Daytona 2021
Day Before – March 7
The day before you hit the road is always a good day. Anticipation. No matter how many times you hit the road for an extended trip it’s a great feeling. And the advance research makes it better. According to the weather guessers, the trip to Daytona will be dry and most of the route in the mid-70s. What you don’t usually expect until May.
Packing bags, checking tire inflation, fresh oil change, loading the saddlebags, oiling the boots and jacket, studying the maps, usual routine. No matter how much you plan and prepare, there’s always some last-minute stuff. And this trip Patricia is going, so I have to be flexible on departure time. I’m generally up by 4:00 a.m. but Patricia is more a 10:00 a.m. type. I’ll wake her up by calling from the garage. Safer that way.
My brothers and my sister have asked how long we’ll be gone. I tell them: “until I get back.” Good schedule. We have a neighbor lined up to feed the cats and water the plants until we get back. Most of the plants are on a timed drip system but the cats eat a lot and I’m pretty attached to them, so I want to make preparations for the little tyrants.
This will be the first extended trip for my 2021 Limited. I picked it up February 24th and have put about 2000 miles on to break it in. It had its initial service at 800 miles before a day trip to L.A. and back and another engine oil change today, figuring that this trip will be about 5000 miles and I’d rather do a second change than try and take care of that on the road.
Anyway, I’ll sleep fine tonight but I’ll likely dream of the road.
Day 1 – March 8
565 miles – Time on the road – 9 ½ hours
Well, the plan was to get on the road at 8:00 but that didn’t happen. More like 9:30. Generally, Tucson traffic isn’t an issue, but on this Monday two cars piled up and we crept along in the back-up for about 20 minutes. And even as we got out of town it seemed like it must have been National Day to Drive East on I-10. It was open and moving at freeway speed, but there seemed to have been a lot more cars and trucks on the road than usual. At the first gas stop, I managed to bust a knuckle trying to pull a stuck paper towel out of the dispenser. It bled lot but Patricia had a band-aid and that stopped the bleeding issue. I guess I shouldn’t tease her about the amount of stuff she packs for the road.
I don’t put great stock in omens, but this seemed like a bad start. But the weather made up for it, 70’s to low 80’s all day. The wind was not a significant issue until the last hour or so before we got to Fort Stockton and the bike ran great. Running at 80 through most of Arizona and New Mexico, then 85 once we got through El Paso, it got better than 40 mpg even with two-up, adverse wind and loaded for the road.
The motel, as do many motels on the road, had a resident cat. This one looked like it got fed regularly and was quite friendly. Probably why it gets fed regularly. We lost an hour going to Central time, but it was still a bit before 8 when we checked in but small towns, on Monday night, close early. So rather than hunt for a restaurant we ordered Domino’s and hit the sack fairly early.
This is the first trip for the new bike, but I already have a good feeling about this one. Knock on wood, but I’m hoping this one will be like my 2014, the best bike I’ve ever owned. The 2018 was OK and took me 114,000 miles without ever leaving me on the side of the road, but it never had “the feeling” like my 2014. That bike had good Karma, did whatever I asked it to do. I always had complete confidence in that bike and that’s important when I travel alone as much as I do and like secondary highways like I do. We’ll see how this one works out. This is the first long trip; the only previous real road time was a couple day-rides to break it in and a round trip to L.A. and a trip to Mesa to get the XM radio installed.
Patricia hadn’t been on a bike much over the last few months but she’s having no problems with this.
Day 2 – March 9
Miles 596 – Time on the road – 10 hrs.
Stopped for the night in Beaumont. We’ll get into Louisiana in a few miles and have to put the damn helmets on until we get to Florida.
Tough weather day. Very strong south wind starting out and although it slackened a bit it continued all day. The temperatures stayed in the 60s all day, nice riding temps. Getting into the Texas Hill Country the scenery got more interesting. Going all the way on I-10 is the fastest, except for hitting Houston at rush hour, but it’s not my favorite way to travel. I prefer the secondary roads, less traffic, moderate speeds and usually better scenery. But the decision when we left home was to highball to Daytona to be there for a gathering of the Nomad Chapter on the afternoon of the 11th. And we have tickets for the half-mile dirt track on the 12th. After that – no schedule. So, we’ll explore the back roads after we leave Daytona.
Day 3 – March 10
Miles – 650+
Stopped for the night in Tallahassee. Better day weatherwise but still a south wind changing occasionally to a headwind. 1750 miles so far and not a minute of tailwind or even no wind. Nature owes me a tailwind at some point. of course, it’s a tradeoff; no rain either.
From Beaumont we continued west, I-10 then I-12 around New Orleans and back to I-10. So, from Texas, through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and into Florida. By the way, the last mile post on I-10 in Texas is 898. I wanted to get close to Daytona Beach so I could make the Nomad gathering on Thursday afternoon.
I missed a picture opportunity in Louisiana when I gassed up in a station next to DU, which stands for Daquiris Unlimited. I should have taken a picture of the drive-up window where customers could get a daquiri without the bother of getting out of their cars. But I did get a shot at a store in the Indian section of Mississippi.
This place was odd, outside gas pumps, inside a restaurant.
The motel in Tallahassee had handicapped ramps in convenient spots so I could park the bike right outside the window of the room.
However, they could use a bit of engineering on some of these ramps.
I didn’t use this one.
Tomorrow, Daytona Beach and staying in the same place for 3 days.
I just re-read the last sentence and staying for 3 days tomorrow doesn’t make sense, but you know what I mean.
Day 4 – March 11th
Short ride today, only about 250 miles from Tallahassee to Daytona Beach. The wind was still blowing from the south or occasionally in my face, but not as strong as on Wednesday. One of the only good things about the plastic bags that get thrown out along the highway is that they give an indication of the exact direction and approximate velocity of the wind. But flags are the best indication. There are 4 stages of wind judging by flags you see along the highway: limp, waving, rippling and snapping. So far on this trip most of the time it has been either rippling or snapping. Today it alternated between waving and rippling.
I like the navigation systems that I’ve had on my last several Harleys but they do have one draw=back; I have become less able to find anything on my own. The objective was the Days Inn on International Speedway Boulevard. And I saw the sign as we passed the Days Inn and the right exit. The next exit was about 4 miles south. I took that exit and got back on I-95 north. I got off the freeway and on the off ramp were three options; 260a, 260b and 260c. The option I choose put me back on I-95 headed south again. So back down the road, take the next exit, flip back on the highway going north and this time I hit the right option and eventually made it back to the motel. UGLY U-turns are mandatory, but this was a bit excessive.
We checked in and I headed out to meet the Nomads. Back down I-95 south to the same exit I’d already used twice and on to The Last Resort Bar. The Nomads picked a good spot for the gathering. Any place where the door looks like this is probably a place that I’d like.
The Last Resort also has a reserved parking area for Japanese motorcycles.
Rodeo Ray and Kari Sioux were there but I’d never met Ray’s brother John. He had some pretty good stories about when Ray was a little kid. That’s John in the HVT t-shirt.
Not a large group, but it was a really UGLY afternoon.
Day 5 – March 12
Beautiful day in Daytona. After lying around most of the morning we went to breakfast, then to the International Raceway where the parking lot is full of vendors. There was the usual collection of displays but the one that got the most attention from us, especially from Patricia, the Vanderhall set-up. I was somewhat familiar with these 3-wheelers which I describe as the closest thing being built today to a Triumph Spitfire. They’re built in Utah, use GM 4-cylinder turbo charged engines, automatic transmissions with a paddle shifter, steering wheel, bucket seats and a dashboard that reminds me of my Triumph GT6, the hardtop fastback 6-cylinder version of the Spitfire and the Vanderhall looks more like a car missing a wheel than a motorcycle with an extra one. It turned out that the outfit selling them in Daytona also owned an Indian dealership and offered to take my Indian as a trade-in. We talked it over and may end up with one. Patricia has been practicing with the sidecar and is getting pretty good at piloting that rig. But the Vanderhall looks better to her.
The next stop was the display for Hannigan, an outfit that builds trailers and sidecars. They have some good looking sidecars and can mount them to pretty much any motorcycle. I’m not interested in a new sidecar now, but I’d be willing to sell my 2008 Ultra with the sidecar if I knew I could get another sidecar that would mount to a new Harley. Anyway, we’ll think about it. Patricia is trying to decide if she really wants the Vanderhall and they have a dealership in Tempe, Arizona if we decide to get it.
Then we rode out to Volusia Speedway Park for the half-mile flat track. As you’d expect, the parking lot was full of motorcycles, mostly Harley-Davidsons. I hadn’t been to the races in a while, I think my last one was the Sacramento Mile a few years ago, they have added some new classes. There is a class solely for Bultaco 250 2-stokes.
And there is a class called Twin Production class. There is a class for singles, made up of the 450 singles that generally are used for motocross. They refit them and they make the ½ mile in a time close to what the big twins do. Then there is the top class, the 750s that has been the mainstay of flat track racing for decades.
The Twin Production class is probably the most interesting. The brands represented on the track include Harley, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Royal Enfield and a few others. It reminds me of the days when the top class included Gary Nixon on his Triumph, Norton factory rider Dave Aldana, Jay Springsteen on his Harley and Yamaha mounted Kenny Roberts. What is absent from the Production class is Indian. The Harleys in this class are privateers or shop-sponsored.
It seems Royal Enfield is really putting on a push to expand their presence in the American market. They had big display tents at the races and a display at the International Raceway. The current line-up is primarily parallel twins which are dead ringers for the British marques which dominated the motorcycle market before the Japanese take-over of the motorcycle market in the late 60s and early 70s. Royal Enfield currently manufactures the bikes in India. For many years they produced 500cc singles in various models. The current line-up has only one 500, the configuration of which would likely be called an “adventure bike.” But the representatives of the factory hinted strongly that more models powered by the 500 single will be back in the 2022 line-up for Royal Enfield.
The Grand National class is made up almost entirely of Indians. There were a couple of Yamahas and one Harley. I was surprised to learn that Harley-Davidson has no factory racing team at this time and no presence as a factory. Frankly, it was likely embarrassing for Harley to continue an effort in the Grand National class. The Indian factory team was lapping the Harleys pretty regularly. Harley was campaigning a 750 that was to replace the XR750 that virtually owned the class for a couple decades, but with no success. The Indian that was dominating was not based on a production model, it was designed from the ground up to be a dirt-track racer. Probably for the first time since the early years of the 20th century, Harley-Davidson Motor Company has no involvement in racing. Of course, the stands were still full of Harley shirts and the parking lot was probably 90% Harleys with the remaining 10% made up of everything else.
Speaking of the crowd, the website for American Flat Track, the promoter, said that “social distancing” would be enforced and all spectators would be required to wear masks. The website was the only place where any of this appeared and except for a small portion of the crowd, everything was normal.
The racing was good and Patricia enjoyed the races, her first experience with flat track. She’s seen a lot of amateur motocross, but this was new.
Day 6 – March 13
Great weather, again. The first stop for the day was Daytona H-D. The first stop was Daytona Harley-Davidson. The bikes lined up to get into parking had some interesting passengers.
This is really the center of Daytona Bike Week. It’s not an exaggeration to say there are over 100 vendor booths set up in the area that comprises the property. Everything from modified suspension components to fine art. UGLY David Uhl was there and set up with a number of his paintings. I bought one that should be home when I get there. Bike parking was so spread out that the dealership was running shuttles to get potential customers from their bikes to the vendors. Trailers, kind of like the parking lot shuttles I recall from the last time I was at Disneyland, pulled by Dodge trucks (with placards on the doors announcing the dealership which provided the vehicles) made the route every few minutes. There were a number of really interesting attractions.
I thought it was very cool the way the dog’s left foreleg was resting on the side of his seat.
The dealership itself is immense. It is the biggest dealership physical plant I’ve ever seen. Patricia went upstairs to look at shirts and I went to the parts department looking for one small piece. The day before we left home, I was prepping the bike and that included aiming the headlight. The first time I rode it at night it was immediately apparent that the aim was better for catching ants than lighting the road ahead. I don’t know when Harley began using the screw that holds the chrome bezel around the headlight, but I know it dates back at least to 1982. It’s a small, pointed screw, not more than ½ inch long that holds the bezel around the headlight. I have never had one fall out. But when I took it out to adjust the light, I dropped it. The bike was on the concrete slab in front of my garage. I heard it bounce off the front fender but that was the last I knew of it. I couldn’t find it on the slab, so I figured it had lodged at some point on the engine. I took my air hose and blew from the bottom, trying to dislodge any loose items. Nothing. No big problem, I thought, I’ll just take the screw out of the headlight bezel on my 2008 Harley and pick up one later. No. For some unfathomable reason the engineers in Milwaukee had changed the size of the screw, it would not fit. Again, no problem. I’ll just pack the headlight bezel and pick up a screw at a shop along the way. On the way to Daytona I had stopped at two shops, to add to my poker chip collection and get a replacement screw. Neither shop had one. Surprise, Daytona H-D didn’t have one either.
After all, what’s an H-D shop without a Ferris wheel.
There were enough beer stands to sustain the crowd on a warm day, and competent staff at the bars.
We went back to the motel for a nap, then to the beach area for dinner and to look around. Several locals that I had talked to had said that this was a bigger turnout for Bike Week than in recent years. And apparently, everyone decided that it was time to go to the beach area. I’ve experienced gridlock before and this was up there with the worst of them. Eventually, we found a place to park, several blocks from Main Street, and eventually made our way to the objective: Bubba Gump’s shrimp eatery. There was a waiting list for a table, but we found two stools at the bar and ate there. The bartender was entertaining and we had a very enjoyable dinner, which made the traffic seem almost worth it.
Day 7 – March 14
Up and out. Time to pack up and head south. Destination: Key West. Next stop: UGLY Alby’s home in Cape Coral. First it was just out to the motel parking lot. A number of box trailers served as meeting places for groups that had likely come to Daytona together or at least were friends before. There is a style of motorcycle that, while not unique to Daytona, has a strong presence here. The style can be described in a lot of ways; the bikes have extended saddlebags and rear fenders that nearly touch the ground. Often the fairing has been reshaped, sort of resembling a 1950s version of a spaceship. But the most noticeable feature is the sound system. It is not a radio, it’s a mobile disc jockey set-up, putting out well over 100 decibels. The saddlebag lids have been reshaped to house large speakers and the saddlebags themselves hold amps and other audio equipment. Some sit so low that they are equipped with hydraulics to lift the tip of the rear fender off the ground in order to actually ride the machine. Many of this style sport lights on the spokes and other portions of the machine. These are bikes built for show and style, not so much for going from one place to another. I wouldn’t hazard a guess on what it costs to build one of these, but to each his own. Some riders put a fortune into their machines to go a little faster, some set up their bikes for long-distance riding; hey, whatever floats your boat.
Daytona had a bigger turnout than in recent years. And a significant portion of the riders were black. I phrase it that way rather than saying there were a lot of black riders because I want to focus on the term “riders” rather than “black.” It’s time to change the identifying term from black to what is more descriptive, like what they are doing. “Black” only describe skin pigment. There are a lot of people with many different characteristics that are more important and more descriptive than “black.” Anyway, enough on that topic.
It was the last day of Bike Week (which officially lasts 10 days) and the parking lot was evidence of that. People were packing up, some packing their bikes, some loading bikes in trailers. And before I left town I wanted to get some pictures of the type of bikes that you see in Daytona more often than you see them anywhere else I’ve been, A couple examples.
I talked with one of the owners of the rolling stereos and he let us look in the saddlebags. As I expected, it was all audio. Patricia commented there was not much room to pack stuff. I loved the guy’s response; “I don’t go far.” We talked about different uses for motorcycles. Some are set up to be seen and heard. Some are set up to go fast. Some, like mine, are set up for distance and longevity. They were duly impressed with the mileage on my now 17 day old bike, nearly 5000. It was time to cover some more pavement and I wanted to get to Brother Alby’s by mid-afternoon.
I-4 was good until we got close to Orlando. Then it came to a stop and go for several miles until we got past all the Disney stuff, then freed up until we got off and took Highway 17 south and on to UGLY Alby’s in Cape Coral. It was pretty warm, mid-80s and I had my first tailwind in 2400 miles. It lasted 2 minutes, then reverted to the cross wind. But, look on the light side, since I was now headed west I was evening the wear on the right and left sides of the tires.
We arrived in Cape Coral about 4:30. Alby was the usual great host. He and Elain showed us his new house that is being built and it should be done by fall. We went to dinner near the beach, back to his house and talked until it was time to hit the sack. headed south.
Day 8 – March 15
We hung around until around 10:00 then off headed south.
After making sure it was OK with Alby, we agreed to come back on Wednesday. I warned him that if he told me we were welcome I would come back. If not, no problem, just tell me you’ve had enough. Not a lot of people encourage me to come back. Today’s plan was to make it through the Everglades to Forida City. As is my preference, we took mostly secondary highways south to US 41, hen east through the everglades. Great road. Interesting signs, but no luck.
There was a monument, located at Monument Lake. Wow. Likely would have been Trump voters.
From there we continued through the Everglades to a motel in Florida City.
We discovered that most of the air boat rides were booked up for today, but we reserved a time on Tuesday then continued to Florida City for the night.
March 16 – Day 9
Time to go as far south as we can without getting wet, Key West. Actually, Patricia did get a bit wet.
The trip down the Keys was what I expected; slow. It’s Spring Break time and Key West is apparently a destination for that time. Plus, there were a couple sections of one-way road and the wait time was long enough to shut off the bike and take a brief nap. But we considered the trip down worthwhile. The Keys are connected by a series of bridges, the longest called Seven Mile Bridge, a hint on the length of the bridge.
Lots to look at on Duval Street. We had lunch at Fogarty’s. They had a good mister system and fans blowing the mist around. I’m sure it drew people who were walking by on the hot, humid street. While we were sitting there, an unusual noise started and one of the nozzles on the high-pressure mister system had apparently blown out. The line supplying the system was jumping around, effectively cooling the patrons at nearby tables. Fun to watch. Lunch was good too.
The trip back to the motel in Florida City was a lot faster than the trip south. We had kept the same room and by the time we got back it was time to sleep. Which we did.
I think it’s time to wrap up Part 1, ending at the southernmost point in the U.S. start Part 2, trip back to Tucson.
Thoughts From The Road 