| Author | Message | ||
     Seattle_bueller |
I was going to post this in the Tales Section, decided to post here instead for traffic purposes. So I am really excited about my first bike trip!  A couple of friends and I are planning a bike trip. We have ten days set aside in the beginning of August to head south from Seattle. The plan is simple enough, ride back roads until we are tired and then find a place to sleep. Repeat as necessary. The only real destination we have is Yellowstone National Park, outside of that nothing is planned. Curious! So my question to people that live in Oregon California, and possibly Nevada, what would you recommend doing and seeing? Where are the kick-a$$ motorcycle roads that no one knows about? What and where are the good sites to see along the way? Also based on your experience, is there anywhere we should avoid going (and why)? Also I am a huge micro-brew nut, so any microbreweries that you recommend would be a plus (and no, I will not be drinking and riding). Nervous! Being this is my first trip, I am a little nervous about the trip. I will be the only non-metric bike on the trip, so I am wondering what tools anyone can think that I might need? Is there anything special I should do to prep the bike for hot weather riding? (It only gets above 85 up here 5 maybe six days a year.) Thank you in advance for everyone’s input. Of course once the trip is over I will post everything under the tales section to share the trip with everyone here. | ||
| Spiderman |
Not from any of those areas but know of one thing in that area I have always wanted to do, Rt.66 | ||
| Elf |
For roads: Windy Ridge- Near Mt. St. Helens Lolo Pass- Hwy. 12 - ID-MT (maybe hit this one on your way back from Jellystone) Hwy. 47 - in NW Oregon from Clatskanie to Mist. Look for the vid on this page:http://www.drsardonicus.com/vp-ul-dragon.html Aufderheide - Also called "NF-19" - Eugene area Spiral Hwy. - Lewiston-Clarkston area (on the way back) Rattlesnake Grade - S. of Spiral Hwy - Asotin, WA to Joseph, OR Rowena Loop - Off of I-84 near The Dalles Humboldt County CA - Specifically 96, 299, 101, 36 & 3 near Arcata/Eureka and most any roads around Redding - Especially 36! Google Maps is your friend for details on any of these roads! You WILL need good, fresh tires for these. They're Motorcycle Nirvana, especially on a Buell! Here's a link for you: http://www.motorcycleroads.us/ Go see Crater Lake. Photos do NO justice! Ask the locals you meet for food and drink suggestions. They usually come up with some pretty good suggestions. As far as tools-n-stuff, make sure to have the little Buell tool kit with you. Metrics won't have Torx driver! Also, check your belt condition. Change your engine oil, filter and primary oil (it's cheap insurance). Can't think of anything else at the moment. I'm sure others will chime in. (Message edited by elf on July 16, 2008) (Message edited by elf on July 16, 2008) | ||
| Maddiemsu |
Chief Joseph Highway and Beartooth Pass MT/WY Lots of good micro-breweries in MT too! | ||
| Slaughter |
Wowie - you really REALLY ought to shoot Jerry Houghton (formerly Ferris_Bueller) a note. He ran rides around Mount St Helens and lived down here in the Sierras. Seriously - he's SUPER knowledgeable about all things road-wise between WA and CA. | ||
| Buellrider11960 |
i've ben to crater lake real nice;in cali i also suggest the ave of the giants redwoods. | ||
| Tramp |
You really can't go wrong much of anywhere between Seattle and the Central Cali. coast....I used to do the Redwood run,frequently, which sticks to 1, and even it was out-of-this-world. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
For a Buell getting there check out Touratechs CAN-AM dvd & book where they run from Isaquah to the Mexican boarder (and into mexico) on only dirty non paved roads. Put the ULY to the use that it was made to have. Oh duh, firebolt rider, Getting into LOLO pass is nice from Enterprise to Anatone, it is Washington states version of the Dragon. And word is they just paved the last 18 miles into Neah Bay up on the coast, fresh asphalt, no cops, and no traffic mid week  | ||
| Hooligan620 |
You forced me to pull out the road atlas. There are a dozen great ways to get from Seattle to Yellowstone. After looking at the Benchmark Maps you could take five days getting to and from Yellowstone there are so many great roads. The only bad route is the Freeway. Yellowstone is one of my favorite places on the planet, my son went to the University of Montana and my father in law worked in Glacier so I've made the trip often. I live in Ballard, PM me if you wanna meet and I can share some possible routes with you in person. | ||
| Seattle_bueller |
Thank you for the great suggestions so far. However, I'm an idiot that 1: can;t spell and 2: trusts spell-checker too much. The only must stop on the trip is Yosemite National Park (which probably makes a lot more sense heading south from On the bright side, there us talk about running through Yellowstone during the trip, but we figured the difficult part was getting between the three point in 10 days. Please keep the suggestions coming! | ||
| Seattle_bueller |
Oh and good idea hitting up Jerry for info Steve. Ironically enough Jerry moved to my old stomping grounds (SW Virginia) about the same time I moved to Seattle.  | ||
| Panhead_dan |
The old Bluit Pass. No painted lines, no guard rails, no buildings of any kind and no other traffic. Beautiful scenery. Ride to the top, shut off your engine and coast down the other side. Turn around at the bottom and repeat. It's a blast! Lolo Pass is nirvana. | ||
| Hooligan620 |
10 days and Yosemite as a destination from Seattle... There are lots of good roads in Central Oregon, and from Southern Oregon you can work your way to Yosemite from either the east or the west side. Work your way through Washington either over Hwy 97 or take the road across the back side of Mt. St. Helens. You can ride all the way to the Columbia River Gorge on paved twisty forest service roads. The back road from Goldendale to Klickitat is worth the side trip. It was voted one of the top 10 motorcycling roads by some touring magazine. From The Dalles (where I lived during my formative motorcycling years) work your way toward John Day. Not only lots of roads but the small towns in the area welcome motorcyclists. If you want to go into Yosemite from the east work your way to Lakeview, Susanville and Reno the south into the park. You might want to detour ride some of the roads in Nevada and California north of Reno then get yourself to Lassen Park. The roads and scenery on the south end of the old volcano is second to none. Coming home work your way west, there are outstanding roads between I5 and the California Coast Yreka, Redding to Eureka you could ride for days... Up the Oregon coast, it will be slow for going for all the summer traffic once you get to say Florence, but there are lots of twisty ways across the Coast Range and back into Central Oregon. In 10 days you can cover a lot of ground, figure out how far you want to travel in a given day, and don't forget to stop and look at the sights! I use to ride a BMW (don't hold that against me) but stopped touring when the distance covered was more important then the sights to see! The offer still stands if you wanna meet send me a PM. There are lots of options out there and certainly lots of opinions, mine is but one. |
