Travels on the vtx

I'll start with this last ride. I went to space coast harley-davidson with some buddys I ride with to watch one of them play in the band that was playing there was nice ride 192 to i95 not bad ride tried the demo truck (roadkings the best after the vtx imo) had a few compliments overall fun ride ✌

I retired May 1st of 2017. On April 30th a friend of mine and I departed California for a five day trip to Nashville TN via Hwy 40. After a week in Tennessee we made the five day trip back to CA.

a trip total of over 4,800 miles. I so enjoyed this trip that I decided I wanted to continue.

Later in 2017 (In July to be precise) my wife and I Flew from CA to Nashville TN. We arrived in Nashville Thursday afternoon. We had rented an Indian Roadmaster for the trip to West Virginia from the Indian dealership in Brentwood TN for early Friday morning. Upon arrival we found that the battery on the bike was dead and had to be replaced which took about 2 hours, We finally departed the Indian dealership on Friday morning about 11:00 am for our first VTX get together at the Pocahontas Motel in Welsh WV. After hitting heavy rain most of the trip we arrived at the Pocahontas Motel about 12:30 am on Saturday morning to find that the party was still in full swing. All things considered (specifically, riding in the rain (A first for us), Riding road 16 just above the back of the Dragon in a pouring rain (also a first for us), I still enjoyed the experience even with having been told by folks at the Pokey that I was Bat Sh!t crazy (NOT a first for me!!!!) Between the ride to the Pokey, the Saturday West Virginia ride and the Sunday trip back to Brentwood TN we ended up putting about 1,200 miles on that bike.

In 2018 I left for a mostly solo trip from CA to Ohio via Hwy 80 to Denver then Hwy 70 to OH. I spent several days with Ironmk in Ohio then we traveled to West Virginia for my second VTX get together at the Pocahontas Motel in Welsh WV where we spent a long weekend then back to OH where I spent another couple of days with Ironmk, his wife and his father in law (Great people!!!!!). From there through upper Illinois, up through Iowa and into Minnesota then West through South Dakota to Sturgis SD, (mostly on Hwy 90), and arrived just in time for the start of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. I spent a couple of days the week of Sturgis with my friend from the first 2017 ride then met up with Ironmk, Spider woman and Renegade Rick at the KOA campground near Mt, Rushmore SD and spent about 4 more days seeing the sights around there. From there is was back to the Denver area for another overnight with my Daughter and son in law then back up to HWY 80 and home. A trip of 28 days and I was in the saddle every day except the first overnight at my daughters where I was not in the saddle for a full 24 hours. Trip total mileage was over 7,800 miles including an oil change at Ironmk's along the way.

In 2019 I decided to make another cross country trip. This time a trip less traveled!! I departed from CA taking Hwy 88 from Stockton CA over the Sierra Nevada mountains in early fall. Coming out of the mountains you end up South of Lake Tahoe Nevada. Hwy 88 turns into hwy 395 at Gardnerville NV and near Carson City NV you end up on US Route 50 (The Lincoln Highway also known as The Loneliest road in America). I stopped and gassed up at Gardnerville since I figured you don't want to start out on The Loneliest Highway with anything less than a full tank (besides those birds circling overhead looked a lot like Vultures and I'm pretty sure they were smiling at me!!!) My first stop for fuel after Gardnerville was was Fallon NV (by this point in time I had decided I would gas up every time I saw a gas pump, damned Vultures!!!) My next stop was Austin NV a leisurely 110+ miles with no assurances that there would be gas when I got there and if there was no gas the next town would be Eureka NV which is 180 miles from Fallon ( not too bad for a car, but white knuckle time with a bike although my X generally goes 160 miles to reserve if you don't push it so I kept it down to about 60 from Fallon to Austin, no since being foolish, especially with them damn birds stalking me!!! ). Fortunately, there was a one pump convenience store in Austin and believe it or not one motel (The Pony Canyon Motel) reasonably priced, very decent rooms and even a bar/cafe across the street so that's where I spent the night (The Motel......NOT the bar/cafe...geeeeeze!!!!). The trip from Fallon to Austin is some of the most desolate real estate, I did not see a single habitable building in that entire distance (just a few rock foundations that might at some time have supported some kind of a building and in that entire trip from Fallon to Austin I did not see another vehicle either going in my direction or counter to my direction (No wonder they call it the Loneliest Road In America!!!!). I crossed over the NV Utah border about 50 miles East of Ely NV and spent the night at the little town of Delta UT and made Colorado the next day for a total mileage of 1,184 miles. I returned to CA via I-80 total round trip mileage was 2,414 miles. Now I just have to figure where my next trip is going to take me!!!!!!!

Like Sparky5151, when I retired I decided to take a long trip on my '02 VTX1800C. Started out in central British Columbia and rode through Canada to a small northern Ontario town called Chapleau (birth place of Shania Twain) to visit with my in-laws at their cabin. From there it was off to Southern Ontario to visit more relatives and later on I crossed the boarder at Niagara Falls to tour the North-Eastern corner of the USA before finally heading east to Cape Breton Island. It was back west through Canada to Sault Ste. Marie where I ducked back into the US to travel through the northern states then popping up into Canada at Osoyoos and heading north to home. Between visiting and riding, I was on the road for almost 2 months and put about 12,500 km (~7,800 miles) on my bike. The photo was taken in Bar Harbor, Maine...

I've had it in my brain that some day I'll ride south to San Diego then east to Florida and store my bike there for the winter. The following spring, tour eastern USA ending up in Newfoundland, Canada before returning home to BC...Maybe a year or two after this shit-show is behind us I'll give it a go.

Just wants on a 350 mile round trip from Lakeland, fl to Daytona bike week and was first time using my new windshield. took hwy 33 to 44 over, the back country was awsome happy we went the way we did(i4 through orlando sucks ask any one who lives here they'll tell yea) we swung by a camp ground that was having event could burning of the bike was really cool to see a giant wood biker dude. After there we get over to daytona ride mainstreet and head to destination Daytona. We get there and holy crap place was packed took 20 min just to get in and when we got in and seen a few booths buddy I rode with there pointed out that there was a huge group of mongrels had to be 300+ of them thankfully they where leaving as we was coming in after that not much happend got the poker chip from harley meet up with another person from or group and rode back home. was fun happy I went and the windshield lil tweak and itll be great happy I had it today to. Well it was a long day and I'm tired tell nxt time everyone

55,000 "Me miles" in the 8 years I had mine May 2008 - May 2020. My last ride was to the Indian dealer to trade it in on my new Roadmaster. Not really a fair comparison, I had a 2005 1300R. I still kind of wish I had it, for nostalgic reasons but it never left me stranded. Just normal wear and tear, oil, fluids, brakes, etc. With only 70,500 miles on it it was barely broke in even in 15 years! haha

Took it on multiple trips from Kansas City to Toronto Canada. 2000 mile round trips. Had it from SE PA to SE GA, another 1600 mile round trip. I think I got it up to something like 27 states and 4 provinces I had it in during those years. I was lucky, I had the Mustang seat with backrest, Switchblade windshield, hard bags already on it when I bought it! I added a bunch of lights, and immediately put V&H Big Shots on it. WOW! Best sounding 1300 I ever heard! Still sounded better than my Indian with the Tab Zombies!

I had to tie my saddle bag with some of my leather straps one time the support broke. Had to order some new ones a little better designed from China or wherever they shipped from. No issues once I had them. But I had all my tools in that bag, too that they broke on. Had to zip tie up a Baron's Ultimate Light bar that had the mounting brackets break. At least they sent me some replacement brackets. But it's all minor things in the life of this bike while I had it. Just did so great!



White Sands Missile Range in the backround from St. Augustine Pass.

In Canada



The day I bought it!

In NM with a co worker at the time on a ride.

First day with whitewalls.

First day home with the Roadmaster. That sun just glinting right!

Well been about a month ago for this ride(life happend forgot to post lol) me and the wife went to a charity ride by the iron pigs fight against kids with cancer. meet up with some ppl rode out with them was a fun ride. only had one car cut us off and all most hit a older bike, one car did actually side swip someone but they was ok and there was alot off northerners down for the ride and one got heat exhaustion fell off his 2021 soft tail slim he was ok but bike got towed. All and all was a good day wife hasn't been on a bike in a while and never in something like this happy she had fun especially waving at the kids in the hospital. Tell nxt time keep sunny side down everyone ✌😎

While the VTX (1300 or 1800) are great bikes, they are, at their core, cruisers and not touring bikes. Like any bike, they can be used for touring and can be modified to be better at touring but this does not make them ideal touring bikes. In their stock forms, some of the features they lack that would make them better touring bikes and which most/all modern touring bikes have are:
-Wind protection via fairing and some form of lowers
-Music and sometimes GPS
-Lots of storage space in saddle bags and trunk
-Large range - at least 200 miles at highway speeds - 1300 can reach this but not the 1800
-Comfort in the seats and seating position
-Cruise control - not a throttle lock but a true cruise control
-6th gear

I have ridden VTX bikes and have toured on cruisers (VTX and HD Softail). I have also done a fair amount of touring on a true touring bike (Victory Cross Country Tour). The difference is very significant. Even when a VTX is modified to make it a better touring bike, it is not as good at this role as a bike designed to be a touring bike.

Please do not misinterpret the above discussion as me disliking the VTX line of bikes. I think they are great. My point is that there are "horses for courses" and for touring, nothing beats a true touring bike.