Is Route 66 worth riding ?

There's a good site here : http://www.historic66.com/ but wondered if it's worth it at least in the eastern sections .. so apart from the 'been there done that' if you've done it, or part of it, would you recommend it?

It's one of those 'life' things that have to be done for some people. It was for me so I rode it 1999. I did enjoy it but did it in ten days which was far too quick to enjoy it to the full so I will back to do it again sometime.
If you fancy doing it. DO IT. :D
 
There's a good site here : http://www.historic66.com/ but wondered if it's worth it at least in the eastern sections .. so apart from the 'been there done that' if you've done it, or part of it, would you recommend it?

If you really want to go to the places that it runs through then yes. However, my experience in the West is that there's not that much of it left and what is there can be incredibly kitsch, eg Seligman.

There are much, much better roads to ride in the USA - Highway 1 down the California coast, many of the roads in the Californian Sierra Nevada and much of Colorado and Utah. Having ridden those and driven some of the Western part of Route 66 in an SUV, I've got no desire to ride it.
 
If you really want to go to the places that it runs through then yes. However, my experience in the West is that there's not that much of it left and what is there can be incredibly kitsch, eg Seligman.
... I've got no desire to ride it.


White man speaketh the truth.:p

Ya gotta remember why 66 was created; to avoid the mountain passes, high desert and desolate areas and for cars to travel on flat, straight, wide open roads.

Most of it has been replaced with interstates that are equally boring. The route carved a path from Chicago to LA by conveniently avoiding all of the good stuff, stuff bikers tend to find. Unless you're on a pig of a Harley - then the flat, straight roads really appeal to you.

Portions from Santa Fe westward aren't horribly bad - but anything east of that is a complete waste on a bike.

Much better routes, as Schtum suggests, going through the Rockies of Colorado, desert of Utah, Lake Tahoe, northern CA, etc.
 
There's a good site here : http://www.historic66.com/ but wondered if it's worth it at least in the eastern sections .. so apart from the 'been there done that' if you've done it, or part of it, would you recommend it?

As already mentioned, 1000's of miles of roads better than R66. I'll go through a few of them with you nearer the day:thumb
 
we did it in may/april.

decided on a car as it was 1/4 price and we camped everywhere so could carry more stuff.

I would say its not a motorcycle trip. (unless you are a German chap wearing wannabe, and you will see 100s of them !)

very straight and boring in places, also windy like you wouldn't believe.

Highway 1 can be lovely - I prefer to go north from San Francisco as its far prettier.

But.... out of 15 or so trips, I have only had perfect weather for that ride only a couple of times.

Cold and foggy quite often when only 20 miles inland its beautiful.

Look at ADVrider etc to see where the locals go :thumb
 
Williams is a lovely town and an ideal overnight for the Grand Canyon. Other than that, Route 66 was extremely tedious in California and Arizona :(
 
Highway 1 can be lovely - I prefer to go north from San Francisco as its far prettier.

But.... out of 15 or so trips, I have only had perfect weather for that ride only a couple of times.

Cold and foggy quite often when only 20 miles inland its beautiful.

:thumb

1 mile normally is enough to get out of the gloom. It never ceases to amaze me how the temperature changes.It's caused by the real heat of central California dragging the cold air in off the cold pacific.

I have a girlfriend who lives in the Bay area and it's feckin freezing in the summer. A great writer once said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" :eek:
 
You've all pretty much confirmed my suspicions ... followed it on Google Earth and it did look boring in many places and that website warns against some of the inner city routes as 'not advised' anyway ..

Ok it's across Canada then sticking north of the TransCanada Hwy ....

Thanks,

Peter
 
As a road/ ride some of it can be pretty boring, and I'm sure that there are better rides elsewhere, but as a wander down memory lane, with a large dollop of recent history, and as an insight into middle America its hard to beat. We took almost 3 weeks and we were able to meet and chat to locals in the diners and bars. Everyone was very welcoming, one local sheriff gave us the you all have a good day routine. We hope to do it again one day, and take even longer over it. We've sort of stopped riding through places and collecting badges, and started stopping off more often and appreciating the countryside and towns we're riding through.
 
A great writer once said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"

Mark Twain!!
 
Hi

I did R66 in 2017.

We spent three weeks do it, with plenty of off route sites planned in.

For example the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas.

I was deffo never bored, so obviously everyone has different expectations.
 
... so after Monument Valley ride through Medicine Hat, or overnight there for a great 'swinging steak', then take the 261 up Moki Dugway ... you won't be disappointed and it's doable on a Harley ...
 
I've done it, and lots of it was great, but in hindsight there are much better routes across the US. Much of it is very flat and dull - in fact I suspect it is deliberately on the flattest route to make it easier for those old cars. And also as others said, much of it doesn't exist any more, it has been paved over with interstate, and you don't want to ride 3000 miles of interstate. So instead I'd plot a route to the places that you want to see, taking in as many scenic byways as you can (Great website here).

Also, it's just me, but I can mostly take or leave American cities (NYC and SF excepted). What the US has that is unlike anything in the world is vast but accessible wilderness... California, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon. The East coast is fine, but it is the west that will set your pulse racing. So my advice would be forget the obvious tick of route 66 and instead get lost in the wilds.
 
Ride a couple of hundred miles of it to get rid of the itch, and then visit other places, Rte 66 loads of places closed down last time I was over there in 2007, and it was not looking better with all the new interstates being built, but do a day on it and at least your tick box will be sorted, then explore many other places, as the good SGT will surely say later..........:beerjug: and if you can do it in September, it is better a tad cooler and not as much trafic as kids are back in school.
 
not much of it really left to ride. I rode the section near Kingman - the Oatman highway which is amazing but only very short. there is so much more to see and ride in USA.
Also the National Trails highway route 66 part is quite nice to ride passing through some really old towns with great names such as Amboy, Bagdad, Siberia and Klondike.
 


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