ROUTE 66
SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE
28 March 2022
The Trip is ON! Tickets received, including change of bike from Low Rider to Softail Heritage.
After the event;
While away, on the trip, I did a daily update on my Facebook page (David Rose), and on Blipfoto.com/djrose007.
These updates are replicated in the 'Day By Day' page on the website.
I was to be riding R66 in April 2020 but the CoronaVirus (Covid#19) stopped all European travel to the United States.
Ride was re-booked for April 2021. That, of course, didn't happen, so then it was postponed yet again to April 2022, and that is when it did actually go ahead.
I was starting to wonder if I'll finish up being the oldest biker to ride Route 66!
Feel free to browse what is here and hope you find something useful. Lots of photographs and videos on the appropriate pages.
Me, my Bikes, my Dream.
I added 'SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE' to the header of this page, why?
While reading the book "Route 66 Adventure Handbook", by Drew Knowles, I found myself getting quite excited at the prospect of riding the Mother Road.
He then mentioned things that people say you must remember to take with you. Many things were mentioned, which he didn't disagree with, but there was one very important, THE most important, thing; "The Spirit of Adventure".
I am doing the ride with an organised, group, ride with Eagle Riders but after reading this I think I may opt to do it again, which was my original wish, in a few years and giving myself much longer to explore not only the Route 66 but the roads that connect to it.
I can recommend the book, I found it to be very informative and inspiring.
Route 66 'America's Mother Road', has featured in films and is an iconic target for motorcyclists from all over the world.
Most people will know of, if not seen, the film 'Easy Rider' with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.
Just get on a bike and ride, what a great vision of life that is.
While reading the book "Route 66 Adventure Handbook", by Drew Knowles, I found myself getting quite excited at the prospect of riding the Mother Road.
He then mentioned things that people say you must remember to take with you. Many things were mentioned, which he didn't disagree with, but there was one very important, THE most important, thing; "The Spirit of Adventure".
I am doing the ride with an organised, group, ride with Eagle Riders but after reading this I think I may opt to do it again, which was my original wish, in a few years and giving myself much longer to explore not only the Route 66 but the roads that connect to it.
I can recommend the book, I found it to be very informative and inspiring.
Route 66 'America's Mother Road', has featured in films and is an iconic target for motorcyclists from all over the world.
Most people will know of, if not seen, the film 'Easy Rider' with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.
Just get on a bike and ride, what a great vision of life that is.
Nowadays it isn't all choppers and bobbers, although they are still around of course, it's more likely to be Harley Street Glides, Ultra Glides, Softails with a smattering of Honda and other bikes. Some adventurers may even attempt the 2,450 (give or take a mile or two) on Vespa/Lambretta scooters and there is no reason they can't do it, just takes a little longer maybe.
The bike featured at the top of this page is my own bike in the UK, it's a Harley Davidson XL1200T Sportster Superlow.
The bike featured at the top of this page is my own bike in the UK, it's a Harley Davidson XL1200T Sportster Superlow.
My own dream started in 1974 when I got my first motorcycle. I was 24 years old and a Corporal Telegraphist in the Royal Air Force. I was living off camp with a couple of friends so it wasn't easy to get the shift coach. One of my friends had a Honda Cub 90cc and I rode it a couple of times to work and back and decided I'd like my own bike.
It appeared in a showroom in Gloucester, UK. Nettletons Motorcycles, which changed hands a couple of times, is now an estate agents offices. The bike was a red and very shiny Honda CB175. The photograph on the right is the only one I have of that bike. Digital photography had not arrived yet. Film and developing were not cheap so you had to make every photograph count. |
My next bike was in the 90's. I had a gap due to travelling abroad with the RAF and also working and living in Saudi Arabia for 8 years. When I returned to the UK in November 1989 we (I was married in 1975) had a Honda Accord, the old one with the double headlights) and I ran that until it was broken into in Maidenhead and pushed into the River Thames!
I decided that for the weekly commute from Maidenhead to Gloucester a bike was the answer so I found myself a Honda CB250N Superdream. Like the one on the left, taken from the internet as I can't find any photographs of my actual bike.
Life got easy and I got fatter, I was promoted and given a company car which, in the winter, was a lot more comfortable for the commute. I had that bike for a couple of years before selling it as it wasn't really getting the use it deserved.
So you get the idea. When you are working, married, children, biking is not something you take terribly seriously because you just don't have the time. It's great fun when you are riding but it tends to be for a purpose, getting to work, commuting back to home in my case.
I decided that for the weekly commute from Maidenhead to Gloucester a bike was the answer so I found myself a Honda CB250N Superdream. Like the one on the left, taken from the internet as I can't find any photographs of my actual bike.
Life got easy and I got fatter, I was promoted and given a company car which, in the winter, was a lot more comfortable for the commute. I had that bike for a couple of years before selling it as it wasn't really getting the use it deserved.
So you get the idea. When you are working, married, children, biking is not something you take terribly seriously because you just don't have the time. It's great fun when you are riding but it tends to be for a purpose, getting to work, commuting back to home in my case.
It wasn't until the company (Nortel Networks) folded in March 2009 that I went back to biking, at first it was for something to do so I found a wreck of a Suzuki GSX750FK (1989) and started to rebuild it. That is it in the photograph before and after but for various reasons, including access to the garage with children moving house, storing furniture etc. it took me four years to restore it to, as close as I could get, its original state.
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My wife has never liked motorbikes and said to me "If you want to start riding again you have to get that one working" which neither of us thought I would be able to do.
However, in 2014 I got the Suzuki through the MoT test and on the road. Didn't particularly like the style of riding though and quickly changed it for a Honda VT750C2 Shadow ACE (American Classic Edition).
I rode that Shadow for another couple of years before I started doing longer rides. Took it on my first RBLR1000 ride and a trip to Belgium but I needed a bigger bike to do those journeys, or so I thought. In actual fact the Shadow could do the journeys but being a 750cc I felt I was holding back some of my rider colleagues but really I wasn't, they were just speeding!
However, in 2014 I got the Suzuki through the MoT test and on the road. Didn't particularly like the style of riding though and quickly changed it for a Honda VT750C2 Shadow ACE (American Classic Edition).
I rode that Shadow for another couple of years before I started doing longer rides. Took it on my first RBLR1000 ride and a trip to Belgium but I needed a bigger bike to do those journeys, or so I thought. In actual fact the Shadow could do the journeys but being a 750cc I felt I was holding back some of my rider colleagues but really I wasn't, they were just speeding!
The bigger bike I moved on to was the Honda CTX1300, a superb bike in every way - except it was very heavy. In the end, another two years, I had dropped it so often when trying to move it around by hand that I realised I was getting older and needed a lighter, smaller, bike.
In June 2019 I very sadly changed it for the Harley XL1200T which, in hindsight, would have been a better bike for me from the start but I did enjoy riding the CTX!
Now I'm getting used to the Sportster it's an exciting bike to ride, it's only 100cc less than the CTX and it's 100kg lighter.
I think riding a Harley Davidson might have been a bit of an incentive to spur me on to do the Route 66 ride, there's something rather special, but indescribably so, about riding a Harley Davidson. People looked at my CTX1300 because it was an awesome looking bike, people look at my Harley just because it's a Harley.
In June 2019 I very sadly changed it for the Harley XL1200T which, in hindsight, would have been a better bike for me from the start but I did enjoy riding the CTX!
Now I'm getting used to the Sportster it's an exciting bike to ride, it's only 100cc less than the CTX and it's 100kg lighter.
I think riding a Harley Davidson might have been a bit of an incentive to spur me on to do the Route 66 ride, there's something rather special, but indescribably so, about riding a Harley Davidson. People looked at my CTX1300 because it was an awesome looking bike, people look at my Harley just because it's a Harley.
Photograph on the left is courtesy of (that means purloined from) http://www.topspeed.com/
They did a great review of the XL1200T.
They did a great review of the XL1200T.