CC500 Report

The order of days, are from bottom and upwards

Sunday October 15, 08:05
Landing on Arlanda, Stockholm, This adventure is definitely finished!
As the person behind almost all planning, it is very satisfactory to see the we was within the time schedule plus/minus 1 hour, at the most. The spending of money is just under budget (I think), despite the very unfavorable rate US dollar/ Swedish crowns. Almost all planning was done during christmas 1998.
We rented the bikes not directly with EagleRider, but via the English company HC Travel, David Grist. This gives a little extra security, using the largest bike hiring company in the world, and inside EU.
I will update this page within a month or so, when all bills from VISA and American Express has arrived, to indicate the total cost of this trip.
Lars Stjernestam , chairmanCC500@stjernestam.com

Saturday October 14, 08:10
Take off from LAX, Los Angeles to Arlanda, Stockholm

Friday October 13
This last day, we cruised by car in the mountains north east of Los Angels; Big Bear Lake, Lake Arrowhead and Angeles National Forest. It's amazing that this area exists so close to Los Angeles, on one day you can both ski and surf! The roads was excellent, and we missed our bikes a bit. Pictures can be found here. Back in LA, we sat in traffic jam for a couple of hours, before we checked in at the last motel, close to the LAX airport.

I have got a couple of questions on the equipment used, this is what we used:
Canon IXUX digital camera, 1600*1200 pixel with 160Mbyte CompactFlash memory card, USB interface and two rechargeable batteries. This camera works as a charm, highly recommended. The pictures on this website is compressed to 7-10% of original file size, so the the pictures are much better than seen here. SW used was Canon Zoombrowser and Adobe PhotoDeLux Home Edition 3.1. In all, 1873 photos was taken with this camera. Then Monika and Klas shoot 9 35 mm films with their conventional camera.
Garmin GPS 12MAP, GPS receiver with downloadable map for USA, Mapsource. External antenna was used in the car.
Dell Inspiron laptop with 15" screen and DeLorme StreetAtlas 7. This program is really good, it knows every street in the USA, and every road, gas station, motel etc etc. The GPS receiver is connected to the laptop running StreetAtlas 7, giving a tracking of the route. The program has built in speech function, so it tells where to go. The program also records the actual movement, so we know exactly where we have been, and can simulate the whole trip in accelerated speed at home. The precision is somewhere in the region 3-10 meter. The laptop was powered from the car 12V via a Radio Shack 12->115V inverter to the normal power module. This laptop has a CD-RW, so backup of the pictures could be left both to Anders in Dallas, and Sören in LA.
Kenwood intercoms, 433 MHz, 1 mW. This things did not work as expected. They are to short range to be used between 5 vehicles.
Motorola TimePort GSM phones, trippleband 900/1800/1900 MHz. The coverage for this phones is a bit limited (for now, will probably be better). They work, currently, in the SouthEast, Dallas, Albuquerque, Las Vegas and the whole California.
Internet connection via NetZero.net, as mentioned before. Netscape composer, QuteFTP, web hotel via Icom.
And of course, a lot of chargers and cables...Nothing broke down during the trip.
So all equipment was high tech, state of the art, except the motor bikes, that was ready for the museum....

Thursday October 12 23:57
Today we visited Universal Studios in Hollywood. It is really worth to go there! Best attractions are "Terminator 2-3D", and "Back to the Future". It was almost cool today, only 21C and Sunny ;-) Because there is low season there are no queues anywhere. Pictures can be found here.

Wednesday October 11
Today started with heavy rain...lucky us, we did not have to ride bikes today! About 10 AM, it cleared up, and we went to SeaWorld in San Diego. It turned out to be a perfect day for that, +22C, sun and very little visitors and no queues at all. SeaWorld is really nice, a lot of attractions, animal shows and a lot of animals to look at. Pictures can be found here.

Tuesday October 10
Today we hit the Target, Los Angeles! Now we have actually done the Coast to Coast ride. Seen both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

-------------------Yes! CC500 is Finished! ----------------------

Total distance for the whole trip with the bikes ended on 5150 km. So now we believe we do know how it is to ride a Harley Davidson. Even if we had a couple of days left of the renting time, we decided to drop of the bikes, everyone feels a bit "ready" with the bikes, and the problems we had in Las Vegas, did not increase the confidence for HD's.
On the whole trip, we got 10 minutes of minimum rain, otherwise it was sunshine! No incident or any real big trouble happened.
After dropping off the bikes, we went to Sören and Annica Svensson in Huntington Beach, that's southern Los Angeles. We found out that they lived 300 meters from the Pacific Ocean, the only thing between their house and the beach was California Highway 1.....(Sören and Annica is former Omicron employee, now Sören works for Ericsson in Los Angeles). Thanks for the beer and Bratwurstes Sören and Annica! Pictures from today can be found here.

Good things with Harley
* Reasonable good riding position, at least if you are under 180 cm.
* Easy to check oil level.
* Easy to drive.
* Low center of gravity, you never feel that you are near to drop the bike.

Bad things with Harley:
* Almost no breaks! It's unbelievable that a new motor bike can have so lousy brakes. If should be illegal to manufacture this. We had bikes of year 2000 make, and they are said to have the best breaks ever on a Harley....
* Weak engine, so few horse power from 1450CC.
* Low torque, if you loose speed, you always have to change gear. On my BMW R1200C, you almost never have to change gear.
* To soft suspension.
* Soft frame.
* The ignition key can not be left in the keyhole while riding, it may drop off!
* Very sensitive to side winds.
* The alarm system is so brain dead, that if I tell you how to turn off the alarm, you will not believe me.
* Can not be run in heat, see what happened on the Strip in Las Vegas....
* The mirrors are only usable up to 90 km/h, after that the vibrations blur the image.
* The "automatic" turn of of the position indicators do not work, they turn off to early, so they are already switched off when you actually do the turn. Yea great!
* The clutch is to stiff, you almost need to be an athlete to use it.
* Expensive, price/performance is ridiculous.
* The hole for filling gas is to small.
* All instruments and indicators are placed on the gas tank. This means that you have to bend you neck to see them. Also, it makes it impossible to have a tank bag or map on the gas tank. Idiotic!

Monday October 9 22:31
Today is a very, very special day: Klas and Monika got married at "A Little White Wedding Chapel"! After living together for 18 years, they finally decided to get married. And there is not better place for that than Las Vegas! Pictures from the wedding can be found here. The ceremony was held at 08:45 in the morning, then we biked to Victorville, California and had a very nice Mexican wedding dinner!

Klas and Monika are so happy!

Sunday October 8 22:15
Today we had a bike free day, and did a lot of different things things. Pictures can be found here. Mats and SBG went to a gun shop and fired off a dousing mags of ammo with M16 and H&K MP5....

Saturday October 7
Today we traveled along the old historic Route 66 from Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, in the heat (32C). During the trip we passed the Hoover Dam. In Las Vegas we first went to the motel that Klas had booked, but it looked so frightening, so we reallocated to The Mirage instead...On the way, we filled gas, took a short brake, and went off. At that time, three of the bikes stopped! The engines just stopped. What do you say about that? Stuck on the Strip in Las Vegas with a Haley that won't run...After a while Klas and my bike started again, SBG's not. There is something strange with Harleys, when you fill cool gas in to an almost empty tank, when the engine is really hot. Some condensation perhaps? Next time, we will not fill the tanks that full. After an hour, SBG's bike started, and everyone was safe at The Mirage, the place where Seigfried and Roy do their magic with white tigers. Of cause we had dinner at Harley Davidson Cafe....Some pictures can be found here. Distance today was 482 km.

Friday October 6
Hi again!
No worries, SBG's bike behaved all right after cooling down over the night. We went to the Harley repair shop anyway, just to be sure. It was an early start, we left our motel 06:45, to be at the repair shop when they opened (165 km). Of cause they found no faults. This is a little strange, if it happens once, it can happen again.... Back on schedule, we went to Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon is really that fantastic! Some pictures can be found here. Distance today was 421 km.

Thursday October 5 22:04
Hi, Now I got both news and good pictures!
Pictures
Today we traveled from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Holbrook, Arizona. The nature gets better and better, now we are in the real Western, that we all have seen in the John Wayne movies. The real high point of today was the "Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park". Absolutely breathtaking! I took a couple of hundred pictures today, and some of them can be found here.

News
Today we, or more precisely SBG, was hit by the MTBF of Harley Davidson. His bike started to run on only one cylinder from time to time. Sometime it goes almost clean, and then sometimes misfires and behave generally unstable. Anyway, we did make it to a motel Holbrook. Now we used the 800-number to EagleRider and explained the situation. They said it could be one of two possible faults, either the air inlet pipe to the carburetors has fallen off, or, more likely, the e l e c t r o n i c box that controls the fuel pump is broken. We have three HD's of 2000 year make and one with the old Evo engine. The three new bikes had run ca 3000 km before we got then, so they are almost brand new. One of the new things on these bikes is the electronic box....We got instructions from EagleRider to go to Flagstaff, where there is a Harley repair shop. They will fix this, if we are there when they open 09:00. It's 158 km to Flagstaff, so there will be an early start tomorrow. And hopefully SBG's bike will go that long. If not, then we are stuck in the Arizona desert....Todays distance was 512 km.
To be continued.....

Wednesday October 4 22:45
Today we traveled from Clovis to Albuquerque in New Mexico. A trip of 376 km. Today we got the first rain, but is was just a few drops for 10 minutes, so it does not count. We passed a salt lake and the last hour of biking was the best so far; Downhill in wide nice bends. Perfect biking. The temperature is more normal, and better to ride in. The weatherman on TV said that is was 100F (+38C) in Lubbok in the afternoon yesterday, exactly when we was there.....but anyway, it feels not as steaming hot as in Florida, I'll guess the air is much dryer here. Some pictures from today can be found here.

Tuesday October 3 21:05
Today we started at dawn, the first hours of riding are the best, in the afternoon it gets very hot (30-32C). On the weather channel they said that this is the highest temperatures measured ever in October! When I planned this trip, I checked the average temperatures in the States that we travel, and it should have been 20-25C....
We started at Jacksboro, Texas 08:00 and ended in Clover, New Mexico just after 16:00, a little trip of 539 km. Clover is just inside the state line between Texas and New Mexico. At Jacksboro we where at 390 m above sea level, and are now at 1400 m. During the day, the nature have changed from farming country to a dry almost desert like nature. We saw a lot of oil pumps, they are placed a little here and there, in a random pattern. Most of them seemed to be operating, so there are still oil to pump in Texas. By the way, did you know that Texas is 50% larger than Sweden, and that 17 million people lives there?
I have got some questions regarding my Internet access on the road. I use NetZero.net. This is a totally free ISP, the only catch is that you have to use the NetZero program to dial with, and that you have to live with a commercial banner on top edge of your screen. NetZero have access phone numbers for all area numbers in USA and Canada, so you can always phone local call to NetZero. In all motels there are free local calls, so access to the Internet is free, as long as you live in a motel. Up to yesterday, I thought this was true, but there are motels that define "local call" to only within the city. In this case, you have to pay for long distance to get access. Anyway, NetZero works well.
Some pictures from today can be found here

Monday October 2 22:15
The day started a bit foggy, but at 10 AM it was full sunshine again. On the way from Jacksonville, TX to Jacksboro, TX, we visited Susanne and Anders Åkvist in their home in Dallas. Anders works for the Swedish company Ericsson in their Dallas office (he worked for Omicron before that). Susanne and Anders lived in a beautiful house in a nice area. There we was invited for lunch; Of cause in Texas style. After Christmas, they will move to Seattle. Thanks for the delicious lunch Susanne and Anders!
Texas is much more green than I expected, it looks a bit like the county of Uppland or Södermanland in Sweden, lots of small hills and lakes. The last piece of the ride it starts look more dry, more "Texian". Today we saw the first cattle ranches and some tumbleweed. About half of the total distance is done now, and there has been no incident whatsoever, everything works as a clockwork.
We stopped in Jacksboro, a small town on the Texas Plain west of Dallas. It was another "dry county", but this time we was prepared! Ha! A real biker requires a beer or two after a day of biking. Unfortunately, we did not get any Internet access in the motel, the "free local calls" was only within this town :-( (of 1700 souls). Distance today was 386 km. Some pictures from today's adventures can be found here.

Sunday October 1 22:00
Hi, today we traveled from Lafayette to Jacksonville, Texas. This is the second Jacksonville on this trip. The biking today was really superb, good roads, almost no traffic, good weather, maybe a couple of degrees to hot (29-31C). After the dinner at a Mexican restaurant, we found out that this is what they call a "dry county". This means that it is not possible to get even a beer, not at the restaurant, and not in a convenient store. Completely dry! Don't go here, they obviously hate tourists! ;-)
Some pictures from today can be found here, see what creature Monika and Klas found in their room....
Travel distance 380km.

Saturday Sep 30 22:30
Hi, there are supringsingly few responses on these web pages. I would like everyone that is following this trip to send an email to me, just to see how many is following this. I will post the result.
Everyone: Please mail to chairmanCC500@stjernestam.com and say hello!
Today we traveled from New Orleans to Lafayette, mostly through the swamp land. It is as in the movies, it actually exist in real. Just before we reached Lafayette, there was an Air Show. We parked and saw a lot of air stunts. Fun. The city of Lafayette is not at all as I expected, it is not a vibrant old town full of music, but more of a rather ordinary US town. Some pictures of today's travel can be found here.
Travel distance 325km. Tomorrow we will enter Texas.

Friday Sep 29 22:15
Hi, again,
Today we had a bike free day, and was tourists in New Orleans.
First we decided to do a swamp tour. We saw an ad from Cypress Swamp tours, and went for it. While we was searching for that, another swamp boat just left the bridge. The captain on the boat saw us, and returned to the bridge to let us on board. This boat was much smaller than the other swamp boats, and because of that, we could go much deeper into the swamp. We saw a lot of alligators, turtles, birds, snakes and other animals.
After an hour, the captain started talk about the lunch(?!). Well, there was obvious a lunch included on this trip also, to our big suprise! Now the boat landed on an island in the swamp, and Mary said welcome. No, I'm not kidding, but Mary was a real Acadian with the roots in French Canada, but she had lived here, in the swamp, since 1929. Her father was a fur trapper...
So here we where, sitting in an Acadian home, in the Mississippi swamp, having lunch. On a scale 1 to 10, this is 11!
This tour operator has a web site here.
After the swamp tour, we went into the city, and had another boat tour, this time with a real Mississippi steam boat. This 2 hour tour went down and up the Mississippi river. A really nice thing to do.
It is almost sad to leave New Orleans, this is a fantastic city! Some pictures from today, can be found here.

Tuesday Sep 28 23:46
Today we moved from Mobile, Alabama, via Mississippi to New Orleans in Louisiana. All the time we used highway 90, a highly recommended scenic road. For tens of kilometers, the road winds directly at the coastline of the Mexican Gulf. But, already here, the distance between gas stations are getting longer and longer, and we run almost out of gas. Distance today was only 226 km, but it was really quality riding, good roads and perfect weather.
There are a lot of swamp land here. Near the coast all buildings where built on 3 meter long wood poles to protect them from flooding.
It is very easy to fall in love with New Orleans, the French Quaters are really nice, we found a very good restaurant, "Rita's", and had a 9 course Louisiana dinner. This was by far the best dinner so far on this trip. Everywhere in the French Quaters there are live music. Some pictures can be found here.
The Harleys are getting easier and easier to run, now we are quite familiar with them. One thing happened: The first repair had to be made, on Mats's bike the screws that holds the side luggage bags started to unscrew it self, due to the vibrations.....

Wednesday Sep 27 22:10
Today we traveled from Bainbridge in Georgia to Mobile in Alabama, ca 400 km. The roads in this part of the country is really good. Lots of bends and small hills that make biking fun. The weather is absolutely perfect, sunny and 25C. Georgia and Alabama is really deep green by vegetation, a bit like England in the summer. The biking was so fun that I almost forgot to take photos...but a couple can be found here.
Tomorrow we will go to New Orleans, and have a full day of tourism.

Tuesday Sep 26 22:06
Hi everyone!
Yesterday was the hottest day in central and northern Florida since 1961 for this season, according to the weather man on TV...Today it was only 25 degrees C, absolutely perfect biking weather. We started at Jacksonville, Florida and ended at Bainbridge, Georgia. The ride was total joyride, perfect roads, no heavy traffic, perfect weather. We also saw real cotton fields with ripe cotton, fluffy like snow. Distance today was 317 km. Bainbridge is a really nice little town in southern Georgia, with an "old town" with houses older than 50 years! Some pictures from today can be found here.
If you have any comments or questions, mail me! Lars@Stjernestam.com

Monday sep 25 22:30
Today we got our bikes from EagleRider in Orlando. EagleRider was really nice and everything worked smoothly. After circa 90 minutes, everything was set up, we got instructions how everything worked, and we was on our way. Today it was really hot, 34 degrees centigrade. Grinneby's leather suit was wet from the inside....
At Daytona Beach we saw the Atlantic Ocean. The Harleys are nice to ride, but the brakes could have been better. I will not trade in my BMW R1200C for a Harley next year...
Some pictures of today's adventure can be found here. Distance today was 245 km.

Sunday sep 24 23:00PM.
Today we visited Kennedy Space Center. These rockets are big!
Some pictures from that visit can be found here.

Saturday sep 23 11:50PM.
Now we finally are here in Orlando! The flight to Orlando was not without complications; First Monika, that had attended a chemical conference in Glasgow, missed her departure from Glasgow due to airplane malfunction. The next possible plane landed at Arlanda 20 minutes before the departure to New York. With some serious running, she actually did make it! Then Stefan and I missed our connecting flights in New York/Chicago. At midnight, some 6 hours after schedule, everyone was at the destination. (of cause everyone flew with different airlines...you have to plan your bonus points!). Sunday is reserved for Cape Kennedy, tomorrow we will study rockets.
I'll keep you posted!
/Lars S