The first of the dirt

Marc leaves us on Wednesday 24th June and we prepare for the first day of dirt tracks. However this proves to be somewhat of an anticlimax as the only dirt section is an 8 miles track, which though fun, feels way too short for what we had hoped.However this leads us on to the end of the Tail of the Dragon, a legendary road that has 311 bends in just eleven miles. It's a great way to end the day and we pull in to a tiny town at its base called Robinsville. A sleepy little town with a few gas stations, the obligatory huge drug store and a supermarket. We you are living on diner food on the go, the opportunity for some fresh food can't be over looked.

As it happens we are sharing our motel with 7 crazy Canadians, who insist we share a few beers from their cooler, which in light of it being a dry town is indeed a welcome gift after a long and extremely hot day. It has been pushing 100 degrees every day, with humidity to match. Not ideal biking weather.

The Canadians who not only ply us with beers, but insist we join them for a bbq (they are traveling well equipped)  6 Harley's and a back up vehicle with said bbq and cooler plus 26 crates of beer (there are many dry towns in this part of the world). We are also appointed honorary members of the Screamin Chicken Motorcycle Club, we are now the British chapter 😎  

We make an early start the next day, it's misty and cool as we get our first taste of real dirt road and some water action. The trail lead through the Tennesee hills and forests, it's a blissful start to the day as we find our feet on the dirt.

Later in the day we bump in to another TAT rider , Brenton from NZ, who it turns out is a bit of an off road legend, having competed in the International Six Day Enduro several times for his country. We have another long hot day in the saddle and the three of us eventually arrive at a nondescript row of gas stations, motels and face food outlets, that pass for a town that I can't remember the name of. We eat a mound of buffet bbq and salad and digest some very cold beer. The next day we all ride together to Lynchburg, it's on our way and of course happens to be the site of the Jack Daniels distillery! We do the guided tour, which is very informative and I'm impressed with how traditional the methods and machinery are. Ironically Lynchburg is a dry county, so though JD is made there, you can't drink the stuff. Surely only in America ?!

Saturday 27th June is our designated off day, five days on, one day off is the rule. Time for bike maintenance, laundry and rest. Simons CCM has some minor issues that have to be overcome and we do a good job at fixing the issues, it shod get him through the journey.  Weather still hot but the edge is taken off by some storms and a good down pour.

Sunday 28th - our best day riding yet, we cover 253 miles of tiny back road and dirt in very rural Tennessee and Mississippi. We pass mobile homes with semi tractor units outside, the size and decal of these monsters dwarfs the owners living accommodation . Food and fuel are starting to thin out as we get further away from habitation and the highways.

First days on the road

We leave Virginia Beach early on the morning of Monday 22nd June at 6.30am, it's already 80 degrees! We have the GPS unit set to no highways so that we can stick to the back roads. It's longer and slower than the interstate, but our bikes are not suited to constant straight line use, we need variety, so do the bikes.

We breakfast at 9.30 at a crap chain diner with piss for coffee, but the staff are bowled over to have 'real life English people' in their "Resturant" (a very loose term in these parts ! We have a very long hot sweaty day in the saddle covering nearly 300 miles. A long way on these kind of bikes.

Along the way I have a drama with my bike, the exhaust end can is running super hot and has melted the right side panel where pannier is resting. Fortunately I caught it just before it burnt through the pannier. A visit to a auto store, some wire and a bit of duct tape, all looking good !

Arrival and preparation

It was great to meet up with my old mate Marc, while he has been in the U.S. for 30 years now, we are still the best if mates and can pick straight back up in to a conversation. True friends! We have dinner and a couple of well needed beers with him and his new wife Grace, who is an absolutely charming and clearly they are both very happy.

Marc has kindly lent us his pick up and the following morning, Friday 19th June, we collect a large trailer from U-Haul and head to Baltimore to collect the bikes from the warehouse. Unfortunately we get caught up in horrendous traffic going through DC and don't get to the warehouse until 5pm. As it closes at 4pm we call ahead and offer the guys a "drink" to stay until we are there. It's money well spent and by 5.30 we are on the road home very relived to finally have our bike , safe secure and intact.

The following day in the sweltering heat of Virginia (not what I was expecting) we uncrate the bikes and rebuild the front ends. Mine fires up on the button, but Simons battery is screwed, which is not a total surprise, however as his bike uses a lithium iron unit, which can't be bought in any old shop, this present a problem. After much discussion we fit a traditional lead acid unit of the same dimensions and all is good, fingers crossed!

After some very generous hospitality from both Grace and Marc, as well as Grace's family, we are finally set to go. All packed we look over the maps to decided on the first days destination, cold beers in hand. Tomorrow at 6.30am we will ride to the beach to say our farewell to the east coast and the next ocean we see will be the Pacific 😎.

Enroute to America

Early mornings are never my favourite, you just have to console yourself with the prospect of an early arrival at your destination. So at 5am, my ever helpful brother picked me up and we headed out on to a clear M25 for Heathrow. I've received an email last night that both bikes are clear of customs, they had been pulled out for inspection. Nothing untoward, the whole container was being checked, fortunately these days they simple x-ray the complete box, where as they used to have to unload the whole container and you ended up with a load of storage charges. 

So the good news is that Simons bike has been delivered to the warehouse in Baltimore, unfortunately my bike didn't fit on to the truck and as of Tuesday 16th was still in NYC, however this should have been rectified by Wednesday evening. I await a confirmation email and I place my trust in American efficiency 😉

The Trans America Trail - a new challenge

Thus far all my bike journeys have been on roads, rough ones admittedly and the odd dirt one. However this next chapter is to take place on predominantly dirt or off road trails.




We will be starting in Virginia Beach as my old mate Marc lives there and it will alow us to be on the beech both side of the country. We will join the trail in Jeriko Tennessee and end on the west coast of America, we will be covering approx. 4,500 miles of back road America that follows the old wagon train route to out west. The other bike change to my usual style is that I will be riding with a partner, Simon Collis. Simon and I have known each other for approx. 20 years, having met when I was selling bikes at Eddy Grimstead`s, yes he was one of my customers and he still speaks to me!

The weapon of choose has had to be changed as well, as much as I love the old BMW, its just too fat and heavy to even consider using on some of the trails that we will be attempting, especially in Colorado and Utah. So I have opted for a Yamaha WR450F, which is ideal for the terrain, if not the comfort of my buttocks. Simon on the other hand has opted for a CCM GP450, lets just say the jury is still out on that choose!

Fortunately the bikes being purpose built off road bikes ,  have not required much in the way of modification, except a little down gearing on mine to make road use a little easier and the addition of GPS mounts on both bikes.

 The hardest part so far has been finding a shipping company that would deal with the bikes via sea freight and not trying to pull our pants down on the price. This market does seem to have its fair share of people who try to treat you like you are stupid or are in themselves stupid. It has been a very frustrating processes , which fingers crossed is all now done, as the bikes are at the port simply awaiting customs clearance. With two days to go before departure, its close but should all be good.