"You can't tour with apes!" It's something I've heard for years by guys who don't ride with apes. The truth is somewhat more nuanced. I decided I'd put the myth to rest by doing some serious miles on my long term Road Star which has a set of 14" Burly Brand Apes.
While an iron grip on ape hangers for hours at a time is a prescription for numb hands, most touring is nothing like that. With some form of throttle lock it might have been even more comfy. Ergonomically, ape hangers do wonders for getting my spine in a straight line, and not slouching like the one-size-fits all bars that come on most motorcycles make me do. They also have the nice little advantages of giving you somewhere to strap your gear (and create a makeshift windscreen), giving better angles to shoot photos from the saddle, and, well... looking like a badass.
I love that even just a couple of hundred miles from where I live I'm still discovering areas I've never been to or even known anything about. Death Valley is one example, whenever I think about going it always seems to be mid summer or some other atrocious time of the year. Sedona is another. All I had heard is that it was beautiful. I hear that places in the desert are beautiful all the time, and they usually aren't. I've been down Interstate 17 from Flagstaff to Phoenix and nothing in that desolate stretch suggested that just a few miles west might be magic.
But magic it is. To start my trip we need to back up a bit.
I left from Laughlin, NV right at the beginning of the River Run, as its my habit to miss most of the event, meeting up with friends who show up early and bailing before the real crowds get there. I had known for years that just beyond the cliché Laughlin daytrip to Oatman is an old section of Route 66 that heads up over Sitgreaves Pass and on to Kingman. Looking at it on a map, it looks twisted and evil, so naturally I was attracted to it.
Backing up even further, I need to pass along a little bit of information for those looking to do the whole Route 66 thing. Down near Needles, where the Mother Road crosses the Colorado River, because of the river sometimes Route 66 East goes west and sometimes West goes east, as it follows the meandering river down to where the crossing is southeast of town. It sounds like it's totally not worth it, right? Wrong! The stretch from the 'River to Oatman (the Oatman Topock Highway, as it's now called) is beautiful pavement, better than Sitgreaves Pass, and one of the more fun roads on my trip. If you're going to try it, make sure you have good suspension. I went with a friend with a lowered Street Glide and he didn't have any fun at all, as he bottomed on the bumps. You have to like lively roads that just follow the hilly terrain with little rhyme or reason, be ready for unmarked turns over blind rises, decreasing and increasing radius corners and plenty of off cambers. Don't be in a hurry, the road is challenging even at legal speeds.
Oatman, AZ is fun whether there's a rally in town or not. It's a real old mining town, not quite a ghost, but more of a tourist trap than a working mine. There is an old boardwalk and a hitching rail and donkeys. Tons of donkeys everywhere, just wandering and pooping. Rolling into town after a long ride up the Topock Road, it's a dark, cool drink at the Oatman Hotel's bar it's one of those places covered in $1 bills, only this one is huge. There might be $100k on those walls.
Heading out on Route 66 to the northeast of Oatman feels like an adventure. Not far out of town the road turns to a poorly-repaired, lumpy, twisting thing with no guardrails ascending a pass, Sitgreaves Pass to be exact. I start off following a pair of young couples on Harleys, but I keep stopping for pictures so I lose them after the second time. There are tons of bikes on the road, some pulled over in the darnedest places, like around blind corners or at narrow spots in the road to catch shade of a tree. After a stop at the top of the pass to take a panoramic shot, I followed a girl down the east side. You'd think she was having a terrible time with how slow she was going but she was just picking her way along, going at a comfortable pace for her. She kept pulling over for me, but I never pass, instead (with her keeping such a sedate pace) I'm snapping pics of her against the beautiful rock layers of the canyon. I'm a little mystified that old '66 went through these rugged mountains when flat desert is just 50 miles south (where Interstate 40 lies), but maybe the riches of Oatman were worth the detour.
Popping out the east side of the pass it's more of the flat-ass desert that much of Arizona is known for, as the road takes me right into Kingman. Naturally here in a city not abandoned when the Interstate came through, there is all sorts of Route 66 crap for those too lazy to go a few miles out of their way and really get a feel for the road. I was briefly tempted by just taking Interstate 40 east to Flagstaff as Route 66 gives up its winding ways here in the flat ass desert, but I'm immediately rewarded for my steadfastness with a cool little roadside store just 23 miles out of Kingman in Hackberry, AZ.