Planning first trip Across the US, advice needed
 

Hello all

I'm a 27 year old engineer from Scotland, just quit my job and now I'm planning to travel across NA. Since none of my friends are willing to quit their jobs as well or have the money to follow me, I'll be doing most of the trip solo. I've been lurking on the site for a while and I figured it would be a good idea to finally sign up and get some expert advice.


The exact route I am still working on but in general I would start in Florida September time-frame. Overview breaks down like this:

• Rent a motorcycle for Keys West. I hear it's beautiful and I should do it since I won't have another chance like this for quite some time.
• Find a way to get up to Atlanta, GA to visit a friend (Greyhound or some other means)
• Greyhound or something to New York city
• From NYC to Boston
• Fly/train from Boston to Chicago
• Rent a motorcycle in Chicago to drive to Los Angeles, a type of route 66 thing. Somewhat clichéd but good to cross off the bucket list.
• Head down to San Diego to stay with family for a while.

That's the basic plan. How much of Route 66 I want to travel and what I want to see is still a work in progress. One thing I realised is that with all the motorcycle rental costs, plane/train/bus tickets, etc; it comes to something like 6,000 USD.

I could get a good second hand motorcycle for that and then sell it afterwards. Even if I only sell it for half the buying price, I would still save some cash and have a blast to boot.

My question comes to where to buy the bike and how to register. Every state is different and this information is scattered all over the internet. Some states need just insurance and an address while others require state drivers license and social security number as well.

I know I will need to have a permanent address in every situation. I have some friends and family around the US (Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, California) and they would be willing to let me use their address.

Easiest option would be to use my cousins address in CA, buy and register the bike there. But my plans were to start on the East Coast to avoid being in New York at the start of Winter. Buying in CA, hitting the interstate to get to the east coast just to tour back to CA seems a bit redundant.

Ideally I would like to buy the bike in Florida or Illinois, get temporary tags and register when I get to California but I don't know how long temporary tags are valid for and if this is even possible.

Bit of a long first post so my apologies. Can anyone offer advice?

Start by thinking about the weather. You don't say how long your trip is going to last, but leaving Chicago in, say, November to ride through the Plains, Rockies and high deserts to L.A. might not be very wise. The Keys, on the other hand, are ideal in mid-winter, but too hot (for me, at least) and hurricane-ridden during September. Etc.

Buying a bike in Florida is often done. I don't know about Illinois, but see above. In California, Arizona, New Mexico not so difficult. But in the end it's really not going to be worth getting all worked up about any of this until you figure out how the weather affects your plans.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

I was planning september to do the keys to chicago part and then leaving chicago late september / early october and be in California 3 weeks later.

I only checked the weather in California and the keys. Is the weather bad october time?

That is very do-able. Think about just doing the entire ride on a bike. Here is an idea

Buy a bike wherever you land and register it there...or just ride it under the owner's name as long as you carry the title/pink slip.

:funmeteryes: Just start shopping on CraigsList (any US city) for a suitable bike. Here's the SD CL link: craigslist: san diego classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events

Then just sell the bike when you depart. Easy peasy!

I'm in San Diego and can assist you when you arrive here.

Do you already own a bike ?

If so ship it over, I have just sent one from Liverpool to Halifax, NS by sea. It was in transit for 1 week and cost £700 for shipping, £120 for an agent to release it and about £120 in fees. The agent is optional but they can do all the hard work and have it ready for you on arrival.

The bike can remain in the USA for 1 year.

Thanks for the reply. I am now thinking to do the whole trip by bike but I want to do it as legally as possible. As a UK citizen, I am confused as to which state will allow me to register a bike in my name.

Ideally, I would like to buy and register the bike in Florida and use my cousin's Californian address but I'm not sure if that is possible or how long it would take.

That could be an option I'd look into. Can you tell me what company you used?

Yep we went with WWWW Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics - worldwide ocean transport, inland services, supply chain solutions, terminal services , main contact is Debbie Greenwood, debbie.greenwood@2wglobal.com also CC in forwardinguk@2wglobal.com

Debbie is based in Southamptoon, but the RoRo goes from Liverpool.

In Halifax, we used Atlantic Custom Brokers. They were very efficient Karen handled the import kking@atlanticcustombrokers.com .

I also entered details in the Horizons shipping DB