Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

I might look into buying a proper sleeping bag too as mine would have been useless up there had we got stuck.

four season bag or one with a goretex outer bag?

Mate that sounds absolutely epic, so envious of all the legally accessible dirt you have over there, in Scotland its a bit weird, there are tracks (farm tracks and random old bits of road on the moors) but not really legal for a powered vehicle (and enforced by annoyed landowners). In some places (f0und one by accident last week) you can use forestry commission unpaved tracks/roads as rights of way even in a powered vehicle where there is no other way (or in that case it was like a 60 mile tarmac trip vs 4 miles of gravel).

Speaking of epic, i'm in the midst of planning for a trip next year. Here's the current proposed route over 10-12 days (roughly 5 hours riding a day):

https://goo.gl/fY7Xbx

Have you already done the national parks? We did LA to San Fran via national parks, 3500miles in 10 days, with a rest day in Vegas and it was brilliant. Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Moab, Death Valley, Bryce Canyon, Yosemite, Zion and loads more.

It looks like you're doing a lot of big main roads which might not be much fun, not sure if you've got a reason for that but you're planning to drive round some amazing places without seeing them, in fairness I see you're doing a few of the further out ones like Yellowstone. As an example we went through the Dixie National Forest and it's incredible, really good roads and empty for miles. Death Valley is great too.

We're starting to plan 'the music route' New Orleans -> Chicago. Hopefully it will take shape for next year.

Tried to post a link to my trip but it didn't work!

The access here is astonishing as long as you have a street legal bike. Some
Of the trails we rode through were so achingly stunning it almost feels wrong. The reality is you barely see anyone and are miles away from any houses or people to disturb.

There's another solid month of high mountain access hopefully and after that, it's desert time.

On the bag front, I'm not sure - goretex outer probably, I never take a tent and although rain is not really a problem, wind definitely is.

Always forget how vast the US is. That looks positively mammoth

My first thought was "no tent!?" But Clint Eastwood didn't have a tent in all those filims.

Yeah. I would echo what @airhead said about the long stints on the Interstates. Having done a fair amount of 4-5 day road trips in cars on them I cannot imagine doing that much on a motorbike - even when the weather was good. If the weather is poor it will be a lot less fun.

I would recommend that you consider taking some cut offs just to break it up. Peel off the highway, take a more local road more or less parallel to the way you want to go. Lower speed limits but you will see more of the country that way. And stumble across some incredible stuff.

The immediate 100 yards either side of the Interstate is a bad representation of the US. We are more than just car dealerships, billboards and fast food joints.

You've done a few of these already, but give it some thought.

I have a colleague from Helena. Let me ask what he recommends for MT for you.

Pyrenees from Santander to Barcelona. Anyone traversed it before? Looking to do it end of next month or so. Any thoughts/ideas?

Cheers @Airhead / @Aroogah

This is definitely not the actual driving route but the areas I want to pass through. I may actually fly straight to San Fran and go in / out if there instead.

As you say, I'm looking to tick off a few more national parks and key routes.

I've already done PCH, Yosemite & Death Valley as well as the tip of rockies in New Mexico so this is more about filling in the blanks...

You can do a sensational route from LV, up through Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reefs, the Grand Tetons into Yellowstone. Almost all off the main highway save the bit linking Capital Reefs and Salt Lake. Across Montana and into Idaho along the Snake river is fabulous too. To come back, I'd miss that whole corner of NW Nevada and head across Oregon to Bend, Crater Lake and Ashland before coming back down into Cal for the Lava Beds, Mt Shasta and the Lassen Volcanic National Park. Then you can go down to Lake Tahoe and across to the 395 down the back of the eastern Sierras across back to Vegas. All of it breathtaking.

So, fancy putting that into a Google map for me?

Pleaseandthanks

Tricky if you've done those already. It does leave going out from Vegas and heading round Valley Of Fire, Zion, Dixie, Bryce, Arches, Monument, Grand Canyon, Old Route 66, Mohave, Vegas. According to Google that's only 1500 miles, you'll do a lot more than that though.

There's a lot to see in those places and you can ride around the parks a fair bit too, get the lid off and enjoy the open air. If anything I felt we had to rush through some of the parks which deserved more time to soak up the atmosphere. Places like Moab have loads of great trails around and the atmosphere up there was great.

Jungs' suggestions seem pretty good if you want to see Yellowstone, for me that was always a separate trip just to spend time in the park, not having to haul the bike kit around.

Yep, I did it a while back as part of a bigger loop, can't remember much from that bit other than a cool bodega near Lagardia (?)

In other news my friend popped over this evening on the Honda he's been restoring for a couple of years. What a lump, must have an awesome centre of gravity. Apperently it doesn't stop very well.

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That looks proper cool. Any ideas on routes. You do it in the summer?

June 2012. We landed in Santander then went along the coast to San Sebastián (via Bilbao, the Guggenheim is worth a visit), we surfed for a couple of days at the beach in Zarautz. Then into the Pyrenees but more the valleys than the mountains. Then a wriggle towards Barcelona although we stopped short and looped back across the middle to get to the Picos de Europa mountains which were awesome but not near where you're heading. Spain has the best Tarmac I've ever ridden, every corner has a sign indicating the speed so it's easier to blindly dive the bike around. It's a great place, have fun.

Beaut CBX - those and the Z13 were the 6 cylinder bikes lusted after in Victorian times.
I believe Honda did a 250 six long ago, I love their passion for engineering and innovation.
In other news, the Triumphs already let me down - bloody regulator/rectifiers.

Speaking of epic, i'm in the midst of planning for a trip next year. Here's the current proposed route over 10-12 days (roughly 5 hours riding a day):

https://goo.gl/fY7Xbx

Be really keen to hear your updates on this, as I'd like to do a shorter version at some point next year.

They did indeed, the RC166. I think there's only one left now. It ran at the Classic TT.

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Pyrenees from Santander to Barcelona. Anyone traversed it before? Looking to do it end of next month or so. Any thoughts/ideas?

Can't speak to that route specifically, but I've cycled South from France, through the Pyreness to Santiago d/C, then driven to Santander.

Sounds like an excellent idea, which I'm sure someone must have done.

My thoughts:

• The roads and scenery round Santander are epic.
  
• Pyrenees weather can be tough and sudden. There will be rain and fog at some point, and it can get cold fast. But it also clears fast too.
  
• Do some research into time of year, my feeling is you'd want to do it sooner rather than later.
  
• Hug / ride the Pyrenees - south of there is a bit dull and flat (ie if you drew an imaginary line across from Leon to Pamplona - although Burgos is nice, and on a motorbike you could do some cruising to visit some of the random little towns with epic churches and Cathedrals, etc. - literally there are places with ancient Cathedrals which probably have populations in the hundreds).
  
• That whole region has amazing cities perfect for stop-offs and rest days - in particular Bilbao (city walk, market, Guggenheim, food) Pamplona (old ramparts, pintxos, massive cuts of meat, concert if someone you like is playing the stadium).
  
• Anywhere within reach of the pilgrims route will have super cheap accommodation and pilgrims menus for ~€10 - which importantly are served earlier, so you can eat dinner before 9pm if you're not used to it.
  
• My gut for the start would be coast roads Santander > Bilbao > San Sebastian > Pyrenees proper switching between France / Spain e.g. St Jean Pied Port / Roncesvalles > Pamplona (rest day so you can go out for a proper dinner and booze up) > ? no idea from there ?
  
  

Any advice on putting a bike into medium to long term storage in a lockup? - in England, so out of the elements, but not atmospherically dry.

In particular whether an indoor cover is a good idea.

https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcycle_parts/content_prod/234330

cheers.

Don't cover it, will just keep moisture in.

Drain fuel tank and remove battery, raise wheels off floor. Can coat in ACF50 too.

Depends on the cover. Definitely not a waterproof cover, but a good quality porous cover might be good, as it keeps dust & muck off the bike.

Yes, good point.