Day 1: The Journey Begins
Day 1 of this vintage Harley-Davidson cross-country ride began on September 19, 2015, at Emerald Isle, North Carolina, with a 1933 Harley-Davidson VL and a 1934 Harley-Davidson VLD pointed west.
The first official leg ran from the coast back to Central NC, but the trip had already delivered its first mechanical scare the night before with a charging issue on the ride down to Indian Beach.
Day 1 Ride Stats
- Date: September 19, 2015
- Official start time: 11:35 AM
- Start: Emerald Isle, North Carolina
- Finish: Central NC
- Distance: 166 miles
- Route: Emerald Isle / Indian Beach area to Central NC by way of the NC 24 corridor, Fayetteville area, and north toward the Triangle
- Motorcycles: 1933 Harley-Davidson VL and 1934 Harley-Davidson VLD
- Starting mileage: 636.5
- Final mileage: 802.5
- Gas added: 3.75 gallons total
- Oil added: 1 quart total
- Roadside issues: None during the official Day 1 ride
- Post-ride repair: Loose rear sprocket discovered at home; rear sprocket rivets redone before continuing west
The Night Before the Start
Before the official start, I had already ridden my 1933 Harley-Davidson VL from my home in Central NC to Tim’s beach house in Indian Beach. Of course, I waited until the afternoon to leave, so it was well past dark when I realized the bike had a charging issue.
I pulled over at an old church and started troubleshooting. The problem turned out to be my generator had reversed polarity, which basically required grounding a couple of connectors on the voltage regulator, but it took a while to figure out on the side of the road. Tim eventually arrived and followed me the rest of the way back to his place.
Day 1 Ride Journal
After almost two years of hard work, patient waiting, and more than a couple of sets of busted knuckles, my cross-country journey has finally begun! Our starting point was Emerald Isle, North Carolina, and with waves crashing behind us, we headed west on a sunny Saturday morning.
I’m riding a blue 1933 Harley-Davidson VL and Tim is astride the red 1934 Harley-Davidson VLD. The “D” in VLD denotes a slight performance upgrade that uses a Y-shaped intake manifold instead of the standard T-shaped manifold used on the VL models. My ’33 actually has VLD cylinders, which is not correct, but every bit of extra horsepower helps on these old machines.
Our route today took us through eastern North Carolina and on into the central part of the state. Since my house happened to be on the way, we decided to forgo camping for one more night and stayed at my house for the night. This also gave us easy access to tools and a chance to go over the bikes one more time before truly setting off across the country.
The bikes made the 170 miles from the coast to my home without incident. Let’s just hope the remaining 3,500 miles go as smoothly.
Once we were back in Central NC, the first-day shakedown revealed one problem that had to be fixed before heading west for real: the rear sprocket was loose. It had not caused trouble on the ride from the coast, but if left alone it could have loosened enough for the sprocket to come off, so the rivets had to be redone correctly before the trip continued.
