nev
Super Térrarist
While we were on a bike trip in India in 2007 - I've probably written about it in a ride report for that trip - Without crashing I managed to run my Enfield off the road and made contact with the road with my right foot, which then caused my lower leg to pivot at the knee in a direction completely different to that which anyone would have designed a knee to bend, which tore/damaged/crushed the lateral meniscus and gave me months and months of walking displeasure and the ability to "crack" my knee whenever the tendons get a bit wound up. One other side effect of this was that on several occasions after the initial injury, when i pivoted my weight on my knee in a particular way, the nerves would send a message to the quad muscles in that leg to shut down and I would fall to the ground like a sack of spuds.
About 12 months ago Jo suggesting that we go for a holiday back to New Zealand south Island. The Aussie dollar was doing a bit better than it is today, and while fudging the figures a little, I did manage to put together a case that the difference between a bike trip on hired bikes in NZ and the USA would just be the additional cost of the airfares to LA rather than to Christchurch... and from that, a 2 week holiday to NZ escalated to a 5 week trip to North America. I'm sure in the long run that the difference in cost was only minor, if you move the decimal place to the left
Some investigation into bike hire in USA led me to MotoQuest, who are based in Anchorage but have offices in Portland OR and Los Angeles. They do tours and bike hire. Initially my plan was to hire in LA and drop the bikes in Portland, but after being told that there was no sales tax in Oregon, and that the cost of hiring 2 bikes for a month would be significantly cheaper, the decision was made to start and finish in Oregon. Because this company specialises in one way hires between Portland/LA and Anchorage, which must go through Canada, the hire company had no issues with their bikes being taken out of the USA and into Canada, which broadened the scope of the trip somewhat.
About 12 months ago Jo suggesting that we go for a holiday back to New Zealand south Island. The Aussie dollar was doing a bit better than it is today, and while fudging the figures a little, I did manage to put together a case that the difference between a bike trip on hired bikes in NZ and the USA would just be the additional cost of the airfares to LA rather than to Christchurch... and from that, a 2 week holiday to NZ escalated to a 5 week trip to North America. I'm sure in the long run that the difference in cost was only minor, if you move the decimal place to the left
Some investigation into bike hire in USA led me to MotoQuest, who are based in Anchorage but have offices in Portland OR and Los Angeles. They do tours and bike hire. Initially my plan was to hire in LA and drop the bikes in Portland, but after being told that there was no sales tax in Oregon, and that the cost of hiring 2 bikes for a month would be significantly cheaper, the decision was made to start and finish in Oregon. Because this company specialises in one way hires between Portland/LA and Anchorage, which must go through Canada, the hire company had no issues with their bikes being taken out of the USA and into Canada, which broadened the scope of the trip somewhat.