Seeing the country and the world on 2 wheels

[oVTo]

It seems like this topic might be of interest to a only small percentage of NESR, but at least it's moto-related instead of another political thread.

I got the bug for moto-travel about a decade ago when riding in Europe with Joe Proia (Ironstone Ventures). The group was a half dozen bikes, two of them 2-up. We rode a 1-week loop through Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Germany and back to Switzerland. It was very casual - only Joe knew where we'd end up at night, and his only rule was 'no whining'. I guess 'keep up' was another rule if you wanted to know where we were sleeping that night. That trip was an eye opener.

Since then, I've moto-toured most of the U.S. and eastern Canada as well as Japan and Norway. Those trips were just my wife and me (1 bike) and mostly 1-2 weeks except for the most recent 5-week ride. We plan to keep doing this kind of travel as long as possible mixing foreign and domestic adventures.

Anyone else taking long trips on their bikes or looking forward to doing them someday?

[PurplePackage]

It's on the bucket list. Family, job, and COVID are all in the way of doing that right now.

[e30addict]

I've been up and down the east, out to Kentucky, up across Labrador, Newfoundland and the Canadian Maritimes etc...

Would love to tour out west and Europe at some point as well.

[Crconnor18]

I have a ticket to fly out to Salt Lake City on 9/2 to buy a new bike and heading home to Boston over 10 days solo on a it.

Hitting Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, Million Dollar Highway, Pikes Peak, Blue Ridge and probably deals gap.

[boosten lebaron]

Ive been from Montreal to key west mile marker zero on a bike in one shot. Ive been every where in the UK and Scotland on a bike. Ive toured most of Europe on one, even parts of Morocco. Did a good chunk of Vietnam as well. I really want to do Africa next. I built a bike for the Mongol Rally but Russia refusing me a visa put a bullet in that trip. Ended up using the bike to run around the UK at over a 100mpg. Think i topped out at 130mpg on a few trips. I could cross the country on a few gallons of fuel.

[Vovchandr]

Ive been from Montreal to key west mile marker zero on a bike in one shot. Ive been every where in the UK and Scotland on a bike. Ive toured most of Europe on one, even parts of Morocco. Did a good chunk of Vietnam as well. I really want to do Africa next. I built a bike for the Mongol Rally but Russia refusing me a visa put a bullet in that trip. Ended up using the bike to run around the UK at over a 100mpg. Think i topped out at 130mpg on a few trips. I could cross the country on a few gallons of fuel.

I've done NY to key west as well, hit tail of the dragon on the way back in the middle of the night. That was in my single and responsibility free days.


You guys seem to have quite a few more trips under your belt. Doing it with the wife is quite an accomplishment on multiple fronts.

[oVTo]

It's on the bucket list. Family, job, and COVID are all in the way of doing that right now.

I think that's really common. We did some travel pro-life, then none until kids were mostly grown and I had enough vacation time for longer trips. Where would you want to go first?

[oVTo]

I've been up and down the east, out to Kentucky, up across Labrador, Newfoundland and the Canadian Maritimes etc...

Would love to tour out west and Europe at some point as well.

Other than the first trip to Europe, our first trips were the same - eastern Canada and eastern U.S. We cheated a bit and took the ferries from Portland to Nova Scotia then to Newfoundland. I'd like to go through Labrador next time. Anything in Labrador that you'd recommend seeing or doing, or avoiding?

[oVTo]

I have a ticket to fly out to Salt Lake City on 9/2 to buy a new bike and heading home to Boston over 10 days solo on a it.

Hitting Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, Million Dollar Highway, Pikes Peak, Blue Ridge and probably deals gap.

That sounds lime a great trip. It's after school starts so the parks shouldn't be as packed as they were this summer. I heard some horror stories about the crowds at Zion from friends.

What did you buy?

[oVTo]

Ive been from Montreal to key west mile marker zero on a bike in one shot. Ive been every where in the UK and Scotland on a bike. Ive toured most of Europe on one, even parts of Morocco. Did a good chunk of Vietnam as well. I really want to do Africa next. I built a bike for the Mongol Rally but Russia refusing me a visa put a bullet in that trip. Ended up using the bike to run around the UK at over a 100mpg. Think i topped out at 130mpg on a few trips. I could cross the country on a few gallons of fuel.

Those sound like great trips. We've spent a few weeks hiking in the UK, mostly Scotland and want to go back for a ride/hike vacation in the next couple years. We liked Scotland enough to consider retiring there at one point. Vietnam & other South Asia countries would be cool. I just mentioned it to my wife and she's interested so I guess you've added a new place to our bucket list.

[SRTie4k]

Can't say I've done a ton of long distance travel on the bike, the farthest I've ridden is down to NC (numerous times) via interstate, backroads and the MABDR. I put a lot of miles on (50k miles in 5 years), but most of them are within New England.

One of these days I plan to go farther, unfortunately as a relatively new parent that's not going to be until late 40's/50's now, however. I'm thinking I could possibly fit a half cross-country trip in at some point, maybe out to CO or UT, on the bike.

When the kids are grown and out of the house, my wife and I have already decided we will get a Goldwing and tour the country.

[oVTo]

I've done NY to key west as well, hit tail of the dragon on the way back in the middle of the night. That was in my single and responsibility free days.


You guys seem to have quite a few more trips under your belt. Doing it with the wife is quite an accomplishment on multiple fronts.

I'm lucky that she's really into motorcycles. Not just the travel but also follows racing. We've been to COTA a few times and a handful of MotoAmerica tracks (Brainerd a few weeks ago). She doesn't ride but loves being pillion. It is a challenge packing for 2 people with camping & cooking gear, but we've learned be pretty efficient with what we take.

[Stoneman]

It's something I want to do. I think I'd focus domestically though. There's so damn much too see right here. I just haven't figured out where.

[DirtDawg21892]

I love riding fast in far away places! I've been taking a week long trip down to West Virginia every year for a while now. We go to the Cass BMW rally and goof around in the mountains. Down there they get federal highway funding, so the roads are in beautiful shape but there's no industry so there's nobody driving on them. Most of the roads are a 55 mph speed limit even tough you can only comfortably drive 40, and there's basically no law enforcement to speak of anyway. Some areas are every bit as much fun as the dragon, its a good time. We usually put down 2500 miles or so over the course of 6 days. We will slab it a couple hours to Scranton or so, but once you're in the Appalachians you can just ride mountain roads south basically all the way.

[Stoneman]

I love riding fast in far away places! I've been taking a week long trip down to West Virginia every year for a while now. We go to the Cass BMW rally and goof around in the mountains. Down there they get federal highway funding, so the roads are in beautiful shape but there's no industry so there's nobody driving on them. Most of the roads are a 55 mph speed limit even tough you can only comfortably drive 40, and there's basically no law enforcement to speak of anyway. Some areas are every bit as much fun as the dragon, its a good time. We usually put down 2500 miles or so over the course of 6 days. We will slab it a couple hours to Scranton or so, but once you're in the Appalachians you can just ride mountain roads south basically all the way.

Yeah. Now that is something I could wrap my head around.

[e30addict]

Down there they get federal highway funding, so the roads are in beautiful shape but there's no industry so there's nobody driving on them. Most of the roads are a 55 mph speed limit even tough you can only comfortably drive 40, and there's basically no law enforcement to speak of anyway.

Speed limits down there blew my mind the first time. Railing a corner and passing a cop coming the other way puts your heart in your throat until you realize you're UNDER the speed limit. Speed limit 55, suggest you do 15 on this corner, you figure it out vs NH slowing you down in several stages to a crawl before posting a laughable suggested corner speed and then stepping it back up.

Maybe the truly fast guys riding full on sport bikes can can corner over 55 in those 15mph areas but 90% never have to worry about tickets there. The staties do tend to pop you on the major roads though. Once you're remote, there's little to worry about.

[DirtDawg21892]

My longest solo trip was a fly and ride out to Dallas TX in 2018 to retrieve a 2016 BMW R1200RS my father had bought from a dealership sight unseen. It's kind of a niche bike and nobody in that area had any idea what it was, so he pulled the trigger before looking into how long shipping took and how expensive it was. Basically everybody wanted $500-$1000 and it would take a month or more to take delivery. He had a ton of frequent flier miles and I had very flexible hours, so I proposed a different strategy.
3 days later I boarded an airplane to Texas wearing an aerostitch with only a small carry on and a helmet. A guy from the dealership picked me up at the gate and bought me breakfast. The bike was even better than I had imagined.




I headed North and made it to the Ozarks that afternoon. It was mostly rainy, but made for some neat pictures.



I took the long way home and cut through TN to ride the tail of the dragon.







It was fun, but didn't really live up to the hype. I thought the surrounding area was every bit as good and much less crowded, so I made a couple pass and started exploring different parts of the area.








Eventually it started raining and was supposed to continue raining all over the east for 4 days straight, so I decided to abort the rest of the route I had planned and bomb home the next day. I woke up in Tennessee and slept in my own bed that night. 880 miles of rain. Didn't get any pictures because I didn't stop. Not my finest or most pleasant pull, but the distance you can cover even in bad conditions if you set your mind to it was pretty eye opening.

Anyway, the whole trip took 5 days and I doubled the mileage on the bike, but it cost under $500 total including food, gas, and the cheapest hotels I could find. He got his bike delivered one week from purchasing for less than the shippers quoted, and I got to take a kickass trip, so it worked out pretty well for both of us. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

[e30addict]

Other than the first trip to Europe, our first trips were the same - eastern Canada and eastern U.S. We cheated a bit and took the ferries from Portland to Nova Scotia then to Newfoundland. I'd like to go through Labrador next time. Anything in Labrador that you'd recommend seeing or doing, or avoiding?

The thing that struck me about Labrador was the remoteness and tiny trees at that latitude. First time I needed extra gas with me to make the next stop.

There were some cool camping experiences, especially the old abandoned park in Goose Bay where we had a giant bonfire on the beach, but it was mostly about being so alone and traversing the landscape. We went up 389 from Baie-Comeau in Quebec and then crossed over onto Newfoundland on the other side. Manic 5 and 389 are impressive as hell, but you can go up and back and explore along the 138 as well. We've also done 138 to it's far eastern termination in Kegashka on another trip there.

MarkBvt does great writeups on the trips and posts them on ADVRider. https://advrider.com/f/threads/the-a...-land.1203311/

Few select pics of Labrador...

[DirtDawg21892]

Maybe the truly fast guys riding full on sport bikes can can corner over 55 in those 15mph areas but 90% never have to worry about tickets there. The staties do tend to pop you on the major roads though. Once you're remote, there's little to worry about.

I'm sure they could! I never said it's not possible to take a 15 mph corner at over 55, just that I wasn't comfortable doing it over 40. It's still a public road and there's an abundance of gravel in the worst possible spots.
And to top it off, the whole area is a federal radio silence zone, so your buddies can't even use a cell phone to call for help when you wrap yourself around a guard rail. That thought always keeps me humble when I'm down there.

[e30addict]

I'm sure they could! I never said it's not possible to take a 15 mph corner at over 55, just that I wasn't comfortable doing it over 40. It's still a public road and there's an abundance of gravel in the worst possible spots.
And to top it off, the whole area is a federal radio silence zone, so your buddies can't even use a cell phone to call for help when you wrap yourself around a guard rail. That thought always keeps me humble when I'm down there.

I got you. I don't even pay attention to the limit anymore there since I know I'm not gonna bust it in the corners now.

Totally get the rescue deal too. I got my bike completely sideways on the TransLab and nearly high sided right off it. Realizing I'm a 4 hour helicopter ride away from somewhere at best got me to slow waaaay down in those conditions.

[nt650hawk]

been loving the touring around on the St1300 with the better 1/2. nova scotia the long way (no ferry). Tennessee and all those roads down there. Florida 1480 miles in 22 hours. Upper state NY and Penn. Penn mid state has some of the most amazing roads around.

also rented a few bikes when on business trips in Washington state and Nevada.

trick I'm finding to touring is wind protection, water and the seat. We have a camelback in the tank bag and sip along the way and 45-30 min before fueling up chug a bunch of water. pit stop relief, refuel and roll on.

Whatever the cost find the best seat possible for you!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Crconnor18]

That sounds lime a great trip. It's after school starts so the parks shouldn't be as packed as they were this summer. I heard some horror stories about the crowds at Zion from friends.

What did you buy?

Scooped up a cherry FJ-09 built to the moon with everything from full suspension to cruise control to a custom dyno map with just 3500 miles & fresh rubbers thrown on for the trip all for the price of a stock one with 20k around here. Will double it’s total mileage on the trip and for sure will be documented throughout and pictures shared.

Or I end up in the back of some guy’s van skinned by Buffalo bill and out a good chunk of change

[RandyO]

now that I am retired, I want to take more time to tour on 2 wheels, everything I have done in past is an IBA ride to get somewhere, that check out local roads, then a couple days to get home, 4000-5000 miles in a 4 day weekend, and my 1/2 week vacation (when I could take one) down to Deals Gap with the crew, been at least a decade if not more

I've toured Southeast USA, Northeast USA, Ozarks, Appalachia,

I want to go to Southwest USA next, Alaska, Northwest, and Canada, I've been to Canadian Maritimes, Quebec & Ontario, by car, camping with family, but want to get back on 2 wheels

and once I get all that done, if I have any energy left, maybe New Zealand, or Australia

[Spooler]

I’ve taken a few big trips around the US and desperately want to do some outside the US. My wife rides too and also loves Moto travel, but since our kids were born we really have had very few opportunities. I’m in Lake Placid right now, and its one of the biggest trips I’ve managed in a long time (and huge thanks to my wife for staying home with the kids). Really looking forward to the point when the kids are a little older and can stay with family for a week or two while we go on longer trips.

[oVTo]

Scooped up a cherry FJ-09 built to the moon with everything from full suspension to cruise control to a custom dyno map with just 3500 miles & fresh rubbers thrown on for the trip all for the price of a stock one with 20k around here. Will double it’s total mileage on the trip and for sure will be documented throughout and pictures shared.

Or I end up in the back of some guy’s van skinned by Buffalo bill and out a good chunk of change

Either way it sounds like an adventure.