rebuild, and is a 98" now. My Dad has a 93" shovel, and I couldn't bear the thought of the old man being faster than me. I bought him that bike for Father's Day a few years ago, and that's what induced me to get one of my own. I love seeing yours on this trip, makes me want to do the same.

When you mentioned Salmon Arm BC early on in your RR..I was there last month on my cross country trip.I had left Calgary around noon on a Sat. morning headed to Banff and north towards Jasper.Somehow I ended up in construction and stopped for a coffee at Tim Hortons in Golden BC..took a wrong turn somewhere. What a nice ride from there to Salmon Arm and along the lake.Ended up spending the night in Vernon.From there I went to Kalowna then north to Cashe Creek then south on Rte 99 to Whistler.Your other picture north of Boise Idaho on 55 was also a road I was on this trip..The night before I stayed in Salmon River, Idaho.Have a great trip and thanks for sharing it with us.

Glad you are liking my RR indianscout.

I agree.And I enjoyed seeing the guy on the old Laverda, and the it sounds like the Panhead lady rides hers as well.

Thanks Rascalman

I hope you enjoy it

Big Bore !! Sweet

Sounds like your Dad raised a pretty good son.

I hope you get lots of riding in with him.

Ahh, the never ending construction at the Icefields Hwy....

Sounds like you seen some prety good riding

I love the road from Lillooet to Pemberton. Done it many times, on many different bikes. Always awesome!!

Thanks John Nash, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the ride

Dang Brian, wish i would have known you were in the neighborhood!

Would've been cool to grab a burger and check out that Shovel. Maybe point out the "don't miss" roads heading south out of saltopolis...

The plan was to get up early, do a bit of maintenance, hit the road and get lots of miles in today.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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Ha!<o></o>
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I went out to do my morning check for loose bolts and any issues. My derby cover had been leaking slightly since I got the bike, and even after Starsky changed the stator, it was still leaking a bit. It was bugging me, so this morning I thought I would pull the cover, install the new gasket Starsky had given me, and plug that leak. I got it all buttoned up, went back inside to shower and dick around while I let the sealant cure, came out, packed the bike, and off for breakfast. When I came out after breakfast, I looked under the bike, and it was like someone had opened the tap.<o></o>
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Crap<o></o>
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So, In the McDonalds parking lot, I pulled the cover, cleaned it up real good, added MORE silicone ( actually, there is a flaw in the primary cover that someone had tried to fix at one time) bolted it back up. Now just to let it cure for a couple of hours. What to do while I waited. Checkout time in my room wasn&#8217;t for a couple more hours, and I am sure the housecleaning staff would let me back in. I could go watch TV.

Screw that! I went for a walk around the Lehi area of Salt Lake City for a couple hours.<o></o>
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I headed back to the bike, fired it up, rode it a couple of blocks, back on the kickstand. No leaking. I rode it a couple of miles, parked it for a bit, no leaking. Sweet!!<o></o>
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I figured I should pick up another gasket in case I needed back in there to adjust the clutch or something, so I had searched &#8220;Harley&#8221; in my google maps app. It came up with a Harley Dealer on my way south, but also Grimms Cycle Salvage about 10 miles south of me. I checked their website, and they dealt with all brands of bikes, but seemed to specialise in American Iron. That sounds like my kind of place. I found it all right, walked in, and that&#8217;s when I met Sean and Kat.<o></o>
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I got the gasket from Kat and got to talking bikes. Sean comes out and we start talking. I mention riding my Buell to Guatemala, and his interest peaks up. Seems he is planning to ride to Costa Rica to see his buddy, and, well, we got to talking even more.<o></o>
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Turns out he has an FXR and a couple of tuber Buells. He comes out to look at my shovel, notices my muffler, which I have known for a while could use some welding, but is not leaking exhaust or going anywhere. He asks me if I want to weld it. I say &#8220;sure&#8221;. He asks if I can weld, and I tell him &#8220;nope&#8221; He says he is a good welder, but has a dislocated shoulder (he also has a WR450). He says if I pull it, do all the prep work, help him support the cable, he will weld it up. Sounds good. So we dick around with it for a bit, BSing the whole time. He welds it, I clean it up with a die grinder, still BSing about bikes and stuff.<o></o>
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While I am reinstalling the muffler, he starts talking about some work he wants to do with one of his Buells. I mention that I met a guy from Corpus Christi last January while riding through Mexico who built some Buell choppers. He looks at me funny, says was he on his way to Costa Rica, and I says &#8220;yeah&#8230;..&#8221;<o></o>
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Turns out he is real good friends with the fellow I met at a gas station on my birthday last winter and that&#8217;s who he was going to ride down and see. Click Here to see the post.<o></o>
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I head out, well into the afternoon. Sean gives me his card, and says if I need anything, he probably has it, and he will ship it to me. I invite him and Kat to come and stay with me and my family when he does his trip to Alaska in a couple years.<o></o>
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Sean and Kat have a motorcycle salvage, new and used parts and repair business for all makes and models. He fabs parts and builds awesome custom bikes. If you are looking for parts for whatever you&#8217;re riding, there is a good chance he has it or can get it. Click Here for their website (a shameless plug)<o></o>
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Away I go, with a welded muffler and a couple of good gaskets should I need them.<o></o>
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I turn onto Hwy 6 East, and am caught off guard by the colors of the changing leaves.<o></o>
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It was nice to get off the freeway again.<o></o>
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It was a great road, with great scenery. <o></o>
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I stopped at Green River for gas and got talking to an older biker from Colorado for a while. He told me about some good riding in his area I might check out.<o></o>
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I turned towards Moab, and stopped for a shot of the hills.<o></o>
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I also took the opportunity to get yet another picture of my bike, cause, well, I don&#8217;t have enough yet J<o></o>
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I pull into Moab, and it&#8217;s crazy busy. It&#8217;s, like, Monday night, and the traffic is nuts. I whip into a Motel 6 to get a room, and she asks If I have a reservation. &#8220;for a Motel 6&#8221; I said. And she says, &#8220;yes&#8221;, like it&#8217;s the most normal thing in the world. Turns out they were booked solid, and almost every other motel had a &#8220;No Vacancy&#8221; sign out.<o></o>
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Crap<o></o>
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I found one run down looking place with rooms still. $135 a night. I said &#8220;Wow&#8221; and left.<o></o>
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I checked one more place before I thought I would have to ride back to Green River, and was able to get a nice room for an almost reasonable rate.<o></o>
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Moab is pretty touristy, and walking down town showed it. Almost every business, store or restaurant was geared towards tourists. And it was super busy everywhere. I asked one local about it, and he said because now was cool enough for people to enjoy it here. <o></o>
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I checked out a Chinese buffet and headed back to my room for the night.<o></o>
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And&#8230;. There is still no oil under my bike!!<o></o>

Please excuse me if you already know this, but I figure I should put it out there. The shovels, from the factory, recycled the oil in the primary back into the oil supply. A lot of guys have isolated the primaries in the past, its a VERY popular mod. But If your primary was not isolated, that silicone can very easily end up in your engine and block oil passages. It happens very frequently and is a killer. I would hate to jinx you, but just thought I should throw the warning out.

Looks like you are having a great trip!

Thanks for mentioning it sintax

Yeah, not one of Harleys better idea.Putting oil from a chain drive primary back into the engine oil. Mod was done before I got it, and I have done the mod to my bikes in the past.

Having a great time. Loving Utah. I am thinking Colorado tomorrow.....we'll see what happens :)

Great RR so far. I have a '78 FHL myself and love it!

Ruud