2013 USA Motorcycle Tour: Chapter 1, Preperations (and lack thereof)

Ever since I started riding, I've wanted to do a motorcycle tour. Blasting through state lines and living out of tank bags has an adventurous charm that I find impossible to resist. My 2011 trip to Indianapolis revealed but a taste of what (to me) an ideal motorcycle journey would be like, and I yearned for another trip with more mileage, more scenery and more tight twisting tarmac. 2013 was the year I was determined to make it all happen.

Ah, Indiana. Long ride ...

... but very boring.

The first rule I had set for the trip limited the number of riders to four. Any more riders and every gas stop would turn into a picnic, every food stop would turn into a full course meal and the hotel bathroom would resemble a giant chocolate lava cake explosion. As word of the trip spread, the four spots filled in quick and before long, I had assembled my party of merry men:

Ricky and his bone stock 2007 GSXR600. It was comfortable, 100% stock, 100% reliable and perhapse the most appropriate machine for the trip (out of our group anyways).

Alok and his riced out 1999 YZF-R6. Rattle can black paint, check. Massive rear sprocket, check. Excessively annoying HIDs, check. Did I mention the crank case breather blew smoke like a freight train? If any bike was going to explode, this was it.

Me and my highly tweaked ZX-7RR. Aside from the solo tail, dodgy suspension, barely broken in motor, spotty fueling, and hilariously vicious brakes, my ZX-7RR was the ultimate touring machine.

George and his immaculate 1998 YZF-R1. Taking this bike on a multi-day blast through rough/dirty country roads is like playing rugby with an Armani suit. On the other hand, it would look brilliant in photos.

With our group formed, attentions turned to dates. For reasons that made sense to at the time, we decided to depart on June 29 and return on July 3 which put our journey directly in the crossfire of Canada Day and the 4th of July. But at least we had some great roads in the north eastern united states to look forward to. Weeks before our departure date we plotted out our detailed day-to-day maps with giddy excitement.

Day 1 - Mississauga, Ontario > Lock Haven, Pennsylvania
Day 2 - Lock Haven, Pennsylvania > Utica, New York
Day 3 - Utica, New York > Lebanon, New Hampshire
Day 4 - Lebanon, New Hampshire > Elizabethtown, Vermont
Day 5 - Elizabethtown, Vermont > Mississauga, Ontario

Days before the trip the bikes got some new fluid and were probed to ensure nothing was going to fall off, leak, explode or catch fire (as entertaining as the latter might have been).

With everything ready to roll, the weather forecast for the north eastern United States took a swan dive. Every state that we planned to visit had some sort of extreme weather warning; tornadoes, flash floods, power outages, bridge collapses, mud slides, the lot! You would have thought the north eastern United States were simply going to disappear into the Atlantic Ocean!

Image stolen from accuweather.com

The news hit like a swift kick to the jugular. You see, we had planned the trip with the assumption that there would be fluffy clouds, azure skies, gentle breezes and magical unicorns. As a result, no one had bothered to pack stuff to deal with the wet and cold. Fortunately I managed to scramble some Frog Toggs from Royal Distributing in Whitby. My fellow adventurers however only had Jesus as their rain gear.

Despite only having a prayer for a rain coat, my brave band of riders decided democratically to carry on with the quest to ride the roads of the rain bogged United States as planned. Thus began my first real motorcycle road trip! What will happen? Will Alok's bike explode in the Adirondack mountains? Will George's R1 eject it's rear wheel while rocketing down the interstate? Or maybe we'll all die in a massive freak accident involving an air bus, an oil tanker and a herd of wild bears! Find out in the next chapter of 2013 USA Motorcycle Tour!