Gary Orr, the co-owner of San Diego BMW Motorcycles in San Diego, California, has recently accomplished a longstanding dream to ride from California’s west coast all the way to Florida on his BMW K 1200 LT – a distance of more than 2,200 miles (3,500 km) – without stopping!
Many riders can claim to have travelled across America by motorcycle, but surely there aren’t many who have done this kind of journey non-stop? For Gary, it started out as a desire to just jump on his bike and head east – not for any records or awards – but just to be the first human in history to travel from California to Florida on a motorcycle, without stopping, for anything or anyone. This meant no interruptions of travel for food, sleep, toilet breaks, traffic lights, traffic, road construction, border patrol, police, weather or anything else that could interfere with his journey.
Gary rode a BMW K 1200 LT (luxury touring) motorcycle equipped with GPS and XM Satellite Radio. Although the LT has a big fuel tank and a decent range, it’s unlikely that it would have carried Gary even as far as his neighbouring State of Arizona. Therefore, in order to just keep on riding, he used the K 1200 LT to tow a trailer which carried 75 gallons (283 litres) of gasoline. This amount of gas would provide him with enough fuel for the entire cross-country trip.
The one-man show began in a public parking lot in Ocean Beach, San Diego, and ended just 35 hours later in Madison, Florida. Gary wore a BMW Rally 2 jacket that was generously packed with snacks to get him through the trip. In order to stay hydrated, he ran a hose from the water tank that was mounted on his bike, to his mouth. Gary also constructed a unique fuel pumping system that used a switch to transfer the fuel from the tank on the trailer to the K 1200 LT’s fuel tank.
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