RTW: North or South America?

[DD1100GS]

Hi folks,

at first, thanks a lot for the existence of the HUBB and the community. I am currently on a 1up RTW with an '94 1100GS. The beginning of my journey was Germany and i am currently now in Uzbekistan where i am going to do a bit of maintanence on the bike as well as on my own after the first 11000km.

Pamir Highway will be next, followed by Mongolia, towards Vladiwostok. My Eurasian trip will end in Japan by this October where i intend to fly my bike to Vancouver.

I am completely inexperienced with the north as well as south american continent and therefore have no idea how to proceed. The boundary conditions are as follows:
- Arrival 20th Oct.'25 (pm 10days) in Vancouver
- Not a big fan of riding the bike in the snow, nor put my tent in a snow field
- Motorbike and myself would like to be back in Europe in April for the last month of the trip
- CdP yes, and vacinations for south america are done
- would like to go from the west coast to one of the east coasts
- (optional) trip on a boat back to europe together with the bike would be very nice

As far as i see it, there would be two general options.

Numero Uno: Go down the west coast to mexico, spend the majority over winter in mexico, go back north on the US east coast to Toronto. Hope for a cheap Air Cargo deal of air canada back to europe.

I was looking for cruise ships, doing the east bound transatlantic, but couldn't find any in mid march. Tipps?

Numero Due (support necessary): Go down to Mexico (Pan Americana?), Solve the darian gap problem with a boat, do a bit of the pan americana and then go to Buenos Aires(?) where i am going to fly(?) the GS and myself to europe.

Especially at option number two, i have no idea if this is realistic or not. I am open to any proposals, based on your experiences. All sorts of recommendations are welcome and appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance, ride safe!
Best regards from Buxoro.

[Snakeboy]

Numero dos: Well you could ride from Canada to Patagonia in that 6 months time frame you mention (October to April) The question is will it be worth it? It will be a lot of riding and not much time for sightseing. And what if you have a major breakdown (God forbid) but it does happen and you have to wait weeks and maybe months for spareparts and such? Yes its happens - trust me I have been there and done that…

We humans are different though - some like to stop and smell the flowers along the way and some like to ride long days every day except oil change and laundry day…. You know yourself best and how you like to travel.

It could also be the only time in your life you have the possibility to ride all the Americas north to south - which could justify doing some long days in the saddle….

I am norwegian myself so I dont know how the weather usually is in Canada and northern parts of US in late October and November and December - but I presume it will be quite chilly and good chanses for snow here and there now and then.

Jumping the Darien Gap - I belive most travellers air freight their bikes nowadays since sadly the Sthalratte is out of business. But correct me anyone o
if Im wrong…?

Also its worth considering the weather patterns along your planned route. I belive there is a rainy season in central America in atuum, but maybe its over in December or so?

Carnet de Passage is not needed in any country in the Americas btw.

If I were you I with the time limits you have I would have enjoyed Mexico and central-America during the cold winter months and gone back up to US for shipping back to Europe in April. But thats me - I have already travelled the whole length of the Americas. Only you know whats best for you….

Good luck with your travels anyhow you go…

[markharf]

Lots of variables, most of which only you can figure out. I'll offer just a couple of points which seem to be missing from your post.

Leaving Vancouver in late October you'll be vulnerable to bad weather anyplace in western North America where there are mountains, which is most places except right along the coast. In my experience, the rains in Central America are more easily avoided than the snow, rain, ice, and gloom in the US, but long range weather is increasingly difficult to predict. I live near Vancouver, and November is our rainiest month. This limits what you can see or do, and tends to usher you southward rather efficiently.

As Snakeboy says we don't know why or in what manner you like to travel. If you like to move fast, all the way to Ushuaia and back up to Buenos Aires is not unreasonable--I did essentially that, with various difficulties and side trips included, but of course I missed a lot. Even if you don't like to move quickly, skipping Ushuaia would leave more time to explore South America.

If by then you prefer to move more slowly, a jaunt down the west coast of North America and some wandering around Mexico and Central America could easily absorb five months. If you got bored, you could always leave your bike for a few weeks and fly to any of the large or small Caribbean islands.

More the point, you might not enjoy a return ride from anyplace up to Toronto during March. Again you'd probably hug the coast for more agreeable (or at least less disagreeable) weather, but in the east not only does that involve a lot of riding through boring terrain and major population centers, but snow, ice and cold are still pretty normal that time of year. Shipping to Europe during March might be easier from Texas or Atlanta, even though shipping from the US is more difficult and costly than from Canada. Oh, and I'd check to see if Stephan Knopf has a container leaving from Florida around that time.

Last, you sound like you prefer surface shipping. To my knowledge there've been no reliable boat shipments around the Darien since the Stahlratte was sold, but people continue to find ways, only occasionally capsizing enroute. If that's not to your liking, air shipments from Panama to Bogata are very easily arranged. Shipping yourself and bike together by boat to Europe is not something I know much about, but you might check Grimaldi from South America.

In case it's not apparent, I'd head straight for South America in your position, even trying to limit my time in Vancouver since during your time frame the weather typically gets noticeably worse, day by day.

Hope some of that is helpful. Post back here about your trip!

[SpringBreak]

I live outside Seattle WA, your chances of see snow in vancouver BC that time of year are low, but it’s going to be mostly cold, windy, and rainy the entire stretch from there to Seattle. South of Seattle, unless you take the coast roads, it’ll be cold, but drier and less windy till northern California. Between southern Oregon and northerner California you might run into some snow depending on route, and how long it takes you to get there, but not likely if you clear the area by Jan, and very unlikely to collect on the road. Rain and wind are going to be the big issues for you, and generally chilly in the 5c to 10c range. It’ll stay a little cold all the way till central California (San Francisco area), but less rain the further south you get. After that winter tends to be pretty mild, mid-February in that area might be 15c, but often sunny.

If you plan to head up into the mountain ranges this all changes, by October the snow collection is pretty substantial and small highway passes are closed by then. Even though it’s June now there are still lots of high elevation roads have snow on them.

But, if you’re just doing north -> south and staying near the coast you’ll be fine, just dealing with the cold and wet.

All that said I’m sure it’s hard to adjust your schedule, but personally I’d move it a little if you can. Either start in South America in October when it’s spring, or start in North America in April which is spring. Of course ending up in Central America in summer is also not great. This route over six months basically means except for Central America it’s going to be winter pretty much the entire time. So either you can be cold for half of it, but rarely hot, or hot for half of it and rarely cold.

I’ve been all through Chile in June and the southern half is basically western Washington, western British Columbia in November. I was annoyed I went in the middle of my summer .


My wife, back to the driving rain, appreciating that I took her to Chile in the dead of winter.

When you come through this way hit me up!