GTA to BC... Do it or nah..? | GTAMotorcycle.com

GTA to BC... Do it or nah..?

Hack

Well-known member
So do I ride to the Okanagan this year or nah..?
I gotta go... Just have to decide how to get there.
Fly, drive, pogo stick or bike. Help me decide.

A bike ride west has long been on my bucket list, but I wonder if I'm more in love with the idea of riding across most of the country, or... Will I be consumed with regret a few hours past Kenora...?
4151km to my destination... Another 420km if I decide to continue on to Vancouver...
Then there's the trip back...

What say the hive..?
 
Pretty sure you posted something about this before and you mentioned you had driven your truck out their. I say load the bike in the truck and have at er'

Two of us are going out at the end of this month and that's how we're doing it.Were just gonna haul *** .One guy sleeps while the other drives.
Their have been people on this board that have done some imsanely( imo) long rides but I know my limits and I get miserable after a few hours in the saddle. Some people love it , I am certainly not one to put in 10-12 hour days for 5-6 days, fuzz that !

Most say the prairies are boring but I really liked driving them in my van, all the wide open space was cool.I wouldn't want to be on a bike for hours across them though . I think between the head wind and the wide open space the wind would be a real biatch .

Just some thoughts ... and keep in mind stunt driving in BC is 40 over not 50 , just a heads up ,Whatever you decide BC is paradise (as you know)and I'm sure the trip will be memorable .My trips to bc have always been ,23 days and we are rollin'
: )
 
Meh... I don't really want to be told to drive it... Lol.
 
A few years ago, I rode from GTA to Vancouver, and it was a dandy ride, six days westward and five days coming back. I was 64 years old, and not accustomed to riding long distances. My bike was a new Suzuki V-Strom 650, which has since then carried me 84000 miles. I expected to take 8 days, about 400 miles per day. As it happened, I averaged well over 550 miles per day. I crossed the border at Sarnia, and entered BC north of the Grand Coulee dam. I saw a great variety of countryside, and enjoyed the trip mightily. Coming back, I rode through BC's interior, then Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, then south into Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and back through Sarnia and London.

I say go for it. The next year I rode to St. John's NL, so my American bike has been to all ten provinces, as well as most of the states.

Even rides that do not happen can be fun. Twice I tried to ride from Florida to Vancouver BC, and was turned back by weather, once by horrible wind when I entered Arizona in May 2010. A month later I entered Colorado, and was told to expect 600 miles of snow, in June yet! Again I turned around, so that year I rode almost 8000 miles to nowhere. Still, those rides were pleasant, and fondly remembered.

You are probably younger than I, and more resilient, so I say make that ride, and if something goes wrong it might still be a success.
 
W e did it in 2015 - flew the bikes with Air Canada to Vancouver. Left Tor at 9 am - arrived and on bikes in bc by 11. 3 weeks lovely riding and rode home via the US - Glacier, Yellowstone, Beartooth etc ...then a bltz attitude 130-140 legally home.

If you add up fuel , food, accommodation wear and tear on you and your bike - flying one way to save 4-5 days is a good deal.
 
I nominate this for post of the year!!!

A few years ago, I rode from GTA to Vancouver, and it was a dandy ride, six days westward and five days coming back. I was 64 years old, and not accustomed to riding long distances. My bike was a new Suzuki V-Strom 650, which has since then carried me 84000 miles. I expected to take 8 days, about 400 miles per day. As it happened, I averaged well over 550 miles per day. I crossed the border at Sarnia, and entered BC north of the Grand Coulee dam. I saw a great variety of countryside, and enjoyed the trip mightily. Coming back, I rode through BC's interior, then Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, then south into Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and back through Sarnia and London.

I say go for it. The next year I rode to St. John's NL, so my American bike has been to all ten provinces, as well as most of the states.

Even rides that do not happen can be fun. Twice I tried to ride from Florida to Vancouver BC, and was turned back by weather, once by horrible wind when I entered Arizona in May 2010. A month later I entered Colorado, and was told to expect 600 miles of snow, in June yet! Again I turned around, so that year I rode almost 8000 miles to nowhere. Still, those rides were pleasant, and fondly remembered.

You are probably younger than I, and more resilient, so I say make that ride, and if something goes wrong it might still be a success.
 
Some friends took the train out with their bikes and rode back. Said it was fun.
 
You have a 2016 FJR1300! That bike was made for this trip. You will regret it just past Kenora if you don't ride.
Remember, bucket lists are supposed to be things you are going to do, not wish you could've. If you don't ride west this trip, then when? Are you planning to head west again soon?
Buy yourself some Nikes and just do it.
I ride a wee 650 Versys and I wouldn't hesitate.

Sent from my SM-A500W using Tapatalk
 
I remember reading a while back that if you have the time ride there through Canada and come back through the States.
I don’t get out to ride as much as I want but if I had the opportunity to do this, and was mechanically inclined and/ or had a great CAA package (or similar ), I would not hesitate.
Better to regret the things you do, than the things you never did. (Not that you will regret it, just trying to be poetic) (hey, that rhymes! )

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Treating life like a buffet leaves you with shallow memories. If you go to the Mandarin and only eat the shrimp you can't say you've really eaten Chinese food.

Read Max Burns "These are a few of my favourite roads" and cross the prairies via the secondaries.
 
I did it in 1990 on a Ninja 750 ... obviously when I was much, much younger than today! This was myself plus a friend from university. We took 5 weeks off and rode out to BC (on secondary roads through the prairies as suggested above) then down the west coast to Los Angeles and back through an indirect route through Utah and Colorado, then on main highways for the last part through the US Midwest. Am I glad I did it ... You betcha. Would I / could I do it again? Too hard to find the time, and I don't think my back would survive.

Do it while you can.

Highlights:
Ontario north of lakes Huron and Superior
Between the lakes in Manitoba (Friend's bike broke down there, in the furthest possible place from anywhere. I towed him with a rope tied to the grab rail of my bike about 250 km to Swan River MB)
The "badlands" in Alberta
Banff/Jasper national parks
Down the center of BC through the Okanagan
Vancouver Island
All the way down the US coast highway 101
"The Avenue of the Giants" - redwood trees in California
Wine country north of San Francisco
Alice's Restaurant
The canyon roads northwest of Los Angeles ... Mulholland Road ... The Rock Store. Kanan-Dume Road. Latigo Canyon Road.
My bike's turn to break down ... quit running on all four cylinders ... got it fixed at a shop in LA.
And south of Los Angeles ... Ortega Highway. We didn't do Mount Palomar ... didn't know about it, no internet back then.
But we did Angeles Crest, headed north and through Death Valley.
Went across the Hoover Dam.
Saw the Grand Canyon.
Monument Valley in Utah. Visited the Great Salt Lake (it stinks).
Estes Park, in Rocky Mountain National Park.

When you head east towards Denver, there is practically a line where you exit the mountains and enter grasslands and prairies. At that point, we hit I-76 and I-80 and set the mental cruise control and headed home.
 
5 weeks is excellent for two directions.
3 weeks is fine flying one way tho 4 would have been better as we could have done Alaska too...not just Hyder and or swung down the PCH.
 
First time I did the western run to BC was my 2nd year of riding. Then went down to LA and then back to TO. After that, had some friends move out there and went almost every year after for a handful of years. First year I took the Trans Canada out, the rest was thru the US.
 
2016 fjr1300es

The perfect bike for this trip, aside from an ST of course........

How long to you have for the round trip?
 
The perfect bike for this trip, aside from an ST of course........

How long to you have for the round trip?


any of the big touring bikes would be great for this run, mostly any bike but a SS would be alright i would think
 
You can do it on any bike. Just a matter of pain tolerance. Hell, there are ppl that go around the world on a bicycle.
 

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