Cross country van trip with moto

[Garandman]

Early planning stages of a cross-country-ish trip in a van with the moto in back. Ridden in Colorado but nowhere else west of New York.

Planning for about six weeks - enough time?

Planning to leave mid-May and be back late June - ok timing?

Planning on heading south first, so kind of a big clockwise loop - make sense?

Any “must ride” areas? I’d like to hit New Mexico, maybe some California regions, and the area around Coeur d'Alene ID. Everything else is up in the air.

Is Advrider or another site recommended? Van lifers are all over but not usually with a bike.

Going to have my Sprinter looked over carefully. 205,000 miles and some rust to be repaired, but many have gone much farther. Great range but no cruise control. Alternative is to buy another Medium Roof standard wheelbase Transit.

[SteveM]

What's is your plan to divide up driving time vs. riding time?

There are a few options:

Drive / sleep at night, ride each day.

Drive long to a location, ride several loops from that base camp.

etc.

Top of list for me to ride would be

Black Hills SD
Oregon High Desert
Blue Ridge Parkway

[Vovchandr]

Million dollar highway - CO goes into US 550 which is great

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z82piji4QXtHZHGV8

Are you looking for roads or destinations?

Take your time and watch these vids

[xrocket21]

Moab Utah is pretty epic

[obsolete]

Turquoise trail from ABQ to Santa Fe is a nice way to get to Santa Fe if you're in that area.

[boosten lebaron]

I would skip NM. I didn't enjoy it.
Moab was great.
Black hills in SD was epic.
Area around the Grand canyon was good.
Sedona Arizona was stunning.
Blue ridge parkway is a must.
Wisconsin dells was an impressive side trip.

6 weeks is a good amount of time. your old van may prove to be troublesome if you plan on camping in it at legit places. We stopped at several camp grounds that were denying vans and campers more than 10 years old at their discretion. Basically if it looked bad you weren't getting in. Boondocking it will be fine. Plenty of places to do that if you go on freecamping.net.

Personally we drove as long as possible to a given destination then spent as much time as possible. Also look into toll charges to save money by going around things. We saved almost $200 by going around tolls in Chicago and New York and ended up seeing a lot more of the country

[loudbeard]

I haven’t ridden it, but Lake of the Ozarks is top of my list of where I want to moto next. Apparently some really incredible riding there, plus it would be a good place to stop between the Appalachians and the Rockies.

[OneCheekRider]

If you come to Cali, I can take you out on some the best rest roads I've experienced or provide you with GPX files if you'd rather go solo. I have extra bikes if anyone else wants to tag along and can help with any bike-related issues/maintenance that may come up.

edit: bring your passport and we can do a fun loop in Mexico if you're up for it.

Coincidently, I'm currently planning a cross country riding trip to bring a motorcycle to Nashville. I will likely be leaving in the next month or two so hope to have more direct experience afterwards.

[e30addict]

You could honestly spend 5-6 years riding the west and still never get bored.

[e30addict]

I would skip NM. I didn't enjoy it.

'
Areas of northern NM can be pretty epic. The southern half not so much.

[RandyO]

Coranado Trail /AZ191 (Alpine - Clifton) is on my bucket list

[OneCheekRider]

You could honestly spend 5-6 years riding the west and still never get bored.

10 years in September for me. Still not bored.

[RandyO]

10 years in September for me. Still not bored.

frost heave slalom season here

[xrocket21]

I would skip NM. I didn't enjoy it.
Moab was great.
Black hills in SD was epic.
Area around the Grand canyon was good.
Sedona Arizona was stunning.
Blue ridge parkway is a must.
Wisconsin dells was an impressive side trip.

6 weeks is a good amount of time. your old van may prove to be troublesome if you plan on camping in it at legit places. We stopped at several camp grounds that were denying vans and campers more than 10 years old at their discretion. Basically if it looked bad you weren't getting in. Boondocking it will be fine. Plenty of places to do that if you go on freecamping.net.

Personally we drove as long as possible to a given destination then spent as much time as possible. Also look into toll charges to save money by going around things. We saved almost $200 by going around tolls in Chicago and New York and ended up seeing a lot more of the country

I drove the Blue Ridge Parkway on a sunny day just after college in my Integra GSR with the moon roof open with my best friend at the time. It was a good day.

[Garandman]

Thinking about whether to get a new van or fix up the old one,

Mechanically, my 2006 Sprinter seems very sound. 205,000 miles and runs great. These vans are famous for longevity.

The bodywork, on the other hand, is not. Can’t find a shop to repair body rust anywhere. Seems to be a real shortage of workers. The shop that restored it when I bought it five years ago.

Already have the available patch panels.

[obsolete]

'
Areas of northern NM can be pretty epic. The southern half not so much.

I will agree with this. I lived in NM for almost 7 years (ABQ). There are cool things in Central / Southern NM (White Sands / Trinity test site / Carlsbad / Cibola / Gila... etc). ABQ isn't really a must see and once you get out of the High desert, landscape gets kinda boring. Santa Fe is a cool stop and everything north going into CO is much better than the lower elevation parts of the state. Jemez Springs, Bandelier, Taos etc. can lead you right to the San Juans in CO with Pagosa Springs, Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Telluride, the million dollar highway etc. Depending on what you want from NM and your time commitment, that's where I would focus. I say that mainly because the San Juans and Southwest CO as a whole, is one of my favorite parts of the country. If I were to leave NH for retirement the list is there or Portugal.

[nick5446]

Did you mention somewhere what bike you're taking? I feel like you're getting recs on street rides and dirt biking, haha

[Garandman]

Tiger 1050 most likely.

Running into a lot of scheduling snags, looks like this may turn into three or four regional trips. Which is fine.

[OneCheekRider]

curious, any interest in riding my Tiger 1050 to SoCal and either flying back or riding my Tiger 1200 back to the East coast? I wouldn't cover your travel costs like airfare, fuel, etc but bike usage like tires/maintenance would be on me.

[Garandman]

So much up in the air couldn’t commit.

[Garandman]

May look at a 2011 144 cargo. But it has a check engine light. It’s at a used car dealer having been purchased at auction. He thinks it might be related to the catalytic converter.

IIRC that can be a very expensive repair - on the order of $3,500.

[Garandman]

Got a quote for $2,500 to repair the rusty areas. Have to decide if it’s worthwhile. Van runs mint so I’m thinking it’s worth it to repair again.

[loudbeard]

Seems like you’ve enjoyed this van as is for quite some time now. I’d fix it up and keep riding it.

[OneCheekRider]

assuming you're still enjoying the van and there's no other major issues, $2500 seems pretty reasonable to me.

[RandyO]

Got a quote for $2,500 to repair the rusty areas. Have to decide if it’s worthwhile. Van runs mint so I’m thinking it’s worth it to repair again.

question ? do you keep the van garaged, outside ?