New Paint Job for the Road King?

You know how your mind turns if you have a difficult decision to made? I am trying to decide if I should get a new paint job done on my 2006 Harley-Davidson Road King. This is the bike I will be using for the tour of the USA. I have been thinking for a while that I might get it done before shipping the bike to New York, but I am not sure. Trouble is, I rather like the sort of classic retro style of the Road King and it seems a shame to do anything that will really detract from it.















But I also like having a bike that stands out a little. Duh, I mean a lot. My custom bike doesn’t exactly blend in to the background!


Then a few weeks ago I saw a picture that a guy called Tony Evans has painted. This was painted onto a piece of flat sheet metal as a sample and I adore the picture which is of Audrey Hepburn. Yes, the picture on the left is really an airbrush painting! Now, it just so happens that I am a bit of an Audrey Hepburn fan and so is my wife. I just love the way she looks in some of her old movies. I even had a picture painted of Audrey for one of the bedrooms in our house in Spain.

So the big question for me is should I have this image, and others like it painted onto my Road King in a sort of homage to B&W movie screen legends? I am going to see Tony later today to see some of his work. I will let you know what I decide, but that may take some time......

Tony's work can be seen at Tony's Custom Paint Shop

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Motorcycle Lodge

I was cruising the web earlier today and I looked at a blog that I like – it is called Thunder Road. Essentially a guy (Radar) in Texas who loves motorcycle touring is considering setting up a lodge (or lodges) to specifically cater for touring bikers. He is gathering information on what bikers might want out of such a lodge and he wants people to visit his blog to vote on this. I have voted and it struck me that I could help by publicising the need for as many bikers to visit his blog and vote.

If you want to vote and help determine what his lodges should contain, or if you want to publicise this on your own blog if you have one, then visit The Thunder Road Blog

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Visa For The USA

Having visited the USA on many occasions over the past 38 years I thought I knew everything I needed to know about visa requirements when entering the US. It turns out I was wrong.

As I am from the UK I knew that the USA and the UK have a reciprocal visa waiver program. Put simply this means that each country relaxes its normal visa requirements for visitors from the other country – as a UK citizen visiting the USA, I don’t need a visa and vice-versa.

WRONG! I found out today that this is time limited. The waiver program only applies in certain conditions and one of the exceptions is you need a visa if your visit is for more than 90 days. My planned tour is more than 90 days, so I need a visa. No problem, as it will not take very long, but one of the requirements is that all applicants need to have an interview with a consular official following the completion of a comprehensive application form. There are very strict rules to follow when applying for a US visa.

You can find out about the visa requirements by looking at the U.S. Department Of State website

The website stresses the importance of applying in plenty of time before your visit, so I will get onto this very soon.

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Snow Business

We don't get much snow in the South of England, but yesterday was one of those rare occasions. As such, I had to take a few photos near where I live......

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Riding Suspended Due To Cold

Brrrr. Winter has hit the UK with a vengeance. This has stopped any thought of riding and my bikes are well and truly put away until the weather warms up. I heard on the tv last night that we had one of the coldest Decembers for so many years and that the UK will probably have more snow today than any time in the last 30 years. I just looked outside and the snow has started here.

Yesterday I went for a walk near to where I live and took a few photos. The pictures below are not snow – they are ice covering the fields and roads. Pretty, but not exactly motorcycling weather!

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Another Good Book for Trip Planning

I have been doing some more research over the past few days about travelling in Arizona, including the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Sedona, Monument Valley and Route 66.

When I was recently working in Chicago, I stopped by a bookshop and picked up a book called “Arizona, New Mexico & the Grand Canyon Trips". It is a lonely planet book. This book is a gold mine if you are travelling to this area as it is full of useful information about hotels, restaurants, places to see etc. It complements the other books I have suggested in earlier postings on this blog. The other books are good for trip planning and this book fills in some of the detail that you need to know.

The way I used this book (and many others) is to read the brief parts in the book about a particular hotel for example, and then use that information to then look it up on the internet to find out more. I find this works well as the books give you only just enough information, but you really need a little more to make your decision about whether to stay there or not.

This book is a must if you are visiting the area. I am happy to recommend it.

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6 months until the start

It is now 6 months today until I start my tour.

The preparations are on track; the route is set, shipping of the bike is being sorted, dates all known, packing lists being developed, the hotel for Sturgis is booked.

There is snow here at home in London and my bikes are put away for winter. The tour seems a long way away, but the 6 months will go by fast.

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