On my recent expedition to Tombstone, AZ for Helldorado Days, Harley outfitted me with two of their best sellers, the Triple Vent Passing Link II Leather Coat and Circuit II Weatherproof Leather Gauntlet Gloves. For an enthusiast, your leather is much more than just a protective second skin, it’s a lifestyle statement. It has to look good, feel good and fit your personal fashion and function needs.
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You may scoff and say I’m just getting soft, but I prefer to believe riding smarter is better than riding harder, at least in the long haul. Making slightly fewer dumb decisions is a nice perk of getting older. Comfortable bikes relieve road fatigue and extra storage space makes packing and unpacking quicker, easier and less tiring. Sit the roomy hard bags and big tour pak on a counterbalanced and rubber-mounted 117 cubic inch (1923 cc) power plant, load it with tech I can’t figure and you have Harley-Davidson’s luxury liner, the 2025 Street Glide Ultra.
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Tombstone has about a dozen primary eateries and all are busy during Helldorado Days, so make reservations if they accept reservations, or plan to dine early or late to avoid peak hours. Otherwise, since there isn’t a supermarket in town, your best bet may be the Circle K for snacks or gas station sushi. Instead, we sampled two toothsome places in town, and one in nearby Bisbee.
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The way to Tombstone, AZ can feel like a wagon trail that happens to be paved. Passing through small, dusty towns that aren’t much more than stage coach stops, a place to get some grub, put up your boots, feed your steel horse and get back on the trail. For those of us who watched too many westerns, this is the way of the west. Whether you’re pushing cattle, prospecting for precious metals, running from the law, endlessly searching for a homestead or riding to the next cold beer, we are always trying to get somewhere else. Just passing through, gone before the dust settles. The West is less a place and more a state of mind. It embodies wanderlust, adventure, independence. Not much more needed than our ride, big black boots, and shoulders covered in well-worn leather. It is freedom. And for three days and nights in the third weekend of October for the last 96 years, it is Helldorado Days.
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Garmin has built guidance systems specially made for hurling ourselves into the the wind with no need for real maps or even a sense of direction. The Zumo XT2 is Garmin’s latest platform for telling us how to get from A to B, the fast way or the scenic way, with pretty much every conceivable convenience stop along the way while also alerting us to sharp curves, state helmet laws, speed cameras, traffic conditions, ETA and probably a few more things I haven’t figured yet.
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There are times when nature, dumb luck and poor planning conspire against us. You can take all the usual and sensible precautions before rolling into the wild: check the weather report, carry your own personal chrome-plated barometer, even stick your head out the window. Feeling unencumbered and packing light, the skies are clear, a soft cool breeze caresses your cheek, the bike rumbles instantly to life and you think to yourself with a smile, what could possibly go wrong?
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Tucked inside an old, concrete smog-test garage in Los Angeles, Yamaha hid its newest edition of its R-series lineup. It didn’t seem much of a mystery to the seasoned sportbike journalists gathered around. Rumors spread, teasers released, sporty minds connected the dots, which led to the 2025 YZF-R9.
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There is an old saying that gentlemen bikers can never have too many leather jackets. There are so many occasions to be prepared for when only the appropriate coat will do. So a diverse closet of casual, work, play and formal biker-wear is required. Of course, you need wet, cold, hot and the-weather-in-between seasonal gear, as well as the occasional need for, of course, Old West fringe or ski slope chic.
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The 2024 Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide Revival is right out of America’s Golden Age of Design, the Space Age thrust into artful forms of innovation and style. The Revival is an homage to the original 1956 Hydra-Glide (1949-’57), which introduced hydraulic front forks. It’s the fourth iteration in the Motor Company’s limited and numbered Icons collection, its factory version of a resto-mod. Earlier Icons included the 2023 Electra Glide Highway King, 2022 Low Rider Diablo and 2021 Electra Glide Revival. Modern performance wrapped in vintage looks can be an irresistible combination. I hope H-D continues bringing back its style heroes. Maybe a 1959 Sportster would be nice, or a ’36 Knucklehead.
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