Yippee, leave of absence to travel...

I told my Boss that I wanted 2 months leave of absence to travel, each
year. She said fine.
So I think first on the list is to ride up through California, the
Pacific highway is meant to be quite something, Marina always said I
should do it someday. All I have to do is work out what Im going to do
it on and figure out the best way to do it. I shall sell the Murderer
and the GS. I rather like the Versys or a new Bonnie. Choices,
choices...
If anyone has experience of Cali/Pacific highway?shipping wheels out
there, feel free to put your two penn'th worth in...

 

Did it in 2007, took the XJR

http://www.ytc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/USA2007/USA2007.pdf


As it is 2 months it is cheaper to fly your bike out rather than rent.

Contact James cargo for a shipping quote.

 

We did it in a car going from SF to LA, stopped overnight in Pismo beach
(don't bother, nice enough beach front but not much else), but could
easily have done it in a day. The bit from SF to Pismo is by far the
bext, although we cut the bottom corner off and took a straighter route
to LA.

Would love to do it on a bike, ditto death valley/yosemite which we
drove through on the way back from Vegas.

Easier to hire a bike surely?

 

For two months , might it be feasible to buy something over there and
re-sell at the end?

 

That's why we have Timo as "our man abroad .."

Paul.

 

Well, I lived in the LA region for 2.5 years, so I'm sure I can help
you out with info.

Route 1, Highway 1, PCH, depending on what you want to call it is a
lovely road, and should definitely be ridden, along with some of the
attached side roads (17mile drive in Monterey, the canyons at Malibu
etc).

Spending 2 months to do route 1 would be extreme overkill. You can do
Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2 days without breaking sweat. You
could extend that to a week if you saw all of the 'big' things worth
seeing (Monterey Aquarium, Hearst Castle, Muir Woods blah blah blah).

Christ, I only took 11 weeks to do 47 States, although that was pretty hectic.

For 2 months, you could do an really good "Western US" trip cover San
Diego to Vancouver and as far east as Yellowstone.

Seriously expensive for 2 months.

Not a hope of buying a vehicle, let alone getting local insurance
without a US address and US Identity, and given that you have to pay
sales tax on purchase, even on used vehicles, it probably won't be
cheap even if you find a way around the identity/address thing.

Ship a bike *well* ahead (with a reputable consolidator, no cheap fly
by nights), or fly it at the last minute if needed.

 

I loved the sign I saw along there "speed controlled by light aircraft".

I had visions of them throwing a line out with a hook on the end to drag
me to a halt.

 

Hey, we stopped there as well

We liked it, beach was great.
Spent the evening on the pier as well.

Up through the Los Padres ?

Great bike roads

Cost.
And using your own bike rocks.

Approx 1100ukp each way to fly own bike.

 

Time to find
Time to insure (can be awkward without an address)
Time to sell

Factor 7 to 14 days to sort out.

 

Ho yus....... go see some bears.

Do *not* send by sea, too many tales of no bike.
Fly bike out, sea frieght it back (about 5500ukp to sea frieght)

 

When are you thinking of going ?

 

If you use a flybynight, sure. If you use one of the big boys, it will
be where it should be, when it should be, give or take.

I hope there is a nought too many on that number. I can move an entire
40 foot container for less than that.

 

Silly question but roughly how much does it cost to hire a bike for a month?
You can hire a car for say £200 or so per week.

--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

In addition to all the useful stuff everyone else will provide, I'll just
recommend the fish and chips in Morro Bay.

 

Bad form I know, but I've just done some googling and yes, it is very much
cheaper to take your own bike

--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

Yeah, make sure you pick good shippers, a mate did the Ironbutt and when
his Pan came back all the nice extras had disappeared between him
dropping it off and picking it up.

 

It's cheaper still to borrow a local's. I had a Tiger & a DRZ to play
on last time I was over there, & it didn't cost a penny! Yahoo Groups
rock.

 

For 6 weeks/2 months? I dont think so...

 

Im just over halfway through your bike USA journal, cracking stuff
Grommit! Thanks.

 

Dec 2010/Jan 2011.