Route 66, has anyone done it?

[insomniac]

Route 66 is on my bucket list, but my wife is not interested at all.
So what I would like to do is ride for a week and then meet up with my wife at some beach resort, where she would have been for the week I was riding. then have a week together at the resort.
Any suggestions, anyone done something similar?
Please let me know.
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Most people seem to put in when they've past what so here goes.
CBT: 16/09/12; Theory: 20/02/13 MOD1:20/05/13 MOD2:29/05/13
Suzuki Marauder GZ125; Suzuki Intruder VL800

[arry]

No suggestions but I'm interested in doing same and likewise the wife has absolutely no interest. So I'll be interested in any responses

[grr666]

Yup. Sure have. Did my honeymoon 3 weeks R66 and a side mini tour up to San Fran before flying to Hawaii from LAX for a fourth week.
It's all that time on a bike she doesn't fancy, not the trip. Do it the right way and drive. There are times you may be happy of the protection a car affords. St Louis was particularly unpleasant, didn't even get out of the car to photograph the arch.

Did a week and a half in a Black Dodge Charger Mafia Staff car, then swapped it for a red Mustang convertible when we got to Vegas because it was considerably warmer than where we started out in Chicago. In total I drove nearly 4500 miles in the first 3 weeks and maybe another 500 or so once in Hawaii. (We had some awful Nissan thing over there but it was cheap, and tbh I'd had enough of driving for a while).

We booked our first two nights up in Chicago in advance from the UK and then after that we were doing it on the fly using free wifi and booking up wherever we could as we went. Best room was the suite we had in the Hard Rock hotel in Vegas. (We stayed there in Vegas for 4 days, there's lots to do nearby and it's a great place to experience.) We booked the self catering apartment in Hawaii in advance though. Was nice to shop and cook for our selves after 3 weeks of mega steaks and burgers. One of my deathbed memories will be of me and my new bride blasting along the coast road Highway 1 up toward San Fran with the roof down listening to our favourite choons from the ipod.

A few of the sights from our trip.

https://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz250/grrthefearless/Brisky%20shots/SAM_0911.jpg
Unloading Endeavour at LAX as we were flying on to Hawaii.
https://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz250/grrthefearless/Brisky%20shots/SAM_1317.jpg
Final flight of the Endeavour, pic taken from on the Universal studios tour bus in Hollywood.
https://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz250/grrthefearless/Brisky%20shots/SAM_1297.jpg

https://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz250/grrthefearless/Brisky%20shots/SAM_0912.jpg

https://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz250/grrthefearless/Brisky%20shots/vegascar5.jpg

Our Mustang

https://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz250/grrthefearless/Brisky%20shots/SAM_1169.jpg

and our Charger

https://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz250/grrthefearless/Brisky%20shots/SAM_0840.jpg


I had a great time. Would love to do it by bike but there was one bit of our trip where we drove through a swarm of grasshoppers in Amarillo, the front of the car was plastered in half inch thick dead bug paste. Fuck that on a bike. It would be ruddy painful for a start. It was like being stuck behing a giant gritter with the racket their bodies made.

Oh and we only got chased out of a bar by bikers the once... Apart from that everything was cool.
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[MCN]

Do you mean the A66 across the back of the Pennines?

I've traversed it many many times.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[doggone]

It always seems an awful long way with not much to see.
If you have the time it could be good but can't help feeling two weeks driving/riding could be spent better in a smaller area.

[almostthere]

You're gonna leave your wife alone for a week at a resort hotel? Which hotel and what dates I feel a holiday coming on
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[spnorm]

The interesting part of Route 66 is west of the Rockies and it's still pretty dull compared to the mindblowing sights elsewhere in the States.

I toured California and the South West in 2012 on an R1200RT and returned in 2014 to tour the Black Hills, Yellowstone and some more of the South West in a Mustang convertible. I'll be back there in five weeks for a tour of Northern California and Oregon

If you've only got a week or so, fly into Vegas and then ride a loop around the Grand Canyon taking in the Hoover Dam, Williams (including the Kingman - Seligman section of Route 66), Grand Canyon South Rim, Monument Valley, Lake Powell, Utah 12, Bryce Canyon, Xion National Park, north shore of Lake Mead and back to Vegas.

Then meet up with the missus

[insomniac]

Thank you for the replies.
Almostthere, no my wife will not be alone. There will be a number of us going, most of the women are not interested in sitting on a bike for any length of time. So keep your pants on
As for the A66, I'll be doing that this weekend with a few of the guys from work.

Route 66 (USA) is all pie in the sky at the moment as I have no idea of the distances involved and how far we can go in a week and if there are any tours that would accommodate that, but the idea is to do it on a cruiser (Harley or something similar), hopefully end up at the West side of the USA where there are beaches i.e. Los Angeles and that'll be where I'll book a hotel/apartment/villa (something) for the ladies.
I am interested though in spnorm's suggestion, might look into that one and see what we can do around that, but its not "Route 66"
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Most people seem to put in when they've past what so here goes.
CBT: 16/09/12; Theory: 20/02/13 MOD1:20/05/13 MOD2:29/05/13
Suzuki Marauder GZ125; Suzuki Intruder VL800

[insomniac]

sorry meant to mention, thanks for the pictures grr666
____________________
Most people seem to put in when they've past what so here goes.
CBT: 16/09/12; Theory: 20/02/13 MOD1:20/05/13 MOD2:29/05/13
Suzuki Marauder GZ125; Suzuki Intruder VL800

[grr666]

You'll need a week and a half and that's being on the move the whole time pretty much. Not what I'd call great biking roads either though. The only twisty bit of road I found followed the pacific coastline. I've never been one for nodding off at the wheel but it nearly happened twice in the US, cruise control + straight roads + permanently full stomach = ZZZZZZZzzzzzzz You'll need more time if you want to stay anywhere en route for a day or two like we did. 3 weeks meant no time constraints and time to explore.

In a week, you're looking at a 350 mile day (at average speed of 60mph) every day, it's about 2500 odd miles to follow the 'old' route 66. A lot of it has been replaced with freeways and some of the old towns along the old road died once the traffic could bypass them. It's sad to see as you can tell how these places were thriving once upon a time.
Keep an eye on your maps, took a wrong turning and it was 70 odd miles before I realised my error and had to double back = 140 miles detour and zero progress. The old road is not particularly well signposted in some places.
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[spnorm]

[arry]

[-Matt-]

[haroman666]

As per what the other guys have said... Doing the 66 is not that great riding-wise. Most of the old 66 isn't there so you're really only visiting for the scenery and even a lot of that is a little baron.

I did Vegas - Williams.

spnorm - You did LA to Williams in a day?!?! Good effort!

Williams is lovely. Has loads of classic American sights. And it's a great night out in the one bar I went in.

But if I was going to recommend a bike trip then it would be San Fran - LA coastal road. Done in 2 days or more. Much better scenery. The option of checking out the mountain roads in Malibu. Stopping in cool little coastal towns like Monterrey/Santa Cruz.

Also San Fran and LA are great places (Depending on where you go...)

Read more up on it.

Here's some pictures of both my bike trips in the US:

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/10603408_10153267030030288_1518688400189551097_n.jpg?oh=3d9b0f6c03a07804ef08da955334e78e&oe=57E42288

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/r90/10665204_10153267030420288_445973310777683708_n.jpg?oh=897fdfe583a07f8c864c4e4b0a8b0107&oe=57C837E2

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/10599598_10153267030505288_7666975886607977732_n.jpg?oh=e4cf0ed73717f210fd641558f808e607&oe=57CC1B24

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/10414406_10153267032065288_1943481448171454892_n.jpg?oh=f0dadc102da92956eeb747e9e77d5ef0&oe=57DD5333

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/10900095_10154082378540288_114366522593945443_o.jpg





Aaaaaaand well when I hired the Harley in Vegas, I felt obliged to shave for the occasion...

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/906377_10153209619355288_5077106518830190849_o.jpg
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[beeboy1979]

I actually had more fun just sodding around in Bryce Canyon, Death Valley, The Mohave and the Valley of Fire than I did on route 66.

I also thought shaving like that was mandatory..

https://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag441/beeboy1979/Picture%20040_zps3hvnjxie.jpg

[D_redd]

[haroman666]

[spnorm]

[haroman666]

[Silver_Fox]

These trips look ruddy awesome!
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[insomniac]

thanks for all the pictures people, its just making me want to get there even more now.
I have just had a chat with someone at work, he mentioned that he has some friends that wanted to do this trip and instead of hiring a Hog, they bought their's out there, rode around for a few weeks then sold them for the same amount they bought them for.
I don't know how true this is, but its yet another thing to think about.
____________________
Most people seem to put in when they've past what so here goes.
CBT: 16/09/12; Theory: 20/02/13 MOD1:20/05/13 MOD2:29/05/13
Suzuki Marauder GZ125; Suzuki Intruder VL800

[Aky208]

Me and a few friends also want to do a tour or the states at some point. watching this with interest.

[Evil Hans]

A mate of mine is doing it right now, on a Harley Road Glide Ultra. (Ultra Ghey, is that?)

Can't give you any details though - didn't even know about it until I saw the pics on Facebook.

Probably didn't want to risk having me tag along
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[degsie]

Hi all,

I'm a new joiner, although I have been a lurker on and off for a while. Am looking at the forum to get a better idea of good routes to tour closer to home, i.e. UK/Europe, but did East to West coast of the States last year with the missus on a Goldwing.

We started in New York and finished in San Fran, and did stretches of Route 66 on and off from Chicago to Kingman.

insomniac: it's a shame your missus isn't interested as it would be a great experience to share between the pair of you. Having said that, I had my missus in tears after the first couple of hours of our first day on the bike out of New York, not the best of starts and one that I felt pretty awful about (navigational "issues"!)

gr666: we did a similar distance to you. I just loved the Mustangs we saw, great looking cars, but I felt a little sorry for the people in them as it seemed like every other bugger was in one We also went through Amarillo but luckily encountered no swarms of grasshoppers. Sod that, wouldn't fancy coming across them on a bike - just feeling the dragonflies splatter on my boot was enough for me!

spnorm: we did quite a few places that you mention and those turned out to be some of the most memorable ones of the whole trip. Not Vegas though, didn't really "get" it - not my sort of place. One location I would add is Death Valley - what an experience, especially in the heat! Up there with the Grand Canyon for sheer size and awesome views.

-Matt-: we rented the Goldwing from Eaglerider. Price=horrendous, I can't deny it, but worth every cent in my opinion. I can't say whether there are cheaper places, there may well be, but I plumped for Eaglerider due to their size (over 100 depots throughout the country) and the fact that they do their own tours (not that we used them for that) - gave me a feeling that they knew what they were doing.

haroman666: agree about there not being much of Route66 left - at times it just seemed to disappear and even continued along I40 at one point. We also did US1 from San Luis Obispo up to San Fran and I have to admit: I was really disappointed. I think this was down to the fact that we had seen some pretty spectacular sights before this (Niagara, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite) and that bit of coastline just couldn't measure up.

Finally, as insomniac mentions, we had no idea of the distances we could realistically do in a day, so it was a bit of guesswork on my part there, especially as this would be our first motorbike tour. What I did in the months leading up to our trip was to read as many books as I could by people who had done something similar, but these still didn't include that level of detail, so we ended up recording each day's route with a GPS tracking app. We covered a little over 4800 miles in 16 days on the bike, averaging 300 miles per day.

It was a great trip and one that I would thoroughly recommend. Gonna be hard pushed to top that one, but hoping somewhere in Europe can be just as fulfilling.

[insomniac]

thank you all for your suggestions, there is a lot of things to think about, but I have roughly two and a half years to get it all planned.
At this point in time I have 3 of us on bikes with another wanting to do it but the wife just wont let him
As mentioned by "degsie" I have been looking at Eaglerider, but the prices are just silly. And their pricing system just doesn't make sense to me, how can they charge more if you are the only one on the bike, its still only one bike if you have a pillion. Its like someone charging more if you have passengers in a hire car, I just don't get it.
Anyway if I do start to get some plans that make sense together, I will post back on here, if I can find this thread again.
____________________
Most people seem to put in when they've past what so here goes.
CBT: 16/09/12; Theory: 20/02/13 MOD1:20/05/13 MOD2:29/05/13
Suzuki Marauder GZ125; Suzuki Intruder VL800