I had to take a kicking at the start of day two, we left Groton and 5 mins along old Highway 1, we ride through Mystic, the most gorgeous village imaginable, maybe we should have stayed there, cute as. Having said that I suspect the accomm prices might have been a tad dearer than the good old Rodeway Inn.

Old Highway one is sort of like the East Coast equiv of Route 66, so it was good to be off the interstate. The mornings ride from Groton to Newport, Rhode Island was an exceptional ride through classic Connecticut countryside in a very comfortable 27 degrees. Newport RI, is an outta this world cool city of less than 30,000 people. The ride around Ocean Parade and back into town on Bellevue looking at the Mansions was mind. Blowing. Anyone riding between NY and Boston has to head over to Newport to ride that Ocean parade and look at the Realestate. Wow.

Coffee,d up we headed to Hyannis Port, what a numb nuts I am thinking we will ride to Cape Cod on the 3rd of July when half of Boston is going there for the holiday weekend!!!!!!!!! Anyway We got down to Hyannis, had a nice lunch and coffee, the waitress had been to NZ and worked in Tauranga………. visited the JFK museum which was very interesting to read about JFK,s political career from the get go and lots about JFK junior and Jackie of course. Well worth the $13.00 entry fee.

The ride from Hyannis to Boston was uneventful enough, Highway three certainly way nicer than the interstate and we were thankful we were heading into Boston as the traffic heading out and down to Cape Cod made the Auckland motorway in rush hour look like a walk in the park. Headed down to a wee suburb near our accom called Jamaica Plain and had a couple beers in an Irish pub, locals and staff very friendly and you guessed it, our Irish barmaid,s sister lives in NZ. Everyone we speak to loves NZ and wants to visit it…….good to hear we are a popular go to destination of lotsa USA people.

Looking around Boston tommorrow, day off the bike since it’s the 4 th of July. heard plenty of fireworks night of 3 July so 4 July should go off.!!!!

After 4 days in Manhattan doing the things Tourists do in NYC we finally made a start to our mother of all road trips. We picked up the bikes in New Jersey, and headed north after wee isssssssue was resolved on one of the non BMW bikes shall we say.

Weather was great but some numb nuts road workers had been tasked to do some sweeping of a lane on the i95, way up by Bridgeport CT. Hard to believe but these numb nuts caused bumper to bumper congestion for about 40 kms south of that point. We were in about 3rd gear for nigh on 50 kms. Stopped for a bite and a break and hit the road again. Once we passed the road works, north of Bridgeport we were back up to the speed limit. The 222 km ride took over 5 hrs and our average speed was 43 kms per hour if you want the stats? tedious……….

I am suggesting we might log our 10 favourite rides on this road trip and maybe our 10 least favourite rides.

As at Day one, New York to Groton would top the list of the top 10 worst rides,………just saying.

Moving right along, once we checked in to our digs we headed down to the supermarket for some tucker. In the car park we met Captain Henry Collins the 3rd, who pulled in on an aging RS beemer and started yarning about what we were up to. All the rides he suggested we do in New Hampshire and Vermont were already on the agenda so that was a good start. When he found out we were heading for Boston, he gave us the Connecticut dwellers opinions on Bostonites. Best I don,t repeat those here until we are well out of Massachusetts if you get my drift. A top bloke who shared lots of his favourite rides with us, great to catch up with some locals in these towns. We also ran into a Newport RI rider down the line a bit, on a BMW 1200 I might add, who was on his way home from New Orleans. Only saw two Triumphs on the road yesterday and they were beside me.

Day two to kick off one day away from the 4th of July holiday as we head north to Boston. We are expecting another hideous day of holiday traffic so will have to tuff it out.

OK, so we are 5 days out from riding out of NYC heading north into Connecticut. After a long flight from NZ to New Jersey via LA, we were off to a rocky start with a couple hiccups at the Motel 6 in Elizabeth New Jersey which resulted in us staying at the Crown Plaza next door. The whole sordid drama about the Motel 6 is not worth me wasting the blog on, suffice to say it’s star rating Should be in the negatives, how many of you have been booked in to a room that is such a tip, the sink is blocked and still full of scummy dirty soapy water and blocked so you can,t use the sink and have to look at the dirty crap sitting in it. Have you puked yet? I was close to it. After 4 hrs they had still not sorted another room so we checked out and moved next door. Why would you even let a room like that to he poor unsuspecting public. The words I used to describe this establishment cannot really be printed on this site. Looking out the window at 3.00 in the morning onto the car park of the Motel 6 next door, interesting to see how much attention the local squad cars paid to the internal courtyard. You get the picture anyway. Amazing what a bad experience can do to ones motivation. With 3 bikes and 82 days on the road that is over 240 room nights and none of them will now be going to the Motel 6 chain after that experience.

Up and about early on Friday and off to Mainfreight down the road to unpack the bikes and make sure they still going, yep all good.

Caught an Uber into Manhattan, awesome hotel, the Cambria on w 46 th near Times Square. Within a short time of hitting New York we had lunched in the Hard Rock Cafe, realized Time sSquare was pretty much just an intersection but got the pics anyway, did 34 th street shops, 5 th Avenue, Empire State, NY Library and back to the hotel.

Today NY is no harder to drive or walk that Auckland CBD but we learnt today it is gay pride week and there are 4 million extra people on Manhattan island this week, with the Parade on Sunday. Great news for a bloke who doesn’t,do crowds too well. Plenty to see and do over the next few days. Having trouble sorting out pics, leave it with me. Looking forward to getting that bike on the road.

OK, now that you can see I am totally unbiased, I have extolled the virtues of my travelling buddies choice of motorcycle, the Triumph 800 XC, even given their ego a wee bit of a leg up, I am now going to go a step further and bag the crap out of the BMW R1200GS, outline some of its inherent faults, faults I might add that Mark and I will have to put up with for all 22,000 kms of this trip and at the same time suffer the daily ridicule of our Triumph riding comrades because of these faults. BMW even had the audacity NOT to issue recall notices on the faults I am about to outline. OK here we go, and I apologise in advance to all BMW gs riders that are following this blog for bringing these faults to the attention of all our followers. I feel for you guys.

OK, pic one actually shows two common faults, namely the light front end and the super powerful engine, meaning it is uncommonly easy to lift the front wheel as can be seen in the picture, causing the riders sphincter muscle to contract momentarily, (a split second of discomfort therefore must be endured as a result) before the front wheel drops and the bike roars off toward the horizon.

Picture two shows yet another common fault, overly awesome brakes…… meaning the bike can stop on a dime in a split second. The rider has to be vigilant not to throw her indoors over the handlebars from the pillion position when conducting this braking manoeuvre. The triumphs ( opps I forgot to use a capital T) are not afflicted with these faults so the other boys are very lucky they are not on BMW’s.

Pic number 3 shows another common fault, again not the subject of a recall, but in the area of the hand guards on the front left of the handlebars. They are positioned in such a way that when a rider accelerates, the bike does so with such venom, the riders arm is forced up into that sort of victory position which can of course affect his control of the bike. Again, not a fault the Triumph boys have to worry themselves with…..they are soooooo lucky.

I refuse to outline more than four inherent faults, but picture four shows one of the worst. The bike is such a big handsome beast that if one stops of an evening, say on the Texas pan handle or the Desert in Arizona to admire the sunset, and the bike is not parked accordingly, its sheer bulk and presence can block out some of the picturesque view of the setting sun, so again, a fault we will be stuck with for the duration of our trip.

There ya go, that about does it, I could not have been fairer to kick off the blog and support my riding buddies. Not only have I extolled the virtues of their Triumph’s, but I have humbled myself and bagged the crap out of the BMW steed that both myself and Mark will have to put up with, for the duration of the trip.

Horse and Red are going to be all over me with praise for this blog and will probably want to shout me copious beers……..oh well, the things we do.

Keep an eye on the blog for more unbiased commentary during our upcoming travels, but just thought I would throw a few bikes specs up to tickle your taste buds before we kick off.

Wheels up on the big aeroplane tommorrow 26 June.

Over and out for today

So that our followers can see the author is totally unbiased and is playing nicely in the sandpit with his riding buddies, I am now going to point out some of the attributes of the Triumph 800 XC that make it appealing to its many followers, owners and fans. I have uploaded some pics as you can see, to emphasise just some of these attributes. The first picture shows how solid and dependable the panniers are on the bikes. Even when the bike is rolled, bowled and arse-holed up a bank, the luggage stays true to form, does not rupture and keeps both the riders and pillions bandages and first aids kits secure and dry. A fine attribute. The second picture shows the inherent strength of the crash bars on the 800XC. If the reader looks carefully, even though this bike has been savagely dumped, the radiator or oil cooler (do they have oil) remains intact without a hint of any damage. Awesome crash bars eh! Now the third image shows that these bikes are light and nimble as well. Not a hint of any sweat can be seen dripping off the rider of this bike as he easily rights his bike from its semi recumbent position on the gravel surface to which it has become unglued. I can see why these bikes are so popular and why they are a favourite of the guys bringing them on our trip.

What great machines.

How did I do in terms of showing no bias? I am quite proud of myself.

Now I think it would be fair to warn followers of our blog for the upcoming 3 month trip that there is just a wee bit of rivalry between the two groups of two motorcycle owners by brand. Yes, the owners of the Two BMW 1200 GS will often find an opportunity to take the piss out of the Triumph 800 XC owners and of course……vice versa.

Needless to say, be warned this could get ugly, blood could be spilt on the floor, so readers are duly warned that younger viewers and those that get a bit queasy with the sight of blood should be cautious about following the blog.

There is limited access by those on the trip to update this blog site of course, as the password is top secret, so it could be argued by some that there may be some bias shown toward one particular brand. The writer suggests such comments would not be justified……as you will see……. and I intend to kick off so we are both on an even footing and you will see I have no bias whatsoever.

Read on.

Ok, in no particular order and apologies for the quality of the pics once they upload onto this platform.  The couple beside that stunning example of a triple black BMW Gsa are Mark Batty and Tracey Boot from Canterbury, catching us about three weeks in as we come south from The New England states, so joining us at about The Washington DC mark after having a look at San Fran for a few days on the way to New York.  That is Myself and Marie posing on the wall in front of Crater Lake in Oregon, we head that way again toward the end of the current road trip. 

Couple pics there of the same 2016 crew, one atop Mount Evans in Colorado and one at Deadhorse Point, Canyonlands National Park in Utah. 

Introducing Sasquatch, sadly he cannot make it this trip as they couldn’t make a Harley big enough for him. He lives at Happy Camp in the Northern Sierra’s, we met him on the last trip. 

In front of the Redwood log we have Red ( Robert to only a select few people)Edmunds and Corina Henderson riding a Triumph 800 adventure bike. 

Next pic is Horse and Janelle Dowman, also on a Triumph 800 Adventure bike. 

Standing beside his trusty Boulevard is Bryn James. Bryn will join us at Denver late August to pick up the last three weeks of the trip circumnavigating the Rockies in the opposite direction to the 2016 trip, Bryn will be riding a Harley Low Rider hired from Eagle Rider.

Apart from Mark and Tracey from Canterbury, the rest of us are from Taranaki, NZ. 

More as we get closer to wheels up day. 

You will appreciate Mr Google will only let me put 10 locations in to try and give you a global picture of the route we are taking.  The map below is a very rough guide, after leaving New England we are into DC, then we weave our way down the Appalachian states doing various loop rides on and off Skyline drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway of which we do its entire length of almost 500 miles as we ride south. We sneak into the mountains in NW Georgia before twisting through the southern states except Florida, down to New Orleans.  Couple days sampling Bourbon Street and some Cajun tucker before some cool rides in Arkansas before hitting (the boring section) of Route 66 from Tulsa to Albuquerque. Up to Santa Fe, and contrary to what our route looks like below, we twist and weave around in Utah and Colorado doing some awesome rides in that part of the world, before a roundabout route over more great rides in Wyoming, Montana, as far north as Missoula. Over the lolo pass and along my favorite valley in Idaho to cross the Idaho panhandle we are back into Washington state and Oregon, before some great rides down the western side of the Sierras in California, taking in Crater Lake,  Lassen volcanic, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park’s as we head south through California to finish back in L. A circa 18 September. 

8 of the top 10 rides in the US will be knocked off as we go. 

Y,awl see some great country if you follow us on the blog.

Keith,Marie,Mark,Tracey,Horse,Janelle, Red, Corina and Bryn  

It’s now less than 30 days till we start the 2019 road trip out of New York. Due to some problems with the US broker being unable to source an underwriter to insure visiting foreign nationals riding their own bikes in n both the USA and Canada, our 10 day section in Canada has now been re routed to stay in the 6 states comprising New England.  Never mind, I say, there are some great rides in those States. The bikes have been on the water since early April and are on track for a 7 June arrival at Mainfreight, New Jersey, so all going well after a few days sight seeing in the big apple late June, we will hit the road 2 July, heading north to Boston and later Bar Harbour in Maine.

chat later. 

Right so the last day is a short one, Merredin into Fremantle, only 280 kms so we are there by midday.  Wee bit of rain coming over the Darling Range and down into Perth but not for too long.

No need to comment on this ride, just a road, a busy one at that.

Mucus has not been to Fremantle before so after checking in at the esplanade Hotel ( Mucus goes “ Now this is more my style!!!!” we’re off up the Cappucino Strip to check things out, great city to swan around in.

Mark gets chatting to this young lady doing cancer fund raising while I am speaking to a fellow Kiwi working over here, standing outside the Sail and Anchor pub.  They are trying to get this young ladies phone number but with not much success.  Given their state of sobriety, not surprised.  Anyway turns out this kiwi is from Oxford, practically Mucus neighbour.

These lads tell us to try the Imperial IPA from the Sail and Anchor, top drop they say.  Brad and Evie had taken Marie and I to this place for lunch a year or so back, I suggested to Mucus it was a top spot.  This is where it gets interesting, bearing in mind Mucus is not a big drinker so fair to say his “capacity” may not be where it could be if he had had more training.

I have to tell this story, it gets interesting so bear with...........................So we pop in and set ourselves up with an Imperial IPA each, its 8.5 % and a very nice drop.

After the one beer I suggest we move on since Fremantle is a cool spot and we should look at some more buildings.  We find an ATM about 20 meters away so Mucus is getting out some more cash.  No sooner is this done than he’s dragging me back to the sail and Anchor, sod the touristie look round, he is suggesting another Imperial IPA as they were quite nice.

One for himself but I am trying some other red boutique drop, (4.5 percent) but Mucus is on a roll now and lines up Number three.

At number 4, I succumb and have another, we order a meal and yep, Mucus is lining up number five.

About this time my memory is hazy as to how many others were consumed prior to leaving this establishment.

I forgot to mention the first one was at about 3.00pm

Needless to say, there was total gibberish coming out of Mucus mouth by this time and talk of motorcycle adventures in far off lands now that the intrepid adventurers had conquered the mighty Nullabor, I know you can picture the conversation and the animation with the arms going everywhere if you know the man.

The meal by the way was outstanding, the title pic today is the blackboard on the restaurant bench top, you get the picture.......Sail and Anchor, Fremantle.

Moving along now to the morning after, our rooms were about 100 meters apart in this massive hotel so we agree to meet in the foyer at 0800 to head back up the street for breakfast, Mucus volunteers some of the activities of the night before, after returning to his room, in response to my question how was his head?

He confirms his head is not a hundy, surprise surprise I say to him.  he asks about mine expecting to be the same but I, of course, am a picture of health. He then tells me about a dream where he was walking around in circles and couldn’t find his way out of his room.  I ask to confirm if this was a dream or it happened,  “  No No No it happened he said, he got out of bed to go for a pee, could not work out how to get from the bed to the bathroom and was frustrated he could not find the bathroom door, knocked over the lounge chair in the process, eventually found a light and worked out how to get to the bathroom.  When he awoke ina slightly better state at daylight ( I use that term slightly in the loosest possible fashion) the lounge chair was still upturned on the floor and it all came flooding back. Was hoovering down copious amounts of water at breakfast after having sculled the “pay for” bottles of water in the room.

Being both in the Insurance industry, I fairly informed him up front that his full and frank disclosures of the carnage and confusion in his motel room would make it to the blog site, and he laughed accepting his fate like the pathetic untrained beer drinker that he is.

Anyway, enough of Mucus first visit to Fremantle and his affection for Imperial IPA, we have some Statistics to post on the trip, you may or may not find interesting.  Let me commence:

1. Highlights.

Dean and Carlas green curry in Sydney, the Snowy mountain rides, The Adelaide Hills, The Nullarbor and the Imperial IPA (Mucus told me to add that one) A special highlight was all the awesome people we met, most of whom approached us to chat about what we were doing, from Grey Nomads towing caravans, to old bikers still out there riding well into their 70’s and wanting to reminise, to Harley riders asking if we were really going to ride across the Nullarbor to other riders who had been meaning to but never got around to it, to just plain friendly people stopping for a chat.  We met some great people and that’s what is special about these sorts of trips, the people you meet.

2. Favourite rides:

The Adelaide Hills take first place, the Nullarbor second place as an adventure in itself with NSW’s Alpine way and Vic’s Great Alpine road close in behind that.

3. Quirkiest town giving us the most laughs.

Norseman, WA, go there and stay at the railway Motel.

4. Most hideous ride we did not enjoy.

The Great Ocean road wins hands down, mainly because of the number of Chinese tourists in rental cars ruining everyone’s GOR experience.

5. The Biggest danger we experienced on Australian Roads.

Not kangaroos, not Emu’s, not Camels, not kiwi drivers, the biggest threat to the road toll here is Chinese drivers in rental cars.  This sentiment was repeated to us by numerous people we spoke to including two Police Officers who told us it was a huge problem in Aussie, I could write an entire blog on my thoughts on how to minimize this risk and could set some aspiring Road Policing Superintendent up with enough brownie points to sit for parliament.  Contact me if you read this that Road Policing Superintendent.

6. Prize for biggest Fkwit driver in Australia.

Male, Chinese, mid 20’s, short dark hair, driving a white Hyundai rental on the GOR, female passenger, eyes the size of golf balls after hearing my advice to him as I overtook.

7. Favourite  eating house for breakfast.

“Succulent Foods”, Main Street, Kellerberrin, WA, clean and tidy, awesome food, great service, awesome presentation, wins hands down, best cafe in 5900 kms, go there for breakfast and get a roll for play lunch to take away, the counter food looked awesome as well.

8. Favourite eating house for lunch:

The Inglewood Inn, Bannockburn, Adelaide Hills, very slutty and up market, a must stop for lunch when driving or riding the Adelaide Hills.

9. Best accommodation provider.

Bay 10 accommodation, Port Lincoln. Hands down winner, no question.

10.  Liquid statistics.

694 litres of fuel, 96 flat whites, double shot.  30 litres of Hahn super dry, unknown quantity of Imperial IPA, 

11. Longest distance between traffic lights ( My Favourite this one)

It was 2591 kilometers between the last traffic light at Whyalla, (which is 79 kms down the Lincoln Highway from Port Augusta) until we hit another traffic light as we approached Perth City.  There are not many readily accessible motorcycle rides where the keen motorcyclist can travel for such a distance without seeing a bloody set of lights.  Certainly not in NZ. Outstanding.

12. Cultural differences 

Over here Harley owners wave, Aussies are waaaay more polite drivers than kiwis, out of 96 flat whites only 4 were bad ones, that is a much better statistics than back home in terms of how many bad ones you would get. Chicken parmigiana is a popular dish over here and we heard it ordered heaps, don’t go there New Zealand, it is hiduooooous.  Having said that Mucus consumed Barrimundi for 14 of the 16 evening meals and I was close to that with the beef schnitzel and vegetable.  Creatures of habit.!  No comments on these eating habits are required, this is an FYI only.

OK, here endith the epistle, you will be getting bored with me. To summarize, this was an epic adventure even though it was all on Tarmac.  We look at it as two rides, Sydney to Adelaide and then the Nullarbor is another trip with its own special features. This ride and route is highly recommended, West of Norseman we were approached by numerous locals asking if we had ridden the Nullarbor and asking questions about it, looking for tips, all stating they had always meant to ride it but never gotten around to it.  Basically if your bike has a range of 200-220 kms on a tank of gas it can be done without carrying fuel.

To put things into perspective, Fairbanks to Prudeau Bay in Alaska is 800 kms one way, therefore 1600 kms return to Fairbanks.  This is another epic adventure on the to do list, knobblies required as its gravel.  Even though the Nullarbor is tarseal and has coffee stops and fuel every 180 kms, it is 500 kms longer than Fairbanks to Prudeau Bay and back, and that is only doing the Nullarbor in one direction.  This makes it an epic adventure, right on kiwis and aussies doorstep, a very economical epic ride and a must do to tick off if you love motorcycling.  (That guy we met on the Sorrento Ferry with the ape hangers on his Harley, don’t do it on that bike mate!!)

We intend to post a separate blog with Nullarbor ride tips since we got asked so many questions by locals over here with motorcycles approaching us with questions.

Thanks everyone for reading and following our blog on this very enjoyable ride, thanks again to Shayden Whipps for setting up the site for us, legend.  Watch this space for our next post which will be a Taranaki adventure ride, lotsa gravel and tunnels and if we can get the video thing sorted and very professionally put together video clip of the ride utilising a drone (operated by Kieran Coulton) to get awesome aerial footage of said ride.

Ride Safe.

Keith and Mark

8 March 2019 and preparation is well under way for the mother of all road trips in the USA, accommodation and flights are booked, bikes are booked with Mainfreight and we are taking them to Auckland to tuck them in a container bound for New Jersey in less than a month. Watch this space for updates.