Mother Road (AKA) Route 66

[MoBiker]

:D I live in ST. Charles MO. and I would like to ride the Mother Road in Missouri and Oklahoma and maybe further west if time allows.Has anyone on this forum done this. If so any tips or tricks? Any Idea of where to get a good free map? :lol:

[thundering zephyr]

Don't be a cheapskate, spend a few. There's gobs of information on Rt 66 available - free - on the Internet, but it's haphazard and fragmented, and you'll waste hours searching through the junk for a few useful tidbits. And there's free maps and there's good maps, but no good free maps. If you're lucky you just might find a diner on Rt 66 with a map on their paper placemats.

As you prolly already know, Rt 66 is fragmented and often not well marked, so it can be tough to find in some places. It's also *gone* in some places, so the best you can do is follow nearby roads till you get to the next intact stretch. Also, even though the original road was remarkably solid and well-constructed, it was sometimes paved over with asphalt, which has long since gotten cracked and rough, so it's not always a great road to ride.

On the other hand, Rt 66 still goes through some pretty nifty Middle America towns, places that still look a lot like they did 50 years ago, where the people are real and the pace of life is more human. It's worth at least one trip.

My advice is to go to the liberry and see what they got there, then mebe go online to Amazon and acually *buy* a book, then jus head out and do it.

when do you plan on riding ?

RJ

[Lone Wolf]

A few years back my wife and I rode a Shadow ACE Tourer from Illinois to California on what was left of Route 66. It was one of the best bike road trips we ever took. Give yourself plenty of time because there is so much to see and do. Watch out for the tumble weeds out West as they startle you when they roll out in front of you before you turn them into match sticks. The desert is really hot and I would wear a shirt with sleeves so you won't get burned from the sun. On some of the interstates that have replaced a lot of 66 there are round shallow holes on the right side of the road surface that can really test your suspension. Have a great time!

[wildabouthorses]

Here's some excellent online info about route 66! Click on a link of one of the towns and you get an excellent map of the old route!

http://www.historic66.com/oklahoma/

[thundering zephyr]

there are round shallow holes on the right side of the road surface that can really test your suspension

Funny, most of the ones I saw were on the left!

MoBiker -
Labor Day weekend is upon us. When do you plan on doing this ride ?
RJ

[MoBiker]

Probly not until the middle of the month. Too much going on now.