Myron Harrison

You think you ride your Harley? Meet Myron Harrison. In the past three years he's ridden more than 100,000 miles. A morning ride doesn't even get him warmed up. When he's traveling, 700 miles a day is not a stretch. It's nothing for him to jump on his bike and be gone for weeks. And he's a grandpa.

Harrison, who owns Gold Coast Recycling in Ventura, started riding more than 40 years ago. He doesn't recall exactly how many bikes he's owned, but estimates the total would top 70. He started his long motorcycle odyssey on Triumphs, Nortons and BSAs. Then when his family started to come along - he has four sons - he switched to dirt bikes. As his family grew, he continued to enjoy dirt bikes for more than 20 years.

In 1996 he decided to look for something to ride on the street. He stopped by Ventura H-D and was so impressed with their helpfulness and guidance that he promptly bought a new Harley. Soon he bought another. Then another. So far, he's bought nine Harleys from Ventura and shows no sign of letting up. These days he rides a 2001 Road Glide and 2000 Ultra Classic. Along with the quality, he appreciates the fact that Harleys are American made.

"I like all the people at Ventura and enjoy doing business with them," he says. "Skip does most of the work on my bikes, and he's fantastic. He works on my bike like it was his. Bob is also very good. I'll bring the bike in and tell them, 'I'm going to Sturgis, and I'm going to ride 7,000 miles before I see you again. I don't want it to break down,' and they'll really do a job on it. I probably care more about my motorcycle than I do my car."

He also likes Harley people: "Everybody you meet - I don't care if you've never seen them before in your life - you soon feel like you've know them forever. You have something in common. They're a bunch of great people."

"I ride about 35,000 miles a year," said Harrison. "I don't just ride out and have breakfast. I ride with a very good friend named Stan Skates. We've been friends for 30 years at least, and we ride everywhere together. We've been in at least 25 western states, along with Mexico and Canada. We'll take off on a 9 or 10-day trip and cover 11 states. We like to cover a lot of ground. "

Harrison also belongs to the Ventura H.O.G. He rides with them seven or eight times a year and enjoys attending the meetings. "A good group," he says, "but a lot of them don't like the longer rides. Sometimes Stan and I will jump on a motorcycle and ride to San Francisco and back in the same day."

While Harrison rides to a lot of rallies - he goes to Sturgis every year - he often uses these rallies as a stopping point in a much longer ride. Last year's "Sturgis Run" consisted of a run up California, across Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota, back down into Wyoming, across South Dakota, Nebraska, into Colorado, Mexico, Texas and back to California. Their total time in Sturgis? Maybe five hours. As he puts it, "I like a place to go, but I enjoy the ride more than anything else."

According to Harrison, preparation is the key for long rides like this. He checks his bike over carefully every time he rides it. "I don't care if it's only 100 miles," he says. "I put it on the center stand, raise it off the ground and shake the wheels. I look for anything loose. My life is riding on that thing, so preparation to me is very important." As for clothing: "I learned to dress in layers. You can always take clothes off, but you can't put them on if you don't have them. You never know what temperature you're going to run into."

As you might expect, Harrison is high on Harleys, especially their quality and reliability. He rode his '97 Road King more than 50,000 miles with no problems. He did have some bad experiences after installing non-Harley parts on one of his bikes, so now he sticks with factory parts with good results.

What advice would he give someone who is starting out? Take a certified safety class to brush up on skills and knowledge. Always stay alert and be prepared. And when you're ready to talk bikes, stop by Ventura H-D.

"I've been to every single Harley dealership in California and Arizona and probably Nevada," Harrison says, "and there's a bunch of them. I've never seen a better equipped and stocked dealership than Ventura. And I just enjoy the people."