Motorcycle Views

Wild Motorcycle Tales

Here's a great story from Susan Bradford. Got your own story? Send it to me.

Dead Harley

The scariest thing that ever happened to me was with my first Harley. It was a 2001 Springer Softail that had a stage one Screamin' Eagle and a ton of chrome. It was beautiful, real teal and polar pearl. I could hardly wait to ride it.

It was February and I live in Alaska. My first bike was a Honda Shadow 750. I loved it but it was too weak for me. Needless to say, I was anxious to try out the new Softail.

I had taken a few rides on this beauty without any problems. Well, on one Wednesday night HOG dinner run, my hubby and I took off to meet the group in Wasilla, which is about 21 miles from my house. The weather was overcast but not threatening. After our long dinner and chat with friends, it was time to go home. It had gotten dark and started to rain. By the time I had gotten my bike warmed up to take off, it was raining heavily. We all know what it's like to ride in the rain. To top it off, I like to ride without a shield over my eyes and had glasses on. This was an inconvenience to say the least, but what happened next would test my ability to ride in more ways than I ever care to try again.

While rolling down the road, the bike died. I had a truck on my tail that was too close to mention. I immediately pulled in the clutch and tried to start the motorcycle while I was rolling at 55 mph. I didn't succeed and pulled off the road to try to start her. She started right up and off I went again. About a half mile down the road, here we go again. I was not about to leave this baby on the road and my hubby had no idea of what I was going through. He was so far ahead that he did not even realize I was in trouble. All I could think of was that something was in the tank that was keeping the motorcycle from running properly. I was not about to leave the $24K bike on the side of the road. All I could do was to try and limp home. It died several times on the way home and I thank God for the person in the truck who must have realized that I was having problems or was just plain nuts.

The truck stayed behind me all the way to the cutoff up my mountain. I was so thankful for them staying behind me and not letting anyone run me over when the bike died on the road.

The dealership had the bike for over a month and tried to tell me that the problem was in my head. My hubby proceeded to open the tank and stick a finger in. Out he pulled chips of lining that had corroded because of improper storage of the bike by the dealership. They left the tank completely empty all winter and when we bought the bike, it was unknown to us. Well, we made the dealership buy back the bike and we took our money to Fairbanks where Becky had me one hell of a softail built with stage 2 Screamin' Eagle setup with performance extras -- no chrome. I've put 8,500 miles on it in one summer. This baby runs like a dream and you can see her right here, below.

Oh, and be careful whom you buy demo bikes from. They may not have been taken care of properly. I know. -- Susan Bradford

More Wild Motorcycle Tales

More about motorcycles

Walter's Books:

Click Picture for Walter F. Kern's Kindle, Paperback, and Audible Books