Last Week's Ride - Highway 3

Last week I was fortunate enough to ride out on Highway 3 to the Okanagan and come back three days later. For those of you who don't know Highway 3 is the 'scenic route' to the coast from Calgary and southern Canada. The whole highway once you get off 22 coming down from Calgary and get onto the 3 is full of motorcyclists. Once you get deeper into BC it's easy to see why.

Twisties abound, and you'll often find yourself riding hard through a mountain pass only to be blown away by a breathtaking vista that showcases the natural beauty BC is famous for. My favourite leg of the highway is the one between Creston and Osoyoos, there is not a lot of developement along that trail, and it's where the curves in the road get real agressive. There's nothing like ripping through tight turns at a decent clip and being able to simply rip open the throttle and pass all the minivan imprisoned squares while you arduously climb a massive mountain in the middle of nowhere. Also, once I ended up in Osoyoos I hit up the highway to Keremeos and then hopped over to Penticton, it was a beautiful ride through those dry, almost desert hills.

Being that I was riding a sportster with the stock gas tank, with a grand total of 3.3 gallons of space, stops were frequent. I was itching to test out the advertised 60 MPG highway on this bike, unfortunately it wasn't quite that fuel effecient, however there were several mitigating factors. On the ride down to Crowsnest Pass early Sunday morning it was perhaps 3 degrees celsius out, tops. Regrettably this forced me to warm my hands up on the engine itself, seeing as I was doing a decent clip of 120 kph pretty much consistently. The wind chill was ferocious at this time of year, and until about 10 am I had to do this with regularity. This prevented me from keeping a constant speed and I drifted into Crowsnest Pass in bad need of gas.

That was the only hiccup though. This winter I'm definitely going to try and invest in some heated grips and perhaps saddlebags as the backpack started to wear on my shoulder pretty hard by the end of the first trip. I also got a few dirty looks from fellow HD riders because of my full face helmet. I own a bucket helmet, but I rarely take it outside of city limits, simply because I don't feel I have enough riding experience yet to take a bee (which has happened at highway speed) or worse yet a rock, to the face and maintain control of the bike. Plus all those dudes had windshields anyways.

It was a great ride, unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me at the time, but next time I will for sure. Highly reccomended for those itching to get out on the highway and like to ride.

Things I Love & Hate About: Harley Davidson

Let me start this post off with some salient facts about myself, I own a Harley Davidson XL883, and I could not be happier with it. Harley Davidson is one of the oldest and most respected of all motorcycle manufacturers, weathering recessions, depressions, poor manufacturing and strikes that laid low storied companies like Vincent, Norton, Indian and yes, even Triumph, which has roared back with a vengeance. Make no mistake, I love Harley Davidson. That said there are a few things that irk or downright piss me off about the motor company.

First off, one of the biggest things I love about Harley; they make sexy bikes. No other motorcycle manufacturer can even come close to the stripped down badness of a Harley. This is taken from the March 2008 copy of Cycleworld, where the new softail Rocker C was stacked up against Yamaha's Star Raider S:

"In terms of appearance, the Rocker is the runaway winner, a minimalist bike with so much custom "cool" that it's hard to believe it rolled off a major manufacturer's assembly line. The Motor Company is to be congratulated for having the stones to produce a bike that so closely emulates one-off customs yet still behaves like a real motorcycle. Plus, it's a Harley, a factor that offers a cachet no other brand can equal."

As far as ascetics go, very few bikes can come close a Harley. It should be noted that the Rocker got a seriously favorable review, but for reasons I will discuss later it lost the head to head match up. Harley Davidson has come a long way as far as quality is concerned as well. However it's not all roses. Japanese bike manufacturers still outclass Harley when it comes to a few key areas, especially brakes:

"But in terms of function, the Raider S excels in virtually every aspect-engine performance, handling, cornering, breaking, comfort, versatility. It's also some $3300 cheaper, giving it a huge edge in the more-for-less category. Simply put, it's just a better all-around motorcycle."

That is the unfortunate truth, I bolded the price differential because the displacement on the Yamaha was a massive 1900ccs while the Rocker uses the same 96ci (1584cc) engine that most Softails do. The price differential brings me to my next point, and I suppose this has to do with the cachet that is so intrinsic to the Harley experience.

When I walk into a Harley dealership, what do I see? Doctors and Dentists and professional types of all stripes. That in and of itself is not a bad thing, however when one looks at some statistics about the average Harley rider, it becomes somewhat annoying given their 'bad to the bone' marketing and attitude. Unfortunately there is still another beef a lot of bikers have with Harley: it can be somewhat of a fashion show. Too many people decked out head to toe in brand new orange gear that's never seen the highway.

I may make 'Things I Love & Hate About' a regular thing on this blog, but we'll see, this one turned into quite the long winded article. I am a new motorcyclist, and I fully realize my conception of Harley Davidson will change over time as I ride more, own different motorcycles and (hopefully) attend NAIT for a pre-employment Motorcycle Mechanic course next year, but for now that's how I see The Motor Company, lots to love, a few nagging things to hate.