Riding Coast to Coast - Which Bike Would You Choose? Which Route?

[budman]

That is really cool stuff John.

Damn.. you used to be young.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Damn.. you used to be young.

spent an hour looking for a pic of the ol’ purple EX500, and that pic was the best of the bike that I could find.

knew I’d catch some grief, cuz I certainly don’t look like that, anymore. biker lifestyle caught up and did a number on me over the years, youbetcha.

who remembers those silly little disposable film cameras we could buy at grocery check out islands? always rode with one of those in my pocket, and took a bunch of bad, bad snapshots with them.

that wreck of a $400 used-hard bike turned out to be one of the many, many motorcycles owned over the years that I’d wind up having loved the best—even though it may not have been very suitable. it got the coast-to-coast job done, and provided the wonderful cross-country ride experience—suppose that was priceless, maybe.

 

[bikewanker]

That is really cool stuff John.

Damn.. you used to be young.

And hawt!

 

[budman]

We all used to be young.

First time I saw a pic of the young John. That was really cool man.

 

[Jung]

guess ima fan of using a bike already in the garage …

l

That is SOLID! The furthest I've been in a day was around 900 miles, on a GSXR1000K5. I started in San Sebastien, in Spain, rode over the border into France to drop the missus off in Biarritz, then back into Spain. Did multiple passes to and fro across the Pyrenees until I ended up in Toulouse at 6pm.

I needed to be back for work (in London) the evening of the following day and I remember looking at the map and thinking, SHIT, It's fucking miles! I wolfed down a sandwich and jumped on the Peage (the French pay auto-route) and went at unmentionable speed for 4 or 5 tanks of gas until I eventually conked out just south of Paris, sometime after dark.

Don't know if I can link to this image but I think it's on the Col de Tourmalet. The K5 had a real sweet spot for high speed Peage action, around 120. Above that it used to start sipping a bit....I think I was only getting 70-80 miles to a tank at one point. It was a surprisingly good long distance tourer.

On another trip, I beat the Missus who flew from London to Bordeaux (albeit leaving some hours earlier.) I was so exultant at my victory I wheelied into the airport and nearly got arrested by the CRS (French Riot Police,) who were there in numbers to meet then President Sarkozy. Whoooooops.

 

[OaklandF4i]

remember seeing a sign for the “Nebraska National Forest” and the Scott watch tower and saying to myself “forest? I gotta see this.”

you were duped... but a magical place non the less!

went into a little country store in the Sand Hills to try to buy a small plastic bottle of water for the road, and the nice people there just laughed at me and told me they had no plastic water bottles for sale, but I could help myself to plenty of excellent free water from their spigot in the back.

Spent a lot of time travelling back and forth from Newport Oregon living with my father, and Minnesota with my mother... and even adult life. So much to see and experience, where other folks merely think of fly over states, or something they must traverse to get somewhere interesting.

I remember stopping for gas outside the Badlands for gas. A simple one room store, with a pump at the intersection of a lonely two lane black top road and gravel road to no where. The door was open, lights on but no one around. Pump was powered up too, and I needed, like really needed gas. Spent 10 minutes wondering around thinking I would find someone, anyone.. yet there was no one.

Above a slight knoll I could see the black plume from a diesel tractor... so I walked out there and waived down the farmer, explaining the situation and hoping he knew where the owners were, or when they might return. He chuckled and said, fill her up and leave me the cash on the counter before you leave as he restarted his tractor and got back to his work.

I remember stopping in Custer Wyoming for gas, and found a small cafe for brunch. Ended up spending 3 plus hours at that cafe chatting with some of the local farmers and learning about their lives.

Always been a big fan of windmills, remember finding a working one on the high plains at an abandoned farmstead. To this day, I don't think I have ever tasted such cool sweet tasting water. Not a tree of significance for a hundred miles, no other farms lay before the horizon in either direction. I laid down in the tall prairie grass on my back, and stared at the expanse of the blue sky above while listening to the wind though that grass like waves upon an ocean.

My mind in those days would wander, even bend time or reality like a character from a Gabriel García Márquez's novel.... and imagined what it must have been like to be the settler family, so far removed from anyone. Would have I been married to the little bohemian girl of Willa Cather's imagination as I dozed off for a couple of hours of blissful dream sleep in the middle of no where. But it was somewhere... sometime.

but I digress.... Point being, this country has so much to see and experience off the interstates and far from any location you might read about in Conde Nast. But I think, you if anyone, already get it John.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Well damn, I didn't really have that much interest in riding across the country prior to this thread, but now my interest is somewhat piqued. Not sure I trust any of the bikes in my garage to actually make it though. Maybe a set of street tires on the DRZ and then swap for a set of knobs and ride the TAT back, seems like that'd take quite a bit of time I should probably be spending looking for a job, but also, no time like the present?

 

[SFMCjohn]

That is SOLID! The furthest I've been in a day was around 900 miles, on a GSXR1000K5.

great pic of the mighty GSX-R1000K5, a 900 mile day on that beast isn't trivial!
my wife an I had a chance to ride the Pyrenees on rented GS650s, and it was awesome ...

My mind in those days would wander, even bend time or reality like a character from a Gabriel García Márquez's novel.... and imagined what it must have been like to be the settler family, so far removed from anyone.

yes, we can get all One Hundred Years of Solitude on our long moto trips--sitting around our little campfire in the evening, feeling like the cycle of history is endlessly repeating.

suspect most motorcycle people can relate to that about epic motorcycle trips, or to the wonderful people we meet along the way--as sojourners enjoying a temporary visit in some sublime and mystical landscape.

Maybe a set of street tires on the DRZ and then swap for a set of knobs and ride the TAT back ...

yes, I'm pretty sure a fresh rear D606 would last me a TAT-ish coast-to-coast. 3500 miles I get out of one of those, maybe?

fun to think about, anyway. arty

 

[dravnx]

My first C2C was in '82 with my GF in an old yellow ford van with a futon and our cat in the back. I was transferred from Portsmouth, N.H. to Riverside, Ca. Every morning I would pull the engine cover and clean the oil off the plugs to keep it running. Halfway across, I bought a spare set of plugs so I could swap them out in the morning and clean the old ones for the next morning.

 

[bikewanker]

I come to a thread on riding across America and find lust and a reading list!
An advantage of growing up in Kansas City is that coast rides were simpler. A few to the East coast and rode an SFMCjohn like EX500 a KLR and a ‘93 VFR to the bay. I like to think I would still be comfortable on a VFR for those kind of miles but have been spoiled by quality suspension on more modern stuff like an FJ09 and a 1050 tiger. Plus my “just in case” packing increases yearly. Could be my maturity but I like enough bike to slab some dull miles to get to the good stuff. My last Midwest trip I spent a few good days in Arkansas and then sorta directly to hwy 12 in Utah.

 

[Jung]

great pic of the mighty GSX-R1000K5, a 900 mile day on that beast isn't trivial!
my wife an I had a chance to ride the Pyrenees on rented GS650s, and it was awesome ...

Nice! - a GS650 is all you need in the mountains really. Particularly on the smaller passes.

I was very fond of that one. My wife and I rode thousands of miles all over Europe on it. The only other bike I had at the time was a CR500 supermoto, which was generally excruciating after about 5 miles. The K5 was luxury by comparison.

I'd love to do a coast to coast ride here. The US is still unfathomably vast to me. From London, going east, you'd be through six countries and a thousand miles east of Moscow before you hit the same distance as LA to Savannah. One of these days.

 

[massio]

spent an hour looking for a pic of the ol’ purple EX500, and that pic was the best of the bike that I could find.

knew I’d catch some grief, cuz I certainly don’t look like that, anymore. biker lifestyle caught up and did a number on me over the years...

I don't know what you're talking about, John. This is still what I see when I look at you - a racer.

Also - great thread and you're right, sometimes the "wrong" bike for the job can end up providing the best memories.

 

[SFMCjohn]

I come to a thread on riding across America and find lust and a reading list!

I blame Mr OaklandF4i … gonna have to revisit Ms Cather.

also need to try to visit AR ona future C2C, gotta friend always talking about that part of the world.

I'd love to do a coast to coast ride here. The US is still unfathomably vast to me. From London, going east, you'd be through six countries and a thousand miles east of Moscow before you hit the same distance as LA to Savannah. One of these days.

yes, big distances for sure in the USA, especially since I don’t like to do more than 300 miles in a day if I don’t have to.

I hope to emulate Mr Tally Whacker someday and do SF to Cape Spear via the Trans-Labrador Hwy, which google tells me would be 5041 miles, one way. at 300 mi/day that’d be 34 days round-trip.

I don't know what you're talking about, John. This is still what I see when I look at you - a racer.

Also - great thread and you're right, sometimes the "wrong" bike for the job can end up providing the best memories.

I just came across a print of that group pic of us both at that AFM four-hour! it would take me another hour to find it again. those were the days—now we see each other mostly at vintage bike events. how time flies.

idk. also something to be said for showing up at the Tijuana-to-Cabo real roadrace knife-fight with one’s record setting R1 gun, apparently. speaking of suitable bikes and actual racers.

but, an interesting thread, for sure. lots of good C2C route/suitable-bike suggestions for Mr J-Boat to contemplate.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

yes, I'm pretty sure a fresh rear D606 would last me a TAT-ish coast-to-coast. 3500 miles I get out of one of those, maybe?

fun to think about, anyway. arty

Fun to think about for sure, not really sure I could actually get away with that much time on the road. Moreover, I should probably go to Alaska instead as that part of the country has always interested me and I've never been further north than Vancouver Island on anything, and no further than Seattle on a motorcycle. Hmmm, but first, I really should see this eclipse thingy that's coming up in April.

 

[OaklandF4i]

Fun to think about for sure, not really sure I could actually get away with that much time on the road. Moreover, I should probably go to Alaska instead as that part of the country has always interested me and I've never been further north than Vancouver Island on anything, and no further than Seattle on a motorcycle. Hmmm, but first, I really should see this eclipse thingy that's coming up in April.

Job search be damned, go ride!

But it is still pretty cold in most of the country. Baja, on the other hand....

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Yeah, I've planted the Baja idea with a few buddies, we'll see if they are up for it, not dumb enough to do that alone my first time.

 

[Jung]

Baja is fantastic. I've been as far south as Bahia de Los Angeles, on the Sea of Cortez. This looks like great fun...

https://www.facebook.com/bajahillclimb/

There are some nice short rides even just over the border, around the coast and Valle de Guadalupe. One of these days, I'm going to have to take a dirt bike down.

We cross over in San Diego and cross back in Tecate (which is WAY faster) and drops you on an amazing road back up via Campo and then on to the Sunrise Highway. Beautiful riding!

 

[SFMCjohn]

^^

I have a vague plan to head down there on Oct 14-15, 2024, to spectate at the hill climb and the Baja Tourist Cup, too, on October 7-8, 2024.

Mr Wade Boyd has apparently been attending as a race participant for the past three years, and doing pretty well on his R1 ... arty

 

[OaklandF4i]

^^

I have a vague plan to head down there on Oct 14-15, 2024, to spectate at the hill climb and the Baja Tourist Cup, too, on October 7-8, 2024.

Mr Wade Boyd has apparently been attending as a race participant for the past three years, and doing pretty well on his R1 ... arty

Lol.... Of course he would. Same R1 he rode at the Sacramento Mile for a one off probably too. Nutz! Hold my beer......

 

[Jung]

^^

I have a vague plan to head down there on Oct 14-15, 2024, to spectate at the hill climb and the Baja Tourist Cup, too, on October 7-8, 2024.

Mr Wade Boyd has apparently been attending as a race participant for the past three years, and doing pretty well on his R1 ... arty

Oh wow, that looks very cool, I'd love to go and watch. It's a lot closer than San Pedro al Martir too. Can't imagine the stones required to do 190 over those roads....oof!