I went on holiday over Christmas and the New Year with my Canadian friend and his family who kindly invited me over to share their hired villa after my recent separation. The thought of a traditional ‘family Christmas’ didn’t appeal to me this year, so Florida was an easy decision to make.
Well my buddy is an avid biker and owns a very large Kawasaki Vulcan touring bike (you know, one of the Harley clones!). So we decided that while in Florida, we would both hire Harleys for a day and go for a ride somewhere. It was all arranged with Harley Davidson Orlando. We turned up a couple of days beforehand to formally make the booking and have a nose around. Despite the time of year, they were surprisingly busy, both for rentals and sales. He sat on a few bikes, but in the end went for renting a Street Glide. I decided to rent the Softail Heritage Classic as this is the bike I really like the look and price of and am seriously considering buying, so what better way to check it out than to ride it for a day.
The Heritage Classic I rented was the 2012 version, with the new 103 engine (as opposed to the old 98 engine). I don’t know what difference the engine makes, of course Harley say it is huge, but then they want you to buy a new bike, not a secondhand one.
We turned up on the 30th December as booked at 10:00. They were very busy booking bikes out and we took our place in the queue. It was a pretty slick process and the guy carried out a careful pre-rental inspection as we both pointed out imperfection in the bike to be sure we didn’t wind up paying for ‘damage’ that we didn’t make. He was very fair. I quick run through of the controls and differences on a Harley and we had the keys and were ready to go by 11:00. The rental period was for 24 hours from the time we took the bikes, but he said as long as they were back by midday tomorrow, it would b fine.
Checking the bikes out of the dealership
We got ourselves sorted out, with stuff stowed in the saddlebags as required. Me, well although the weather was perfect (20-25 degrees, sunny and no wind), I was going to ride in my leather A2 flying jacket, with leather biking gloves, jeans and a half-helmet. My buddy? Well, jeans, a T-shirt and wrap around shades of course (he wore his helmet until out of sight of the dealership, then off it came as they are not legally required in Florida).
As this would be my first ride of more than 30 minutes since passing my test in September, and I was riding on the ‘wrong side of the road’ etc. I asked my buddy if he would always lead and do the navigation and I would follow. This relieved me of the mental capacity required for those functions and left me free to concentrate on riding the bike and the traffic around me. This worked out very well and after an hour or so, I was wondering what I was worried about.
The terrible twosome!
First we went to my see a friend of my buddy who was also in Orlando at the same time, so a modest 25 minute ride while we found the condo / development they were staying at. This gave me time to get a feel for the bike and start to settle in. I really took no time at all. Yes, it is of course bigger and heavier than the Suzuki GS500 that I trained on for my test, and I would certainly need more time and practice to really nail the slow speed u-turns and slalom ‘tricks’, but I felt really good on it. The acceleration at all speeds was crisp (OK, not sports bike, bike plenty lively enough to outpace cars). Everyone says the brakes on a Harley are ponderous, but I found them fine, OK again, compare it to a light performance sports bike and they will of course feel that way, but is it fair to compare a Lotus Elise to a Chrysler 300? Of course not.
After our first stop, we checked the route and decided to head out to Daytona Beach, where else? Off went trying to get onto the I4 public highway, but we sat in traffic for so long that we gave up, headed for a garage for lunch and a plan B session. Plan B was still Daytona Beach, but lets avoid the boring and crowded highway and try the I417 toll road then turn off onto the 415 heading north east, then left onto the 44 heading east to New Smyma Beach, then pick up the Hwy 1 coast road north to Daytona Beach. That was the plan and that is how it turned out.
My buddy on his Street Glide
The toll road was as expected much quieter, although we had to stop at the various toll plazas for annoying $1.00 tolls every few miles, but we were moving freely in minimal traffic. We pootled along at 65mph in general, which is very comfortable on a Harley, just about enough to get into the 6th overdrive gear.
The 415 was a lovely road. Very quiet with very little traffic, quite a few other bikes (mandatory low show of the left hand as you pass each other). It was a normal two way road with speed limits varying from 45 to 55 mph, but there was no hurry and it was great to get a look at ‘normal’ Florida countryside and residential houses and ranches away from the endless resorts and developments of Orlando. We stopped at a garage to gas up and to check where we were. Coincidentally, we were at the precise junction of the 415 with the 44, which is where we wanted to turn off anyway. So onto the 44 headed to the Atlantic coast.
My buddy took a bit of a wrong turning and crossed over the intra-coastal waterway at Smyma and started heading south on the 1A. Well we both knew from the sun that this was the wrong direction, so after a couple of miles he pulled onto a car park by the beach to check the map. We had no GPS and no bike-to-bike comms (I think comms will be essential for future trips, but happy to wing it without a GPS and see what happens). I had no problem with the ‘detour’ as I was enjoying the ride so much. A quick check of the map and we decided to backtrack and pick up Hwy 1 running the other side of the intra-coastal. We found this easy enough, then along this busier coast road to Daytona.
We chugged along Hwy 1 heading to Daytona in normal traffic. Loads of bikes and loads of the obligatory ‘salutes’. The vast majority of bikes we saw were other Harleys, but some were ‘rice burners’ (US name for Japanese bikes), who noticeably didn’t give as many ‘salutes’ – hey, they were probably abused children!
The Harley makes the most amazingly gorgeous noise. Non-Harley riders joke that you have hearing loss after two hours on a Harley, sorry guys, not so, it is a wonderful noise. Neither of us could avoid the childish and completely unnecessary ‘blipping’ of the throttle from idle when sat at traffic lights and it’s funny how the throttle is directly connected to the muscles in the face that make you grin like an idiot – the higher the RPM, the bigger the grin!!!
Made it!!!!
We passed a sign saying ‘South Daytona’ and chugged along. We knew the beach must be over to our left, and eventually we came to a sign saying ‘beaches’ and turned left immediately. Within a couple of blocks, we had clearly arrived!!! There was a huge arch saying ‘Welcome to the famous Daytona Beach’. We could see the beach and sea ahead and just slowed right down and carried on riding, the asphalt gave was to sandy asphalt (not good), then to simply compacted sand – we were there, we were riding on the world famous Daytona Beach, right there on the hallowed sand! The sand was very fine and white and quite firm and compacted. We turned carefully onto the semi-marked sand ‘road’ and chugged along in first at 5 – 10 mph following the guide signs and avoiding other beach users wandering across – no rules here, it’s live and let live.
I hit a short and looser bit of sand and just kept off the throttle and brakes as I could feel the wheels slipping under me, it would be awful to drop the bike in front of everyone, especially as my buddy is looking so stable and serene! I made it well enough and was wondering how the hell we could ever park the bikes up, as we had no blocks of wood to spread the load on the foot of the side stand, and the side stands alone would instantly dig in and drop the bike. We pulled in off the ‘sand road’ to park and sat there. Tried the side stands and of course they were useless. But hey, my buddy to the rescue. He rolled up his spare shorts and other bits of clothing he had in the panniers and put these under the sidestand foot and hey presto, a load spreader! Bikes safely parked up we switched off, dismounted and took it all in. Amazing!
My prize winning entry to Gay Times !!!
Of course, I had to get some of that lovely warm sun on my body, so out came the ‘Gay Times’ photo of the year opportunity!! Meanwhile, my buddy just had to have a paddle in the Atlantic! We took in the sights and posed for the ‘I was there’ photos with the bikes. Every year they have the famous / infamous ‘Bike Week’ in March, with bikes descending on the place from all over the world and parading up and down the beach. Along with the usual ‘biker’ attractions like scantily clad and impossibly nubile young ladies, tattoos, bike parades, leather apparel and of course the famous ‘smack my ass for $2’ ladies in thongs and chaps. It must be the most amazing experience and one to put on the bucket list for a future date for sure!
We stopped at a tourist shop and my buddy had to buy some ‘Daytona Bike Week’ baseball hats – been there, got the hat!
It was getting toward late afternoon now, so we decided to head off for somewhere to eat, then head back to Orlando. We cruised around Hwy 1 and eventually settled on a pretty honest bar which had both an outside and inside bar. The locals all seemed to be pretty old and there was an amazing Karaoke going on inside, average age 92 it looked like. So we opted for the outside bar and a couple of lite beers and a burger meal. All for a trifling $20 – gotta love America!
By now, it was properly dark as we headed back. This time we took the easiest route to the I4 and rode on the interstate. It was busy-ish but not too bad. We chugged along at 65 – 75 mph and I was mainly in the sixth / overdrive gear, but even then, the pickup was good when needed. The traffic thickened up noticeably as we approached Orlando and on occasions I got separated from my buddy, but always managed to find him again.
We pulled in again to gas up and I managed to miss the hole and splash gas over the bike and some of the hot bits, pray that it doesn’t catch!!! The I4 wasn’t much fun so we looked at an alternate route back. We figured if we headed west we would do better to pick up the 429 toll road that went alongside Lake Apopka and around the west of Disney World and brought us precisely into ‘our’ junction at Indian Ridge south of Disney World. As expected, the 429 wasn’t busy, in fact it was damned near deserted and was pristine tarmac! We cruised along, having to stop regularly for the various toll booths, annoying, but it gave us a break and was far better than the alternative. Besides, it was a great way of giving it some real acceleration in pulling away from the booths!
We got back to the villa at about 20:30 after what my buddy clocked as a 225 mile ride. We parked the bikes in the garage for the night and had some well earned beer and bragging rights.
Next day (new years eve) we had time for a few ‘PR photos’ of us riding the bikes up and down the neighbourhood road, probably much to the annoyance of the residents! Then for a local ride with my buddy taking his wife pillion on the back of his bike. We dropped the bikes back at the Harley dealership while I bought the obligatory T-shirt.
PR photos!
Well that was a really great day and my first really decent ride on a Harley – and I loved it! I was very pleased with the Softail Heritage Classic and I really think that this could be the bike for me. A lot of ‘firsts’ for me on a bike (well, first time since I was riding a small 125cc commuter bike nearly 30 years ago that is). First time on a Harley Softail Heritage Classic, first time to Daytona, first time riding on sand, first time riding over 70mph, first time riding in the USA, first time riding at night, first time pulling tight U-turns with such a big bike, longest distance ridden in a day etc.
Well, I loved it and I’m hooked, but then I knew that I would be!
