One long trip.
By: M. Battaglia

One year in the planning,and a lot of "I don't think that thing can go that far." or "You've got to be kidding." and "Yeah right, you are going to ride across country on that little Suzuki." This is just some of the negative input I received from my Harley riding friends. Not once did I have any doubts though. So we planned, plotted and mapped out journey from northern lower Michigan to LA via old Route 66. I am not going to bore you with every little detail of every thing we did, every turn we took, or every thing that happened, I'm just tickle your senses a bit with some of the highlights.

After several sleepless from anticipation nights, September 15 finally arrived. My brother in law Greg (2004 HD Road Glide), a friend of ours Dan (2001 HD Electraglide) and myself (2000 SV650) met at Gregs house for our trip down the motherroad. We had to meet up with two others about 1/2 hour south of our place, Paul (2003 HD Road King), and Kitty, yes a chick, (2001 HD Sportster 1200 Custom).

We fueled up and were on our way...destination Chicago and the beginning of "The old road." After arriving downtown Chicago we got split up in a mess of traffic, 30 minutes later we reunited in front of the Art Institute for the ceremonial start of Rt 66 Photos.

Saddled up, ready to go. What the F%^$? Pauls HD alarm system will not disarm.The bike will not even turn over. The entire electrical system is shut down. How can this be? "It's a Harley, they are the best bikes in the world!" Did I mention Paul is from Greece, and Euro"peons" know a thing or two about motorcycles, and he was the most vocal about my SV's ability. Well 3 hours later, after tearing apart half of the HD on the sidewalk, and learning a few new Greek words, he finally gets hold of the local HD dealer who tells us to move the bike to another location about 50 feet away. Apparently there is interference from the tall buildings and all of the cell phones, so this kind of thing happens. Voila! We are off...5:30 pm...rush hour!

We rode to our first Rt 66 landmark...ate a really, really late lunch...at Del Rhea's Chicken Basket in Willowbrook. Great food, and headed to our first nights lodging at the Flea Bag Arms Motel. Yes we all got a bunch of flea bites.

The next few days were just terrific. Not a problem. My SV started to impress even the biggest nay sayers. My fuel mileage was in the mid to high 40's vs the high 20's to low 30's of my counterparts. I never once had problems "keeping up" as for the most part I was the 2nd bike in the group. My SV was loaded with saddle bags, a tail trunk with tools (for my friends) chain lube etc., a 30" wide large duffel bag, and a tank bag. I installed a givi windshield for the trip which proved to be a worthwhile decision.

Oklahoma and Texas were challenging though. Sustained cross winds near 40 mph forced me to slow down to around 60-65 mph. speed limit was 75, so this was a bit annoying to the heavyweights...too bad. Texas, ah yes, Texas. Amarillo and the Big Texan Steakhouse...72 ounces of cholesterol packed steak awaits any challenger. Low and behold one of the locals advises us to avoid the hype and sure disappointment, "go to The Hoffbrau" he said. While we were waiting for Kitty's Sportster to be repaired at the Harley Dealer, oh yeah it needed intake gasket and carb work, we decided to take the service writers advice and skip the Big Texan.

Onward to Arizona and a ton of awesome riding, side trips and The Grand Canyon. Words can not do this magnificent site justice. Never, in my 51 years, have I been at a total loss for words, until now. If you see only one thing in your lifetime, make it The Grand Canyon.

California and the desert were next. About 102 degrees for several hours, almost no traffic or gas stations so better fill up whenever the opportunity presents itself. The one lone gas station in the middle of nowhere, a must stop for gas and hydration for the ol' body. $3.52 a gallon for premium, Those bastards! Paul said It's time for an oil change, so, you guessed it, another Harley dealership. Victorville/Victoryville (something like that) CA. Everyone, well except me, got their oil changed while we had lunch. $90 was the average charge with full synthetic oil. I too would have gotten hosed except the arrogant SOB service advisor started on his HD rant yelling at me about how he would rather push a Harley than ride a Jap bike, and he will never have his mechanics touch anything but a Harley etc. you know, the usual crap.

During lunch I stewed over the way I was treated and Kitty convinced me to do something about it. This was a huge dealership with no less than 30 bikes on display outside and twice that many indoors with an accessories dept of about 1500 square foot. The owner was in, and very apologetic. He and the service manager meet with me, and they decided to give the service advisor some time off unpaid.

Moving on, we stayed the night about 65 miles east of LA . The next morning was the final leg of the Mother Road. Santa Monica, right by the famous pier, is the marker denoting the end of Rt 66. We spent a few hours before leaving for Vegas. On the freeway we made good time, that is until Pauls HD started spraying oil out of the air filter. Yet another HD problem. Some Hd riders stopped to help and seemed to know what was wrong assuring Paul that this was probably an oil overfill problem. Well it happened 2 more times before finally stopping. When we arrived in Vegas Greg and I were abandon by the others in search of cheap hotel rooms. There was more traffic than I have ever seen. One hour to travel 2 blocks down the strip. Well...Gregs bike overheated and stalled. We were forced to park for a while, but that was ok. Greg had been talking up the Harley Davidson Cafe and the huge display of Harleys on an overhead conveyer that rotated around the cafe for all to see. We were starved and went in, ordered, ate and relaxed. About the rotating display of Harleys...it was broke down.

The rest of the ride was pretty much hammer down, all freeway, smooth sailing. We wanted to end the trip on a good note so we planned to stop at Del Rhea's but Paul and Dan wanted to get home. Kitty went on ahead to visit a friend, so Gerg and I had dinner there, spent the night with family in Chicago and headed home the following morning. At a gas stop in MI we met back up with Kitty and finished the last 60 miles together.

Two weeks passed by and we had a photo viewing reunion at Gregs. We talked and laughed about everything that happened. The one thing that came up time and time again was "that little Suzuki sure surprised everyone" except me!

Four months have passed since the trip and I think about the 14 days and 6000 trouble free miles on my SV just about every day.

(Just fyi... I did change oil in CA and lubed and adjusted my chain daily.)