Is a Tiger Meet USA 201x7 worth doing?

[nickjtc]

My youngest + family are probably moving to LA so if you chaps/chapesses from Blighty do come over to this side of the water and choose the west coast it will be an easy decision to join you.

I'm thinking of heading that way next year, anyway, for the annual 'long' road trip.

PS. Are there in fact any chapesses on this forum, apart from sig. others??

[mat-tiger1]

Go for it mate,  were right behind you 

[WhiteWarrior]

@Moto

I ride a 95 Triumph Tiger.  I'm based in Harrison Ar.

[blacktiger]

Why not  'Euro' meet in 2015?? I know Wales has been selected,but a meet outside the UK would be a change. Wales in 2016?Always wanted to ride northern Spain,up thru France

The trouble with that is that it's not a weekend trip like our UK meets.

[blacktiger]

As for voting for which trip I'd like to do in 2016. Well, I've already done all of them at one time or another. But, as I'm planning to retire in March 2016, I wouldn't mind doing any of them again. However, I was planning on shipping to south America late that year. Kin'ell, I don't know! 

[eurobykz]

hey you brits should investigate shipping to from the northern part (i.e. the part with less guns) of north america - e.g. vancouver to halifax or vice versa.   I don't know this for certain, but I understand that there may be some advantages, apart from the obvious one of seeing at least a few bits of the country that, inexplicably, most english folks never seem to visit, since the english seem to have this fetishistic fascination for all things 'murrican...    hmmm, could it be that we're mostly descended from the scots?  or is it just that we (mostly) speak english properly...    don't get me wrong - I love both our british and 'murrican cousins and have travelled extensively through both...

Anyway, a couple of years ago, I had met an irish guy when I was wandering on one of my m'bikes south of the line, and he had seen my saskatchewan plates and stopped me and we chatted quite a bit - ha had actually been through western canada including saskatchewan and had stayed in saskatoon (the hidden gem of canadian cities) and we ended up riding together for the next couple of days in the western usa - anyway the point is, he had looked into the cost and carnet/registration/hassle requirements for shipping and importing/licensing a bike into the usa and for his irish-registered bike, it turned out that the "home of the brave & land of the free" was going to be way more cost/hassle etc than travelling to north america via the "true north strong and free".   Of course, once on this side of the atlantic, one would want to visit the usa  (unless one wanted to go coast-to-coast on our frost-heave pot-holed roads and while I have done that numerous times,  the 2,000 km in the middle from manitoba to toronto is really only for those who really like swamps and mosquitos). 

In general, crossing the line is _usually_ relatively simple although the american border service folks seem to be a little less friendly every time I cross.  Last year, crossing from sask into montana on my way to colorado, when the border guy asked me why I wanted to enter the usa, I said I wanted to support our good ally and neighbor by spending my hard-earned money as a tourist in their country.  Which was true.  So he gave me grief anyway, but in general, they do give us (i.e their northern neighbours) a bit of a bye - certainly we get off easier than their neighbours to the south...  anyway, you should investigate because it may be that the hassle factor of shipping to Halifax and dealing with the canadian border services agency ("welcome gents, have a good time!") might be a little less onerous than the oh-so-serious chaps from the usa dept of homeland security.   It kinda helps sometimes not to be a big and powerful country and to be mostly forgotten... 

Just a suggestion - you guys might want to look into it.   

Or here's a completely different thought.  If you're riding tiggers, why one earth would one want to do that from la to nyc???     One could do that ride on a Harley or a Goldwing - and many do.    tigger's are for exploring where most folks _don't_ go  (at least mine is...)

Why not ship your bikes to edmonton and ride the alaska or cassia highway to the yukon, ride the canol road and the dempster "highway" over the mackenzie mountains into the nwt and on to the arctic ocean at tuktoyaktuk, then back to the yukon, into alaska and then back through beautiful british columbia and down the pacific coast to vancouver or even continue to portland, san fran or la...       I would definitely join you for a trip like that!!   that's what tiggers are all about!!!    edmonton to vancouver via the yukon, arctic ocean and alaska would be about 6500 km and 2+ weeks would suffice and a rear tyre should last that long as long as it was new at the start - then continue down the pacific coast of washington state, oregon and calif.

how's that for an ideer?

[Bixxer Bob]

As ideas go, brilliant!!!

Not looked seriously at any options yet; probably need to firm up those that definitely will go as opposed to those who'd like to go.  then throw all the ideas into the pot and see what gels.

[eurobykz]

well I would love to go with a gang of tiggers over several thousand kms of bad dirt roads all the way to the beaufort sea.   There's a famous song (well famous in canada anyway) called "northwest passage"  the lyrics have great imagery - "Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage, to find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;  tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage,  and make a Northwest Passage to the sea".

Now THAT would be an adventure for tiggers.  paved highways across kansas and nebraska?   hmmm  maybe that's why the 'murricans like croooozers so much....

And I'm wanting to plan a trip like that for summer 2016!   (summer 2015 takes me 5000 km to the east coast  - nova scotia and quebec).  And going to inuvik would be great - but going to inuvik with an international gang of tiggers would e pretty special

Not to hijack your thread, but tiggers on asphalt through middle America?      A coast to coast usa trip would be fun, but they have a lot of really good highways (compared to us that is - we engineers know that cold winters are hard on pavement...).   So coast-to-coast usa is a nice motorbikle trip, but save the hassle of shipping your cats and just rent croooozers...   the 'murrican way!     Seems to me, a tigger trip should be on horrible roads - else we would all have cruisers or sportbikes, right?

perhaps I should start a different thread for those who want to go to "find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea"  - incidently the umpteenth search for the remains of the Franklin expedition was finally successful - the Cdn Geographic Society finally found his ship this past summer - Franklin died in 1847 or 1848 with all his crew because he insisted on doing things the proper English royal-navy way.  Whereas the successful explorers like Thompson, Hearne, Kelsey, Mackenzie, Fraser et al (all Scots of course) adopted the indian / innuit way of travelling in the bush and explored all of north America to all of its coasts many decades before the 'murrican lewis & clark - although the latter did have that 'murrican knack for self-promotion and are undeservedly more famous...

Edmonton to inuvik via the cassiar highway - whitehorse and the canol road and back through dawson and the top-of-the-word-highway into alaska and then south through BC to vancouver.  I'm getting so keen I might go to the garage and start tigger up despite the 20 cm of snow on the ground! 

[blacktiger]

Why not ship your bikes to edmonton and ride the alaska or cassia highway to the yukon, ride the canol road and the dempster "highway" over the mackenzie mountains into the nwt and on to the arctic ocean at tuktoyaktuk, then back to the yukon, into alaska and then back through beautiful british columbia and down the pacific coast to vancouver or even continue to portland, san fran or la...       I would definitely join you for a trip like that!!   that's what tiggers are all about!!!    edmonton to vancouver via the yukon, arctic ocean and alaska would be about 6500 km and 2+ weeks would suffice and a rear tyre should last that long as long as it was new at the start - then continue down the pacific coast of washington state, oregon and calif.

how's that for an ideer?

A good one I'd say. I did some of that two years ago but in a car. Was gratefull to be in car at times because it was heavy with Mozzies around the Bell 2 Lodge.

[blacktiger]

Not to hijack your thread, but tiggers on asphalt through middle America?      A coast to coast usa trip would be fun, but they have a lot of really good highways (compared to us that is - we engineers know that cold winters are hard on pavement...).   So coast-to-coast usa is a nice motorbikle trip, but save the hassle of shipping your cats and just rent croooozers...   the 'murrican way!     Seems to me, a tigger trip should be on horrible roads - else we would all have cruisers or sportbikes, right?

You can pretty much go coast to coast in the USA on dirt roads. Ever heard of the "TAT"? = Trans America Trail. Just saying.

[eurobykz]

maybe there's some here that have done it, but is much of the TAT not pretty hardcore?  i.e. narrow muddy steep trails and watercrossings with no bridges? - as opposed to bad dirt roads with bridges.   But I could get with a plan like that - the USD might be up to C$1.40 by 2016 though... unless oil goes back up...    does make it expensive to cross the line....

[blacktiger]

maybe there's some here that have done it, but is much of the TAT not pretty hardcore?  i.e. narrow muddy steep trails and watercrossings with no bridges? - as opposed to bad dirt roads with bridges.   But I could get with a plan like that - the USD might be up to C$1.40 by 2016 though... unless oil goes back up...    does make it expensive to cross the line....

I've read that people do it on Tigers and big Beemers. So it can't be that bad. But anyway, I think the bad bits are in Utah and the Rockies where we could easily go an easier route.

[mat-tiger1]

Just giving this one a bump guys! 

Is there still interest in this?  Not ever having done anything on this scale before I understand there's a lot of forward planning & preparation that would need to be done! The possibility of meeting up with our fellow forum members from across the 'pond' is indeed something not to be missed! 

I would definitely be up for this if given enough of a heads up to arrange annual leave & funding for it etc. 

It would be without a doubt one hell of a memorable journey! 

Having attended every meet up since 2010, plus having had the good fortune to meet up with most of you guys, I couldn't think of any better company to share the experience with! 

[nickjtc]

The possibility of meeting up with our fellow forum members from across the 'pond' is indeed something not to be missed!

If there is interest from you guys in making the not inconsiderable decision to do this, rest assured that we on this side of the pond will make the effort to meet up with you.

[blacktiger]

Is there still interest in this? 

Well I'm considering using this as the launch for a much longer tour. i.e. not coming back until I've covered south America as well. It's possible now that there is/are ferry options around the Darien Gap. http://darienferry.com/es/index.html http://www.sanblasferry.com/