Once again, offering up a guided tour of some great roads here for you fellas. I'm about 3 hours from NY, Boston and Montreal, and can easily pick you up at an airport. I have my '99 Legend available for one of you to ride, and there is a great bike rental place in Burlington VT: http://www.motovermont.com/
Give me some dates, how long you'll be here, and I'll do all the rest. Camping is easy, but motels are also plentiful.
Can bring your gear on the plane or ship it separately.
Love to meet you all and share some great roads.
PS- Master Yoda Mustang is about 2 hours from me. We could bring tribute and maybe twist his arm into joining us for a few days👍
Would love to take you up on your offer and if the offers still there in a couple of years when my kids our old enough to be left (would have to bring the wife to something like this) I'll seriously consider it. Happy New Year to you all over the pond.
The offer does not have an expiration date - I love to ride and am always glad to share.
Best wishes for 2018 ssevy.
I'm sorely tempted.
Had a great time in Utah last year, but didn't get to ride, but I did find out where all the HD Baggers go to enjoy the scenery.
May look to something later in the year. Coast to coast?, a guy can dream right??
My wife and I drove our car from our home near Glens Falls across the country in September to visit our youngest daughter who was an intern at Space X in Los Angeles. We hit as many national parks as possible on the way out and back, and totaled up 7400 miles in 15 days.
It's funny that you mention the Harleys, because on one day, we were trying to enjoy the serenity of the giant Sequoias, but all you could hear were the hordes of pirates with their obnoxiously loud pipes roaring in and out of the parking lot. I try to "live and let live", but I keep having more experiences with folks riding Harleys that makes me believe that the majority of them have no respect for anyone else on the road.
Moving on to a cross country bike trip, I have to say that doing these miles in a car was a great wake-up call as to the realities of attempting this on a bike. We were pounding out lots of long days in the car on the slabs to make time, something that I would never do on my bike. Traveling all back roads and seeing the sights would take substantially longer to do than a straight slab run, and if I do this, I'm going to have to block out a much longer chunk of time and a much bigger budget to make it happen. I would still like to do it, but there is going to be some careful planning first.
Just renting a bike and riding the interstates from coast to coast would be drudgery in my opinion, and I would advise you to pick a region and focus on that instead.
If it happens to be my region, so much the better!
take a picture of a giant corn field ....................
thats pretty much all you see on the interstate from colorado to chicago
there's that, and there isn't any curves in the road either
1000 mile days in the steamer saddle aint that bad ......
I've done cross country 3 times now on the steamer .............
every trip averages about 6600 to 9000 miles
I agree with pick a region and ride that , its more enjoyable :__
I do agree regarding the distances.
We hired Minivan in SLC, and with the help of Bemusedinsojo did around 3k miles during our stay of two weeks.
We barely tickled the surface... but Jesus, that scenery, and just pass the horizon, another bunch of scenery, sooo much scenery...
When people say its bigger than it looks, scenery wise, there not wrong.
Did I mention its big...
We have similar problems to the HD plague here. As you say two wheels good and all.
We have....Caravans.....not so noisy, but a real pita anyway.
Had to smile at the MiniWhinnys though
Do miss my FLH Shovelhead mind.....
Doesn't mean I don't want to come and see more.
You're talking this up Ssevy, if a bunch of us turn up on rentals that could seriously mess up any plans you might have had :*&*
An internship with Space X, must be proud of the wee lassie :sign13
Well Mustang, from the bits I've seen, I can't disagree, at least corn is something to see, driving across Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho (I'll never forget those potatoes) in mostly white out blizzards wasn't exactly scenic but did the job. Besides, somebody's got to grow all the stuff we eat.
Geez baggers and more baggers. When Phil said it was big I thought that's what she said. It's big and long. With baggers.
To do the USA needs several months. I've been doing it, bit by bit, since 2001. In car and bike. There's so much to see, so many places to go, so many beers to drink :occasion14. My latest idea, now I've retired, is to buy a second hand Toyota 4Runner and just cruise around....... For ever.
Me...."Just popping to Denny's for a coffee....."
SWMBO..."Ok, no pr.....WE LIVE IN THE UK....."
Me... "Love you", now wheres passport...hehehehehehehe
Regarding the Harley conundrum. The USA is the only country that I've been to (and I've touched every continent except the Antarctic) that I have been held up by motorcyclists (Hardly riders) in a slow formation!!! One time I was on a rented GS12 and put myself in amongst them whilst overtaking them a few at a time (it was a curvy bit of HWY1) and they all panicked. :ImaPoser :ImaPoser :ImaPoser F@ckin' hilarious as I p1ssed off into the distance. :wheel
I once got in the middle of the Fred Warr Rideout round the North Circ on my Steamer. Sooo many Tassles..
I would say however that most modern Harley are rather quicker than you imagine, and the Vrods are awesome.
Quote from: London_Phil on January 03, 2018, 04:39:08 PM
I would say however that most modern Harley are rather quicker than you imagine, and the Vrods are awesome.
I know that. It's just that in the USA they seem to ride in formation at 40mph instead of as a spread out group at 60+.
Quote from: blacktiger on January 03, 2018, 02:29:26 PM
and just cruise around....... For ever.
You, cruise, I'm struggling with those two words in the same breath :rfl
You can hustle HD's but it takes real skill and I've only met a couple of guys who can. I'm sure there are capable lady's too before I get jumped on, just ain't met them.
The choice of regions would always be an issue, so I'd put my trust in local knowledge every time.
They have to ride in formation. One of them will break down (not yours Phil) then they gotta all first sing the HD anthem then show off their gear, then call a tow truck whilst speaking loudly of the superiority of the HD. My brother has a HD and says he can't make a round about with out dragging a tail pipe.
I was with a group of 12 riders in nice rural and hilly part of Germany. We came across group of about 100 riders, on all sorts of machines, including a bloke on an Africa Twin who rode standing up ALL the time. The stewards had tabards on with "Motorbike group do not overtake" emblazoned on them. I was at the tail of our group, and I was the only one who could read German. So we just piled on through them, as they were all doing 40mph. Boy were they unhappy! Tried to push and elbow us out of the way generally be unpleasant as possible. We got though them and regrouped in front of them, then pissed off into the distance as fast as we could to try and give them an idea of what a motorbike is capable of doing.
Groups of more than 20 bikes are so difficult to control that you are better off dividing them up.
Yup, these large parades of pirates block or impede everyone on the road, generally piss off anyone who is not a motorcyclist and reinforce the notion that all bikers are a bunch of selfish douchebags.
Interestingly, I have yet to meet anyone on a Triumph or Japanese bike that has not been friendly. Beemers, on the other hand, seem to be either friendly or arrogant.
Always interesting to observe other riders at any gathering - some stereotypes are definitely not formed in a vacuum!
Quote from: ssevy on January 04, 2018, 12:02:48 AM
Beemers, on the other hand, seem to be either friendly or arrogant.
Funny you should mention that. I owed an R100GS from '97 to '04. Most unreliable bike I've ever owned. When the 1150GS came out I noticed a change in owner type. With the old R80GS and R100GS they/we were always willing to get them dirty and do some dirt roads. Then you started to get the posers who were more worried about the value of their bike than using it for what it was designed to do.
And you're right. Some of them look down at you as if you can't afford what they've got. I switched to Triumph to get away from them. And to ride a more reliable bike.
Quote from: ssevy on January 04, 2018, 12:02:48 AMYup, these large parades of pirates block or impede everyone on the road, generally piss off anyone who is not a motorcyclist and reinforce the notion that all bikers are a bunch of selfish douchebags.
Interestingly, I have yet to meet anyone on a Triumph or Japanese bike that has not been friendly. Beemers, on the other hand, seem to be either friendly or arrogant!
Years ago we used to say BMW riders would wave to other Bemm riders & occasionally wave to Ducati riders ;)
Generally, travelling in Australia once you are within 300klm of a major centre, no wave
When I started road riding in 1977 most jap bike riders waved,even in the city.
Grotty old Pommie bike riders didn't wave to anybody. There were very few Harleys on the road at all with Burling & Simmons THE Harley dealer in Sydney.
These days, you rarely get a nod or wave from anyone, except possibly adverture bike riders. Power rangers riding sportsbikes rarely acknowledge you.
If you ride a learner bike or scooter, expect to be ignored by everyone.
Me! I nod to practically every one, including coppers.
(I say practically as I rarely nod to Harley riders unless by accident :ImaPoser )
Quote from: Geoff W on January 03, 2018, 08:03:22 PMGroups of more than 20 bikes are so difficult to control that you are better off dividing them up.
I was once told, keeping a large group of motorcycles together was akin to "herding cats" :ImaPoser