The Journey Continues...

Shortly after purchasing the Sportster, I was working at a client in the Seattle area. We were conducting a training session for a process that my team had developed. One of the customers came into the meeting with his riding leathers on because it was a typical rainy day in the Northwest US. We got chatting and he mentioned that he had just completed something called the "Four Corners Motorcycle Tour".

This simple conversation put an idea into the back of my mind and I didn't give it a great deal of thought. My initial thoughts were that this was a very daunting task.

I continued to ride my Sportster and gained experience by riding with friends. My bike is in the lower left corner (barely visible) and this was a group of friends from where I go to my church. This was one of my first group rides and we had a great time. We have ridden as a group several time since to have fun and a time to talk "all things - motorcycles".

I also joined a riding group in the Sun City Anthem area of Henderson, NV. I have also taken several rides with them to various locations in the Southern Nevada and California region. One of the things I discovered on these longer rides was that with a flat seat and lack of a windshield it meant that I had the tendency to hang on for dear life. After a long ride my arms would be sore from gripping the handlebars tightly since you had the sense of being blown off of the bike.

After three years and over 5,500 miles, I started thinking about getting a bike that was designed for riding on the open road. As much as I loved riding the Sportster I was looking for more creature comforts in my next bike.

I will cover the transition in my next post. Please stay tuned.