Crossing America: You Can Ride Across the U.S. on Your Motorcycle

Crossing America is for every rider or rider to be who has thought about getting on a bike and heading across country. Based on three cross-country trips totaling almost 10,000 miles, Crossing America tells you about

The Trip: What it s like to ride coast-to-coast, winter or summer
Preparation: What to take, how to pack, and where to put it
Equipment: How to pick raingear, luggage, GPS, a bike cover, and more
Techniques: How to ride safe, fast, and far up to 1,000 miles a day
Organization: How to keep yourself and your gear organized enroute
Why We Ride: Thoughts from the road about life, work, and riding

Most important, in Crossing America you ll find encouragement to make your trip and to do it soon! Turn your dream of riding across the U.S. into the memory of a lifetime. . Go now. Do it. Just ride!

Then, as you enter some small town, just off the interstate, looking for some benign place to eat, you come to a traffic light - and you hear it approaching from behind you.

Somewhere, between the playing of the CD, the barking of "Spot, the Wonder Dog" in the back seat, and "...Are we there yet?" - a bike rolls to a gentle stop in the lane next to you. You look over to see a rider with luggage & saddlebags - he takes a moment to stretch his arms & legs and gives you a knowing smile that says, "Ya' know, this is the only way to see America". And for a fleeting moment your mind drifts and you wonder, secretly, what it must be like to see America by motorcycle...

Dick Peck's book, "Crossing America", is nothing if not unbridled enthusiasm and emotion at crossing America on two wheels. Dick gives the reader a day-by-day journal of his personal trek from California to the Southeastern U.S. and back. If you ever wondered what it would be like to make a cross-country trip by motorcycle, "Crossing America" will give you a very real sense of what it's like - both the "good" and the "not so good".

Notwithstanding the fact that Dick's enthusiasm is incredibly contagious, he also provides a wealth of information for the rider who may be somewhat apprehensive making that first cross-country trek - information on where to begin, what to pack, what to expect, and he assures us that, in the end, the rewards are very much worth the effort.

Each chapter in "Crossing America" documents one leg of his journey. Additionally, each chapter includes one, or more "informational sections". These provide the reader with information and/or lessons Dick learned on his trip, or felt strongly enough to include - thus, the reader learns from the author's experience. Included are such topics as, "pre-trip preparation", "equipment", "riding techniques", "organization" & "post-ride thoughts".

So, if you find yourself stuck in your car and ever wondered what it would be like, or, if you own your own bike and have yet to make that first cross country trip, "Crossing America" is definitely worth reading. If you are a seasoned long-distance biker then this is probably not the book for you, but for the rest of us who have yet to make that first trip.....


Awesome Awesome Awesome   March 11, 2003
JIM GORDY (MANCHESTER, NEW JERSEY)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

When else does an author take time to reply to you and give advice, well on top of being an realy helpfull book dick peck is just right on the money with his advice and ideas. I recommend it for the beginner to the experienced driver. Im recently retired coast guard and will be hitting the road on a however long it takes trip and will carry this touring bible with me for sure. Thanks again for a great book , I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.
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Crossing America: You Can Ride Across the U.S.   March 5, 2003
Eugene C. Bell (Longmont, Colorado United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Crossing America is a great book for a guy like me who is just getting to the point of going farther than a tank of gas away from home. All of my family is back east, like the authors, and I am thinking about riding back to see them. This book gave me the practical checklists and really helpful insights for traveling across the U.S. I like to read books like The Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, but that is not the kind of riding I am going to be doing. Crossing America answered the questions I had about touring here in the States.
I found the six sections in each chapter easy to follow and refer back to. It is simple to find exactly the information you're intersted in, without having to read the book cover-to-cover. The index is very well done and makes things even easier to find.
If you are thinking about getting out for a few days or a couple weeks this summer read this book first.