Month: July 2015

This Full Throttle 1,000 mile ride was just the beginning of my ride to Sturgis! Originally I was supposed to ride with fellow LDR rider Reed Kleinman. We were going to do the I.B. Border to Border ride, then we were going to split up and he was going to do the west coast and I was going to head to Sturgis. Unfortunately he had an appointment with the doctor who told him he could not ride until some tests were ran on his heart. (so far nothing to worry about). When that fell through I decided to do the LDR Full Throttle 1000 miles in 24 hours and get to Sturgis in 2 days instead of 3 like I did last year. That was only the first leg. After Sturgis I rode across Montana on 212. Had a spiritual experience at the Battle of the Little Big Horn monument then on to Red Lodge, Mt. Two years ago I took my family to Yellowstone and we drove the Beartooth pass in our Suburban. since then I have wanted to take my bike! I made the ride that day and spent the night in Cooke City. the next day I spent the day in Yellowstone and Teton and spent the night in Jackson Hole. Spent the last night in Beaver, Ut and then crossed over to highway 89 and took one of my favorite roads to Kanab, Ut then on to Flagstaff, Az where I took my favorite road (Lake Mary) to Payson, Az and then back home to Mesa, Az! All said and done I logged 3403 miles in six days!

LDR Member Thomas Morrison and fellow riders Neil Rhoades and Thomas Mondalvo completed the Easy Rider 500, Full Throttle 1,000, and the King of the Road 1,500 rides. Great Ride.

First is our picture, drying our pipes at Rhinehart’s Oyster Bar — Augusta, GA
Great meal, real hole in the wall, “beyond casual”

This is our witness in Lake Park, Officer Lightsey with a student officer patrolling with him.

Congratulations to Ryan Kester, Long Distance Riders youngest rider. Ryan is 8 years old. His birthdate is April 17, 2003. Ryan was a passenger and took this ride with his father, Sean Kester, and fellow riders Ron Clanton and Mark Nichols. The competitive edge must run in the family. See Sean Kester’s member profile September 2011 on our web site.

The 2011 Eid holiday is upon us, the family is not back, what better opportunity to go on a ride through the United Arab Emirates, composed of 7 Emirates: Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Kaimah, Fujeirah and Abu Dhabi.

Having missed out on the HOG Dubai, LDR Ride earlier this year I decided why not give it a try; ride 1,610 km, in less than 24 hours with the additional twist of the summer challenge where temperatures in the UAE reach the 40 45 degrees Celsius during the day.

Now that the challenge was laid out, got my bike checked, read up on the rules for an LDR ride, read the advise on planning a long distance ride, set up my road plan, and informed a few friends of my adventure. That s when our Director Kevin R. Smith said if you do it on Thursday I will join you Can t let you go alone and miss out on a fun day of riding he said.

And so it was on September 1st 2011 we set off from Dubai at 2.15pm with the objective to come back to the starting point within the next 24 hours.

The trip took us from Dubai to Ras Al Kaimah along the E311, passing the Emirates of Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain. In Ras Al Kaimah we did a sharp right down the E18, a left on E87 to catch the E89 that took us to Dibba a small fisherman village along the Indian Ocean. Now going all the way down the E99 to Kalba, last town before entering Oman, passed trough the Emirate of Fujeirah on our way there. From Kalba we made a right turn onto the E102 which took us through the Hajjar mountains all the way to a small town called Al Ruwayyah where we turned left onto the E611 until the exit 50 where we made a left to go on the E66 (Not as famous as your Route 66 and not as scenic) to reach Al Ain, the birth place of the founder of the UAE. From there a straight ride down E22 into the Abu Dhabi Emirate, towards Abu Dhabi city, which we avoided by turning left onto the E 11 towards KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and the harsh desert area of the UAE. A short ride along the E11 to exit 306 before turning left to go into the Liwa desert, following the E65 until the end of the road at which point we had reached halfway. We made a right turn on the E 90 heading for the town of Liwa itself. From Liwa we followed the E45 back towards the E11 which we reached 1 hour ahead of our scheduled time. There a left turn back on the E11 heading for Ghowaifat the last town before entering KSA. Upon reaching the town center of Ghowaifat, we made a beautiful U-turn in front of the border guards (not wanting to enter KAS). And from there onwards, we started our long straight stretch back to Dubai. Just before arriving in Dubai, our friends from the HOG Dubai chapter met us at the petrol station and escorted us to out final destination which we reached at 10.20am. A feeling of satisfaction and pride overcame my fatigue. We had achieved our goal: Riding the 7 UAE Emirates in less than 24 hours (It was Kevin s third Iron Butt and my first).

The whole adventure lasted 1,713 km, took us 20 hours 8 minutes, and we consumed over 40 bottles of small water and 20 cans of so called energy drinks each.

Our bikes, a CVO Road King for Kevin and a Softail Heritage Classic 2008 for me, they were in for the ride and stayed faithful and reliable all the way. Not a single worry

It was just pure pleasure all the way… with a few pains here and there I must admit.

Written by : Philippe Le Gaulois

New Items Available

Long Distance Riders would like to announce two new items in our logo related merchandise created exclusively for our members.

Now available on our web site under the store tab, an item that was created due to overwhelming member request is an exclusive Long Distance Riders member patch. The same high quality as our designation patches, this patch comes in a black and metallic silver color combination.

The second addition to our official LDR merchandise is the Long Distance Riders Member T-shirts. These T’s have the official LDR member patch design on front and our newly created Bad to the Bone symbol on back. These shirts come in either black or white, short sleeve, and range in size from small to 3x.

If you are interested in receiving either of these items, just fill out our merchandise form and add your member number, determine the cost including postage and send it to us for processing.

Rick Hendricks and his son Ricky rode from Ricky’s home in Palmdale, Ca to Fairfield, Ca. They spent the weekend touring Napa Wineries.

Ricky and I are overlooking the California countryside from Monitor Pass on CA Hwy 89 heading west to Markleeville, CA. Beautiful scenery that we never knew existed in California.

A Good Long Ride
1500 miles in 36 hours – June 2011

No one in sight for fifty miles
Sleeping fields sigh as I glide across their spines.
If I can just reach the crest of that hill
This whole day will tumble and out the night will spill.
By Brodie Lodge and Michael Timmins

Along the road in the southwest dessert, at times I felt as if there was no one for fifty miles, or even five hundred miles. And though it was early June and I was riding in the afternoon heat, I found that magical point that we all sometimes experience on a motorcycle. It was 100 degrees when I got out of El Paso, TX headed east, but the air seemed cooler riding the speed limit in that area of 80 mph. As I drifted through portions of the Davis mountains near Van Horn, TX, the air rushed past me as if I were standing still and the earth was moving underneath me. Traffic was light and I enjoyed a hundred miles of this sense of contentment as I was doing what I loved and not thinking about the past or worrying about the future. I was in the groove – in the zone – and loving every minute! Now I’m not saying the ride was not tough or challenging. I was tired, sleepy, hungry, thirsty, cold, hot, and all the other senses we have on a 1500 mile ride over 36 hours. But for that brief period of 100 miles or so, my mind was consciously focused on the task at hand and all was at peace. No phones, no computers, no meetings, no chores – just me and the bike, the wind, the mountains, and the pavement. I like that little place in my mind and I look forward to getting there again on my next long ride.

I got a peaceful easy feeling.
By Jack Tempchin as sung by the Eagles

Randy “Harley Doc” McCamey

The 1500 Mile Adventure with Sean Kester and Ron Clanton

We began in Fate, TX with me, Ron serving as the navigator. This was fine until about 1 mile into the trip when my GPS attempted to take us East in order to go West. As you know, riding down the highway is no time to fight your GPS so I went with the route I know. The trip to Albuquerque and on to Flagstaff was uneventful after that rough beginning. I did enjoy getting to stand on a corner in Winslow Arizona.

After arriving in Flagstaff and completing our documents, we ate at Cracker Barrel and then went to wait for Grand Canyon Harley to open. Two hours later, we got back on the road to pick up our wives in Las Vegas and then continued on to Zion National Park. Just before reaching Las Vegas, we realized that we could fairly easily complete the 1500 in 36 if we could get the girls loaded up quickly. So sitting in Vegas, we had 300 miles to complete and 6 hours to do it in, easy right Sadly, our lack of foresight and wasted time in Flagstaff caught up to us when a MASSIVE storm rolled over the mountains as we arrived in Mesquite, NV. We rolled through some tight, twisting canyon roads at a pretty quick pace until it was clear that the rain was only getting worse. 80 miles short, we pulled over for dinner. Ah well, we still had the return trip to go.

Our time in Zion was great, including an unexpected ride over a 9900 foot pass with snow 5 foot deep on either side of the road. I say unexpected because the temperature dropped to the low 30’s and I only had a t-shirt. So while everyone else was dressed appropriately, I looked (and felt) like a fool.

Back to Vegas for three days and then Sean and I started with getting our picture taken in front of the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign by an enterprising young woman who would take your picture for tips.

We then head to see the Grand Canyon, which was my first time.

I attempted to play it cool as we walked up on the edge but couldn’t stop “WOW” from escaping. Sean was a patient tour guide as we spent far too long admiring the view. I also didn’t count on the next 50 miles having a speed limit of 35 MPH. This combined to put us about an hour behind my schedule. On through Tuba City towards Teec Nos Pos where we went through a 2 hour sand storm of red clay (yes over 100 mile wide sand storm). We continued to Farmington NM and then headed for Los Alamos and our hotel.

You might notice from our route that we never made it to Los Alamos. First my GPS once again struggled with the idea of heading the direction I preferred, so we stayed a while longer on 64 than we should have. This was all trivial compared to the excitement to come.

There are 3 realistic routes from Farmington to Los Alamos. The safe one on the interstate, or two different 2-lane back roads. I chose to take the one called the Los Alamos Highway out of Cuba, NM. This would have been a beautiful ride in the daylight but as it was now midnight and we had been on the road for 13 hours, it was all we could do to stay focused on the twisty mountain roads. Then the real excitement… ELK! I don’t mean a single elk; there were moms and kids in groups. One group, a second, and a third and a fourth. They were beautiful and huge and definitely got our adrenaline pumping as we both knew a single impact would end our trip in a bad way. Just about the time we had gotten into a routine with the elk, an odd cattle guard appeared and then…DIRT ROAD. I couldn’t believe this was happening so I continued on. Sean being a real trooper is still following and so far not cussing me out over the CB. The road stays dirt; one corner; and another; and another. Finally I was mad and embarrassed so I pulled to a stop. Sean quickly concurred that a rutty dirt road at night on Harleys in Elk Country was more than we signed up for, so we turned around.

Back down the twisty roads and yes, the elk are back. Even one group of mule deer this time. All of these paled to the final act. Just before leaving the forest a HUGE 6×6 bull elk was in the road in front of me. His escape route of choice was to go directly up a vertical cliff on the right side of the road. He was beautiful but my only thought was “don’t fall on us!”

Back onto 550, we headed towards I-25. We arrive at Bernalillo, NM just north of Albuquerque at 2 am and I decide that Los Alamos isn’t worth the 160 mile back track. Sean agrees and we head for a Hampton Inn in north Albuquerque. Little do I know that sleep is not soon coming. Something called the Gathering of the Nations has hit Albuquerque and there are no hotel rooms. As we sat in the lobby of the Hampton, I called over a dozen hotels with no luck. Finally a Super 8 in Moriarty NM said they had a no show and if we got there first, the room was ours. I told Sean to follow me and back on the bikes we climbed. What I failed to tell him was that Moriarty is 48 miles away.

I also learned one more lesson on this short stretch. NM has evidently decided that snow plows will no longer destroy their road reflectors, so they cut holes in the road to lower the reflectors. That is fine except that the holes are just the right size for a motorcycle tire. That would normally not be a big issue but 15 hours on the bike and being 3 am, I didn’t handle it so well. A few bone jarring hits and I swerved out of the rut and then aggressively back into our lane. Sean’s only thought…I wonder why he didn’t use a blinker.

Well we got the room, slept 4 hours, and beat a straight line for Fate. I realized that we would be about 10 miles short if we went directly home. So a jog down I-35 to I-20 to 635 gave us an additional 12 miles and we were home free.

Thanks for laying down the challenge and letting us know it was possible. Those were great rides with my best friend that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Now for the coast to coast!!!

Thanks
Ron Clanton

Here are some pictures taken on the 500 mile ride through Southern Nevada by Kaitlyn and her Dad Sean Livie. Kaitlyn is a big Ghost Adventure fan and seeing the Goldfield Hotel was her highlight. They enjoyed the Extraterrestrial Highway.
Kaitlyn is also the youngest Long Distance Rider Member. She is 10 years old.

Written by Mike Bastow LDR Member and Friend
On 11th March 2011 a group of 15 riders including 3 women and one of our youngest members, Akash Dube (just 18 years old) successfully completed a 1700km journey around the UAE. We are particularly proud of Akash, in addition to being one of our youngest members he is also a Leukaemia patient and was still on chemotherapy when he undertook this challenge. Despite my reluctance to accept him onto the ride for his own safety his parents assured me that he was so determined to do the ride that I could not refuse. I have to say he kept the pace all the way and never complained (which is more than can be said for some of the veteran riders!! ) Many of us learnt a great lesson in humility and determination from this young lad. After the ride I received an email from Akash thanking me for organising the ride saying it was “one of the greatest experiences of my life. I cannot wait for the next King of the Road challenge and then on to Born to be Wild Coast to Coast!

I wanted to share this experience with you and also thank you for initiating these challenges. You may not realize this but LDR has given us all, and one particular young man a positive outlook on the future and something to look forward to. I am proud to have been part of this journey – thanks Jack!