The Route
We obviously have road limitations with our Rucks, the most obvious being highways. While we could argue that we’re allowed on them now since they’re wearing motorcycle plates, I doubt that the local and state police between CT and MD would agree with us. And to be totally honest, it would be genuinely dangerous to try and do this with a capped out flat-ground speed of 40-45 miles an hour. We started out with a simple Google Maps route, set to avoid highways, and adjusted it accordingly. Our final decision was to take the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River, as every bridge south of there is an interstate highway. This would allow us to stay northwest of NYC and Newark, and ultimately west of the Delaware River. We will end up brushing against the outskirts of Philadelphia, but far enough outside the city to hopefully avoid too much congestions (pending what time we’re in this area of course). Once we hit Delaware, it’s pretty much a straight shot down RT13 and ultimately RT1 along the water straight into the north side of Ocean City. Our current route will put us through CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, & MD, and will cover 381 miles, estimated (by car) to take 10 hours and 45 minutes. We have been arguing back and forth trying to estimate how long this is going to take us. A good portion of these roads are higher speed state roads, with speed limits up to 55mph, so the almost 11 hour estimation is based upon traveling the speed limit, which we will not be able to do on some of these roads. Doing 381 miles in 10.75 hours would work out to a 35.4mph average over the entirety of the trip. Realistically, I doubt we will see over 30; probably closer to 25. 30mph average would give us 12.7 hours, 25mph would give us 15.2 hours. We also estimate 4 stops for fuel given our capacity is 1.1 gallons, and wound out with some additional weight on board, we will be lucky to see much over 85 miles per gallon. We will also probably have to make stops to keep our vertebrae moving correctly and our legs from falling off, though I’m not sure how frequently we will feel the need to do this, as none of us have ever done much over 3 hours on a scooter before. I think the vast majority of the details are going to be worked out as we go, since we aren’t really sure what to expect, aside from the obvious things like fuel and Gold Bond breaks.
What if something goes wrong?
Everyone keeps asking what our plan B is, so here’s the answer: we do not have one.
We were going to initially have a chase vehicle to follow us down, with all of our luggage and some spare tools & parts, but he is no longer willing to turn a 6 hour drive into a 16 hour drive, so we lost that bit of support. We have some of the other guys in the group that are leaving at different times on Wednesday, that we could always plan a rendezvous with when we cross paths, where ever that may be. But again, that isn’t really a fall back. Our ride home is being handled by our friend Chris who is pulling down my 16’ trailer sometime early Thursday, which we will use to haul the scooters back home on Sunday (no we are not doing the return trip). Absolute worst case, I suppose we could wait until Thursday somewhere for Chris to come save us with the trailer, but that’s not part of the plan. Once we leave the house on Wednesday morning, there’s no turning back. “Those who fail are those who have a plan B.” I forgot who said that, and I’m sure it wasn’t related to riding mopeds, but we’re going to apply that here. So no plan B allowed.
This is going to be miserable. In the meantime, here’s some pictures of us enjoying our scooters. Probably the last time we’ll be seen on them with such facial expressions..
