The Trans America Trail: An attempt to cross America on a 125cc motorcycle

Nothing Better Than a Bad Idea

You can watch this journey in vidid life-like color HERE.

Pre-Ramble Part One

It’s about a week before my proposed leave day and I’m excited and I'm nervous. Mostly excited. I’m riding solo starting in Asheville, NC to the New Mexico/Colorado border where my buddy John (aka Johnny Pow)  is going to meet up to finish. We bought Sam’s gps files and are going to do that route with a possible jaunt on the UTBDR.

Here’s how this all got started. For the past few years I’ve been obsessed with figuring out a way to be able to travel and find adventures with my wife when we’re finished working (if we ever finish working, which will be never). I’m especially obsessed with an overland vehicle called the EarthRoamer. The only way we could ever afford one of these is if we sell our house - and I’m perfectly willing to do that.

The point is, I started watching all sorts of overlander YouTube videos. At the end of one of those videos, YouTube, in its creepy infinite wisdom, suggested C90 Adventures as something I might enjoy. Boy was YouTube right.

Ed March is now one of my top personal heroes. The C90 reminded me of a Trail 70 I had as a kid, and I was blown away at what Ed was doing on that little piece of shit bike of his.

He didn’t give one single crap about anything other than the places he was seeing, what he was experiencing, and how much fun he could have doing it. It was extremely inspiring. Mostly I was blown away by how much pure unadulterated fun he seemed to be having. I’ve ridden street bikes since I got a license at 16. But adventure riding like this was a whole new world. This sent me on a whirlwind binge of other YouTube motorcycle adventure channels.

Then I got to the episodes where Ed March was doing the Trans America Trail. The Trans America Trail?! I’ve been on this earth and into motorcycles for a long time. And I had never in my life heard of the Trans America Trail until that moment.

Sitting in bed one night watching on my laptop - I was telling my wife how freaking awesome Ed’s adventure was. She could hear the envy and hero worship in my voice. Her response was, “You should do that. It sounds like something you’d enjoy. And you’re going to be dead or in an assisted living home any second now. So you’d better do it while you still can…” Okay - I’m paraphrasing a bit there. But that’s the gist of it. We’re at an age (early 50’s) where it’s become extremely apparent that now is the time. While we still can - we should. My wife’s overall coolness is unprecedented and renowned. But - her response surprised me. Because without her telling me that this was actually possible, without her pointing out to me that it was something I could actually do - it would have never occurred to me. And why would it occur to me that I could take thirty days to go do something so incredibly awesome? I have to work. I have a family. There’s all kinds of shit I have to do. I have responsibilities. All true. But - to hell with it. And before she could take it back I said, “I’m doing it.” That was early September of 2020.

Cut to my old friend Johnny Pow (aka trialstech on ADVRider). I’m looking back at our text thread from September. We’re both part time musicians and we were both putting out albums at the time. So the texts are all about which record pressing plants we were using, managing our Kickstarter campaigns, and getting special wax mage records made. It was all about music music music. Until September 17, 2020. That’s when I sent John a link to Sam’s TAT site - with no explanation. John’s response was “I have my 650 dual sport”. This is a bike that hadn’t run in a decade, but I took the response as a promising sign. I encouraged John to check out Ed March on YouTube. Then on September 24 I came across some information about a new version of the Honda Trail that was coming to the states. When I saw the photo of this new bike every nostalgia gland in my body exploded. Thoughts of all the fun I’d had on that Trail 70 came pouring in.

Honda’s nostalgia game is strong. They hooked me instantly. It was not a choice - i had to get ahold of this bike. I texted John the picture.

John: “Are you considering that for the TAT? What’s the top speed on that thing?” This was a very good first question to ask. Sometimes ingredients come together in such a way that your only choice is to make a meal out of them. A stupid, idiotic, poorly conceived, momentous, once in a lifetime, hearty as hell meal.

What followed was an aggressive campaign to 1. Convince Johnny Pow to put money down on a 2021 Honda Trail CT125, and 2. Convince Johnny Pow to take the aforementioned tiny toy bike on an epic trip across the country. Knowing that it’s fairly simple to convince someone to do things they already want to do - I felt pretty confident that this was all going to happen. Put the napkin on your lap. Dinner is served.

I put a deposit down on October 19. John ordered his without a deposit on December 3. While we waited for the bikes to come we went on a TAT, Honda accessories, bike luggage, and camping gear research spree. We watched Long Way Up/Down/Over/Under, On Any Sunday, hundreds of YouTube motorcycle adventure video and read tons of articles and stalked every forum. We were in it. I don't think either one of us has mentioned music since this started. Our texts have turned into volumes of motorcycle minutia.

John picked up his bike on February 3 and I was so pissed that I’d put a deposit down two months earlier and he got his sooner. His first impressions were… well, they were not glowing.

John:“It’s fun but pretty slow. Rarely got it over 45.”

Ang: “How’s your TAT confidence level?”

John: “Can’t judge yet. I mean Ed did it on a 90. And Groms have done it.”

("Ed did it and the Kiwi Groms did it" has become a mantra that we repeat in our darkest hours.)

My CT125 showed up the next day.

Ang: “Well dude, it is really fun. But it’s completely incapable of anything. Doing the TAT with these would definitely be an adventure and it would be hilarious. But I'm not sure it would always be fun.”

What followed was tons of research into sprocket replacements, big bore kits, jet engine enhancements, magic speed spells, etc… The idea of throwing in the towel and selling them while they were shiny and new (and in such high demand) also came up often. We probably could have made a tidy profit. We had only ridden them on slab and while they were fun to scoot around on - we were not overly impressed. Our feeling was that there was no way in hell the CTs could do the TAT. At least no way that would be any fun. Maybe it would be best to just get more capable bikes. (But Ed did it. And the Kiwi Groms did it…)

Other bikes that almost got purchased during this time: Janus Gryffin 250 (John). Used Suzuki Van Van (Angelo). CRF Rally 300 (Angelo). Yamaha XT250 (both of us). In my opinion - the XT250 is the absolute perfect bike for the TAT. Lightweight but with enough power to hit the highway when needed.

Ang: “The XT is completely lacking on the style/goofiness scale…”

John: “We need to do a full pro/con Ben Franklin decision tree and vote I guess…”

Honda Pros

Already paid for

Luggage ready racks

ABS front brake

Novel/ award for dumb idea=

Honda Cons

• Slow

• Aggravation

• Longer days

• No highway speeds

• Less comfortable

• Maybe not good in Rockies

• Probably need to mount new knobbier tires

Yamaha XT Pros

Higher speeds on highway

• Power

• Less encumbered by luggage

• Can climb hills better/faster

• Can make it over Rockies

• Seat position seems more comfortable

• Bigger gas tank ~200 miles

• Might not need spare tank

Yamaha XT Cons

• Need to sell Honda and accessories

• No ABS

• Need to buy XT luggage rack and LED light

• Figure out mounting ideas again

We spent a lot of time looking at the XTs. It was close. But they didn’t appeal to either one of us style-wise. And as you know - style is everything. Right? I mean, let’s be honest. Riding the perfect bike that you don’t want your picture taken with is just no good at all.

John: “The more I think about doing the TAT on the 125, the more it seems more insurmountable. Maybe it’ll make it the whole way but would I be happier on a steed less anemic?” (authors note: Steed Less Anemic will be John’s next album title. I feel sure.)

Ang: “Yeah, it’s stupid. It can be done but it wouldn’t be fun. Let’s sell these fuckers.”

Somewhere around this time we both decided to do the TAT on Royal Enfield Himalayans since we'd decided to dump the CT125s. We both put deposits down. Then I finally took the Honda on some dirt.

Ang: “Holy shit man. I just did an epic 95 miles on the CT. Dude- it's probably the perfect bike for 85% of the TAT. So fucking fun. There were at least four times where things got squirrely where I thought, "things like this are not going to be this easy to get out of on the Himalayan"...”

John: “hmmmm.”

Ang: “But then when I got back to the bigger roads to come home - i was bummed out again…”

This is the first cycle video I did around this time when we were still contemplating taking the CT125's on the TAT.

"If you get on this thing expecting it to feel like a motorcycle, you're going to be bummed out... It feels like you're sitting on a toilet rolling down the road..."

Then we did Hurricane Creek with the Honda Trail's which was a definite turning point. This punishing trail showed us for the first time what these ugly little bikes could do.