Motorcycle Moving - the Start of a Great Vacation

Submitted by Linnea Bakos 31/01/2020

My great-grandmother passed away at the age of ninety-six. Although I never met her husband, my great-grandfather, I know he was an avid biker. Some of our favorite family photos include one of my mom when she was a little girl wearing the much too large motorcycle helmet of her grampa. Before my mom could talk, when she saw her grampa, she would make a VROOM, VROOM sound like his motorcycle made. Back in their younger days, my great-grandparents were part of a motorcycle club (NOT a motorcycle gang, as she corrected everyone who said that just to tease her) called the Streeterville Scramblers and they took multi-day bike trips. My grandmother fondly would recount the tale of a week long trip they took that went in Canada, although she wasn’t quite as happy with the rain they were caught in! They both felt there was nothing better than seeing scenery from the back of a bike with no window between them and the view, able to feel and smell the forests and fields they were riding through, and nothing like the intimacy of riding for hours so close to one another. For some people, riding on a motorcycle is the ultimate in freedom. So if touring on the back of a bike is such a wonderful experience, why don’t more people do it?

There are thirteen million motorcycles owned just in the United States. Worldwide, the number is a staggering 200 million! It many countries motorbikes are the primary form of transportation and some people don’t own cars or know how to drive them So what is the major obstacle to those motorcycle owners using their bikes to vacation? Well, there are actually two obstacles - the length of the average vacation and the location of the owner’s bike. If you want to take a week long trip through Alaska, but you live in NJ, it will take your whole week off to even ride to Alaska! Who wants to be limited to only those places you can drive to and from in a seven to ten day period of time? If you want to travel outside of North America, you certainly can’t drive your bike across the ocean to a destination on another continent. However, any adventurous traveller doesn’t want to be told where they can or cannot go. So what is a biker dreaming of riding in places far from home to do?

The answer is to contact A-1 Auto Transport, who transports more than just autos! They can ship and deliver your bike anywhere you want to be and will do it without worries for the owner. They are licensed, bonded and insured and you can trust they will look over your bike like it is their own - after all, they transport bikes to all the big rallies across the country and can even transport your bike overseas. It only takes a phone call to get a quote or to get it arranged. They can ship and deliver anywhere in the US or the world. There are choices as to how you send your bike to your chosen destination: it can travel by open air or enclosed transport, it can be delivered to a specific place or picked up at the airline terminal when you arrive, and it can even have the extra protection of being shipped in its own shipping crate. Call to investigate your options and then start dreaming and planning the ultimate road trip.

The idea of touring exotic places, or simply places closer to home that you’ve just been wanting to explore, is not a new one. In the film Easy Rider the main characters take a road trip through the American South - if the story doesn’t inspire you, the soundtrack sure will! The Motorcycle Diaries features a trip through Latin America. The movie One Week showcases the Canadian countryside from Toronto to British Columbia. You can travel from Mumbai to the mountains in Riding Solo to the Top of the World. Once you are inspired to take an adventure on your bike, be sure to watch Mask for a powerful reminder that there is no better time than now!

Maybe you aren’t the type of person to head out travelling on your own. At home, maybe you travel with your motorcycle club so that you have others to share the experience with, help to plan the travel with, and to hang out with after a long day on the road. Perhaps when you travel without your motorcycle you are the type of person who likes to travel with a guide and an itinerary and to have it all planned out for you - you just have to show up. Guess what? You can still do that and have your motorcycle by your side (OK, actually beneath you) anywhere you go. There are actually providers of motorcycle tours. Choices are quite varied and can take you just about anywhere you can imagine. Planet Ride will take you to the Alps, down Route 66, even to Madagascar to ride among the lemurs. With Eagle Riders, you can go coast-to-coast from Los Angeles to Orlando, or take shorter tours of places in between. There are many more tour providers and dozens more destinations to explore. Basically, your imagination is your only limit when it comes to biking the world.

So, you’ve decided when and where to go, and have packed your bags and set up the bike delivery with A-1 Auto Transport (who delivers much more than cars). What is your next step? You may be ready, but now you need to get your bike ready, too. Full instructions are on their website, but in a nutshell you will need to:

Remove anything loose from your bike

Clean it up

Turn off the alarm

Make sure the tank is no more than ¼ full

Check everything

Take pics, just in case

That’s it! Now it is time to head off, meet your bike at your destination, and enjoy the ride.

Submitted by Linnea Bakos 31/01/2020