LA to Austin Road Trip Begins Tomorrow

[uthatch]

These stats are very on par with our trip to Colorado and back. I would say your motorcycles are having very little negative impact on your efficiency (either that, or I drive like I'm hauling a much larger load).

Makes sense, yep. My average seed is considerably higher and I bet that is what made the difference in efficiency. More so than the motorcycles, I agree. I have some mirrors and a little bit of fairing poking over the roof, so I'm sure that doesn't help, but looking at your numbers it seems like the impact from them is negligible.

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[Kacey3]

I think my average speed was impacted by the fact that this is our full round-trip stats. Thus this includes our driving around Colorado Springs, including driving up and down Pike's Peak (20+ miles at under 20 mph), as well as much of our trip being on state highways with slightly lower speed limits.

But overall, I'd say we're seeing about the same statistics, which is good to know since I plan to start hauling my Guzzi more often on longer trips.

 

[uthatch]

I think my average speed was impacted by the fact that this is our full round-trip stats. Thus this includes our driving around Colorado Springs, including driving up and down Pike's Peak (20+ miles at under 20 mph), as well as much of our trip being on state highways with slightly lower speed limits.

But overall, I'd say we're seeing about the same statistics, which is good to know since I plan to start hauling my Guzzi more often on longer trips.

Oh yeah, that makes total sense. I have not driven around Austin much yet, which will lower it like you mention. I guess I'll see how the overall looks when I get back to LA.

But yeah, I'm guessing the Guzzi won't have much impact at all.

 

[Splittle]

Looks like you're geared up for a pretty good time. Have fun!

 

[JohnB R1T]

I think I recognized that rathole Best Western from your Thursday morning picture. I spent a night in one in Las Cruces, NM...Very funky pueblo/southwestern vibe...rooms were actually nice, but it was about 10 feet from the railroad tracks. FIVE trains came through while we were there...there were two crossings nearby so, naturally, they were using the horn.

 

[uthatch]

Trip is over and alls well. I likely wouldn’t do it again due to the shear number of charging stops and the lack of charging infrastructure. It was ok, it worked, but an improvement is needed and coming. The Quartzsite area is a key charging stop and they’re 4 chargers with 1 down and 1 with reduced output. That was the worst stop both directions. If there were more chargers and we could go 150-200 miles between charging, it would make a huge difference. For the most part I had to stop every 100-120 miles.

The truck itself was a gem. 2 bikes didn’t phase it much at all, although that could be felt when turning. I drove pretty fast, usually 80+ mph. Massive headwinds on the way back definitely did not help range. All my charging stops we 30+ minutes. The truck was comfortable, fast, and turned a LOT of heads in Austin and everywhere else. Also cheap to use….Texas is 1/3 the cost to charge as California, it’s nuts. I didn’t add up all the charging costs, but it’s very very reasonable for the entire trip. It has mild wind noise that I could not isolate, but it’s not too bad.

Like I mentioned, I prob wouldn’t do it again until the charging is better built out. But I have no regrets about the trip and had quite a lot of fun with the truck.

 

[Kacey3]

Like I mentioned, I prob wouldn’t do it again until the charging is better built out. But I have no regrets about the trip and had quite a lot of fun with the truck.

When we did our spring break trip from DFW to Colorado Springs and back, we had very similar issues as far as charging... but one of the things we said when we got back was, it'll be fun to actually experience the expansion in the charging networks rather than just reading about them. We generally take one big road trip every year, so we are looking forward to saying "This trip was so much better than the last one," year after year. I, for one, am genuinely looking forward to comparing each trip as things improve.

So glad you had a good trip and had a reasonable reaction to the current state of the charging networks across the country. Maybe next year I'll make it back to Handbuit and we can meet up somewhere.

 

[uthatch]

When we did our spring break trip from DFW to Colorado Springs and back, we had very similar issues as far as charging... but one of the things we said when we got back was, it'll be fun to actually experience the expansion in the charging networks rather than just reading about them. We generally take one big road trip every year, so we are looking forward to saying "This trip was so much better than the last one," year after year. I, for one, am genuinely looking forward to comparing each trip as things improve.

So glad you had a good trip and had a reasonable reaction to the current state of the charging networks across the country. Maybe next year I'll make it back to Handbuit and we can meet up somewhere.

Yeah, Handbuilt was great! Sounds like a plan!

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