NYC to LA trip in December (Via Atlanta)

[David Allaband]

Hi everyone. I'm riding across the country between December 9th and December 20th 2011. This is kind of a last minute thing. I'm leaving New York and if I want to keep the bike I have to ride it across the country. Okay I guess I could ship it and fly out to meet it but that would cost about as much and be lame.

I've done this kind of thing several times before on motorcycles and in vehicles decades older then my 1993 Yamaha FJ. That's my problem. I can work on old machines, but newer stuff like 80s, 90s and whatnot are pretty confusing. So there's a chance I could end up on the side of the road with plenty of mechanical knowledge and enough tools but not enough specific knowledge about this more modern machine. I might get stuck with ability but no knowledge. Sadly that's a problem I know well.

Anybody want to give me their phone number so I can call for help and advice if I break down?

Thanks a lot either way. This community has helped me often the last few months. I bought an FJ for a really good price because it hadn't been started in a couple years and the owner was really nice to me. Before I got to ride the darn thing I had to completely dismantle and rebuild the entire carburation and exhaust system. Thank goodness the electrical, valve, and ignition systems are good! Not to mention the transmission! All together it's a good bike, it just didn't handle storage too well.

This Yamaha was me getting back into riding after two years without a bike.
I gave up riding because of three bad accidents in three years. Before that I rode a 1973 BMW every single day as my one and only form of transportation and wrote for motorcycle magazines about it. http://allaband.com/SitePages/Awake%20and%20Alive.htm

A few months ago when I got the urge to ride again I rationalized that all of my accidents would have been prevented with more modern breaking technology. I wanted a bike with Duel floating disk ABS up front like the FJ. My last bike had drum breaks.

Anyhow, I had a lot of questions for a new guy to this group and I couldn't offer any help to anyone else because I know nothing about this bike so I've been a freeloader and everyone was still really nice to me. FJ riders are a good community. Thank you.

PS. If anybody knows cheap motels between Atlanta and LA that would really help me out too!

My email address is my last name @gmail.com.

Dave.

[FJmonkey]

Email sent.

[The General]

Really enjoyed your read. Thanks for a great contrbution.  Would like to literally hear some more of your trip.