Mark H
New member
Hi all,
First off I want to say hello to everyone and then to say thank you to the team at BMW MOA for allowing us to join and indeed being so inviting to foreigners.
This organisation and the associated forum, web site and general community is fantastic. To have this made available to foreigners is much appreciated.
My wife and I live in Sydney Australia, and are planning our "big trip" to the US and Canada in May/June next year.
35 days and 11,200 km (7,000 miles or so) through 2 countries, 9 states/provinces, overnight stays in 35 cities/towns and countless little towns, pit stops and characterful moments along the way.
We are shipping our bikes to the US from Australia (2012 model F800R and R1200R). Much nicer to ride our own bikes and it will cost less in total than hiring for that period. It's not easy but it's not that difficult either and as I say, we like riding our bikes, set up the way we like them.
We chose a route that would give us variety, challenging roads (where possible), overnight stays in cities and towns that matched our day stage limits/miles. So it's Long Beach California to the south, almost to Billings Montana to the east, Jasper Alberta to the north, Tofino BC to the West and then hug the coast most of the way until we're back down to Long Beach. A short day may be 300 km and a long day 500 km. Between 3 and 6 hours of "bum on bike" time each day with two or three layover days if needed (but also as a buffer if required). Some stops were a case of "that's as far as we can go today" and others were "really want to stop here". We started by mapping out a rough route, then added some "must ride this road" sections and finally played connect the dots.
This has been three years in the planning with a couple of false starts - life conspiring against us.
But now we are bursting at the seams with excitement to get into your backyard and play on our bikes for 5 weeks.
With the background support offered by BMW MOA and its Roadside Assistance (not that our BMW's are going to have any problems and the collective knowledge of all of the forum members, we feel like we're in good company.
If anyone is interested in a more detailed description of the route, I'm happy to share my Google Maps in the appropriate part of the forum - and certainly if anyone had comments or suggestions I'm always happy to get local knowledge input.
Anyway - Thanks again for letting us join BMW MOA and I look forward to reading more on the site and the forum.
Regards
Mark
First off I want to say hello to everyone and then to say thank you to the team at BMW MOA for allowing us to join and indeed being so inviting to foreigners.
This organisation and the associated forum, web site and general community is fantastic. To have this made available to foreigners is much appreciated.
My wife and I live in Sydney Australia, and are planning our "big trip" to the US and Canada in May/June next year.
35 days and 11,200 km (7,000 miles or so) through 2 countries, 9 states/provinces, overnight stays in 35 cities/towns and countless little towns, pit stops and characterful moments along the way.
We are shipping our bikes to the US from Australia (2012 model F800R and R1200R). Much nicer to ride our own bikes and it will cost less in total than hiring for that period. It's not easy but it's not that difficult either and as I say, we like riding our bikes, set up the way we like them.
We chose a route that would give us variety, challenging roads (where possible), overnight stays in cities and towns that matched our day stage limits/miles. So it's Long Beach California to the south, almost to Billings Montana to the east, Jasper Alberta to the north, Tofino BC to the West and then hug the coast most of the way until we're back down to Long Beach. A short day may be 300 km and a long day 500 km. Between 3 and 6 hours of "bum on bike" time each day with two or three layover days if needed (but also as a buffer if required). Some stops were a case of "that's as far as we can go today" and others were "really want to stop here". We started by mapping out a rough route, then added some "must ride this road" sections and finally played connect the dots.
This has been three years in the planning with a couple of false starts - life conspiring against us.
But now we are bursting at the seams with excitement to get into your backyard and play on our bikes for 5 weeks.
With the background support offered by BMW MOA and its Roadside Assistance (not that our BMW's are going to have any problems and the collective knowledge of all of the forum members, we feel like we're in good company.
If anyone is interested in a more detailed description of the route, I'm happy to share my Google Maps in the appropriate part of the forum - and certainly if anyone had comments or suggestions I'm always happy to get local knowledge input.
Anyway - Thanks again for letting us join BMW MOA and I look forward to reading more on the site and the forum.
Regards
Mark