TransAmerica Trail
Back from his TransAmerica Trail.
Along with his good ‘ol GS.
Our boy David did it and now he’s back to tell his tale. Our Sales Excutive David takes time out to tell us about his Adventure :
I've been riding bikes for 40 years now and if someone had told me when I started that I'd ride a 650cc single cylinder bike nearly 8000 miles I'd have said they were mad! Perhaps on a multi cylinder tourer yes, but a thumper..no way! So how exactly did I come to recently take off through America's bible belt into the dustbowl states, then across the high plains to the Rocky mountains and on through the desert of Nevada to to Oregon & California on the Pacific coast?? Responsibility lay heavily with my decision to start to ride "off road", primarily I have to admit after watching a certain individual (and entourage) have a ball riding around the world, getting bored with my Honda VFR and hence buying a GS!
My decision to do "The TransAmericaTrail" was due in no small part to the fact that having lived in Virginia for a few years I've had an affection for "Merkins". Other factors such as nearly speaking the same language, some of their food being edible, some of their beer drinkable and the diet of cowboys & indians I was weaned on just helped me convince myself it was the right choice.
The official route is 4118 miles and takes in 10 states from Tennessee in the south to Oregon on the Pacific north west. Our total mileage was nearer 8000 miles as we had a few side trips to Nashville in Tennessee, the Grand Canyon in Arizona and spent a few weeks in beautiful Colorado enjoying the amazing high passes of the Rockies where the early Gold Rush was centred.
As 75% of the route was on unmade roads passing through small towns a few forays to centres of population were necessary, especially in bible belt where the vast majority of places were "dry" & we had to endure at least four nights without a cold beer at the end of a days ride in 90 - 100F heat with 80% humidity! All through the South we were warmly greeting with a "Hi ya'll","where ya'll from" or "where ya'll going". The heat over the whole trip was such that we decided to leave the camping gear loaded on the bikes and enjoy the A/C of the motels scattered across the country. Some of these are over 200 miles apart though so some long days in the saddle were necessary, 244 miles across the desert of Nevada to a town aptly called Eureka being the longest! We'd budgeted ~$100 per day each for the two of us to cover food, fuel & motels and by & large this was pretty accurate. Fuel at $4 per gallon & the G650X good economy helped achieve this for the duration.
Would I do it again - not exactly the same because there are too many other places to go but I certainly hope to be able to do similar trips in the future - even in the US perhaps.
Along with his good ‘ol GS.
Our boy David did it and now he’s back to tell his tale. Our Sales Excutive David takes time out to tell us about his Adventure :
I've been riding bikes for 40 years now and if someone had told me when I started that I'd ride a 650cc single cylinder bike nearly 8000 miles I'd have said they were mad! Perhaps on a multi cylinder tourer yes, but a thumper..no way! So how exactly did I come to recently take off through America's bible belt into the dustbowl states, then across the high plains to the Rocky mountains and on through the desert of Nevada to to Oregon & California on the Pacific coast?? Responsibility lay heavily with my decision to start to ride "off road", primarily I have to admit after watching a certain individual (and entourage) have a ball riding around the world, getting bored with my Honda VFR and hence buying a GS!
My decision to do "The TransAmericaTrail" was due in no small part to the fact that having lived in Virginia for a few years I've had an affection for "Merkins". Other factors such as nearly speaking the same language, some of their food being edible, some of their beer drinkable and the diet of cowboys & indians I was weaned on just helped me convince myself it was the right choice.
The official route is 4118 miles and takes in 10 states from Tennessee in the south to Oregon on the Pacific north west. Our total mileage was nearer 8000 miles as we had a few side trips to Nashville in Tennessee, the Grand Canyon in Arizona and spent a few weeks in beautiful Colorado enjoying the amazing high passes of the Rockies where the early Gold Rush was centred.
As 75% of the route was on unmade roads passing through small towns a few forays to centres of population were necessary, especially in bible belt where the vast majority of places were "dry" & we had to endure at least four nights without a cold beer at the end of a days ride in 90 - 100F heat with 80% humidity! All through the South we were warmly greeting with a "Hi ya'll","where ya'll from" or "where ya'll going". The heat over the whole trip was such that we decided to leave the camping gear loaded on the bikes and enjoy the A/C of the motels scattered across the country. Some of these are over 200 miles apart though so some long days in the saddle were necessary, 244 miles across the desert of Nevada to a town aptly called Eureka being the longest! We'd budgeted ~$100 per day each for the two of us to cover food, fuel & motels and by & large this was pretty accurate. Fuel at $4 per gallon & the G650X good economy helped achieve this for the duration.
Would I do it again - not exactly the same because there are too many other places to go but I certainly hope to be able to do similar trips in the future - even in the US perhaps.
Above is a typical road surface in Arkansas,
Oklahoma, Utah but classed as an A road in Nevada which, for the most part
looked like the picture below!
Want to plan your very own adventure ?
Why not chat to Dave when you next pop into Vines Guildford Motorrad or visit www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk/world-of-bmw
for more information.
posted by Anonymous
at
16:35
