Cross Country Trip 2012: Need advice and suggestions

[Dirty Duc]

The way you are getting to Denver is almost the boringest way possible.  15 and 70 both are straight and long.

I would go this way:

[pitbull]

Your updated route looks much better.


One thing I would mention, if you're not planning on staying in Chicago and just passing through, turn south and go around Chicago instead of through it, unless you want to spend many, many hours sitting. There is not quick way through Chicago or good time of day to do it.

Disregard if you are actually planning to visit the city, which I think is an excellent idea if you are.

[El Matador]

Carry the least amount of shit possible. Trust me. I've done cross country a few times with nothing but a camelback and a set of tools under the. Seat.

Get a touring seat. By far the best thing you can do.

http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=26965.0

Write up starts at page 14.

Have fun!

[pitbull]

to Matador's point: Take everything you think you will need and spread it out on your bed.......and then put two thirds of it back, because you will only use about 1/3 of what you think you need.

If you do forget something you think you need, there's a walmart just about everywhere.

[Desmo Demon]

Any stops that are good?
Any roads that are good?

Determine the states taht you will be traveling through and do Internet searches of tourist attractions in each state. Try to hit several of them that are on the route or not too far off of the route. Also hitting the Welcome Centers at each state is a way to pick up fliers and check on their maps for confirmation of tourist attractions. Try to remain a little flexible. If you have a car going, you can take a bunch of stuff.

My typical cross-country trip has a daily schedule of something like this:
- Get up and ride 30-60 minutes for breakfast
- Ride about 2-3 hours to some destination for sight-seeing
- grab lunch
- Ride another 2-3 hours
- Grab dinner
- Either stop for the evening or ride another 30-60 minutes after dinner and then call it a day

This schedule is good for about 300-350 miles per day, which is excellent. Some areas that you ride through will not have anything worth stopping to sight-see, so just plan on riding upwards of 800 miles in a day (12-14 hours in the saddle).

Gear?

Wear a jacket at all times. Even if it is 98+ degrees out, the sun will dehydrate you in a hurry. You will also get badly sunburned with short sleeves. If it is really sunny, put sunblock on your face and nose. The sun's rays will get through the visor enough that your face will be burnt and you won't even know it. You will want to drink fluids all the time. Dehydration occurs easily and with the wind constantly blowing, you won't even realize you are sweating. Take rain gear with you. If it doesn't rain, the rain gear is an excellent way to provide wind protection and cold protection if the temps happen to drop lower than you may expect on th route. Do an Internet search on the regions that you will be riding through. You can check on typical average temps, but don't let the monthly a verages fool you. I once rode through Arizona in late April and the temps were 10-20 degrees cooler than average. I froze my butt off and wound up wearing out my rain suit when I used it for wind/cold protection.

Maintenance suggestions?

Fresh oil and filter. Riding a Ducati, I'd recomend a fresh set of timing belts nad a valve check/adjust. If your chain is a 520, put new chain and sprockets on the bike for that kind of trip. If you have a set of 525, if they have more than 10k miles on them, consider replacing them. Other than these things, I wouldn't worry about too much else.

Bike mod suggestions?

None. Let me repeat..."NONE"! Do not, and I mean NOT, do ANY mod that will change your riding position. Do not change your seat. If you want to try to make any modification that will change your riding position or if you want to change your seat, only do it if you can ride the bike for more than 1000 miles prior to leaving for the trip. I don't mean ten 100-mile rides, either. I mean at least two or three 350-400 mile rides to make sure that the new ergos or new seat is something that isn't going to kill you after mile #200 of the day. The last thing you want to do is to make a bunch of changes and then find out 50 miles down the road that you're dieing of pain.

Riding technique suggestions?

Stay loose and relaxed. Do not try to hold yourself up against the wind, don't try to hold your head stiff and steady if a tractor-trailer passes you, and don't fight cross winds. If you find yourself getting tense while riding, STOP IT!!! Being tense while riding will physically fatigue you exceptionally fast. You wouldn't imagien how fast any potential Interstate droning will kill your shoulders and your neck when you are fighting wind and riding tense.

When riding with a group, expect what I call the accordian-effect. This is where the lead person may fluctuate his speed by 5 mph, but as the speed variation drifts through the ranks, you may find the guy in the rear swinging from 45 ph to 80 mph to keep up the pace. Whoever is to lead, try to stay as steady of a pace as possible. If you cannot maintain a steady pace, let someone else lead. Also, rotate the leader. Do not have the same person lead all the time. Leading a group is mentally and physically fatiguing as you are always tryign to set the pace and are always watching the guys behind you to make sure they are staying the pace and that no one has fallen behind (such as from a break-down. If the group's dynamics are too varying, do not be afraid to break the group into two smaller groups with planned meeting points for gas or dinner.


Also, for maintenance items, depending on how mechanically inclined you are, I always pack a bunch of sockets, allen wrenches, screw drivers, pliers, Vise-grips, a multimeter, at least one copy of my wiring schematic, and a list of the Ducati dealerships that will be along yoru route. You may also opt for a new chain and a chain break/rivoting tool. I've also been known to take a soldering iron, solder, and some wiree, too.

The max time-frame is 14 days. Possible?

14 days shouldn't be a problem at all. I rode from South Carolina to California and back in 12 days with 5600 miles covered. I didn't even ride one of those days and I went sight-seeing to places such as the Grand Canyon, the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings, went through Mounument Valley, went to Vegas via the Hoover Dam, stood at the Four Corners, visited the Meteor Crater, and rode through the Painted Valley and Petrified Forest. I even went a few miles out of my way to jump into Mexico, simply to say that I'd been there.

[EvilSteve]

I did 8800 miles in a month riding from NYC to SF, into OR, Canada around the great lakes and back to NYC in a month.

I was riding an '08 Triumph Sprint ST, my max distance from a tank (on highway) was 236 miles. Unfortunately, with a Duc you're going to get a lot less than that. Carry a spare gas can, even if it's half a gallon in case you or one of your group runs out. If you have point that you're stopping at, map out the optimal time between them (google maps) and make sure it fits in your schedule (although, 14 days should be plenty). I also checked that the distance was < 500 miles each day and the average speed was < 55. Those were energy saving limits because we had other plans on the trip and I didn't want to be totally burnt. My longest milage in a day was 773 miles (should have gone the extra ~300 and got my Iron Butt!) which was all route 80. Without music I was singing the 3 national anthems I know and trying not to go insane. I was definitely burnt at the end of that. We planned the route such that I wouldn't be riding at night, not because I don't enjoy riding at night because I do but more for safety reasons.

We went in May, it was really, really cold in some places (like Crater Lake) and over some of the passes, remember that you're going to pass through wide climate changes (not to mention the weather day to day) so you want some gear that's light and versatile. I got a helmet with bluetooth and used it to talk to my wife, remember, most of the signals we use are pretty limited. I wore my Vanson 1 piece perforated race leathers and had rain gear I used when it was cold or raining. When it was hot, it wasn't too bad.

Are you camping or staying hotels? Wherever you're staying, you can't always just rock up and find somewhere to stay (especially with a group your size). It might be worth booking some of your accom. in advance.

I was very lucky to have my wife and two of her family in the car, most of my gear went in there but I made sure I had enough to get by if we were separated. Because of this, my trip wasn't so much an exercise in minimizing gear and more in stamina. This also meant that, should something shitty happen, I had transport right there but you won't have that luxury. Make sure you have AAA (or whatever) and that you know that you can get motorcycle towing. Make sure your medical insurance is up to date and plan to need it but hope that you don't. Notify all of those you care about what your route is, what your intended dates are and how that can contact you. Make sure you all have ICE information on you and a method of communication (cell phone service is pervasive but not 100%). Make sure at least one of you has GPS and also have a backup (we took paper maps too).

It was literally one of the most amazing life experiences I've had to date and would do it again in a second. Riding up Grand Mesa from ~90F to being like ~50F and seeing partially frozen lakes, snow and smelling the Spruce on the way up was amazing. Riding through Death Valley and having spots of rain. Unbelievable.

Edit: I guess those pics aren't showing up, oh well.

[DesmoTillDeath]

Sorry for the last reply to all the wonderful contributions to this thread!!   

I editted the map further from what merga had suggested to add route 92 as part of the FLOW instead of an off-chute.

Chicago is a destination. how deep we go into the mayhem there is dependent on the location of the place of interest. Frank Loyd Wright had some of his early work in Chicago and my roommate is an architect and would like to see them. I just hope they are not in downtown.

Minimizing gear will be VERY difficult because I haven't got the luxury of returning to the beginning for quite some time. I'll be in NY for three months and need to bring things like clothes, laptop, riding gear, and tools. But I will do my best.
I've decided to get the Kriega US30 because I want to use it for other things than just riding and 20L is too small (US20).

I did not realize dehydration was one of the biggest things to worry about. I'm well aware of the need to be hydrated in certain climates and that dehydration can cause serious problems especially while riding. But the evaporative effect of riding is more severe than I thought. Thank you for the heads up!! A camel blatter will be coming with me.

Demon and Steve: Thank you for that extravagant posting of your exploits. Very helpful. An oil-change and possily new tires will happen before the trip. New clutch plates as well if I really think she needs it. I do need a windsheild and a Go Cruise wrist saver. If anyone knows where to get a used/cheap/aftermarket windsheild for a 2001 m900 dark I would love to check it out.

Padded bicycling shorts to minimize high frequency vibes on my backside.

My first pelican case will be here next week so I can start designing the pannier rack. Photos to follow.

My father was itching to participate in some way for this adventure so I sub-contracted the fabrication of a 5 port USB charging dock on my bike. Runs off the battery and can charge 5 devices at a time. It meets manufactures limits on current and voltage. It's not finished yet but I will post pics and the schematic on here when it is for those who are looking to re-create it. Or should I just make more and sell them? haha no time for that.

We are going to be roughing it as much as possible. We are all poor college students (Why I drive a monster as a daily communiter can only be answered with the illogical fall-back, PASSION!) so camping is number one. Walmart parking lots, feilds, highway overpasses, caves, lawns. Hotels when we run out of time or are beat or need to dry gear out, regroup or re-plan the remaining mileage.

I have AAA and health insurance. Not sure about everyone else.

I loath the task of planning gas stations every 100 miles and lodging for the whole country for 4-7 dudes. (I'm the only one planning the trip) But It seems more and more that I will need to. Today I calculated that with an hour of highway driving on one tank I got 40 mpg. Not bad but way better than the R6 coming with us.

A bit off-topic but I'm worried that my fuel mapping has not been adjusted to optimize running and fuel/air mixture after the Termignani slipons were installed. She seems a bit boggy when I punch it around 3500-4500 rpm. This may also affect fuel efficiency if the tuning is off. ?Any input on this



I hope alot of the trip looks something like this (Glendora Mountain Road)

[tilt]

Frank Loyd Wrights work is all over the chicago area, depending on how long you have and when you will be there you might just want to go on the tour.  The down side is that to even get a taste of what he has done in chicago it will take at least a full day, the other down side is that unless you are interested in his work you are going to be falling asleep at least with the viewing of the houses that he designed. A lot of the bigger commercial projects that he did are pretty cool to look at and while those are downtown you at least have the option to make things a lilttle more interesting.  If anything try and plan a day to check out the whole city and everyone go and do your own thing.

[Desmo Demon]

An oil-change and possily new tires will happen before the trip. New clutch plates as well if I really think she needs it.

I have 54k miles on the original clutch on my ST2 and 25k on my 748. How many miles does your clutch have?

I forgot to mention, if you or a buddy has the storage capacity, take a tire plug kit and one of those mini air compressors. I always have them in my ST2 pannier and have had to use it three times in the last 5 years....two bikes and an old Volkswagen Beetle.

I hope alot of the trip looks something like this (Glendora Mountain Road)

Some parts will be like that, but when going through the Great Plains, be prepared for hours and hours of this....



This next one was really disappointing. I rode toward the mountains for nearly 3 hours, and when I finally got close to it, the road curved, missing the mountains, and I rode on more, straight, flat, boring roads...



Even if you do wind up on a nice, twisty road, go slower than you usually would because you won't know the road, and you may not realize how mentally or physically fatigued you are. The last thing you will want it to end your trip early with a visit to a local hospital.



If you are interested, I did little write-ups of most of my larger trips here - http://www.desmodemon.com/bike_trips.html

[DesmoTillDeath]

Spiced up the East coast on my google map route. Philly, Akron, Brooklyn. Maybe Boston if I dont run out of time/money.

The disappointments when long stretches turn into longer stretches will make the rest that much more special. Or at least I tell myself that now.

[DucHead]

...I forgot to mention, if you or a buddy has the storage capacity, take a tire plug kit and one of those mini air compressors. I always have them in my ST2 pannier and have had to use it three times in the last 5 years....two bikes and an old Volkswagen Beetle.
Some parts will be like that, but when going through the Great Plains, be prepared for hours and hours of this...

Or this with ~25 mph side winds:


 

[Desmo Demon]

Or this with ~25 mph side winds:

I've seen roads like that in many states. Texas, Iowa, and South Dakota come quickly to mind. The cross winds are why I mentioned previously about trying to not fight winds. This is an except from my trip write-up when I was on I-90 from Sioux Falls, SD to Sturgis, SD back in 2001...

"I was now heading west and this wind was now a cross-wind. I have no idea how strong it was, but going straight down the road, the bike was leaning at an angle severe enough to have me worried. To make this worse, the road construction period in the north is only about three months long and they were doing construction on this interstate. Worse thing about this, is the opposing traffic usualy were tractor-trailers that, instead of being "piggy-back" with two trailers, these guys hauled THREE trailers. So, here I am fighting a bad cross-wind, and then getting nailed by the wind disturbance from the trucks as they passed no more than six feet away. I got to where I was ducking down onto the tank of the bike to lessen the beating I was taking from the trucks, and then, I started using this technique to battle the cross wind."

It was easier on me and my body to simply drop down on the bike and let it get beat around by the wind than to have my head and torso take the beating - which is quickly fatiguing.

[EvilSteve]

Yep, crosswinds can be rough but I don't find them as bad on a naked bike, the fairing on an ST2 or Sprint ST is going to catch more wind. You also get a wind shadow when you're behind a hill that's upwind from you, passing trucks that are upwind do all sorts of weird shit. Fun. : )

I took a backpack that had a 3 litre camel back (still use that backpack, it's getting old but it's still awesome). Be prepared to account for weaker bladders too and also, when you're trying to charge stuff, you'd better have somewhere waterproof for it to live but the tradeoff is heat. I had a waterproof container for my iPhone but the phone would overheat and shut down. Be very careful that you wire your chargers into a switched circuit, you don't want a flat battery miles from nowhere.

As far as camping goes, be really careful where you pitch your tent, it's actually illegal in some states to just stop wherever and camp.

I'd put new tires on for sure and just get an overall service. If you have a regular mechanic, let them know your general plan and they'll probably suggest a really thorough going over of your bike.

The comment about going slower on twisties was really true for me, didn't really start enjoying twisties until like 2/3 of the way through the trip. I was really scared of ending up with a broken bike 3000 miles from home but. Also, roads like the million dollar highway are amazing but really dangerous. Discretion is the better part of valor they say...

[Desmo Demon]

Yep, crosswinds can be rough but I don't find them as bad on a naked bike, the fairing on an ST2 or Sprint ST is going to catch more wind.

I was on my Harley and didn't even have a windshield. It's fairly comparable to a Monster, except for the extra 200 pounds or so.

when you're trying to charge stuff

This reminds me. Call your credit card and debit card companies and let them know what you ae doing. My wife and I did a SaddleSore 1000 and after about six hours, the accounts were getting frozen. They get red flags and freeze the cards when they see small changes, multiple times a day, and in different states. Also remember that many of the card companies may not have operators available on the weekends, so if they freeze one on Friday, you may not be able to get it reactivated until Monday.

[EvilSteve]

Call your credit card and debit card companies and let them know what you are doing.

Yeah, good point.