Your loooongest ride. | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Your loooongest ride.

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Pre-Covid a friend and I zigzagged our way out west, thru the good roads around Sturgess, to an army base north of Edmonton to see his son. Got a ride in a Leopard tank - think Torque.
From there thru Banff and out to Vancouver.
Back thru Idaho (Road to the Sun), and a wiggly path back to the Shwa.
31 days and 17K - we were 71 + 73 at he time.
Bucket list includes Pacific Coast from Mexico to Vancouver - nest time.
 
Most of my rides are solo. Longest one was with my son in 2015.
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Solo to the west coast in 2018 age 70 and likely the last big bucket trip
Lots and lots of US rides including 100,000 km on Burgman 650s and maybe the same on Vstrom 650s...most solo.Not much interested in group rides.
One riding companion is good, especially with comms so can chat.
 
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ToSlow said:
I see a few putting on miles, out of the group who’s ridden these trips solo?
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In 2010, I rode down to the Vintage Bike Fest at Barber Museum in Alabama by myself and then hopped over to Mississippi to ride the Natchez Trace. That was a pretty cool trip because I camped everywhere in free campgrounds, stopped a fair bit and met a lot of people, simply because I was by myself.

My ride out to BC in 2020 was by myself, but since that was during the height of Covid, I met no one.

Also did a solo moto camping trip to Maine in 2014 and then headed south to the Smokies.

And a couple other trips down to the Smokies by myself - one to explore the paved twisties and another to explore the forest roads.
 
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Most satisfying: I've always wanted to see Mount Rushmore and did the trip in 2008 via Ohio and the midwest, coming back through Manitoba and visiting relatives. When I stopped at my uncle's place in Brandon I was tired of riding and thought "If someone would ship the bike back I'd bus to Winnipeg and fly home" A days rest cured that. A week later a guy on the bus got his head cut off by a psycho at Portage la Prairie.

Longest Day: Another trip was to Eureka Springs Arkansas for a rally. Awesome place. I went early and went as far south as Vicksburg Mississippi. From there I headed north and road through pouring rain to Eureka Springs.

After the rally I got sidetracked so I could say I rode part of Route 66 and only got as far as Rolla Missouri. Rolla to home was just a bit short of an iron butt.
 
MacDoc said:
Most of my rides are solo. Longest one was with my son in 2015.
View attachment 70632
Solo to the west coast in 2018 age 70 and likely the last big bucket trip
Lots and lots of US rides including 100,000 km on Burgman 650s and maybe the same on Vstrom 650s...most solo.Not much interested in group rides.
One riding companion is good, especially with comms so can chat.
Click to expand...
This is what I'm hoping for, both my sons know how to ride (dirt bikes), anxiously waiting for one of them to get a street bike, do some trips.
 
Yeah my son started on dirt bikes at MotoPort when he was 14. Everyone should ride dirt when they start. Kenz was a rather timid lad ...Type one diabetic. The change in confidence over that first year of riding was astonishing....worth the long hours driving him to Chatsworth and back.
One note ....the kids like sport bikes but doing long trips together often results in very sore backs.
Kenz learned the hard way on our first long trip to Quebec on his SV650s. His last bike - the 2013 FZ8 - was more upright and he had no issue with reasonable distances day after day.
 
KenC said:
This is what I'm hoping for, both my sons know how to ride (dirt bikes), anxiously waiting for one of them to get a street bike, do some trips.
Click to expand...
I bought my kids dirt bikes hoping they would one day want to ride street. They like dirt biking but very carefully - not a risky bone in their bodies. They have no interest in riding street. I wonder if there was a mixup at the hospital.
 
MacDoc said:
Yeah my son started on dirt bikes at MotoPort when he was 14. Everyone should ride dirt when they start. Kenz was a rather timid lad ...Type one diabetic. The change in confidence over that first year of riding was astonishing....worth the long hours driving him to Chatsworth and back.
One note ....the kids like sport bikes but doing long trips together often results in very sore backs.
Kenz learned the hard way on our first long trip to Quebec on his SV650s. His last bike - the 2013 FZ8 - was more upright and he had no issue with reasonable distances day after day.
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My 3 kids learned on 3.5 hp mini bikes we had at the cottage. They could ride the snot out of those bikes by age 10.

My oldest rode an e-bike for years, as did my daughter. At 20 both quit, too risky. My middle guy continued, but is busy working on building a career and family - no time to ride. We get out together occasionally for a day ride.

This summer my oldest got enamoured with my QT 50 and got his M1, might be a spark there.
 
I’ll be doing an 1500 mile run in 36hrs starting 6am tomorrow. Wish it was on my bike, but we’re going by car. .
 
Riding my own bike - Summer 1990. I took 5 weeks off and rode to BC then down the west coast to Los Angeles and back home through Utah and Colorado, along with a riding buddy who was a classmate in university (this trip was at the end of our last co-op work term before graduation). 19 000 km total. I did this on my 1987 Kawasaki Ninja 750.
 
ToSlow said:
I see a few putting on miles, out of the group who’s ridden these trips solo?
Click to expand...
Yup. Almost all my long rides have been solo.

I like solo, everyone in the group is always on the same page.
 
Mad Mike said:
Yup. Almost all my long rides have been solo.

I like solo, everyone in the group is always on the same page.
Click to expand...
I like solo as well. I get up when I want, eat what I want when I want and about lunch time look at a map and decide where I want to spend the night. Call in a reservation. Repeat
 
Mad Mike said:
I like solo, everyone in the group is always on the same page.
Click to expand...

That's a good way to look at it... Ride as long as YOU want to.
Stop when and where YOU want to.
No drawn out discussion on where/what to eat/where to stay...

All that and... you can be that mysterious stranger that blows into/out of town...
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