Never know who you will meet in this town...

I was going for a short ride this evening. Heading out of town, I see a very non-Harley assortment of bikes at the local Harley repair shop at a rather late hour. Pull in and it's four Australian blokes wtih two old Bonnevilles, a Moto Guzzi, and a Harley; none newer than '78. Turned out they were doing a bit of a fly and ride trek around the U.S. They'd all bought their bikes sight unseen over the internet, met up in Vegas, ridden north up to Spokane, and were making their way back down the coast. The Harley guy was having some trouble, so they stopped at the shop.

I ended up helping them find a good spot to camp and shared a couple beers with them. Pretty damned good times.

Beer Baron wrote: They'd all bought their bikes sight unseen over the internet, met up in Vegas, ridden north up to Spokane, and were making their way back down the coast. The Harley guy was having some trouble, so they stopped at the shop.

That's some serious adventure

what is it with Aussies that makes them want to buy vehicles in the USA over the internet, fly here, and take them on cross country road trips? then they sell said vehicles before they get on the plane back home..

i hear about this kid of thing quite often on teh internets, and it's always Aussies...

also, how would they go about registering them? i'm pretty sure the lady at the DMV will give them all sorts of funny looks when they try to transfer a title to an Australian address..

In reply to novaderrik:

I half jokingly said we should do this when we get around to going to Europe. The Wife didn't laugh at me like I was an idiot.

Cool .

My post-graduation/once-I-can-afford-it holiday plan is to drive an old Porsche 911 across the USA.

novaderrik wrote: what is it with Aussies that makes them want to buy vehicles in the USA over the internet, fly here, and take them on cross country road trips? then they sell said vehicles before they get on the plane back home.. i hear about this kid of thing quite often on teh internets, and it's always Aussies...

We helped a young German couple who did this. Flew in to NY, traveled somehow to PA where they picked up their wasserboxer Bus, somehow limped it the 200 miles or so to our shop, where I was tasked with what I shall charitably call unberkeleying the vehicle. (We advertise in the local German-language newspaper, which is probably how they came to find us)

There were at least five major things wrong with it. My favorite was how one of the POs masked the inability to idle by cranking up the idle. By overadjusting the idle switch. It's no wonder they were getting 5-9mpg.

They send a postcard when they made it to Portland or Vancouver or wherever they were headed...

If you watch the tv show Fast N Loud, there is an episode of two Aussies that flew over, bought an old Caddy convertible and were going long distance road tripping in the USA with it.

As an American, I would love to go visit Australia some day. Given how things are here, Australia seems to have a lot of things going for it vs here currently.

There are a few long running threads on the UK forum retrorides.proboards.com with tips and experiences doing the drive across USA holiday. The dream for most of them seems to be to find a mid to late 70's "yank tank" convertible or 70's van on the east coast, and drive it to the west coast where they either sell the car or take it to the docks and have it shipped home.

I often try and explain that they would be better off going the opposite direction and grabbing a rust free california car but even NE rust is nothing to them compared to UK rot.

I did it, when I first got here I picked up a 75 Plymouth and drove it to Ohio, 2500 miles on a $700 junker.

Ran awful but it never broke down and made it in one piece

I sold a mini van here in the midwest to some stidents that where working a summer camp and then where going tondrive around and then head beack to scotland and some where in eruo.

Sounds kinda like going walkabout, just with planes and bikes and stuff.

I met four guys at the local pub. They get together once a year and pub crawl for 10 days leaving the wives at home. All mid 40s driving Harleys.

Sounds like a good time.

http://www.oldesaratogabrew.com/

novaderrik wrote: what is it with Aussies that makes them want to buy vehicles in the USA over the internet, fly here, and take them on cross country road trips? then they sell said vehicles before they get on the plane back home..

Sounds like an opportunity for an east coast guy and a west coast guy to hook up a new business.

drainoil wrote: If you watch the tv show Fast N Loud, there is an episode of two Aussies that flew over, bought an old Caddy convertible and were going long distance road tripping in the USA with it.

Same blokes did it twice!

Then there are the people from all over who walk by the brewhouse doors to watch what's going on. Last night was a pair of gentlemen from Switzerland.