Author - seanflanagan71

Bike crating at Richmond Motorsports

My freighting company had recommended I contact Richmond Motorsports (now defunct) to handle the crating of the motorcycle. I’d been in touch with them a few days before, and let them know they could expect to see me on Thursday afternoon. I found their store easily, and from my very first contact was treated very well. Multi-tasking service manager Miles...

Last familiar face, first international border

I continued the hot highway drone northwest into the tawny hills of Oregon, and entered Washington surprised to be surrounded by massive fields of crops. After 500 miles, searching for lodging in Ellensburg, and being weary and wary of braving the hoofed wildlife of Snoqualmie Pass, I paid much for little lodging. Following the next morning’s free carb-fest...

Sand dunes, butt burn

So begins the long freeway burn to Vancouver, B.C.  — necessary to ensure that the bike is prepped, crated and in the shipper’s hands on Monday the 9th. I rode fill-up to fill-up, stopping at rest areas to pull off my boots and socks to let my toes loose to play in the grass. I was paying extra attention to staying hydrated: the August sun turned the...

New Mexico, Utah, Idaho

From Farmington we headed to Durango to meet Larry, who would ride with us for the day. John had peeled off from our group during the previous night’s deluge, so after Larry joined us, our group again numbered four.  Randy and Larry were on Guzzi big twins, and Pete was astride a BMW RT1150, so your author’s overloaded 650 single was the rolling...

Humble beginnings

Let the record reflect that we intended to depart Silver City at 8AM, and indeed I pressed the starter button at 8:03…but we weren’t on the highway until two hours later thanks to a misdiagnosed starting problem with my bike. What we thought was a flooded carb was actually a lack of fuel delivery. Once it was all sorted, we headed north through...

The day before the big day

First-kiss excited and bully-fight scared. This is the day before departure, packing the bike, trying to make it all fit with some semblance of order to a backing track of Jekyll and Hyde saying, “Do I really need all of this shit?” and “What am I forgetting?” But this is evidence of forward movement, a huge relief after a year of planning...