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After finishing school, moving to Boston, and basically starting my life as a young adult, taking an extended amount of time off to tour the country on a motorcycle just didn't seem possible. I travel a lot, but it is always for 2 weeks at a time. Everyone i work with knows that i love motorcycles, I commute to work, talk about weekend trips, so every conversation with someone in the office starts with, "how's the bike?"
Anyway I recently had a conversation with my boss about when he was my age, and how he traveled cross country in his Volkswagon Beetle. After talking about some of the people he met, the places he went, and the route he took, he ended the conversation by saying that he would be more than happy to give me an extended leave to do the same on my motorcycle. I have thought about it, but i never really started to think about really doing it until we had that conversation. Well now it is all i can think about, and i thought some of you could answer questions that i have. I know this same spiel has been typed before on any number of motorcycle forums, but i think it would be good to hear what anyone has to say here to my particular situation.
I currently own 2 bikes. unfortunately neither are equipped to take me comfortably across the country. One is a 05 Ducati Monster S4r affectionately named Anita. She is a smokin hot Italian and would not be good company for such an adventure. The other is a 08 SV650, a recently converted track bike.
So first question, what will i ride? Well the idea is something cheap, comfortable, and reliable. Ideally nothing over $1500. If anyone has any opinions,recommendations, or is selling please fire away.
Option 1 - Suzuki Bandit 1200, and from what i heard they are bulletproof and good tourers
Option 2 - Yamaha Virago, nothing fancy, just point A to B.
Option 3 - Old KLR 650, If i feel the need to go off road at some point, this would be good to have. However in good working order these tend to be in the $2000 range
Second, has anyone here purchased a bike on the west coast and driven it back to the east? Or vice versa, sold to someone on the west coast after coming from the east (seems like the better option). Ideally i would buy one here and sell it insanely cheap to someone over there. If anyone here has experience doing either I would love to here about it.
I have a route in mind already, and will plan to spend a month and a half on the road. I am a Landscape Architect so a lot of this trip will be curated towards the National Park System. If anyone wants to name some must see's i would love to hear em. Also this will not happen until next year anywhere between May to October, just starting to plan early.
Seems like a wise list below
50 Tips for Riding a Motorcycle Across America