Quote:
Originally Posted by macadamia9
Thank you very much! For what it is worth, you could ride any motorcycle for your trip. Some will be more comfortable; some will just be adequate...
I did another long distance ride back in 2012 from San Clemente, CA to Edmond OK, to Peoria IL, to Hiawatha KS, to Beaver UT, to Las Vegas NV, and back to San Clemente. I did this trip in over three weeks stopping in each city above for anywhere from a single night (Hiawatha) to almost two weeks (Peoria). I did my first Iron Butt ride during this trip. It was the Saddle Sore 1000 (SS1000), which is over 1000 miles in less than 24 hours. I do not remember my exact time, but I do remember it was 105°F when I left Hiawatha, 38°F when I rode through Breckenridge at about 2am, and 115°F when I arrived in Beaver, Utah. That entire trip was done on a 2007 BMW 650X Challenge with no windscreen and no winter gear at all. The ride was a lot of fun. I rode on Route 66 from California to Illinois, then all freeway on the way back. It was very scenic, very fun, and very tiring. Luckily, I had a Garmin Zumo 665 GPS with the XM Radio antenna & I have a lifetime XM subscription. That made the trip much easier. I had my comms set up in my helmet so I could listen to the XM radio and make/receive calls if necessary.
The hardest thing about making a long motorcycle trip is to actually start. You can do all of the planning, packing, deciding, and choosing necessary, but until you are KSU (kick stand up), you are still waiting...
Attached are some photos from that trip. I had modified my motorcycle to have an aftermarket large auxiliary front gas tank that fed into the main tank located under the front of the seat, an aftermarket auxiliary gas tank that was mounted to the subframe under the back of the seat on the right side of the bike above the tire, and had a one gallon "emergency" fuel can attached to the back of my left pannier. I had 2 bottles of Gatorade on the back of the right pannier. The shots of me getting ready to leave were taken by my mom. I'm a firm believer in ATGATT (all the gear, all the time). And the photo of me riding with the GPS in the lower left shows the speed at the top right of the GPS screen: flat out with my fat ass and all my gear was about 80 mph with no wind. With a tailwind I could get about 85 mph. At one point after I left Edmond OK, I was riding into a thunderstorm and into a headwind. With all of the rain and wind, I could only go about 60 mph.
It was a very worthwhile trip...  |
What kind of motorcycle do you own now ?