Riding across the country is a dream for plenty of motorcyclists. Doing it on machines that are 90 years old is something else entirely. A creator named Josh Seiden, who posts as @imridingplaces, shared the story of a 21 day trip that followed a group of fully restored 1936 Harley Davidson Knuckleheads from the Jersey Shore all the way to Morro Bay, California. He was hired to document the trip and spent much of the early going on a 1984 FXR rather than a Knucklehead, and he says he got bitten by the Knucklehead bug along the way.
A note on what this story covers. The full upload runs well over an hour, and this account is based on roughly the first half hour of it, from the airport through the first days in Pennsylvania. It does not tell the whole trip, and it does not explain how the group dealt with the head gasket trouble teased at the very start.
Leaving Everything Behind
The trip begins at an airport in Los Angeles. Josh says he had just moved everything he owns into a storage unit and a couple of other places before hopping on a flight east for a somewhat open ended trip. He was tired, but, in his words, very stoked. He had been hired to shoot the trip, with photos, 35mm film and moving pictures, and he says it was something he had always wanted to do.
Travel did not start smoothly. His first flight was delayed, so he missed his connection. The second flight was delayed too, and he ended up in a different airport than planned, facing a longer ride at the other end. After a mess with baggage, he reached Connecticut at 11:30 at night to meet up with a group of riders, some of whom he had never met in person.
The Knucklehead Run
The ride was organized to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Knucklehead engine. Josh describes all of the bikes as 1936 models, some with plenty of patina and some looking nice and fresh. The opening of the story mentions nine 1936 Knuckleheads and one 1984 FXR, though he later says there were about a dozen bikes in the group and that most would make the full trip. He rode the FXR for much of the first stretch, which he praised.
The first full day was spent around Connecticut, including a visit to a basement full of Panheads and Knuckleheads, before the group headed toward the beach so they could say the trip was a true coast to coast. Along the way they were given a police escort at one point, and later some officers pulled over just to check on the group while the riders made a quick roadside fix. They stopped for a late lunch and early dinner at the Delaware House Oyster Bar, where Josh called it iconic to see the old bikes lined up. They ended up spending a night on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, because New York City traffic would have added about five hours to the trip back.
Old Bikes Mean Real Maintenance
Josh makes it clear that this is not a trip for people who expect nothing to go wrong. In his words, if you do not want to go across the country on a 1936 Knucklehead, do not think something will not happen to it, because you are going to have to work on it.
Early on, the group dealt with a blown 30 amp fuse that fried some wires, and a question about why it happened. More dramatic was the trouble with the fuel tanks. Josh explains that two of the early 1936 tanks had been sealed, and gasoline sat in them for five or six years and ate away the sealer. The group filled them with acetone to clear the sealer out so it would not plug the fuel lines. The next morning, they found out why the tanks had been sealed in the first place: when a rider filled one more than it had been filled before, fuel leaked from inside the tank. They tested with water and saw the leak. A tank patch kit and a two part epoxy that one of the riders mixed up, which Josh says was so hot he could barely hold it, got the tank patched, and the plan was to make it last until the end of the trip and fix it later with a welder.
Into Pennsylvania
From Connecticut, the plan was to head toward Pittsburgh, finally leaving the interstate for two lane roads through Amish country. Somewhere in Pennsylvania the group met the first rain of the trip, with roughly 3,500 to 3,700 miles left to the Pacific, depending on the route. Josh says they took it low and slow, with plenty of stops, bike maintenance, good meals and laughs, and he described the group, a dozen or so people from all over, as having no issues.
He also admitted he had been unprepared in one way. He brought only about four rolls of film and nearly finished them already, so he ordered more to be sent to Ohio, where the group would be in a couple of days. A road closure forced a temporary reroute, one of the riders scouted ahead on a 1936 bike, and the group passed through Lancaster on rough roads. Josh was thankful for the suspension on his FXR, while some of the others bounced around.
A stop at a friend’s house revealed a collection that Josh found jaw dropping, with rooms of Panheads, Shovelheads and Knuckleheads, and even a transmission being rebuilt on the kitchen counter. He says he came away bitten by the Knucklehead bug. Elsewhere on the trip he pointed out his own favorite among the Knuckleheads, a bike that looks like a perfect show piece but which, he says, had been through a fire and burned down to the bone before it was rebuilt.
Lessons For Riding Old Iron A Long Way
You do not need a 90 year old motorcycle to learn from this crew. Some ideas worth borrowing for any long ride:
- Go through every system before you leave. Fuel tanks, fuel lines, wiring and fuses are common trouble spots on older machines, and a problem found in the driveway is much cheaper than one found in the middle of nowhere.
- Carry a basic kit with fuses, wire, tape, a tank patch or epoxy, and the tools that fit your bike. Pair it with a plan to find parts along the way.
- Ride with a group that has a chase vehicle or trailer, if you can. A trailer traveled with the group in Josh’s story.
- Check radar daily. Rain gear and a plan for where to wait out a storm make a hard day easier.
- Pack snacks and water. Josh’s own road trip tip for newbies was to keep a couple of snacks and water in a saddlebag or pocket, because you never know when you will end up on the side of the road hungry and thirsty.
The bigger lesson may be about commitment. Moving all of your belongings into storage to chase a cross country assignment is not for everyone, and Josh was upfront that he was tired and had slept little in the weeks before. But he also said it was something he had always wanted to do, and he enjoyed the different pace and different style of the trip. If a bucket list ride is calling you, start planning the route, prepare the bike, and set a date.