Are you thinking of planning a long motorcycle trip? Are you unsure where to start? My boyfriend, Cliff and I recently did a cross-country trip from Annapolis, MD, to Seattle, WA, and learned a few things. These are the top ten tips you should know if you are planning a long motorcycle trip.
If you are interested in our itinerary, I did a 4-part series that starts here. Also, check out our Google Map for our detailed route.
1. Rent Something Comfortable
First off, yes, you can rent a motorcycle. We were shocked by how many people didn’t know this. We did a one-way rental. EagleRider is known as a Harley-Davidson rental company but also rents other brands. We rented a Honda Goldwing. It was comfortable and rode smoothly.
2. Avoid Highways
We did this trip to see the country. Not only is the highway straight and boring, but you miss all the small towns. There were sections where the back roads followed the highway, and we would jump on it, but we avoided this for most of our trip.
3. Avoid Traffic
We tried to avoid major cities, but that wasn’t always possible. Pay attention to your timing. Avoid going through a town during rush hour. We had this “great” idea to drive through downtown Washington, DC, to check out the capital, but we didn’t consider all the traffic. Sitting in stop-and-go traffic for an hour was not how we planned to start our trip.
4. Try To Stay at 200 miles/day
Our goal was 200 miles/day. We had to go over that amount a few times to keep our schedule, and we agreed that every time was too long. Also, remember we stayed away from the highway as much as possible, so 200 miles was about 4.5 hours of sitting on the bike.
5. Take Days Off
This was hard because we only had so much time away from real life, and taking breaks would make some days longer than our 200-mile goal. My boyfriend was initially against this, but he was grateful after the trip. If you go-go every day, you don’t have time to sit and fully absorb what you are doing. It also gives you a day to catch up on laundry.
6. Be Prepared for Changing Elements
We were so lucky when it came to rain. We put rain gear on twice, mainly for warmth. But the weather was different from what I expected. I was nervous I would be hot, but it was cold for most of the trip. It was also very windy. Thankfully, America loves Walmart. We hit up a Walmart in every state.
7. Be Flexible
I booked our accommodations in advance, but they could be canceled within a day or two before arrival. We also planned two buffer days at the end of our trip. We were thankful for this when we had mechanical issues and needed an extra day to get everything sorted.
8. Use Compression Bags.
I packed in the exact restrictions Cliff told me, but when he picked up the motorcycle, it did not have as much storage as others he had seen. We quickly had to rethink our packing. Our savior was travel compression bags. We could squeeze the air out, and our stuff took up half the room.
9. Break up the day.
Stopping every hour or so was especially important as a passenger. I love quirky roadside attractions, so this was a perfect excuse to pull over. It also took us to towns and places we would probably never have seen otherwise. For ideas, check out Atlas Obscura and Roadside America.
10. Stop making excuses.
Maybe you have dreamed of riding cross-country or just taking a weekend exploring the Black Hills in SD, but keep making excuses. The first step is to say yes. My boyfriend had talked about wanting to do this trip someday but I felt like life was in the way. He asked me what I wanted to do for my 40th birthday, and I shocked him when I told him I wanted to do a cross-country motorcycle trip. It took three conversations before he realized I was serious. I am not a motorcycle chick, but I love adventure. After that, things just fell into place.
