Have you ever gone cycle touring?

[cyberfriend]

What was it like? How long did you go for? What was the worst part? The best? What tips would you give to other people?
I am not very experienced and am being encouraged

 

[sessions]

I rode my sport bike to Nelson BC from Spokane, I rode with a rookie and all I can remember is that it ended up being about a 10hr roundtrip with lunch break, fill ups and a few beers along the way. Wrist cramping was the worst and the best was the cramp buster for the throttle hand along with the scenery and stuff. My advice would be to plan out a good route on known roads and keep hydrated! Stay away from energy drinks and pack a few snacks! RIDE ON!!

 

[evathomas]

Bike Tour

It is fantastic idea. I did get fun with this tour many time. We are 8 friends. Now if we will free for three or more days then we go for bike tour at Beautiful Hills.

 

[Hilux]

Just some general observations for you. I'm new and finding this out as well, so I might have found something out you should know.


YouTube - IPM Presents: A Beginner's Guide to Motorcycles


1: Seating position; There are a few, but just to cover the basics, cruisers, nakeds and sport tourers have the most comfortable seating arrangement. HOWEVER, IF, you are the type that can handle the discomfort, then the reward you get once at your destination and the type of riding you find there will be a small inconvenience. I.e: you want to shoot some twisties once you get TO, where it is your going, and any other type of bike can't reward you with the same effect.

2: Wind protection; If you're gonna be seeing a lot of highway, you're gonna want some type of protection. Nakeds and sport bikes aren't often the best, but if you're the type that can handle it, then I put sport bikes into this only because hunched over for long periods of time, most people don't like that... If you can, then good for you. I prefer sporty handling, so I'll choose minor discomfort over a weighty sport tourer or an ill performing cruiser.

3: Tires; If you're wanting to do some mileage, "tires" aren't exactly a minor deal with motorcycles. Most people carry what they think they're going to be using and you can either carry some spares, of pick a good tire to start with and hope you can fix it in the event you need to. Also, tube tires cannot be plugged and the tubes are said to be able to blow at any time. Tube-less tires can be plugged, so they are relatively maintenance free. Weight is a BIG issue for my little 250, so I'll just tell you what I've found out researching tires. Kenda has 6ply tires, are relatively cheap and come with a great web reputation and I've just found out they are...read here. Other than them, any other china tire will not ever be considered by me...but that's just me.


4: Cargo: You'll need a bike that can handle whatever cargo you decide to use for your trips.

5: Hills, mountains and passing power (that, sadly I do not have ); Depending on what you want it to do, I'd pick a bike that could handle the terrain.

6: Maintenance; There are some shaft driven bikes. This will save you chain stretch and possibly breaking a chain. Other than changing the oil, 2MK, there is NO maintenance on a shaft driven bike.


7: Air or water cooled; Both, IMO, have their upsides as well as downsides, but the air usually looses over liquid (I'll add some later)

just some FFT...

 

[jonesy54]

I have gone on several so called "cycle tours". The worst was from SC to east Texas and back. It was sub 40 degrees and drizzle most of the trip. We stopped at a Burger King and I spent about an hour using the hand dryer in the bathroom drying my socks and the inside of my boots.

The best rides i've been on have been in the Blue Ridge/Smokey mountains in the NC, TN, SC, GA area. You gotta check out the Blue Ridge Parkway, Cherohala Skyway, US 129 through Deals Gap ("The Tail of the Dragon", watch out for the cops especially on the TN side), US 64 from Franklin NC to Brevard, just to name some of the more famous ones. Just get good maps of where you want to go and explore. Get lost and then get unlost. Thats the best way to find the road less traveled. If there's a huge yellow Truck Advisory sign, then its a good bet that it'll be a blast on a motorcycle.

More so than in a car, the road itself can be the destination.

 

[VFRMAN]

Bunburner Gold-ND/SD/WY/MT - ADVrider

Have you played around on the advrider site? Great, great resource. The above link was my last big trip from a couple years ago. I just re-read it for the first time in a long time. Makes me wish there wasn't 4 feet of snow on the ground.

Biggest thing is don't let anyone tell you that you need a certain type of bike to ride long distance. Use what you got and make it work. And bring extra gas!

Good Luck.

 

[jonesy54]

I'm on ADVrider.com and Transalp.org under this same username.

I have dreams of riding the Transamerica Trail one day.
2Trans-America Trail, Cross-Country Motorcycle Adventure, Motorcycling, Trans-Am Trail, Sam Correro, Dual-Sport, Motorrad Media, BMW, F650, GS, Road Less Traveled documentary,

 

[Gumby]

Last year my wife and I did Chicago to DC then down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Deals Gap in NC.

Three summers ago I did Albuquerque to Kalispell MT up the Rockies and back to Chicago. 5200 miles.

The summer before that was a few smaller trips to DC, Austin and MI.

This summer I'm hoping for a ride out to do the pacific coast highway.

My best advice would be to stay off the highways unless you're just making time. Nothing good to see or do on the highway.

Don't put yourself on a timetable. Take a whole lot more time than you need.

Mail clothes to your destination. Take all your old underwear and socks and throw them out along the way rather than pack home dirty clothes.

 

[Red Herring]

Unfortunately, I have not been more than 3 hours in the saddle in any one direction. There are a lot of trips I plan on taking when the kids are older, but with little ones, my time is theirs for now. :~))

 

[Gumby]

I have a big map on the wall of my office with the routes I've done. Next to it is a list of roads I want to ride and states that I've ridden through.

PCH would knock a bunch of states off the list. The Alaskan highway is another I'd like to do soon.

 

[VFRMAN]

I have a big map on the wall of my office with the routes I've done. Next to it is a list of roads I want to ride and states that I've ridden through.

PCH would knock a bunch of states off the list. The Alaskan highway is another I'd like to do soon.

The PCH is a cool ride. I liked the Oregon coast too. When I was in the wind biz, my main client was based in Palm Springs. So when I'd go for a visit we'd always have to golf because my boss at the time thought that was just the thing to do in PS. Once I found Eagle Rider, I never touched a club again.One of my project guys rides a lot so it was a no brainer.

Even though they're Harley's, and I'm not a Harley guy, they were great.

24 hours for $150. We used to pick up the bikes at 5 p.m. and go for a nice ride. Then get up and on the road about 6 the next morning. Went to LA one time and San Diego another. My geography is pretty poor but I remember Idylwile(?) up in the hills on the way to the coast. Awesome place to ride. Even on a peg scraping Softail. I think that bike came back about 10 lbs lighter. It didn't seem to scrape as bad by the end of the day.

Lane splitting to me was a spooky operation on a couch riding down the road.

When my customer moved operations to Portland, we only got to get in one ride up there before I left, but that was awesome too. We went out to Mt Hood for dinner when we got the bikes, then out to the coast the next day. I can still remember the Australian Hottie windsurfer chick waitress we had that night. Made a perfect day even better.

Once at a Wind conference in Austin we rented bikes too, but didn't have as much time to ride. It was my anniversary and my wife was along. I was 2 hours late for dinner so she had to sit with my boss at the table with a few other clients. Awkward, but he was a cool boss. Took me awhile to live that one down.

We put about 600 miles on every time. Great times and memories. No one pays me to ride a bike anymore. Kind of miss that part

 

[97 FZJ80]

Yep. We were in to Vegas on a conference, rented bikes from EagleRider and rode to Red Rock Canyon. It was a blast. Here is a picture of us in our riding gear. Three different bikes:

Harley Road Glide
Honda Goldwing
Victory Vision TOuring

 

[soberman001]

Like an earlier guy said, go to ADVRIDER.COM.

I have been touring the world on bikes for 12year (just got back from Baja last week). And, I always learn a ton on that site. There are trip stories, gear discussions, bike discussions, camping discussions, routes, tools and tricks as well as GPS and a ton of other stuff.

Like any forum, do your search first, and then ask the typical new guy questions in the appropriate thread.

 

[legion]

Another vote for AdvRider.

I've ridden to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Ridden from Ushuaia, Tiera del Fuego, Argentina at the bottom of South America to Cartagena, Columbia at the top about two years ago and took two months to do it. Ridden through Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, etc. twice in the last 3 years.

Ridden North America top to bottom and east to west.

I think it's a great way to see the world but it's not for everyone. Not a lot of room to bring stuff along so it's like an extended camping trip in a lot of ways.

 

[Doug_S]

Motorcycle touring is great fun. I've ridden from Santa Barbara, CA up through Lake Tahoe into the Trinity Alps and back while nursing, what I later discovered to be, a broken piston land. Smoked like crazy out of the breather but I still had a good time. I did the ride on a 1968 BMW R60/2 without a sidecar. Now it has a Steib S350 sidecar on it. My girlfriend loves to ride in it. I've also gone to many rallies and camping tours along the way.

We're planning to go down the OR coast this spring or summer (I now live in WA State). We usually camp along the way.

Have fun with it. You'll like it a lot, I think.