most awesome motorcycle trip you took

[pitbull]

summer 2003 on my 01 900ie:

Toronto-to-Pittsburgh-to-Santana, then up through the rockies through Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Alberta and then finally turned east and back across the praries home to the Toronto area.

2 1/2 weeks and 10,000+ km

great roads, great scenery, and lots of adventures.

[booger]

summer 2003 on my 01 900ie:

Toronto-to-Pittsburgh-to-Santana, then up through the rockies through Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Alberta and then finally turned east and back across the praries home to the Toronto area.

2 1/2 weeks and 10,000+ km

great roads, great scenery, and lots of adventures.

that's epic - I'd love to hear about whatever mechanical problems or bad luck anyone has had on these monster trips and what they did to overcome them

[Bigbore4]

Pay attention and concentrate!

It is easy to zone out on a long haul and just drone on busting off the miles.  I had three close calls on my last adventure. 

Out on I 80 (it sux but I had to get from GP to Bonneville quickly) a tractor trailer was in the right lane with right turn on.  As I was overtaking in the left lane he moved over on me suddenly, still showing right turn.

I don't recall where exactly, one of them tall sprinter vans, grossly overloaded judging by the way it wallowed around.  It was VERY windy and a huge gust hit as I was closing. Shoved it right over in my lane.

And the worse, yesterday on the long drone home through Nebraska and SD.  I was EB on a state highway.  A west bound cager was passing another.  He wasn't even close to making it.  The gracious dude he was passing moved onto the WB shoulder.  I was heavy on the brakes and onto the EB shoulder.  The douche bag stayed in my lane as he motored on by.  I must confess I gave him the long term one finger salute, seriously doubt he saw it tho.  I nearly gave in to the temptation to turn around and "educate" the bugger.  I must be getting old, I settled on the finger.

I have been fortunate on the mechanical.  I cheat, I take the FJR on long hauls.  Just finished my third very long trip, defined as in the neighborhood of 5 k miles without mishap.  I start on new tires so I don't have to deal with that on the road.  In 2009 we did stop and asist a guy in the middle of nowhere Wyoming with a flat on a KTM dual sport.  The other key piece of advise is have emergency gear, know how to use it.  Poor guy had brought tire irons and "self vulcanizing" patches.  Had no clue they needed cement.

And last and again:

Pay attention and concentrate!  ALWAYS

[DoubleEagle]

For me this is a big trip.

Saturday I did a 6 hour " endurance race "  ( unofficial ) through the hills and forests of Southern , Ohio w, my BMW S 1000 RR.

Couldn't believe I never saw a  so I rode as fast as I wanted.

Can't get over how great that bike carves up the corners.

Much better than my 1098 R.

I had the time of my life.

So much so I'm still feelin' it 2 days later.

The weather had cooled down into the 60s which made it wonderful compared to the 90s that had been going on for most of the Summer.

What a gas !

Got to blast by many H-Ds and another Super bike.

Dolph     

[Bigbore4]

Pictures to go with my earlier post:

[abby normal]

Isle of Man this year, 5 days total, two weeks after the mountain race ended.  epic.  lots
of circuits around the course (much of which has no speed limit), and touring the
rest of the island.  wonderful place to visit without the throngs of race week.

[fastwin]

July 1989, AlpenTour ride (long since out of business ) through the west Alps. Rented a Kawi Concours in Horgen, Switzerland and rode on small, narrow 2 lane back roads 90% of the time through the Alps. Three and a half weeks through Switzerland, France, Med coast (Nice-Monte Carlo), all over northern Italy, into Interlaken, Switzerland, then ending back in Horgen. Stayed in small family owned hotels in small towns. Dinner and breakfast were provided by the hotel. Food was awesome!! Home cooked!! It was a "group ride" but you didn't have to ride as a group. I went 2 up with my wife (now ex-wife) and we rode alone 50-70% of the time. You'd run into others in the group along the way each day. All you had to do was get from the morning's hotel to the one in the next town you were staying in. Point A to point B. You were briefed as a group in the evening about the next day's route options... who wants to ride fast on killer roads, who wants to stop and see some cool castles, etc. You could ride any route you wanted, with whomever you wanted to ride with... or not. Pretty cool! And they had a van that hauled all your luggage to the next hotel! You checked in at the hotel when you arrived, they tossed you a room key, go to your room and voila... your luggage was sitting there! All I carried on the bike was a tank bag with rain suits in it. That was it!

Amazing trip, scenery and roads just blew me away! Gee... nothing like north Texas! Too bad the outfit went out of business. It was 11 years old when we did it in 1989. They ran the east Alps too. Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Liechtenstein. We made friends on our trip that ran the east Alps the following year. They said it was awesome but the group wasn't as fun as our west Alps crew. Really cool experience. The ride of a lifetime for me. [moto] Too bad my ex managed to keep all the photos!! How did that happen??

[Novelo]

July of this year: Spent most of my summer over in Italy took a day trip from Lucca to the outskirts of Bologna down through the Macca coast and finally back into Lucca. Probably one of the best trips I have taken but also one of the most concerning. Lane spliting isn't legal there but is more or less what you can get away with, atleast that is what my guide told me. We spent much of our time riding on the wrong side of the road into on coming traffic till we got into the mountains sort of hiding in between cars as traffic came. Every single road we went onto was just crazy hairpin turns and changing elevation so fast my ears would pop two or three times, dream riding sir, it was awsome. Finally got tired of trying to keep up and my guide was over taking cars going into blind corners. Told him I'd meet him at the bottom of the hill and I didn't feel comfortable riding beyond my ability after a scare. I got an Hyper 1100S & an 848 for the day which were fun but I still didn't like them as much as I do my S2R1K. Always thought I would like acting a fool on the Hyper but kind of glad I never got one and chose my Monster instead. Most of the trip I didn't get to photograph what I was seeing but here are a few shots that I did manage to get. These are the abandon marble quarries that we past, cool looking mountains white with green grass growing out of them and the air was like a mist because of the elevation and clouds. One shot of the many tunnels we went through. These don't have lights in them and the road surface is pretty rough. Its almost like rain inside from the moister seeping through the rock and dripping down. Little crazy to experience going from 85* sun shine to wet, rainy, pitch black curving tunnel with gravel  .




Althought these are semi-related I did manage to make it to the infamous Cinque Terre and took my personal Mecca to the Duc Factory in Bologna a few weeks later.

[fastwin]

Sounds a little like my riding experience in Europe in '89. It was a little scary at first until I found my comfort zone. Paris Dakar type bikes were very popular at the time and packs of them would go flying past us into all sorts of crazy blind turns on the wrong side of the road! I loved the long tunnels with 90 degree turns in them that came out of nowhere! Go from bright sunshine into semi darkness (bad lighting) and just about the time your eyes adjust WHAMO a sharp turn appears!! Lots of skid marks and chunks taken out of the concrete wall. Slowed way down going into every tunnel after that. Even still, it was an awesome experience and I came home in one piece.

[pitbull]

that's epic - I'd love to hear about whatever mechanical problems or bad luck anyone has had on these monster trips and what they did to overcome them

On one trip out west I hit a huge pot hole on one of Michigan's lovely highways and badly cracked the rear engine mount on the monster's motor. I had to rent a U-haul and drive it home where I was able to get it welded. Other than that I've never had a major issue.

I've had lots of instances of riding into cities on a bald tire or badly stretched chain, but was always able to get squeezed in for a quick repair at a motorcycle shop. Most places will fit in a long distance rider for emergency type service.

[pitbull]

And as for non-monster related trips, I just got back from 12 days in Costa Rica, where I rented a bike to ride the back roads.

Between rain forests, cloud forests, lots of volcanoes, ocean vistas and many deal's gap type roads that go on for an hour +.........it's far and away the most amazing motorcycling I've ever experienced.

[Desmo Demon]

It would be either this one (15 days, 22 states, 4900 miles)...


http://www.desmodemon.com/south_dakota/index.html


Or this one (12 days, 16 states, 5600 miles)...

http://www.desmodemon.com/california/index.html