Timelines and trip planning
May. 9th, 2010 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI don't plan to rush the trip, though I can't (if I am to get the visiting done which I would like to do) dawdle much. I figure with about ten hours of riding/resting a day I can move about 600 miles per day.
Pushing, on a motorcycle, isn't really something one ought to do. If the traffic is moving, and the conditions good I might make 750, but not much more. The itinerary (as it is now) misses Chicago (I'd meant to go to Ottawa by way of Chicago, but things changed, and now I want to go to New York), and the upper west; in exchange I get to cross all of southern Canada.
As I hammer out the details, I'll post them. Right now it's 40 to Tennesee; and a week budgeted. I'll probably need not more than 5 days, but better to plan long, and arrive early, then feel rushed, and try to push. From Tennessee it's up to New York, and I will probably want to lay over in DC.
A few days, perhaps as much as a week, in New York, and then to Ottawa. New York to Ottawa looks to be one days worth of riding (about 500 miles). The TransCandada is a longer route then taking I-90, but not much longer. Google gives me 57 hours driving time, which is about four days, so (as with the trip to Tenn), I'll be budgeting a week.
Then some time in Seattle, and down to Portland then to home.
It all feels both very concrete, and a trifle nebulous.
Pushing, on a motorcycle, isn't really something one ought to do. If the traffic is moving, and the conditions good I might make 750, but not much more. The itinerary (as it is now) misses Chicago (I'd meant to go to Ottawa by way of Chicago, but things changed, and now I want to go to New York), and the upper west; in exchange I get to cross all of southern Canada.
As I hammer out the details, I'll post them. Right now it's 40 to Tennesee; and a week budgeted. I'll probably need not more than 5 days, but better to plan long, and arrive early, then feel rushed, and try to push. From Tennessee it's up to New York, and I will probably want to lay over in DC.
A few days, perhaps as much as a week, in New York, and then to Ottawa. New York to Ottawa looks to be one days worth of riding (about 500 miles). The TransCandada is a longer route then taking I-90, but not much longer. Google gives me 57 hours driving time, which is about four days, so (as with the trip to Tenn), I'll be budgeting a week.
Then some time in Seattle, and down to Portland then to home.
It all feels both very concrete, and a trifle nebulous.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 10:42 pm (UTC)Also, I took the Trans-Can over Lake Superior on my way to Waterloo, ON, and will never do that again. Would be better on a bike, of course - but still, 9 hours of "climb hill, turn right, descend hill, look at the lake, turn left, repeat" and Canadian Shield Forest. If you don't have a "must take CA HWY 1/11/17", you might want to go Ottawa-Detroit-Chicago-(Winnipeg/Regina) instead. Another option, from Ottawa, is the north highway to Thunder Bay - according to Google, it's 100 miles longer than via Chicago, but 5 hours extra, so give you some idea.
Just a warning (which I'm sure you already know): Northern Ontario is deserted in a way totally unlike Kansas. If you break down there, there isn't a farmhouse an hour or 3 down the road. If you're lucky, there's a logging camp that a truck can take you to.
And you know this, as well, but 60mph on the I-40 and 60mph on Hwy 11 in the north/Hwy 17 around the lakes are two totally different things - until you hit Thunder Bay, assume more like 45, 50. It took me 48 hours driving to do Calgary-Waterloo; the Ontario-Manitoba border was almost exactly halfway.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 11:59 pm (UTC)1) If you want good (i.e. motorcycle fun) roads, sure, the trip over the lakes will probably be lots of fun. The scenery doesn't change, but it's not straight (and you'll be getting a lot of straight the rest of the E/W trips). You just won't be averaging 60mph unless you have a speed bike and a better head for peg-dragging than I have...
2) I took my bike (years ago) up the Alaska Highway - I did 6 driving hours/day, about 300 miles. Took lots of time to relax for meals, look at the scenery, basically kicked back. I wouldn't really have wanted to do much more, on a daily basis, for a long time riding (even though I've done several 10-12 hour days in a car no problem). If you're planning on repeated 10s, start practising *now* (by the way, you do realize I hate you for being able to do that? It's 50F high, today, and snowed last weekend).
no subject
Date: 2010-05-11 08:27 am (UTC)The worst of it was actually once I got clear of the rain. A fairly steady wind, from almost 90°. I spent thirty miles leaning the bike into it to keep the line straight.
I'll ponder the route; there are reasons to want to go to Chicago.