Image courtesy of Biltwell Inc.
The El Diablo Run, a/k/a EDR, is an epic journey of old-school motorcycle rally goodness that meanders through inland Southern California, drops down through Mexicali, and invades the Baja towns of San Filipe on the Sea of Cortez and traverses the peninsula to Ensenada and back to the States via Tijuana. It’s all about riding, partying, and good ol’ fashion shenanigans. I’m in.
Being from Detroit, the run poses a few logistical challenges. I decided 
that in order to be able to meet my time constraints, I needed to ship a bike to Cali. I also decided that there was very little chance that the Ironhead was going to be ready, and that a 600+ mile trip to a foreign country was probably not the best maiden voyage for her. And while the dresser would certainly be a luxurious ride, it really doesn’t fit with the spirit of the run, seeing that most of the bikes are choppers, pans, and shovels. I just couldn’t stomach the idea of riding a fuel injected bagger complete with stereo and in-dash navigation.
I started hunting for a bike that would work for the run, and ended up finding a beautiful 2003 Anniversary FXST Softail Standard. While it’s no knucklehead, it has some cool “traditional” features: Pegs rather than boards, narrow spoke front rim, carbed, and nicely loped Andrews cams and long, throaty exhaust. It pounds the ground pretty good.
The guy I bought it from was a real biker. You know what I mean. He loved riding bikes, being in the wind. Well, ol’ boy had done some damage to his shoulders courtesy of a lifetime of wielding shovels for a living. Multiple surgeries meant that he had to hang up his chaps, at least for a couple seasons. We met up at his house to look at the bike. After talking to him for a while, he was convinced that iBiker Garage would make a good home for his old steed. He really didn’t want to see it go, but he told me he knew she was in good hands when I got on it and he heard those pipes sing.
The bike rode beautifully. In fact, I was a little surprised at how well I really liked it. I tried over two weeks to break said Softail. After this series of highly scientific tests, I was convinced that it was in proper working order and would reliably get be back safely from cartel country.
The bike was in great shape, but there were a few items I needed to do to make it ready for the journey. Some cable lube, oil the jiffy stand, throw some new rear pads on, and install some decent saddle bags. Piece of cake.
Well, sometimes, I’m not all that bright. Especially with things mechanical. I won’t go into detail as to exactly how I screwed up the brake calipers, but I did. Kinda bad, too. The repair necessitated more tools, parts, phoning a friend, and a copious amount of bourbon to ease the pain of stupidity. Now, normally, my lack of mechanical aptitude isn’t a major cause of stress, but since I had already committed to a pickup day for the bike, I had to get this stuff done…in one day…when I had to work.
As I sat on my rolling shop stool, staring at the caliper, the bag-less rear end of the bike, and the puddle of brake fluid on the floor, I called my friendly motorcycle wizard. No answer. He was out doing some sort of other wizardly thing. Dismayed, I called it quits in the shop for the night. I walked in the house, poured myself a drink, and weighed my options.
In the clear morning light, I called the trucking company. They thankfully agreed to push the shipping date back a couple days. Sweet. And the wizard called me back, and agreed to bring over his magic motorcycle repair wand. Excellent. By the end of the day, she was back on the road.
The next day, I focused on the bags. I had decided on a set of 
beautiful, American-made leather bags from Fox Creek. They installed with Ghost Brackets, which allow for super easy removal, and leave the fender clean. No relocation of turn signals (Yay!) and while the install of the brackets to the bags did require some drilling (BOO!) it was all a relatively painless process.
Some test runs, and I was confident that she was good to go. The trucking company arrived on time, loaded her up and strapped her down. She arrived in LA without incident on Wednesday, exactly one week before I will arrive to begin the epic journey into Baja California!
Ride Free!