(16-08-2011, 11:00pm)Heidi1 Wrote: I've just gotten back from Vegas. We all know the rules, so I can only tell you one thing that happened there, I hired a bike and go play in the canyons. Before I went, I tried so hard to get myself a proper bike. One company listed a Hayabusa for hire, but my four emails to them went unanswered. My only other options were Goldwings, a couple of big Honda tourers or a HARLEY!

A FREAKIN HARLEY! I just couldn't ride a Honda...

I've ridden an M109 ONCE, and that is the sum total of my experience on a cruiser. I loathed every minute of it.

I gave up trying to book before I went, and decided to worry about it once I got to Vegas. Once I was there, I was put on to Eagleriders, Las Vegas, the biggest hire/sale place in Vegas. I dropped in and got the Manager Karen. I can't recommend her highly enough, she was one heck of a woman, knew exactly what she was talking about, and couldn't have been nicer.

After talking to a mate who rides one, I chose a fatboy with great trepidation. I got The Look when I asked about gear, but they kindly loaned me a fullface helmet (took some searching to find one) and a jacket. Safety gear in Vegas appears to be a bandana, sunnnies and your going out thongs. Karen also suggested I ring a give a bloke called Spencer who took tours up around the canyons.

Spencer picked me up at 6am the following morning, 6'8'' of large American bloke on a monster Harley. He was easy to spot. He led me at a cracking 75 miles per hour onto the Vegas freeway system. Having now had about 12 minutes of riding experience on a cruiser, and a few days driving on the wrong side of the road, it was a steep learning curve, but I kept up!

We climbed into the hills behind Vegas, climbing to 9000 feet in a short amount of time. We climbed and climbed through the most incredible country, big sweepers and tight stuff. Before you ask, the Harley was AMAZING! Strong and responsive on the throttle (although the amount of play threw me at first). SURE she didn't corner like the trackbike or the busa, but she was nimble enough for the speeds we were doing (which weren't sluggish once Spencer realised I'd gotten the hang of it). I would hate to have to pull one up in a hurry though, they are a big bastard of a bike. I scraped the running boards a few times, but I suspect that happens. I would have liked to push a bit harder, but the drop offs were spectacularly steep, there was no margin for error up there.

Spencer and I ended up having such a good time, neither of us wanted to go home, so he took me to a 'true biker bar'. Down an unposted dirt road.... surrounded by burned out cars and rusted bike bits..... only woman in the place..... oh well, I was on holiday. I also ended up in Downtown LA by accident in a bar two nights ago, but that is another story.

When we finally got back to the rental place, they asked where we had been. When we told them where we'd been, they were astounded we'd covered that amount of ground in the time we'd had. Spencer had also taken me somewhere nice for breakfast, a ribs and BBQ place. Ribs with ranch dressing is a fairly adventurous breakfast at 9am, but I tried everything.

I can't recommend this enough if you are in Vegas (and you are sober). I have Karen's contract details at Eaglerider if you want to hire a bike. She also hires them out of Los Angeles if you want to go that way. I also have Spencer's details, it is worth hiring someone to take you out to the places off the beaten track that only the locals know about. It is the middle of summer in Vegas at the moment, so it was 110 to 117 degrees every day. I left at 6am to beat the heat, but once we were having fun I forgot all about it. It was only a problem riding back into town with the traffic.

I'm going back to hire a bike and cross the country or do a 5-10 day ride, the place is unexpectedly beautiful.

Tell them Heidi from Australia sent you, Karen loves Aussies.