Monday, July 02, 2007

Texas Road Run 2007

The ride when all said and done covered 3300 miles in 8 days with the longest days ride being 725 miles (all on secondary roads).
Riding an antique Indian motorcycle is a unique experience that you will not get with any other motorcycle.
First off we have to dispel some false misconceptions.
Indians aren’t reliable, can’t go far or are slow.
Fact is Indians are very reliable so much so they can go around the world (Doug Wothke proved that on his 48 Chief in 2006 and I’ve proved it many times riding across the US). Indians do cruise at highway speeds and are extremely comfortable. Built right Indians are very reliable but like anything, there are builders and there are builders. I pride myself as being one of the top builders in the world. Taking it 1 step further today we manufacture improvements into our engines and components for better durability making a Kiwi engine the best engine in the world. Our own proprietary Kiwi 84ci is an awesome strong pulling engine coupled to a 4 speed synchromesh overdrive transmission, wow you have the best Indian touring m/c ever made.
There is always plenty of cheap talk around the Indian camp fire (or websites) and I’ve always been an open kind of guy who just goes out and does it, no fan fair, cut the crap, just do it. Like the old saying goes, when the flag drops, the bull sh-t stops.

I’ve always had confidence in my products and I like to prove just how reliable our Kiwi manufactured Indians are so I decided to ride to the Texas road run which was head quartered around Big Ben National Park along the Mexican boarder.
Texan Stanley Miller was kind enough to extend a personal invitation which I promptly took him up on it, after all Texans are known for their warm hospitality and I was looking forward to some down right Texas ho down hospitality.
Texas is a cool state and it has a pride that I have never experienced in any other state. I keep hearing Texans saying “We should never have joined the union”, gotta admire them.

I was almost ready to set off from Riverside by myself and my Irishman mate Josh Armstrong calls up to see what I’m up to. I told him I was ready to pull out for Texas upon my Indian. He asked who I was riding with which was no one. He said you are crazy. No not at all, I have confidence in my equipment I replied. Riding by myself never bothers me after all I left New Zealand by myself and rode most of the US and Canada by myself, no big deal. Josh was looking for an excuse to get out of town and I enjoy his company. He’s a no BS guy, easy to get along with (well for me anyway) and we both take each thing as it comes with no drama.
The 1st day out we stopped by Arizona Bike Week to visit fellow bike builder and friends Brian and Laura Klock of KlockWerks. Brian built the World’s Fastest Bagger in 06 for Discovery Biker build off and Laura was the rider, 2 super nice people.

We soon learned that gas stations are a rarity as they were usually far and few between. We were in BF Egypt Az and running real low on gas and Josh needed to take a leak (he has a wally mart bladder). We saw a side road that ran parallel to the freeway so we jumped off the freeway and onto it and Josh did his thing. We decided to head off down this nice country road since it was going in the same direction as us only to find out after 5 miles that the road came to a dead end with out any warning. Josh suddenly realizes that he’s real low on gas so that makes 2 of us almost out of gas. Not an ideal situation really since either one of us knew if we’re going to make it. Ah well nothing like an adventure, like I say, make every trip and adventure when you ride an Indian. We back tracked the 5 miles (which now used up 10 miles of precious gas), got back on the freeway and finally coasted into the welcomed gas station out of gas, good timing.
Our next investment was a 2 gal gas can which allowed us to get cocky and take risks knowing we had 2 spare gallons up our sleeve. I ran out 3 more times, nothing like pushing things to their limits.
While cruising into El Paso and looking at 3rd world Mexico just across the river (a stones throw from the freeway) an El Paso cop on his Harley came up along side me to get to get a closer look and he give me a thumbs up. I acknowledged him with a nod and when I looked back into my lane ahead the traffic had suddenly stopped. I hit both brakes and managed to stop in time and I saw him looking back with a horror look on his face to see if I had managed to stop. Of course my Irish mate Josh (behind me) just laughed his guts out. It’s just another adventure upon an Indian.

I like my 1st stop in Texas to be Barnett’s Harley in El Paso, gotta stop by to say hi to the Barnett family. I needed to buy a bike lock but all they had were Harley Davidson embossed locks. I went around with the parts guy for a while bagging on the Harley name as it was an issue. He finally felt my pitty and almost gave it to me since I wasn’t a Harley lifestyle guy wanting to pay extra for the Harley name.
Once we got to Van Horn we turned south heading towards the Mexican boarder and along the way we noticed US boarder patrol officers doing their job, surely seems like Washington has finally stepped things up a bit. Even though I’m an immigrant I could never understand why the US has such a knowingly porous boarder with Mexico, after all shouldn’t it be difficult to enter the US illegally especially since terrorism or terrorist is the key person to keep out. At any rate it was a welcomed sight seeing the boarder patrol agents doing their job. Every time we saw a boarder patrol agent Josh and I would point to each other, I’m not sure what they thought though. At one boarder road side stop I managed to talk a boarder patrol agent into taking my picture along with my green card and their building as a back drop. They all had a good laugh.
People are intrigued with an old Indian and every time I stopped people would come over and talk.
At a gas stop on the 1st day of the ride while on the way to Arizona Bike Week a pick up with 2 new Harley dressers on a trailer pulled in for gas. While he’s filling up the pick up I asked him “do those bikes run”, he replied “yes, why”? “I was just wondering” was my answer. It was my nice way of having a dig at them, here are these 2 dudes with almost brand new Harley’s that’s supposed to be super reliable and the ultimate American tourer and they’re on a trailer while I’m riding my classic without any back up vehicle or anything. Hmm, what’s wrong with this picture???? I call them “chromosexuals”
Antique m/c road runs are always fun as it’s a place to meet fellow riders from all walks of life and all over the country and in some cases all over the world. We all get out and ride our motorcycles and enjoy the sights as the runs are in different scenic parts of the US so it can be a great way to see different parts of the country. While I enjoy the scenery, I especially enjoy the friendships made along the way. Everybody is great and I enjoy being in the country of Texas and in the company of Texans. One respectable guy I have always admired is Roy Reeves. Roy’s dad used to be an Indian dealer and Roy’s a die hard Indian enthusiast making sure his mates get hooked on Indians too. Quite a few of his mates came along and it was a treat to ride and dine with them. I certainly had to keep my wits about me (being a non Texan) as they are characters to say the least and just looking for something to poke fun at. My impression of the Texas countryside is its usually flatish land with gentle rolling brown hills however Big Ben National Park actually has mountains and the Rio Grande river that separates the US from Mexico, wow, pretty cool area. 1 piece of road that was just outside the park and along the Rio Grande river had a hill with a 15% grade either side of it. The cool part about it was the view at the top but the hill had no flat or level spot at the top as you were either going up it or down it, it was one of those rare roads that came to a point.
After doing the road run Josh and I wanted to take a more northerly route home on Thurs however there was a bad cold and wet front coming down from the north due to hit either Wed night or Thurs morning. We packed all of our gear onto our bikes by 7am and the weather looked ok so we said to hell with it, let’s do it. We wanted a scenic back country trip for the return ride to Calif so the chance of hitting ugly weather didn’t out weigh us having the prospect of some good scenery in a part of the country neither one of us had traveled, another adventure. We headed north from Alpine TX to New Mexico through Carlsbad and Roswell helping a fellow motorcyclist broken down on the side of the road along the way. I had to do Roswell as it’s known the world over for its space aliens. Our mission in Roswell was to find something with space aliens on it to have our bikes photographed next to. A local cop pointed us towards the space alien museum which did the trick perfectly. Another adventure. From here we headed west through Socorro NM which was the only bit of freeway (2 miles) we did for the entire 725 miles that day. At about 9.30 pm we ended up near Eagar AZ and the only place open for a bite to eat was MacDonalds. As I parked my bike a nice guy came up to me and after a bit of talking realized I was Kiwi. He was one of our customers and we had a nice chat, took some photos, ate well and hit the highway again. The last 100 miles was at about 50 mph as we were in a wooded area and we did not want the chance of running into a dear. It was a long 100 miles that seemed to take forever as it was cold but we eventually ended up safely in Holbrook AZ at midnight. We seemed to have lucked out weather wise as the cold front was now behind us. The next day, Dallas and Alpine TX had snow so we were darn lucky to have enjoyed its delay making the countryside and ride just that much more enjoyable. The rest of the ride home was pretty normal except we took a side trip to Las Vegas via the traffic jammed Hoover dam which was over 100 degrees. We couldn’t strip enough clothes off fast enough. While in Vegas we had to stop in and visit our mates Nevada Bob and Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy has the coolest sports bar and grill and on his menu he has lamb chops. “Hey Jimmy are those New Zealand lamb chops” I asked jokingly. “Of course mate, just for you”. I had 3 helpings (12 chops) and 1 plate of big tasty juicy scallops (5 to a lb). Jimmy does it right, thanks mate.
While in Las Vegas we took in Viva Las Vegas, a rockabilly and chop rod show which was cool. Everyone got a kick out of my Indian being ridden in with bugs all over the windshield.
This trip was also used for testing out some new components that we had been working on for a few years which now got the final long distance testing done. All passed with flying colors which can be seen on our new products web page.
1/ The silent crankcase vent plugs into the end of the cam cover breather tube (after removing the breather disc) and avoids the engine pressurizing during prolonged highway speeds which tends to cause oil to seep out of many parts of the engine. This totally eliminates any oil seepage by using this vent plus the nice part about it is it is small and easy to hide and is totally silent, no audible clicking noise at all. Cost 29.99
2/ Re-useable and washable performance air filter which requires no fancy adapter plate. This performance air filter is a plug and play filter, economical and long lasting. Just pop off the air filter cover, pop the new filter in and re-fit the cover, it’s that easy. Fits Indian and Harley’s with J slot air cleaner covers. Cost 29.99
3/ Sport” windshield. I’m not a fan of windshields especially the big ones that is mostly seen on antique Indians so I wanted to give this small “sport” windshield a try. I was looking for something to break the wind from my body so when I got off it at the end of the day I was not beat up. Since this trip was a ride I wanted to cruise at around 70 mph, I wanted a windshield that was high quality, small and would not cause turbulence around my body. It won in all categories and did an out standing job. I hold it directly responsible for me being able to do the 725 mile day and me still being rather fresh at the end of it. Comes with stainless steel hardware and is easily removable in a minute with no fuss at all. Cost 159.99 with brackets
All in all a very fun, enjoyable and successful ride covering 3300 miles in 8 days. Good people, good motorcycles equals a good time. Another fun adventure upon an Indian, your turn next.



3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The on your Indian was designed and built by Frank Byford - yet your Blog headline says "All parts are Kiwi engineered and tested".

Frank never did engineering or testing for Kiwi.

6:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That whole area out there in West Texas, the Big Bend area, is a great place to ride. I've been out there on my Indian as well, and look forward to going back. Adventure at its finest!

9:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well written article.

6:51 AM  

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