Riding Cross Country

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GregoXB

GregoXB

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Feb 1, 2012
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Leaving from NYC 8/13 and traveling 4,200 miles over the course of 2+ Weeks. Big highlights are going to be Deal's Gap, Beartooth Road, and Going-to-the-Sun Road. I'll be traveling through:

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon

I am taking a spare belt, fuses, tire plug kit, leather man tool, and a tool kit.
Doing an oil change prior to embarking.
Will be using a tail bag with rain gear and some warmer items. Will be stopping at Walmarts for underwear refills.
Going to touch base with my insurance company to see if I can get some kind of road side help just in case.
Going to have the motorcycle delivered back from MotoCorsa Ducati in Portland and fly back.
Probably going to invest in a GPS, or I might use my phone in a water proof case.

Any input and advice from experienced long distance Buell riders is appreciated.

-Greg
 
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Awesome!! What will you be riding? camping? hoteling? Dirt or 2 lane? I will also be out riding my STT for 2-3 weeks at the end of August from Los Angeles up for the eclipse in Idaho and back down the west part of America.

Sounds like you have the right attitude already Grego:up:

Travel LIGHT, talk to strangers, look around, stay the heck off any highways, and if you find yourself in a rush to finish.... SLOW DOWN stop for a day and just chill.

The phone GPS is totally all you need (the Garmin app is pretty awesome and works without a signal as an option) Get a quality mount for you phone so you can see it, Get a quality headset like a Sena 20 and it's worth every single penny.
Your M/C insurance co probably has a roadside assist program for the cheapest $

I would suggest at least a tank bag as well as the tail bag. The good ones will have a 3l water bladder you can start every morning loading it with ice and have cool water all day. A literal life saver, don't mess around it's hot this summer and even just the wind will dehydrate you before you know it. Drink a whole bottle of water at EVERY 120-ish mile gas stop, have a small snack too (Clif bar, banana, whatever). A big tank bag is also very comfortable to lay your chest on and get out of the wind for awhile. Get cruise control! Even a cheap e-bay thing, them throttle springs are stiff after 6 hours:(

Good apps are *these are all free:
AirBnB for cool places to stay that aren't hotels or camping
VRBO same^
UrbanDaddy for cool entertainment in a city if you find yourself in one (I hope not...)
Crawler for local breweries (I know, I know... Cooter likes his beer :very_drunk:)
HotelTonight for easy, last minute hotel res.
Go Ranger! for national parks and camping.
Good Sam for camping
Scenic for windy roads
Eat.Sleep.Ride. for community, windy roads, and help
inRoute for windy roads
myRadar for instant access to national weather patterns and to avoid rain storms

Learn how to use them before you go!
 
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I am riding the XB12Ss, 2 lane, hotels.... I have camping gear but I do not want to carry too much and the other riders do not have camping gear.

Thank you for the advice Cooter.... I am definitely going to get a tank bag with a water bladder.... solid advice

I am picking up a new cell phone today, top of the line as well a new provider, Verizon.... I will install those apps I can see myself using all of those.

We may cross paths in Idaho.... If I am leaving the 13th, I should be in Idaho around the 25-26th.... Where in Idaho will the eclipse be visible from?
 
That would be too cool! The eclipse is on the 21st and I'll be in Rigby, ID to watch it. Meeting a fellow Bueller and then slowly 120-150miles at a time going west on the curviest roads I can find, so I should be around! I have a buddy to see in Naampa, then the Colombia River Gorge, St. Helens, and to my moms place in Lake Oswego, OR.

Cool map of the eclipse:
nasa_eclipse_map.jpg
 
I've done a coast to coast ride twice. Once solo, once with a friend. I wrote a thread called "Buelling across America" about my travels on this forum. I got a lot of great advise from board members before and during my ride. I rode my Ulysses.
As for traveling with spare parts like a belt i decided to leave those at home in a specified place known to a close friend or relative so that if I needed a big part like a belt I could have it overnighted to a place that I would need it. Phone gps a must. Throttle lock a limb saver. Wallmarts are everywhere if you forget something.
Traveling coast to coast for me was one of the most liberating and freedom fulfilling events in my life. Have a great time and good on ya.
 
Oh! I forgot about #2. Ear protection for SURE. It's amazing how much less tired you are at the end of the day with proper hearing protection. Personally I forgo the in-helmet speakers (that need to be cranked to the max) for a pair of Sure 215 low profile well fitting earbuds that plug right into the Sena 20 at either half the volume, or just off.

And sunblock the top of your wrists, nose, cheeks, and back of your neck. Thanks Mom! haha
 
I just did a 4000+ mile trip to Wyoming and back a month or two ago.

I used my phone to navigate. What I do when it rains is put the phone in my tank bag and listen to directions on earbuds. Or just wing it and get lost.
The 'Here' app in the Play store is better than the stock Google Maps.
There's also an app called Kurviger that prefers curvy roads, for when you get into the fun parts of the country.

When you get into Wyoming and Montana remember to stop for gas every chance you get, even if you've only gone 50 miles. It may be 100 miles to the next one.
Get a drink at every gas station. It slows you down and makes you sit there a while longer so you are more likely to follow through on things like checking tire temps, seeing WTF that rattling noise was down by the oil cooler, et cetera.

Also, stuff a spare motorcycle key, an extra credit card, and some cash somewhere like the lining of your boot or jacket in a ziploc bag.
In the Midwest and Mountains the little motels are a great deal, especially the kickass ones where you get an individual log cabin.
I didn't pay more than $60 for a room on my trip except the one time I stayed at a Super 8 like a sucker.

It still gets a bit cold up in the passes, I'd plan out your day so that you're not going through them early in the morning or late in the evening.
You also don't want the sun in your face while you're trying to navigate switchbacks.

Zip ties, a folded up length of duct tape, and maybe a tightly wrapped length of wire don't take up much room and might save your butt.

If you've just changed your belt, I wouldn't bother bringing the old one as a spare. It takes up a lot of room and there's not much that will break a brand new belt.

Check your clutch cable for fraying at the end where it connects to the lever.
Mine was frayed down to 2 remaining strands when I proactively replaced it before the trip.

[edit]

BubblerGPS and Spotwalla are great by the way.

Here's my trip.

https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=14e9559494dbc9ff85&hoursPast=0&showAll=yes

Two roads I'd love to ride again are the Chief Joseph Pass in NW Wyoming and the highway that goes east to west through the Bighorn National Forest.
Really great curves and amazing views.
 
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I made it as far as Tennessee (Tail of the Dragon) before my stator died. The stator had been giving me warnings a full 2 years in advance because I had to swap out the battery at a rate that was once a year for about 2 consecutive years. I brushed it off as cold weather storage combined with a misunderstanding that Buells "like to eat batteries" combined with the fact the Buell had never let me down. I am sure some of the members on this forum would have spotted the problem long before it became a serious issue but, being a novice, I had to find out the hard way. First time the battery died, I was on the Blue Ridge Highway. Luckily I had purchased AMA road side assistance and they sent a tow truck that got me to a Harley dealer.

Harley dealer tested the voltage regulator, which was fine, but they did not test the stator, nor did I think to have them test it as, again, I am a novice. They should have really known to test the stator though because it is essentially the same set up as any Harley. Odds are the tech had never worked on a Buell and had no idea, but I am still going to give Harley a strike because every bike has a friggin' stator. Got a new battery and went on my merry way. Made it 300+ miles or so, but the stator, at this point, was not charging the battery at all. Made it to the hotel for the night and the battery lost charge right as I pulled into the parking lot.

I was rescued by a fellow Bueller off of Facebook who was only 10 minutes from my hotel (shout out to Jason). Showed up in his pick up truck and let me keep my bike in his garage, on his PitBull stands, while Lance from St. Paul overnighted me parts (not cheap, but I would not expect it to be). He got me up and running and I was able to ride home, decided not to continue to Portland considering what had just happened. Of course my shifter pedal pivot bolt fell off on the NJ state turnpike on the way back because, in our haste, we forgot to cinch it up properly. 5th geared it back to Brooklyn with a great deal of clutch work (my left forearm nearly dissolved from lactic acid build up because I hit typical traffic on the BQE.) Precision Auto Engineering sent me a new pivot bolt and only required me to pay for shipping, shout out to them.

Anyways, I made it back to Brooklyn in one piece and have since taken a 700 mile ride to Vermont and a 600 mile tour through the Catskills. It's really the ONLY major problem the Buell has ever given me, so I still have a great deal of confidence in the machine. After I change my wheel bearings and tires next season, I would not have hesitation to attempt another cross country ride this summer.

The Long is tremendously comfortable in terms of sitting position and, IMO, is acceptable for the task of riding cross country. It lacks a front fairing, but a tank bag helps tremendously in decreasing wind gusts, thanks Cooter. At first I did not know how to mount it, but then I realized I can just put the front 2 air box bolts right through the straps! Tail bag on the rear was cinched up to the passenger foot peg brackets, providing ample luggage capacity. Gas mileage was phenomenal, and the range, with the 4.4 gal tank, was identical to my friends BMW R Nine T. The handling, of course was an absolute dream, and once the roads got twisty the only thought that went through my head is, "Damn I am glad I'm on a Buell and not some frumpy bagger."

All your advice was solid and I learned a few things along the way and made a new friend. I can definitely do a stator swap on an XB without hesitation...lol

Thanks. Can't wait till next year for part 2. This time, we are going to the Pacific.
 
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Great trip Grego! I'm sure we'd love to hear more about it and live vicariously through this dang computer screen with stories of wild nights, risky adventures, and wildlife encounters. Go ahead and lie about it, no one will know:cool:

I'm in Cali! I can totally show you around when you get here:angel:
 
lol... the cross country will need to get done... I cannot be defeated! If I ever get to Cali I will say hello!

When it gets closer next year I'll drop you a line, njloco. It's hard coordinating a group to put their lives on hold for 2+ weeks. If not cross country then you should join the annual Buell group ride to the Catskills. Usually happens around the end of May. Its called "ADK Buell riders." They are on facebook.
 
FB, that's probably why I missed it, I don't do FB, we'll see.
We should all head out west to Cali, once a year ! If I ever retire, I might just start doing that. I like California, it's the people I can do with out, with a few exceptions, of course !
 
njloco said:
FB, that's probably why I missed it, I don't do FB, we'll see.
We should all head out west to Cali, once a year ! If I ever retire, I might just start doing that. I like California, it's the people I can do with out, with a few exceptions, of course !
Click to expand...

Do a "super" group ride. Just pick up every buellxb'er across the country as ya go! And we can all crash @ cooter's place!
 
The S in the back isn't mine. Some kid dropped it off for me to fix (for free:upset:) told him it needs a battery and he disappeared for 4 months now:confused: Nice bike though, solo seat!

The Purple bike is Barney. A 1971 CB500. Kickstarts and spokes FTW;) She runs really well, but needs a front brake caliper (I've heard those are important?). I've got her stripped down for local puttering and parts store runs, a constant Café fiddling project. We all need one of those!

I'm down for putting up a Bueller or 2 if the come this way! I have been graced with the generosity of others many times, so I'm happy to re-pay that Karma.
 

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