Riding the Eastern USA on my Harley is now done!

Two years in the making, Kelly and I finally took off from Houston, TX, to tackle touring the other half of the United States by motorcycle at the end of April 2025. The plan was to return home in a month, arriving on Memorial Day weekend. We only missed the target date by two days due to my Harley’s engine failing catastrophically in Maine. More on that later. Anyway, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on this undertaking, along with four short 3- 5 min Relive App videos Kelly put together that rapidly highlight our route and a few select stops. In any case, riding the Eastern USA by motorcycle is done!

Houston, TX to Key West, FL -Part 1

The Keys, FL to Bar Harbor, ME

Maine to Virgina

Virginia to Texas

Weather on the motorcycle

I won’t sugar coat it, stormy weather sucks on the motorcycle, no matter how well prepared you are. But, on long trips, you must deal with it the best you can. We were fortunate to have only one truly miserable wet riding day on this month-long trip. We were often prepared for the worst, but managed to avoid heavy rain. The Texas to Florida Keys part of the ride was Hot. Being from Houston, we’re pretty used to that, however. The rest of the trip was mostly very temperate in May. Some parts of the Northeast and New England area were chilly. Kelly was prepared with some layers, but I just made do with my rain gear. Only a few hours did we slip into the low 50s F. It would’ve required stopping if it had gotten any colder. The rule of thumb on the bike is to subtract 20°F from the ambient temperature to get your “feels like” temp. But that only applies at highway speeds. Most of our chilly weather experiences were on twisty, slow, sheltered back roads, so it wasn’t that bad.

Equipment failures

On a month-long motorcycle trip, you will have stuff fail on you, so you tend to carry an assortment of hand tools, cable ties, bungee cords, battery-operated compressor, tire repair kit, USB batteries, etc., to help. On this trip, we had some atypical failures. Wiring on our wireless communicators made by Cardo gave us some trouble. We replaced Kelly’s half helmet mount in Myrtle Beach, and she was good. My Cardo Edge system began crackling and finally broke down in the last few days of the trip. I decided to use hand signals and flashing lights since I could hear Kelly without problem. Using my full-face helmet was always an option, but it was so hot, and I preferred the half helmet these last few days.

Battery

More serious was losing the Battery at a gas stop as we were heading to our Motel in Bar Harbor, Maine. We were at a mini-mart along our backroads route, another or many routine pit stops. After a bio break and filling the fuel tank, Kelly hopped on her F3, turned the key, and there was nothing. Not a click, nothing! After you ride a motorcycle long enough, you are keenly aware when something is beginning to fail. Such was the case a couple of days earlier when Kelly noted that her bike was groaning more and more at startup, so this failure wasn’t wholly unexpected. Still, the Can-Am F3 has no mechanical neutral, so we could not push it off to the side with a dead battery. The people were understanding inside and knew we were doing our best to resolve our problem. We found an Auto Parts store 4 or 5 miles down the road, with the battery in stock. Kelly hopped on the back of my bike just like old times, riding 2-up before she got her 3-wheeler. After returning, we could dive in, replace the battery in about 20 minutes, and resume our trip towards Bar Harbor. Whew!

Engine Failure!

Upon arriving in Bar Harbor, Maine, we pulled into our Motel parking lot and shut the motorcycles off while Kelly checked us in. Once she got the key and room number, I went to start Roobie (my 2020 Harley Road Glide Limited), and it made a kerchunk noise then rapidly shut down. I didn’t attempt a restart, intuitively knowing it was something internal and wanting to minimize further damage. After several expletives, I unloaded the bags on my bike and called for a tow truck and a few Harley dealers in Maine. There were no flatbed tow trucks within 200 miles of me, and it would take two days to get one. The good news is that we were safe and sound and in a gorgeous place with mild weather. There are worse places to get stuck than Bar Harbor, Maine! Trust me.

My oil pump ate my intake lifter

I suspected the worst, but was hopeful that Roobie would be repairable, once we got it to the shop. I rode in the tow truck to Central Maine Harley-Davidson in Hermon, Maine. They were awesome and were able to assess the damage to my bike after lunch. By 2 or 3 o’clock, I had the bad news. At first, it didn’t look that bad. But once it was torn down a little further, it was clear that a lot of metal bits were circulating in the crankcase. That’s bad. I couldn’t trust a flush. Besides, one of the rear intake lifters had created some bore deformation that would require honing and sleeving. I had already played many scenarios in anticipation of this and decided to buy a new Harley in Maine and complete the trip. The rationale was that we had already completed the most complex parts! I named the new 2025 Road Glide “Blueberry Ale” because of the beer I liked so much in Maine. I decided I would ship Roobie back to Houston no matter what and fix her back up. Which motorcycle I sell later on and which I keep will be decided when the time comes. So, this trip just became a lot more expensive! LOL

Very little compatibility between old and new bike

There is virtually no compatibility between my 2020 Road Glide Limited Touring bike and my 2025 Road Glide. That became most evident by the end of day 1 when everything ached! Seat, bars, grips, foot, and bar controls were all stock and definitely not intended for multi-thousand-mile trips. That said, there’s a lot to like about the 2025 vs the 2020 model. The screen display is much improved, as is the sound system. Safety features such as traction control, riding modes, etc., are all excellent and welcome. On the downside, I don’t understand why virtually every single hand control button had to be relocated or changed on the 2025 from the 2020. Why change the long standard control positions, like turn signals, hazards, and high-beams? The audio controls moved to the opposite side of the bars for some unknown reason, akin to Microsoft changing Office or Windows for equally unknown reasons.

True touring motorcycles: comfort, safety, & reliable range

If you ride really long distances for days, weeks, and months, you gradually tune and set up your motorcycle for that. When you suddenly jump on a new and different motorcycle, everything changes. It takes a lot of adjustment to get used to a new bike. Your confidence is lower during that time due to the unknown and the new. I completed the trip after my primary touring bike failed, but it was painful and much less enjoyable, which is unfortunate. I did my best, and I’m glad I did it. No regrets. But it does remind me that over time, you come to become one with your motorcycle. You make it into something uniquely yours. Comfort in the saddle, riding position, windshield, and accessories. Safety features include extra front and rear lighting to make other drivers see you better. Reliability and performance to pass on the highway and stop surely while preserving good gas mileage for the remote places with fewer gas stations selling 91 octane. All of those things and more are my 2020 Harley, Roobie.

I’ll pinch it off here…

I mostly wanted to share the little videos covering the route and discuss a few things about this trip and its challenges. I reserve the right to come back a post a few pics, and share a few more anecdotes too. Thanks for coming by. Til next time,