Trip to the states summer/fall 2009

[Moose_DK]

Hi everybody

First of... I'd like to present ourself.

My name is Esben and I'm 28.
My girlfriend is 24 and her name is Camilla.
We live in denmark, you know the small country that Lars Ulrich from metallica and NFL kicker Morten Andersen come from.
Now.... I cant kick a ball and I dont have any musical abilities, but I am adventures.

My Girlfriend on her lowrider DRZ400.


Me and my vintage/SM XL350


My girlfriend and I got the crazy idear that we will take about 6 months leave from our studies and go travel.

We dont really have a plan yet except that we will leave denmark some time late July 2009 and retur in January 2010.


Im hoping that some of you that live in the states feel like give a helping hand with the planning and maybe would like a visit a some point.

We dont have a route planned out yet and dont have a place to start out yet.
We will buy 2 bikes and fit them for travel, then we plan to travel in the northern states and maybe also see some of canada and reach the westcoast at some point. Then travel south to stay warm.



Any advise is welcome!!! but I do also have some specific questions:

1:
we are at the moment looking for two streetlegal Suzuki DRZ400S or Kawasaki KLX400 since my girlfriend doesn't have that long legs and she already have a DRZ400 with a lowering kit that we can use take of and use for a bike in the US.
But how do we find two bikes, is there som good online sales sites for used bikes and maybe someone know some dealer that might can help.
Most importend we need a place to start! so if someone have the room, time and feel like having us visiting for a week or so in late july while we get the bikez ready, please write us

2:
We dont have a place to start out yet, that will depend on where we can find two bikes and maybe a place where we can make them ready for travel (service, bigger gastank and bags)
So if you can help with that please contact me.!!!

3:
how about the weather, I gues it mostly warm the first few month, but when should we plan on riding south?



Now thats all for know folks. BUT... I will be online just about every day until we leave so please write. send me an PM or write here.

All advise and help is much appreciated.

Best regards Camilla and Esben

[dusty308]

hi guys,
sounds like a great trip you have planned and there is so much to see here especially out in the western states. not sure about where to get the bikes, there are dealerships everywhere so i don't think that should be to much of a problem. as far as the weather goes here in Connecticut it can start snowing as early as November but usually in December and we have cold icy weather through until February or March. When my friend and I went cross country in June of 2006 we had everything from 106F in Nevada to 21F and snow in British Columbia Canada, so it really depends on where you are. I'd be glad to help you with any questions that you have and when you get here pizza and beers are on me (unless I'm on the road). can't wait for your ride report. good luck
cheers
josh

[Capotourer]

Ok maybe I can chime here. Congrats on having the time to actually be able to make such a long journey. I hope you realize that the trip you are about to do is a lot of miles. If I can give you any piece of advise at all i would probably not try to make an attempt of this caliper on 400 cc bikes. You will definetly need something a little more street oriented. I would probably at least step up to a 650 cc bike. Perhaps a BMW GS 650 or a KLR 650. Better yet one of the best 650 out there for both street and light off road duty is a Suzuki 650 V-strom . The difference in weight and hp will give you more comfort on the long roads you will ride and still give you the ability to go off road in any case. If you came to Florida let us know. There is lots of ADV riders on either side of the coast then can help with rides or accomodations.
As far as websites to go on to try a) www.cycletrader.com or www.craigslist.com just be careful with craigslist, never send any money to anyone and only to business in person. The most secure and reliable other piece of info is to stick with www.advrider.com and see what is for sale on the flea market. You will be amazed what comes up for sale from time to time. Good luck and keep us informed of your journey.

[thetourist]

Welcome to Esben and Camilla.

I don't know Lars or Morten, but we now know you.

I sent you a PM with a search engine for used bikes.

I was looking for bikes this winter and a lot of DRZ at the $2000-2500 level. They are up a bit now.

If you want new, consider the new Yamaha. If used, the DR350 cruises nicely. It has e-start and that 6th gear. I wound up with a DR and am quite impressed.

[jdrocks]

assuming you're flying in to the east coast, so you're looking for bikes there. i wouldn't be afraid of a pair of late model drz400 for your trip. pretty inexpensive used, you already know the bike, have the lowering link, and would only need to carry one set of spares.

get both bikes delivered to the same location and have everything else shipped there. if everything is ready to go, you would only need a day or two to prep the bikes and be ready to travel.

since you would be starting in the east, consider a tour of new england and the canadian maritime provinces before heading west.

you are also likely to find help in the east coast regional section on this forum.

traveling with your blond girlfriend will make all the arrangements a little easier. if you run into any difficulties, you know you can always yell for help on this forum. the inmates here are ever helpful to fellow adventure travelers.

[Tucson Jim]

Trip of a lifetime!! If you want to visit the Grand Canyon, Arizona, Las Vegas area let me know. It's just my wife and I in a big four bedroom house here in Tucson, AZ, so you could stay a night or two here if you want. Good luck and let us know what you decide.

PS: The Rocky Mountain area of the US is just awesome, as is the Oregon and California coast.

[Moose_DK]

Well bought a map today at got it up on the wall. Now I startet looking through some threads here on ADV trying to out what to see.

My girlfriend startet looking into what is needed to get our visas for the trip.. Hopefully we wont get to many problems with that :-)

[ZappBranigan]

Over on the MCUSA forums we get questions like this a lot, and there is usually one problem to which I've never yet heard a satisfactory solution:

How does a non-resident alien register and title a motorcycle purchased in the US? I know in my state (CO) if you try to register a vehicle the first thing they want to know is your address and/or see your driver's license to show proof of residency. If you can't demonstrate that you are a resident of this county, I don't think you can register a vehicle here.

Considering that some states have very strict laws regarding things like emissions, safety inspections, etc, and other states have very lax laws, people used to register their vehicles in other states using either bogus addresses, PO Boxes, etc. But with all the cracking down on that kind of thing that has happened in the last few years, I think it would be a very difficult thing to do.

[nilsso1]

What are some of the places that you have on your must see list

[Moose_DK]

well its not really that long yet

But generally we are most interrestet in the nature and we want to camp as much as possible.
The rocky mountains, yellowstone, and other national parks is at this point where we want to go.
But im getting more and more stickers on my large wall map.

But i do thing think the trip will be a "that road looks nice, lets try that" kinda trip.

We are still not sure where we will start, since it depends on where we can find the two bikes.

[nilsso1]

here are a few websites you might want to check out,
http://www.roadtripusa.com/

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

http://www.budgettravel.com/bt-dyn/c...eas/roadtrips/

[dbarale]

Hi guys,
I'm in Asheville, NC. Near Charlotte, NC. Just mentioning it as there are direct flights from Germany (Munich) to Charlotte at reasonable prices.
Probably a little further south than where you would like to start your trip bet there is a pretty big ADV/riding community around here and you should be able to find plenty of help, and bikes. If I can be of any help (including place to work on the bike, place to stay for a few days) just shoot me a PM...

[YetiGS]

I tend to agree with whoever it was that suggested bikes of the 650cc size or bigger. You're going to be covering a lot of miles on your trip and a 400 would suck for long mileage days. I'd personally look at a couple of Wee Stroms.

I've ridden all over California and Oregon so feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions regarding either of these states.

Last, there are a lot of great people on this site. I'd recommend figuring out where you're going to start your trip and get in touch with people from that area to help you find suitable bikes. You can find bikes anywhere with good local knowledge.

Have fun and take tons of pictures!!

[Moose_DK]

Hi guys.. Thanks for your advise..
The only place im 100% sure where I wanna go is Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
I went to school there i 1999 for a few months.

now about the bikes.. the reason for choosing DRZ400s is that my girlsfriend already have this model... The Supermotard modet, but close..
She has realle realle short legs and we already have a lowering kit for the bike.
We know how the bike works and shes used to drive it..

To be honest i would like a bigger bike, but I also would like that we have the same model.

as for a place to start, I think your right that we need to deside.
"come on esben... DESIDE!!!!!"

[dbarale]

The DRZ SM (Supermotard) is available in the US too, there are three of them for sale right now within 20 miles of here...