A Motorcycle Ride To Remember

By Bob Schwartz

It was a week before Thanksgiving and the wife and I were staying in the Scottsdale area of Phoenix, Arizona. We had gone there for a couple days to relax and take in the sights. Unfortunately, the forecast was for a couple days of rain, and because of job commitments, we just couldn’t change our itinerary.

On the drive out from San Diego, there were just a couple of areas of rain and within about 45 min. the rest of the 6 1/2 hour trip was basically under cloudy skies. I had taken my helmet, motorcycle jacket and boots because I was planning on taking a look at a motorcycle that was offered for sale that was about an hour and a half north of Phoenix. I thought that if the bike looked good and I could reach an acceptable price with the seller, I would just ride it back to San Diego.

Unfortunately, as things turned out, for the four days that we were in Scottsdale it rained every day. We still managed to take in a couple of the sites and my wife went on a three hour tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright residence and school located on the eastern end of town.

I was planning on taking a look at the motorcycle for sale while my wife was on her tour, but, the weather was so bad I just had to call and cancel because I did not relish the fact that I would have to ride about three hours round-trip in rainy thunderstorm conditions.

I decided to take a look at Craigslist to see if there were any Texas Chopper’s being offered for sale in the local area. Well, it just so happened that there was a 2004 Texas Chopper with about 8800 miles on it, located just 20 min. from where we were staying. I went over to take a look, and within minutes had struck a deal to purchase it later that afternoon.

We were leaving Scottsdale the following day, so I asked the seller if he could keep the bike in his garage until I came over Sunday morning to ride it home. So, that was the plan, and the weather forecast for Sunday was improving with just a 10% chance of rain. On the drive over to Chandler, Arizona, where the motorcycle was located, my expectations for beating the rain were crushed as we rode through intermittent rain storm cells.

At the seller’s home the skies did clear and for the first time we saw some patches of blue. I knew that if we could reach Gila Bend, Arizona (approximately 68 miles from the seller’s home), one forecast showed that there was zero chance of rain from there until San Diego. If the forecast would’ve been rain all the way to San Diego, I naturally would have rented a U-Haul rather than ride a new motorcycle in rainy conditions for that length of time.

With patches of blue at the seller’s house and Chandler, I fired up the Texas chopper, and headed over to gas station for fill up before getting on the highway. My experience with the Texas chopper gas tank, is even though it’s rated at a little over 3 gallons, I believe that capacity is on level ground and not mounted on a motorcycle. Personally, I’ve never put more than about 2 1/2 gallons in the tank even when reaching a gas station on what must’ve just been gasoline fumes.

So, not wanting to test the gas tank reserve valve functionality someplace in the middle of the desert, where the next exit could easily be 25 miles or more, I planned out a route where I would stop about every 80 miles or so to gas up. After filling up in Chandler, my next gas was to be Gila Bend, Arizona.

As we left Chandler to get on Highway 10, once again, the forecast of just a 10% probability of rain turned out to be 100% rain within about five or 10 min. on the highway. Luckily, it wasn’t a huge downpour and intermittent in nature, but, as my luck, or lack of luck would have it, the rain quickly changed into a mixture of rain and tiny hail, and about 50 miles an hour, it felt like little BBs hitting my face and I had to tilt my head down slightly to get through it.

Being 66 years old and riding on unaccustomed high-powered motorcycle in an unfamiliar area in rain (without a front fender) and hail at highway speeds was certainly no fun. Yes, there was a time or two that I thought I should just pull under an overpass and wait for conditions to improve. But, for as far as I could see, conditions now looked bad and the blue sky that I saw at the seller’s house was just a fond memory.

The knowledge that if I could keep going for about an hour so, the chances were very good that I be out of the rainy conditions and it would be clear skies all the way to San Diego. It was this knowledge that kept me going. Thinking about it, what else could go wrong? Now after about a half an hour of driving in the rain, there were a couple of intermittent, for lack of a better word hesitations from the engine that I attributed to water getting into the carburetor, and at least there was no thunder and lightning, like the day before, so the ride continued.

Well, sure enough, about 20 miles before reaching Gila Bend, Arizona, the rain stopped, and from looking at the sky. It looked like the rainy cloud band was now behind me with clearer skies ahead.

At the first gas stop I added hoodie under my jacket to help cut down on the cold and headed out for the next gas stop just outside of Yuma. The speed limit here is 75 miles an hour and I can say that this is the longest ride where I kept a motorcycle between 75 to 80 miles an hour. The ‘04 Texas chopper performed flawlessly, it was a rock-solid ride with no vibration and plenty of passing power, even while cruising at 80 miles an hour!

At the highway speeds, it was cool and I was glad that I had a face mask. It wasn’t long before the temperature started to warm up and by the time we got to Yuma, it was really comfortable.

I decided to take a quick check of the oil level before leaving Yuma. Unfortunately, the needle nose pliers that I had with me could not open wide enough to get a grip to unscrew the oil plug. So we made a stop to pick up some extra tools and oil just in case. It turned out that this was really not necessary as the oil level (prior to purchasing, I asked the seller to change the oil, which he did) looked fine.

Leaving Yuma over the Colorado River and heading toward my next gas stop at Calexico, California, the bike was running great. Right outside of Calexico, my upper right shoulder started to hurt, I knew this was probably because of keeping it in one position for such a long time. After gassing up and having a quick lunch, and giving my shoulder a rest, I was again off across the California desert.

With all the gas stops, oil check and lunch break, I knew I’d be running out of daylight as I started the long and winding road up the Cuyamaca mountains from the desert floor at Ocotillo.

Leaving Ocotillo, I could definitely feel the temperature dropping as the sun was setting and the altitude increasing. By the time I reached the Jucumba California exit, I have to say the temperature must’ve been in the low 40s and even though wearing light driving gloves, the tips of my fingers felt like they were frozen. For the second time since leaving Chandler, Arizona I had wished that I had brought my leather jacket instead of my everyday San Diego gene jacket.

The next and last gas stop was to be at Pine Valley, California, but I decided to change that and stop about 20 miles sooner at the Golden acorn Casino, just off of Highway 8. The best part of this gas stop was drying my hands in the bathroom with the hot air hand dryer. This actually felt so good that even though my hands were dried, I went through another cycle just for the added warmth.

At the border patrol stop just before the Sunrise Highway, one of the bundled up officers there asked me how I was doing, I said I was doing fine except I thought I was partially frozen.

About an hour later and about 5 min. from home, I was coming down the exit ramp from Highway 125. to Navajo Road, I could see that the traffic light was red and so I was gearing down for a stop, just than the light switched to green. Luckily, I was still about 60 feet from the intersection when a car on Navajo Road ran the light. Wow, imagine that, a 9.5 hour motorcycle ride, and then 5 min. from home to be taken out by a jerk car driver!

So, I guess my luck really did change … riding in the rain and not having any mechanical issues or accidents in a 350 mile road trip! As I pulled into the garage and shut the bike down, I did a careful inspection, and besides, a lot of bugs on the headlight, there was not a drop of oil leaking.

All told, it took approximately 9 1/2 hours to cover the 350 miles from Chandler, Arizona to my home in San Diego, California. As it turns out, this was the longest motorcycle one day ride that I was ever on!

Back in my 20s, when I first got into choppers, my two longest motorcycle trips were from Brooklyn, New York up to a motorcycle meet in Laconia, New Hampshire, and an other time from Brooklyn, New York down to Washington DC.

Sure, I could’ve paid and had the bike transported or picked up a U-Haul myself to bring the bike back. But, like I said, having been into choppers in my 20s and into hang gliding for about 20 years, I definitely have a type ‘A’ personality where I need the adventure and the challenge. So, for an old guy who spent 27 hours hiking up Mt .Whitney about three years ago, and has been fighting stage 4 prostate cancer for about four years, this ride was definitely a ride to remember!

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A Motorcycle Ride To Remember