Experience speaks volumes when planning a motorcycle trip

Let’s face it: If you have a credit card and unlimited time, you don’t need to plan your ride any time before that morning’s coffee. Just pick a direction and go. There will be plenty of things to see and do, and almost always, a motel is available at day’s end. For the rest of us, however, it pays to do a little pre-trip legwork. 

But how? Until you have some experience in planning a longer motorcycle trip, the process can seem a little mystifying. And sadly, some would-be adventurers never take the trip simply because the logistics seem so daunting: Where do you even begin? That’s a shame because, like most things in life, once you gain a little know-how, it turns out not to be so hard. Many, in fact, excitedly consider the adventure’s beginning to be the moment they start perusing a map, gathering info, and calculating distances. You see it in the way our eyes get a faraway look, dreaming of the open road, stunning scenery, and endless possibilities. 

For our purposes, we’ll assume that a novice traveller is considering Canada or the U.S., as things are slightly more complicated when venturing abroad. A good resource for anywhere farther south is Michelle Lamphere’s Tips for Travelling Overland in Latin America: Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Rode My Motorcycle Through Mexico, Central America and South America. Similar books, blogs, and podcasts are available for overseas. We’ll focus here on the home front.

Where To Start

The first question is: What kind of a trip do you want? Is it all-day riding — Iron Butt style — or are you more into seeing the sights? Is it a combination? Having travelled a good bit on four wheels, my first long rides followed a lot of interstates — I wanted to get there. And you can do that: simply decide how many hours per day you want to ride, divide the holiday time you have, and see how far you can go. That works. 

It wasn’t until I realized there was so much more to see on the back roads that I began to slow down — and even do a little more pre-planning. Start with a weekend trip or two. That will begin to tell you the kind of riding you want to do — as well as the gear you really need (or don’t need). For an example of my packing list, see my “Bucket Lists and Travel Plans,” in the September/October…