2007 Big Motorcycle Trip

2007 Big Motorcycle Trip

In the first week of June 2007 I went on a motorcycle trip across America. This was my biggest, most ambitious motorcycle trip of my life to date. I covered over 7000 miles in 16 days. This included a 4 day stop in Memphis TN for a regional business meeting. So I really covered the miles in 12 days. This trip passed through 23 states which included; Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Background

I had started planning this trip in November of 2006 with my good friend John who I had done other trips with in the past. John and I spent countless hours doing research on roads, places to stay, trailers to get the bikes out west. Although though there were other people interested in coming along on the trip, none could make the time commitment to go. As we approached the departure on our trip John and I were busy collecting info and preparing ourselves. With one week to go tragedy struck. John's bike was parked in his driveway. His wife was leaving for work one morning and accidentally hit his bike with her car. It was not pretty, lots of damage. Unfortunately, John found it impossible to go on the trip as he has a very old bike that is difficult to find parts for. Also John lives on Martha's Vineyard, an island accessible only by Ferry or Air. So with less than a week to go I had a decision to make. Although the trailer was still available to me it would be very expensive to pay for the gas in my truck to go all the way out west and not share the expenses with John. I had planned for vacation long in advance and was really ready for a bike trip. I had done previous trips solo in the past. Newfoundland via Nova Scotia was my longest trip solo a few years ago. So I made the decision to press on with the trip alone.

The Bike

I ride a Honda ST-1300 sport touring motorcycle. It is perfectly suited for the type of trips I like to take. It has plenty of power to cruise at blistering speeds for thousands of miles. It also is mounted on a sport bike frame that makes it handle like a sport bike on twisty mountain roads. Because it is a Honda it has incredible reliability and a vast network of dealers no matter where you are traveling.

Some of the features are:

Electric Windshield- Getting Cold, bring it up and it blocks more wind - Getting Hot, bring it down and you have all of the wind you will ever need to stay cool.

GPS with MP3 player- I will never leave on a trip without it, directions and Tunes, there is nothing better than screaming down a deserted road out west with Metalica or some other obnoxious rock band blasting in your ears.