Modern Vespa

UPDATE: Here is a link to our SPOT GPS if you would like to track us during our ride over the next 10 days. CLICK HERE

I am planning my first long ride with my wife and I wanted some suggestions from the locals on where to go and what to do and see while we are on the road. Here are the places we are thinking about staying. San Francisco or further north our first night. Portland, Oregon our second night, Coeur D'alene, ID on the third night. Banff, Alberta, Canada our forth night and 5th night, Idaho Falls on our 6th and 7th night (friend), St George our 8th night and home on our 9th night.

Here is a link to our trip and I would love any feedback and especially from those of you who ride 2-up. On a solo trip you can do 1000 mile days but when you have your loved one on the back 643 miles on the first day is about 100-200 miles more than I wanted but it left us with more time in Portland, OR.

Day 1 Irvine - Mt Shasta 643 miles 9 hours 41 mins

Day 2 Mt Shasta - Portland 359 miles 5 hours 42 mins

Day 3 Portland - Coeur D'Alene 384 miles 6 hours 8 mins

Day 4 Coeur D'Alene - Banff, AB Canada 332 miles 6 hours 58 mins

Day 5 Enjoy Lake Louise in Banff, AB (Rest) 0 Miles

Day 6 Banff, AB Canada - Kalispell, MT 338 miles 6 hours 36 mins

Day 7 Kalispell, MT - Idaho Falls 418 miles 6 hours 20 mins

Day 8 Idaho Falls - St George, UT 513 miles 7 hours 15 mins

Day 9 St George, UT - Irvine 384 miles 5 hours 48 mins

wow that first day could really set the tone for the whole trip, might be a little long unless your an experienced 2-up tourer. onyour time did you take in considerations for breaks and gas and lunch and picture taking and , and ,and.

sounds like a good trip just ensure your safe and be flexible on schedules

i'm glad i'm never getting married

I have done many miles riding 2-up but nothing this long with my wife. I tend to leave very early 5 am and no later than 6 am so we can arrive and rest before we get out and enjoy the city. I had a trip like this about 6 weeks ago with 10 guys but I think this is going to be much more fun.



I just bought a SPOT GPS tracker in the event of an accident where no one can see us. This will allow me to to send a link to friends and family so they can watch us on Google maps each day to see where we are and if we are OK. At the end of each day you push a button that sends an email to your friends that says your OK. In the event of an accident you can press the help button and they will dispatch emergency services. I also changed the light over to a Xenon for better night driving since we could be leaving very searly some mornings on the longer days.

The ride is the trip so as long as we have a little bit of time in the afternoon and night each day we both agree it will be perfect. Does anyone have any favorite places to stay or any suggestions for any of the places we will be stopping in?

I planned a long ride by the wife, but then she got a headache....

send us the link here so we all can watch your progress

That is a great idea, but I would need to send it to someone's email. Basically the way it works is you post where you are going and with whom. You build your database of people you want to have notified on their website by email each day and you let them know who they would need to contact in the event of an emergency. We are not leaving for 2 more weeks but there is work to do everyday to make sure we are ready before we leave. I am putting new tires on the bike and I will have another set when I return just in case. I was going to get a Zumo 550 but they are being discontinued everywhere and I did not want to buy a 2.5 year old GPS for more than $500.

Here is some information on a group buy in progress if anyne were interested. The price is $135, which includes all transaction fees as well as shipping via USPS Priority Mail. You will also receive a 50% off coupon for the first year of the SPOTcasting service (normally $49). You can order it directly from the web site at http://www.MyLiveTracks.com/buy.shtml Just click on the "Buy Now" button, then follow the prompts for the checkout process. If you have PayPal, just log in, of not, you can still pay with a credit card.

If you go fast enough, it will be noisy and you won't be able to talk to each other for the entire time. Go fast, my friend.

Wow. Good luck.
From Coeur D'Alene I'm not sure the way you'll go to Banff. I assume you'll take the 95/93 up.

I wish you would go a bit further west and visit Sean at the world famous Scoot Cafe in TrailBC, a destination vacation for any scooterist.

I recommend the Hot Springs Pool in Radium compared to all the others along the way and in the area.

From LakeLouise to Banff has a nice little Bow Valley Parkway running alongside the hwy with nobody on it and full of twisties. Watch out for elk, deer and bear. They can dart out, so be careful.[/quote]

I was really worried about gas stations or lack thereof during that portion of the trip? I will need to carry at least an extra 2 gallons of gas. We are going to take US-95 to US-93 TO HWY-1 E/Trans Canada HWY E. Do you know if there will be enough gas along this route? We will have a Motocomm set up so we will be able to talk to one another. The whole set up brand new with shipping and tax was under $200. It was a bit of a pain to get the set up into the helmets.

Even riding WOT on motorways you won't get much better than an average of 50mph when fuel/food/drink/pee stops are factored in. Your 643 miles on the first day will take more like 13-14 hours, and you will both be knackered at the end. But happy.

The first day is really key to making the other days a little shorter and nicer. When I was mapping a location day 1 if I stayed in San Francisco, day 2 would have been a nightmare to arrive in Portland and Emily wanted more time in Portland so we had to find a location further up in northern California on day 1. If we leave at 5am then we should arrive around 6pm. The further north you go here in the states the prettier it gets.

I agree that you may be a little optimistic on making it to Mt. Shasta the first day. That will be one long day. It will be much longer than 10 hours.

If you can squeeze it in you really should go through Glacier National Park. It's very close to Kalispell. Going to the Sun Road is fantastic, crossing the Continental Divide.

I did that ride last year with some friends and your right if I can find time to get over there I will add the Sun Road loop to the ride. One of the guys in last years ride did not have a passport and he could not get into Cadada. I think he could have got in but he would have needed to produce a birth certificate or passport to get back into the US. I road from east Montana (nothing) to west and there were some great high speed twisty roads. I remember stopping for gas in east Montana and it looked like there must have been indian reservations in the area because all of the cars were old and had G U N racks and no one made me feel very welcome. I was happy to get out of that area.

GOOD LUCK, THAT FIRST DAY IS WAY TO LONG 2 UP ON A SCOOTER, 300 MILES IN ON DAY ON GREAT ROADS, IS A FULL DAY. HOPE ALL GOES WELL....ZOOM ZOOM

just make sure to get alot of rest on the way, take your time and enjoy the fun. just let some one know your progress day to day basis. bring along a GPS would be very helpful. have fun and be safe.

The best advice I could give you is........
Install a sidecar and take my wife with you....
Just let the two girls talk in the back and you just cruise your little heart out..

Wow! Those are long long days ... even if you were driving, those are still long days. 2-up, and for that many days in a row ... I dunno ...

And those mileage distances, I assume you are counting freeway miles which means riding on I5 northbound and I15 southbound and a bunch of others. Not much fun for those couple thousand miles perhaps?

I would think around 300 miles a day would be doable and still fun. The hauling around for 600 miles seems like not fun and overly ambitious. Are you going on a really long race or a vacation? If you don't have enough time to go to all these places at a reasonable sightseeing, spend time together pace, then why are you going? This seems like a different kind of trip than a boys motor trip. There is a lot to see and do in all of the areas you are planning on flying by. I would not feel like going out at all if I was stuck on the back of a bike for 14 hours a day for days on end. That is just me. (Spent some time as the wife on the back.)

+1 600 miles is a long ass day. 300 is what I call an enjoyable leg. 400 is a long day. 500 is really long. 600...dude, there better be a fire or something, bcs I'm going to be one tired-ass man.

Portland: visit stumptown coffee for dark coffee bliss. Powells books for book nirvana. Abundant yarn and dyeworks if you or your wife are into knitting. Scoot around neighborhoods east of downtown for some fun funkies and nice little restaurants. If you like science, visit OMSI.

Banff: just ask any of the friendly folks at the ranger desk for the must sees. Can't really go wrong there, its all pretty awesome. If you have time, Waterton park is fabulous too

In your travels thru utah if you can swing it stop by Gobblin Valley for some super cool geologic stuff. Granted, most of south utah is splendid if you are into that kinda thing.

It seems you are figuring on averaging about 65 MPH riding 2 up and with luggage. Considering fuel and food stops I think your calculations are way too optimistic. jimc's estimates seems more reasonable. After that first planned day you wife will either have attained sainthood or will have murdered you. My butt hurts just thinking about it. Best of luck, you will see some beautiful country.

+1 You might want to rewicker it a bit. Viamichelin.com puts day 1 at 10 hrs 26 mins following the "Quickest Route".

Al

Or will have obtained sainthood by murdering you!

The first day really does seem...aggressive. It's up to you, of course, but I could see there being a strong lack of enthusiasm for leaving early on day two after surviving day one.

Also, this time of year it can get really hot in the valley - particularly up around Red Bluff and Redding - and having just returned from Motogiro America last week where we spent a day riding in the Paso Robles area where the temps hit 110 you may need to factor heat into the equation and ensure you stop often to rest and hydrate.

Best of luck!

leave a day early and chop that first day in half. too much for one day. I drive 450 miles from nor-cal to so-cal in my car , it takes 6-7 hours and I hardly stop. that's all freeway miles and i cruise at about 80mph.

to make your miles in 9 hours you'd need to average 74mph.. AVERAGE.

good luck buddy, i hope it's fun what ever happens

Friend, you are planning over 400 mi/day, 2up, in scenic territory. That will leave almost no time for enjoying anything, even the ride. That would be a lot even in a luxury car.

I've just got to weigh in and say I think you are being wildly optimistic about your drive distances and times. I'm assuming you are getting the times from a mapping program (Google maps etc) and I'll guarantee you you'll never make times as good as that. Especially this time of year with all the RVs and holidayers crawling along the roads. My wife and I drove in May from Vancouver down to and past Big Sur and then to Yosemite, back to SF and then home (in a car) and it's a l o o o n g way (we took 26 days total). If you run into road work or an accident, your schedule is shot in no time at all. You need to build at least a couple of extra days in there if not more.

I'd also venture to say that you're expecting an awful lot from your dear wife. It's one thing to be driving and have your concentration fully occupied and quite another to sit as a passenger for those distances and times. It's not like you can move about or nap to pass the time.

I wish you good luck and what you'll see will be incredible, but you may want to rethink your daily goals a bit.

Edit: The more I think about it, I'd recommend that you cut your expectations in half. Pick route that covers about half the distance. You'll get a lot more enjoyment out of the trip when you're not "balls to the wall" all day.

Cheers,

Simon

FWIW - for our month long tour if Italy and adjacent France, we plan on 200 km/day max! Some days 150 km.

A&A

When I was a lot younger, I used to do a lot of long distance motorcycle trips. Making your trip, two-up, on a motorcycle would be O.K. but you'd still be pretty tired at the end of each day. Doing this many miles per day on a scooter, (and two-up to boot) you're likely to be wishing that you had not made the trip by the second day.
You really should take a look at either doing no more than 200-250 miles per day and taking a shorter trip or taking an extra week to complete your original plans.
Good luck!

We do a lot of 2-up riding. I always tell people that ask me how Cathy likes the scooter or the motorcycle....that she really doesn't, but she does like me!

This is just me, but I would shorten the trip up, especially 2-up. The first day is a big deal 2-up, like someone said......... really sets the tone for the ride. 600 miles for me on my GTS, solo is over 13 hours and that's at 70mph indicated only stopping for gas and not much else.

We look at it this way, 200 to 300 miles a day for us is comfortable with maybe one 400 to 500 mile day thrown in......but we're old and slow.

I agree day 1 is brutal and I might take off Friday to cut that first day in half. I think that might be a great idea. As for the trip, for us the ride is the trip and not always the destination. The goal is to leave each morning at 5am and arrive by lunch on some of our shorter days. That leaves you the afternoon to nap, walk, eat and enjoy the sites. If at any point along the way either of us feel like it is too much we will totally change our plans and or extend the trip. Part of the reason for the rush is that she works and goes to school and this is the only week all year she can take off to do this trip.

We do not want to change the trip and do not have much room to add time so I think I am going to take the motorcycle and not the scooter. This will change our average time dramatically and will allow us to make the trip the way we want to do it. We will have more storage and I think we will make better time than a car.

Does it rain in Oregon, ID or Alberta this time of year and if so how bad can they get? I would like to take my summer jacket with inserts if it gets cold in the morning. Thank you for all of your feedback.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will see a drastic difference in temperature with altitude. Once you get up into the mountains, it will be much cooler, especially in the evenings and mornings.

Simon

how much gear are you taking, 2up for that many miles, hot ,and cool weather, rain, some clothes, that poor scoot, going 65,,, are you gonna replace your tires before you go, the back tire may not survive the trip when fully loaded at high speeds.... be lucky to get 3500 miles on the rear. make sure you bring a qt. of oil with you good chance you will burn some.. good luck

true, unless your like me and don't get tired on long journeys, i only stop for fuel. nothing else.

i ride a 200 mile round trip just to get to work and back. i stop once for fuel only and thats it. it doesnt take very long at all. it feels like half an hour.

and being 2 up all the time youll wanna be sitting at about 75 on the clock (real 70mph ish) it'll be okay. although i've hit 95 on teh clock with a passenger on the back without realising until i looked down


i dont want to know how bad your monkey butt's gona be after that many miles shifted forward on the seat cos of your passenger



take ear plugs! wind noise will cause deafness on long journeys.


that first day can be done, if your 20 years old and pumped full of relentless energy drink.

My wife and I have been doing long trips on motorcycles for a long time. I agree with everyone here that you are overly optimistic in your ability to make these miles. If you do it will probably be your last trip. After hours in the saddle you are going to be tired. When riders are tired we tend to do stupid things. This gets dangerous. The idea to leave Friday is good, and to take the motorcycle. Starting early in the day is also good, it gets you on the road in little traffic, but you have animals ,fog, cooler weather and damp roads to consider. On a bike a long day is not so bad as long as you stop frequently and hydrate with water almost every stop. Still the miles laid out are going to be very long days one after the other. Not so bad when you do a long, then a shorter day next,it gets you some relaxation time.
If you are young it is a little easier to do the miles. If you are older its about quality time. One thing I know- it will be a trip to talk about the rest of your life. You can always adjust the trip enroute. Just ride within your envelope of tolerance, ride smart, and safe. Let us know about it on your return.
Oh ,I usually take an extra headlight bulb- and turn signal bulb- tire plugger- tire pump electric- tools- a plug in trouble lamp 12v- a multi tool- extra cable ties-a side stand plate(so bike doesnt fall over)- a spare clutch cable-extra oil if not a common weight-plus more i cant think of- gps
Have fun!!!

If you can make all those miles it sounds great. I have to agree with everyone else though that it looks nearly impossible . . . or if possible, it might make one or both of you miserable by the end. If it were me, I might try to scale the trip back a bit . . . but then again it might be fun to prove everyone wrong and just do it anyway.

And as an aside, my wife can't really take more than 45-60 min on the back of the ET4 before she starts complaining because the passenger riding position just isn't nearly as comfortable.

very good advice!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the back of a GTS is stupidly uncomfortable.

I am hoping against hope that either this thread is a joke, or that you don't really like her much and don't have the heart to dump her straightforwardly.

600 plus miles two up with full gear in one day is madness. Several times I have done San Fran to Portland on the GTV solo. It is theoretically possible to do that ride in one day but not on any route except freeways and it won't be any fun for the passenger and probably not for the chauffeur either.