In February B attended a burn “conference” held on Maui, Hawaii. I am not much of a beach person but it seemed silly to turn down a week of free lodging in Hawaii as I’d never been.
She was busy from 8-12 each day at the conference so I rented a motorcycle and had a look around the island. I rented a Harly Fat Bob the first day which I’m a little embarrassed to admit is a pretty nice motorcycle. Cost and image aside I could consider owning one. The position is leaned way back with your feet and arms stretched far forward.. The forward controls are surprisingly comfortable, the only real disadvantage is that your heels drag in even moderate turns. The passenger accommodations are horrendous.. I suspect some quality time with Sargents would fix the problem but B still complains about how uncomfortable the seat was.
The Harley motor is not unlike the Guzzi motor in that it’s a laid back, torquey twin. It makes it’s max torque very low making in comfortable for just, well, cruising around. It’s plenty fast by real-world standards.
I switched to a Heritage Softtail which I would give about a 7 out 10 for rider position, comfort and style. B really liked the passenger accomodations and it had bags so ultimately was a better choice for us. The riding position was neither laid back nor leaned forward–really just a little further back than a “standard” motorcycle and equally awkward.. The style is just too “classic” for my tastes.. between the huge white fenders and the studs I just felt like a fool riding it around.
The island is surprisingly small, there couldn’t be more than a few hundred miles of paved road and a lot of them are highway that just connect one place to another. A lot of the island is a state park which means there are no shortcuts–if you go down many a road a distance you either have to follow it all the way around the island which can be a multi-hour ride and, as in the case with the road to Hana a washed out dirt road.
We skipped the road to Hana in favor of seeing the rest of the island.. A combination of lack of time and anxiety about piloting a huge Harley though roads that the rental company is apparently not insured for.. So we rode around West Maui and much of central Maui. The stretch from Kahului to Kahakuloa is beautiful on the scale of the Pacific Coast Highway along the Northern California Coast. The surface is pretty bad in spots but it’s very passable.
Another day we took the road to Haleakala which is supremely frustrating with it’s seemingly endless switchbacks, generally cold and dreary demeanor for the first half. The ride pays off however as you break the cloud cover somewhere around 15 miles into the ride and it is clear and sunny with a view of the top of the clouds you just passed through. I remember the revelation of breaking through the clouds and upon arriving at checkpoint to pay the entry fee I enthusiastically asked if breaking out of the clouds so dramatically was common.. The ranger gave me a bored look and simply said, “oh, yes..”
The top of Haleakala is almost exclusively volcanic rock, post of it red. It truly looks like the surface of Mars. It is populated by Nene, which appear to be a strange mix of a goose and a pigeon. They make chirping noises are are relatively tame, likely because people feed them.
We stayed at The Makena Golf and Beach resort, formerly the Maui Prince–an aging independent resort that was in the hands of a slightly neglectful investment group.. It was either for sale or in the process of being sold. The downside is the overpriced restaurants closed early and pretty mediocre menus.. just enough to be considered a restaurant really. The up side was the staff didn’t seem terribly concerned about late night hot tub use.. B and I spent quality time tempting fate with a few beers in the hot tub. We did go up to the Four Seasons one night for dinner but by and large you had to make the 20 minute drive to Kihei for dinner.
Makena is a perfect example of place at the end of a road with no alternate routes–it’s 20 minutes from access to anything else on the island. Not far below the resort was a public beach (Big Beach) which was clearly populated by locals and had an attached seemingly unofficial but far from secret nude beach (Little Beach).. Little Beach also had much better waves.
I can’t stress enough how beautiful Maui’s beaches really are.. the water is a clear blue-green, you can stand neck deep it water and see your feet. The water has got to be 80 degrees in February. It’s really amazing. I don’t like the beach and I found it pleasant.