2 months on the continent

bigalmac said:

Where I did see a big difference was driving in the states... where everything is much slower and generally no one seems to get upset, well at least in California and Nevada, didn't drive anywhere else.

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Yeah I've not driven in the states, was about 14 when I last went there. I really liked the turning right on a red thing, makes a lot of sense. Didn't know about the highway lanes thing though, probably was getting too excited about Disneyland to pay attention

55 mph though No wonder the country seems so vast if it takes that long to get anywhere

Right, I'm off soon

I'll try and get on here to post updates occasionally, but otherwise have a goose at my blog page.

I'll be trying to update it once a week or so, though I might end up too busy having fun to bother finding an internet cafe anywhere

Jonny

Evening all, well after all that, I'm back home already I managed to do my back in with constant riding and camping, and only managed to get to get about 100 miles further from le mans

I think I'm gonna need to see a chiropractor now, I really wanted to get booked on the BMW level 1 course too! Bloody nightmare. Still had a wicked time while I was there. Met up with a load of british bikers in Le Mans, all of them took the piss because I was on a loaded up BMW compared to their sports bikes. Still, when it got to the end of the weekend they all said they'd rather be on the comfy GS for their ride home
Was the first race I've ever been to as well. Well good, Saw Rossi overtake stoner on the first lap right in front of me. I happened to be sitting next to the 1 lonely ozzy bloke in the crowd, among cheers for Rossi you could just hear this bloke going "come on, Stoner!".

I still want to carry on with the trip one day, but I'm going to have to save up so I can stay in more hotels and guesthouses to give my back a rest. Oh dear, I'm getting old

Unlucky Just out of interest what were you using as a sleeping mat while camping?

"One bad thing about driving in the US is the 55 mph max speed in most states".

I've been to the States three times now, once when I hired a car and twice on my own bike. I spent three months and 15,000 miles last summer riding from New York to California and back again.

Whilst some states have a 55mph limit, many don't. I think (I may be wrong) that New Mexico and California have a 75mph limit. If you think of the US as fifty different countries, each with it's own laws. Police, Governors and Senators. Helmet law is different everywhere, as is filtering (lane splitting). California is OK, everywhere else it's a no-no. Frequently I saw signs telling drivers to move back to their right after overtaking but they have their fair share of middle lane roadhogs too.

Getting back to the speed limits, I rode at about 80mph everywhere and that was what many of the drivers were also doing. I had no trouble (this time). The thing is not to stand out from the crowd and greatly exceed the speed of the rest of the traffic. In 2002 I did get a bollocking for riding a fully laden bike from a cafeteria 15yds to the gas pumps whilst not wearing a helmet! And I got pulled over for filtering up to the front of a queue of traffic stopped at a temporary traffic light in the middle of a desert.

I absolutely loved riding in the US - great big open spaces, quieter roads, big horizons and skies. Having said that, they are driving quicker and quicker these days and will soon be catching up with our cagers. The average speed of cars between Maidstone and Dover on the M20 must be around 90mph these days.