US coast-to-coast

Anyone have any experience with this? Thinking NY>LA specifically.

On a bike?

I heard there is an off road track all the way from east to west, the only roads are ones you cross, you can do it on a mountain bike or a scrambler. sounds wicked. i'd go on a scrambler cos i'm lazy and fat.

no but I did Mexico City to Puerto escondido (on mtn bike) if you decide to go S.America instead

Nope, NY to LA was the thought. It would have to be on roads, because of the pedal-powered device proposed.

can I ask why you're going NY -> LA?

If you go the other way you'll get these out of the way slightly earlier and have about 3,000 miles less to travel on the flight back to England

http://www.bikertony.org/ This is intersting, I had a link somewhere of a guy that cycled through America then Canada upto Alaska. I will try to dig it out.

Could have been this one http://cyclingtrip.com/index.html

Has to be that way, as we're picking up our transport in NY.

fair enough.. should be fun.

that's quite a distance.

3,200ish miles.

I did it once though not dedicated. Year after college a couple friends and me biked/drove cross country. Was an amazing trip but long. I don't know if I could do it straight.

Thinking about doing this at some point in the future, always been a dream of mine. New York to San Francisco though.

I've always wanted to do San Fran - NYC

Forum Ride?

in.

Done it in a car. It's a long way/

I've also done it in a car. 9 days driving, 11 days total. Very very very far.

I've got a stupid idea that one day I will do a "Rockaway Beach, OR to Rockaway Beach, NY" ride.

Something like this -

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Rockaway+Beach,+OR,+USA&daddr=40.7155361,-73.9791174+to:Shore+Front+Pkwy&hl=en&geocode=FX4BuAIdAcic-Ck7c-7mgcyUVDGNySAesrssTg%3BFRBFbQIdEyuX-ykhDCLCf1nCiTHZAoAtQYAM-g%3BFWhIawIdSsGZ-w&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=15&via=1&sll=40.712069,-74.001718&sspn=0.018184,0.057807&ie=UTF8&ll=40.678034,-74.177628&spn=0.291093,0.924911&z=11

Mate of mine did this a few years back - blog here: http://www.transamericatrailcycle.com/2008/05/super-sunday.html

Just completed a transAm about a week ago. www.cycleofamerica2010.com

Myself and two mates went Seattle to D.C. over 7 weeks (42days in the saddle and 7 rest days). Worked out at nearly 3,800 miles.

We had a car for support so didn't do it loaded. In the early stages I thought about doing it fixed but sense prevailed.

If you have the chance, the time and the money to do it, I'd definitely recommend it. Some of the scenery is amazing, other places it's corn field after corn field. Best part was the people though, it will change any negative perception you may have of our transAtlantic friends!

Any questions let me know.

I did Trans-Canada, that was 5000 miles and took 76 days. I can very strongly recommend going from West to East as this is the way that the prevailing wind goes. Going from East to West in the US adds about a week and will mean that you will almost constantly be going into a headwind. This can be quite demoralising which isn't something that you need on a trip of this scale.

Other general advice is not to plan too much ahead. We only ever though up to three days in advance and were always happy to change our plans according to what happened. I understand that most states have a published list of campsites that you can pick up at TI centres. Usually on entering a province in Canada we would get straight to a newsagents and grab a province map (lighter than one for the whole country) and then get the campsite list. The next day was usually given a short, medium and long distance option (occaisionally you will have no choice but to go long). Take a Rough Guide or a Lonely planet with you so that you don't miss too many diversions along the way. Seek local advice about the roads as well. Quite often the maps can be wrong and ones marked paved will no be. Keep an eye out behind you for RVs with 1-800 number splashed across them. These are rental RV's and most drivers don't know the size of them. Be prepared to pull over and give them good berth if the road doesn't have a shoulder.

spamtastic! reported.