I recently did this exact trip and no offense but the previous post almost sounds like it was written buy whoever sells the train tickets from Cusco directly and is basically making it sound horrible. To be honest, riding from Alaska to Chile, taking the "back door route" to Machu Pichu was in fact one of our most favorite roads of all. And we did it two up on a KLR. The other couple we were with were on a KTM 990 and a BMW f600. The ride itself was spectacular. There are MANY places to stay along the way that are beautiful little villages along the river and there was gas a plenty. In fact had we known now what we didn't know then we would have stayed a few nights along the river and not so many nights in Cusco deciding wether to take the train or not. The death road was absolutely stunning, granted I can see how it could be dangerous in heavy rains but other than that it was AMAZING. And the drive through all the villages between Cusco and Agua Caliente were stunning themselves. As well as the roads and huge windy beautifully paved mountain passes between them all. There is even a town where if the rain is to bad and you can't ride on where you can jump in the train from there and continue on. But if you can make it ti Aguas Calientes, there you will find one of the most stunning hot springs in the entire South America. We rhode our bikes down into the canyon and put our tents up and stayed for I believe 5 usd if not free. Then there is a hostal where you can park your bikes indoors for again I believe 5-10 usd a day while heading to Machu Pichu. Cheers and have fun...