So the wife and I are out yesterday enjoying a nice ride. We stop for a drink and to stretch our legs and we start to talk about our 25th. anniversary which will be in September of next year, and she says" I think we should do a cross country ride on the bike". (I think I have a keeper!)

So help us out...anyone ever ship their bike, if so who did you use? The MOCO?
I'm thinking of having it shipped from Maryland to California and then take two weeks to ride back. Now the long process begins of deciding on a route, what is a must see and what places to avoid....I'll be asking a lot of questions on here in the coming months and I look forward to all of your input...

So any ideas....?

 

americanroadmagazine.com/forum

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/forum.php

First link is great source about the old us routes.

Are you going to camp, motel?

How often are you going to want to stop and see tourist site's?

It's about a 3,000 mile trip, at 600 mile a day 5 day trip. Two weeks is really 16 days if you leave on a Sat and get back on a Sun.

That makes it an 187 mile per day trip. So maybe you can ride both ways.

You could take us 50 all the way to CA, come back us 6 or us 20, even hit part of us 66.

 

My wife and I did a CC ride earlier this year but we didn't ship. We went up the coast from San Diego with a detour to Sequoia NP and Yosemite NP then threw San Fran and back up the coast to washington (the entire coast is with out a doubt the best ridding there is) then made a right and headed to Yellowstone, Black hills and then made our way home

 

Going the hotel route...with having to pack gear for cold, hot, wet, and in between not to mention what she will want to pick along the way....no room for camp gear.

I think the two weeks will be good as i will give us time to stop and see different tourist traps along the way or if we lose a day here and there for weather....

She has never been to Texas so thats on her list of states to ride through

I will check out those links...thanks for the help!

 

With respect to shipping your bike from Maryland to the People's Republic of California, start by looking on Google. Here are a few that I looked at three years ago when I was planning to ship my RK Custom from Washington D.C. to Seattle:

http://www.motorcycleshippers.com/s_shippingprices.htm

http://www.motorcycleshippers.com/

http://motorcycleshipping.biz/


Be advised that shipping your ride isn't inexpensive - average costs to me were about $1200.00 door to door with taxes (and it hasn't likely gone down over the past 3 years...) Plus, you had to take your bike to a dealer, who would loosen mirrors, handlebars, drain gas and oil, etc. to get the bike ready to safely crate it; and on the delivery end it needed to be delivered to another dealer who would reverse the process so you could safely ride it. But the other side of that coin is that if you rode out you'd spend roughly the same amount on gasoline, food, and overnight stays - assuming your wife is not into camping each night...

Here's another option. If you and your wife are able to come up with 16 or 18 days you can ride out to CA through Denver and Las Vegas, and then return back to D.C. on a loop that takes you up through Yellowstone and the Black Hills. As mentioned I'm not sure you'd save much in overall cost, but it would be one hell of a ride!

 

My wife and I have used a company out of Milwaukee, www.haulbikes.com with great success. We have done the same thing where we've been limited in time and used them to send the bike out and ride back. they have always been very professional and you don't have to do anything with the bike to prep it. Just make the arrangements to have the bike picked up and there you have it. We have loaded tour packs and everything without issue. The nice thing I found out dealing with them is the Harley dealers welcome them to pick up or drop off bikes from their dealership. They do this without any costs to you which is pretty cool. I guess the dealerships figure they get you in you will buy something. That works out great! We have flown into cities on Friday night from work, got a hotel at the airport then next morning taxi over to the dealership and be on the road before 10:00 AM. How do you beat that? If you want to go to major runs Haul bikes offers discount trips. What I have done is schedule a trip in the winter for summer trip (if you can) and get discount fares that way.

Later,

Tom

 

They seem like a really good company.

I almost shipped my wife's bike and mine to Florida. Their zone map tells you what it will cost, but they added a fuel surcharge that increased it about $100 (for the two bikes), but then they took $50 off for the multiple bike shipment. Still cheap. Wouldn't have had to do anything to the bikes. Just leave it at the dealer, fork unlocked, and that's it. It would have been less than half of what other companies charge, and they all make you drain fuel, remove battery, etc.

Dealers on both ends were pleased to deal with them. Everything was all set up.

But then my boss "postponed" my vacation. Dang.

 

That sounds like the deal I was looking for...I will look into using them for sure, thanks for the heads up.

 

Following

 

Wow...according to haulbikes.com on their quick pricing guide it will only cost me $675 + an additional $70 to have $25K insurance on the bike. I will have to contact them for an accurate quote but that will be tough to beat.