dgodin
South Williamsport, PA
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Joined: 09/13/2010
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My wife and I took an indirect route from Pennsylvania to New Mexico to visit our son in 2008, about 4,000 miles. A great trip! But this year is my best, longest riding year. I am currently 100 miles short of 10,000 miles for the year on my new Moto Guzzi Norge. Love the bike! THis year includes a trip down the Blue Ridge, trip to Wisconsin, a jaunt up to The Finger lakes, and a trip to Maine. I've only used my car three times. Unfortunately I only live 4 miles from work or I'd have more on the odometer.
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Alex the Dog
Buena Vista, CO
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Joined: 10/31/2007
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Yes, but when riding home after work, those back roads make the long way home a lot more interesting.
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tt618
Ohio
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Joined: 06/24/2010
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These are great responses! I'm envious! I would like to travel into Mexico someday.
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Poi Dog 43
Big Island Hawaii
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Joined: 09/21/2010
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WOW! Just returned home after a 2385 mile cruise in the Rockies! I've been here on the Big Island for 15 years without going anywhere, content with circumnavigating the island every weekend or so. It's about 300 miles around if you take every route available. My friend Roger introduced me to RIDER magazine, and began talking about taking a road trip together. This absorbed our spare time for a couple of months, but finally we had an idea which roads to travel, and I had a rented Harley UltraGlide Classic to pick up in Denver. Ten days later we had negotiated nearly every scenic roadway in the Rocky mountains. The weather was perfect, skies blue. We set off on Sept 1, it was a cool 41 degrees as we headed north to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park, crossing the 12,183 elevation on Trail Ridge Road. Windless and cloudless, it was a perfect day to begin our trip. We averaged a little more than 240 miles a day, and were on the road for 10 hours each day, with smoke breaks about every thirty miles at a scenic site removed from the highway. With rare exception we traveled two lane roads with no one ahead or behind. When someone began to tail us, we pulled over and allowed them to pass, some drivers are in a hurry! We did Independence Pass both east to west and west to east. The San Juan Skyway was also passed both directions. The longest ride was 320 miles, taking us over three mountain passes over 10,000 feet in elevation as we headed from Montrose to Creede and down to Pagosa Springs on the back road to Durango. We got sidetracked and landed in Ignacio with bug splattered windscreens right in the middle of Bike Week! Next day had us going up the winding road to Mesa Verde Nat'l Park, what a great road! We left Durango following Highway 141 to Gateway, and this was an awesome ride without town or village but incredible dryland beauty with massive redstone mesas standing like crystal sentinals alongside the road. From this area near Grand Junction we continued on north to Comanche Peak Wilderness area and then to Fort Collins and later on to Denver where I turned the bike in. What a trip!! I wonder if the Rocky Mountain highways are the best route one can take on a rented Harley for a couple weeks. I think so.
* This post was
edited 09/22/10 06:09pm by Poi Dog 43 *
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steveb2071
Massachusetts
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Joined: 09/14/2009
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Sounds like a great time. I've been to the Rocky Mountains 3 times! Loved it.
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Poi Dog 43
Big Island Hawaii
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Thanks for the reply, yep, I'm a Rocky mountain fan, as well as a Harley convert. The bike was so comfortable, and easy to ride compared to my Valkyrie. We ran into a Harley rider at McClure Pass who had come 900 miles in one day across Texas with the Gulf Coast storm on his tail. I can see his reasoning....get across Texas ASAP and outrun the storm as well. I guess there are lots of ways to sit in that saddle!
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tt618
Ohio
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Joined: 06/24/2010
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I actually liked my GL1000 better than my Wide Glide...of course that's comparing apples to oranges...the wide glide isn't really suited to long distance travel at all.
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tt618
Ohio
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One thing I've noticed with long distance journeys is that there are definitely varying degrees of difficulty. It's one thing to drive from coast to coast in the US, but it's quite another to do a "Long Way Around" style international adventure in which conditions get extremely rough. It sounds like most of the posts here are more road trips, as opposed to "adventure touring".
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