Some Harley owners ride for pleasure, some ride for speed. Joney Harper rides for endurance. She’s owned Black Betty, her 2010 Street Glide for seven months, and in that time, she’s logged about 12,000 miles. Considering that most of those months were in the dead of winter, you can see that this is one dedicated rider.

Joney, a software developer, moved to Bentonville, Arkansas, from Raleigh eight years ago, and still makes frequent trips back to North Carolina. A rider for over 30 years, her first Harley was a Dyna Wide Glide, and she logged 25,000 miles on it within the first year-and-a-half of owning it. She loved the bike, but said that after several years she wanted a change. “I decided I needed something that was more conducive to travel. I was looking for something bigger.”

She started studying bikes the way an astronomer studies stars. “I’d been considering the Harley Street Glide, as well as the full dresser Ultra Classic, the new Road Glide Ultra—I looked at all of those as well as basic Road Glides. I tested a custom 110. I kind of liked it, but I wasn’t too sure.”

Joney had been hanging out at Pig Trail Harley-Davidson, test driving and pondering her next purchase. She sampled every style they had, but was still undecided. She knew she didn’t want a CVO. “It was way over the top for me, personally,” she said. It had the pretty paint and the performance, but it was set; I couldn’t personalize it myself.”

The Magic Moment arrived when they rolled Black Betty out onto the showroom floor. Joney recalled, “The folks at Pig Trail said, ‘You might want to consider this one. It has better performance than the CVO, and you can add stuff to it at your leisure to make it more customized.’ Of course, the Denim Black paint grew on me right away. I took it out for a test drive, and they had already started filling out the paperwork, because they knew I was going to buy it.” She did.

What sold Joney on the Street Glide was the combination of comfort and customization. The 96” engine had been replaced by a 110 with 255 cams. The clutch and exhaust were custom, and there were features added for the long distance hauls that Joney loves. There’s a Stealth luggage rack, a passenger backrest, adjustable rider’s rest and heat shields. The diamond cut grips are gorgeous as well as functional, and the stock speakers were replaced with H-D Boomer speakers.

Joney’s active in the local Harley Owners Group, as well as an avid Iron Butt Association member. One of her first long distance treks on Black Betty was the Iron Butt Ride on January 8th of this year. “We basically did a figure 8 across the entire state of Arkansas. It was 1082 miles and was supposed to take 24 hours. We did it in under 20. It was 27 degrees outside.”

Endurance riding is in Joney’s blood. In May, she travelled to North Carolina to visit family for about a week. “I rode 1040 miles in one day, 1000 miles once I got there, then 1040 miles back.” She rode straight through, resting only when she stopped to gas up every 200 miles or so. She doesn’t drink Red Bull either (I asked).

“I do get sore after 850 or 900 miles. You start moving around, trying to figure out new ways to ride the bike. I’m constantly shifting back and forth and leaning to keep myself going. A lot of it is adrenalin.”

Bootie shifting notwithstanding, Joney said that Black Betty is the best bike she’s every owned. “It’s comfortable, and I never expected it to have so much power through all the gears. It’s awesome. It looks badass, and the power backs it up.”

Joney’s next big adventure is the Harley Million Mile Monday on June 27. “The goal is for Harley owners everywhere to get together and ride as many miles as they can,” she said. “The goal is to get five million total miles from all Harley riders that day. Just about everybody does it, whether it’s five or 50 miles. Our group will turn in about 4000 miles.” It wouldn’t be too surprising if Joney logged that all by herself.