Need Route Help --New Jersey to Banff

[Mogan]

Well, I'm finally taking the big trip. I've taken too much grief from the seasoned riders on this forum about what wonderful farkles I have and how inapproriate it is that I have so few miles on my bike.

I'm leaving for what will be about a 5 week trip beginning the last week in August. I'll take a somewhat slower scenic route westbound...interstates to Niagra Falls, Flint, MI then north to the Mackinaw bridge and across the upper peninsula and across the rest of the U.S. via highway 2.

I'll spend about a week near Banff and Jasper then head to the Tri-Cities in WA state for another week where I have some family. A maintenance stop in Sunnyside is also likely.

Going home I'll take more of a speed route with few days detour to Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Badlands and Mt. Rushmore.

How fast a road in highway 2? Any suggestions on better routing? Things to avoid? Things to definitely do?

 

[FJRPierre]

Going home I'll take more of a speed route with few days detour to Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Badlands and Mt. Rushmore.
How fast a road in highway 2? Any suggestions on better routing? Things to avoid? Things to definitely do?

I would spend more time in the Wash - Yellowstone - Rushmore route and less time on Hy 2. Slab it to/from the Dakota and then slow down and enjoy the diversity of the west.

 

[devanator]

How fast a road in highway 2?

I know from being on it through N Dakota and Montana #2 is 70 mph. Quite open and fast enough. I pushed 75 fairly easy. And a little better scenery than interstate. Although interstate is 75 and I was able to push 80 to 85 fairly easy. All depends on where you want to go and how fast.

 

[Mogan]

How fast a road in highway 2?

I know from being on it through N Dakota and Montana #2 is 70 mph. Quite open and fast enough. I pushed 75 fairly easy. And a little better scenery than interstate. Although interstate is 75 and I was able to push 80 to 85 fairly easy. All depends on where you want to go and how fast.

Would I be better off going north to highway 1 in Canada? How fast can I go on the more easterly portions of highway 2?

 

[FJRPierre]

Would I be better off going north to highway 1 in Canada? How fast can I go on the more easterly portions of highway 2?

Dear Lord NO NO NO! Hy 1 aka TCH/TransCanadaHighway is a windblown, potholed, frost heaved, badly marked, heavily travelled, sometimes multilane with no divider, miserable excuse for a highway which runs from Newfoundland to BC. The speed limit is 100km/h or 60mph and you may perhaps run it at max 120km/h or 70mph until some bored RCMP or provincial police agent stops you for whatever... The "only" nice parts are around the Great Lakes, through the Rockies, and a section down the St Johns River in NB. The rest is to be avoided. Even I swing south to I94 when I want to get west in a hurry.