Adventure road trip across America.

Similar as above available for cross Canada too , not all of the TransCanada Trail open for motor vehicles though , some portions only ...

I suspect such ‘no tarmac’ routes over such a distance would be best attempted on a full blown adventure bike or modified lightweight adventure bike. There is only so much that you can do with a mainly road going bike, regardless of tyre type. Don’t want a free flowing sight seeing adventure to turn into a nightmare that you need to rest up from when you get home!

If we were co-located Scott, you could gladly borrow one of these. It’s a while since either has been on a real adventure!

What’s the Kwacker?

Not a Kwacker is the only accurate response to that question! It's a Suzuki DRZ400E, which Kawasaki built under licence in 03-04. Yeh, I know, go figure! Awesome machine that you can still buy today in essentially the same configuration. Missing a 6th gear and never going to win any races, but the thing is a tractor. Never met a hill this thing wouldn't tractor up! Almost feels like cheating!

Tis a true thing that everyone seems to rave ‘bout those DRZ400s !

Scott, we can probably all say we either have or want to have a cross country adventure on two wheels. I've not done it yet either. In thinking about your plans/ideas, it seems like a street ride on Route 66 would be one kind of ride, and a Dual Sport ride on something like the Trans-American Trail would be another type of ride that would combine to satisfy your plans. My concern about your planned hybrid ride would be getting off the beaten path alone and risk having a breakdown in an area without cell service (perhaps take a sat-phone), or having the road turn into a challenge for a street bike/scrambler. I'm not big on solo riding into desolate areas or on unmarked roads away from civilization.

The choice of a Scrambler type bike and roughing it might seem like fun for a while, but I wouldn't relish it for the entire journey. That's just me though. I'd probably look at it as two different trips with two different bikes - Route 66 with a touring or street bike of your liking, and Trans-American Trail with a real Dual-Sport bike? Regardless, I'm a little jealous and probably should volunteer to accompany you on part of it.

Guess I’m a little odd , much prefer solo rides by a large margin , when I did my 16 day CC ride , I talked to folks when I needed too or when approached buy the many well wishers I met , as far as breakdown fear , never gave it a moments thought .... fear can ruin a lot of magical days and moments , I prepped my bike and packed a shop manual , other than a ECU failure I was confident I would get home .... no mechanical issues at all , that being said I did stick to lightly travelled secondary roads , not back wood adventure trails ...

Craig said:

Guess I’m a little odd , much prefer solo rides by a large margin

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I don’t think that’s odd. I quite like travelling alone too at times. I enjoy the more refined level of conversation it brings...

Still end up arguing though...

Traveling alone is fine with me .
I have travelled across the country many times and enjoy it.
i travel when I want , stop when I want , listen to music when I want , stop for a nap when I want . I mostly like driving at night .
I do a lot desert bike rides .
I do my annual Death Valley night ride for last 18 years.
full moon night , hot weather , leave around midnight , ride 320 miles round trip , take a lunch , takes about 6 hours .
most people I know don’t like my long rides , so I go alone.
maybe something wrong with me ....

In 1976 my buddy and I took off on a three and a half month cross country trip. We left from New Jersey and eventually wound up in California. Saw a lot of the US and parts of Canada. We were on Vancouver Island for the 4th of July 1976 fireworks (if that makes sense). I believe the trip total was over 18,000 miles. My buddy was on a brand new T-160 Trident and I was on a 1975 CB500T. Greatest experience I ever had. I hope to retire soon so I just got an FJR 1300 and my son got a Ducati Multistrada. The plan is to do some medium distance trips and spend some quality time together.
So to answer your question Voodo, absolutely do it!
Pete

I have always been crazy, but never stupid, ..... except once.

On one of my mc adventures, I rode about 15 miles into the desert in the Big Bend country of Texas, which is about the most hostile, and uninhabited area of the US.

I left the National Park campground early in the morning. The temperature was cool, the campground being at elevation, and rode down to the desert floor looking for some adobe ruins 15 miles off the pavement. When I pressed the kill button and the engine died, I realized 1) I had told no one where I was going, 2) it was stifling hot, 3) I had taken with me no water, 4) My Atlas was a one kick starter 99 out of 100 times ... the remaining one time required 20 to 30 minutes of kicking, and 5) if the next start happened to be #100, I was a dead man.

My head was swooning by the time I made it back to the pavement.

Don't do anything stupid on your adventure.

Slick

Knucles said:

Traveling alone is fine with me ...
maybe something wrong with me ....

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Probably, as with most of us.

texasSlick said:

I have always been crazy, but never stupid, ..... except once.

On one of my mc adventures, I rode about 15 miles into the desert in the Big Bend country of Texas, which is about the most hostile, and uninhabited area of the US.

I left the National Park campground early in the morning. The temperature was cool, the campground being at elevation, and rode down to the desert floor looking for some adobe ruins 15 miles off the pavement. When I pressed the kill button and the engine died, I realized 1) I had told no one where I was going, 2) it was stifling hot, 3) I had taken with me no water, 4) My Atlas was a one kick starter 99 out of 100 times ... the remaining one time required 20 to 30 minutes of kicking, and 5) if the next start happened to be #100, I was a dead man.

My head was swooning by the time I made it back to the pavement.

Don't do anything stupid on your adventure.

Slick

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I can’t count the times I been stupid even if I use all fingers and toes .....

Anything ?



Don't get caught up in all that scrambler bike stuff, road bikes go most anywhere even with clip on's and fairings.

Time Warp said:

Anything ?

View attachment 21949

Don't get caught up in all that scrambler bike stuff, road bikes go most anywhere even with clip on's and fairings.

View attachment 21950M

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Mmmmmmmmmmm, would have to respectfully disagree with you there mate. Choose your bike, route and tyres relatively carefully if you want to enjoy the adventure. This guy turned up for a one day adventure ride recently, as did I - his bike did’nt look shiny and new like that when he’d finished! Rough estimate, 2-3k of damage and that was just cosmetics and mirrors etc.

There is a big difference between a road bike on a gravel road and being dim. (Using unsuitable tyres in wet conditions and looking at your engine oil on the ground)

Even my 242 kg plus Africa Twin will do gnarly tracks on Trail Attacks if it is dry.
Horses for courses.

Heck, I once rode my Atlas across a lake to an island. You can't get anymore "off road" than that!

Slick

Here is a link to how I did it (post #2)