Travels with Ernie: V7 850 USA coast-to-coast loop

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

Be warned this is a media heavy trip report thread and photos may be slow to load.

Last weekend was the first leg of a coast-to-coast loop ride I have planned to ride this year on my 2022 MG V7 850 E5 Stone Centenario.

It was off to a concerning start as I found that at the recent service the dealer way overfilled the final drive oil, which I posted about here:
https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=123836.0

My father is riding a 1925 Harley-Davidson JE in the 2025 Motorcycle Trans Am and I'm his support crew for the event, so I will be making the same stops and helping out with maintenance on his motorcycle. In recent years he competed in the 2022 Cross Country Chase which was an unsupported event but I tagged along to make a vacation of it and rode Route 66 on my V7 850 shortly after buying it, and then he also competed in the 2023 Motorcycle Cannonball Run where I was part of his support crew and followed along coast-to-coast on my 2021 Honda Trail 125. A trip report from that ride can be found on the Honda Trail 125 forum. The 1925 Harley JE is largely the same bike that he ran in the 2023 Motorcycle Cannonball, he just purchased a 1925 JE engine, had a specialist shop rebuild it, and then we swapped the engine. The JE engine required some electrical changes as well as a different exhaust setup.

The itinerary for my tour is as follows:
Home base in Colorado to the other home base, my parents' house in Illinois. In the books ✔️
Illinois to the start of the Trans Am in North Carolina this coming weekend.
North Carolina coast to the Oregon coast following the Trans Am event's stops.
From the end of the Trans Am event to Portland to visit with friends.
Finally, return to Colorado and get an answer to the question which has been nagging me - Did I leave the stove on?

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.08.23
It had rained early in the morning as I loaded my kit onto the V7, but the timing worked out well where by the time I got on the bike it was just a light mist. Could hardly see the Rockies through the fog. As I approached the I-25 on-ramp there were cars driving the wrong way down the shoulder of it where they had turned around and were getting off I-25 as traffic was at a standstill. I detoured around I-25 and jogged south down to I-70. First gas stop I pulled over for the card reader was down and I had some gas to go, next gas station I stopped at was new and hadn't opened yet. Made it to Limon for gas 23 miles after the low fuel light came on. Phew. Seeing cars going the wrong way down an on-ramp wasn't the end of the bad driving I saw for the day, as a semi-truck driver pulled forward with the diesel hose still in his tank at a TA station and the staff had to shut the pump down. Later while riding I smelled burning rubber and then caught up to a Jeep Grand Cherokee rolling at least 50 mph down the shoulder with a flat front tire. It's crazy out there!

A faint view of the Rocky Mountains in the distance












Kansas is quite tropical this time of year!




This was the first stop where I noticed oil on the rear wheel.




I made it to Salina, Kansas for the night and decided to call it a day so I could book a hotel room and spend some time researching the issue of oil seeping from the final drive.

While traveling I often send postcards along the way so I was excited to see stamp vending at one of the gas stops.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.08.24
The workshop manual for my bike said to warm the final drive oil before draining, so I started the day eastward and decided on Junction City, Kansas as my first stop. I found an O'Reilly Auto Parts within walking distance of an AutoZone and hardware store, so it seemed like a good place to work on the bike and have resources available to me. Sure enough I ended up needing something from each of them. With the final drive oil drained it was clear that it was just very overfilled as noted in the other thread. I was relieved as it would have really stunk to have a real problem this early into the trip. After losing time to that issue, I decided to call off work for Monday and take my time getting to my destination in Illinois instead of trying to make it there that night, which wasn't looking possible as I didn't leave the auto parts parking lot until afternoon. I sent a text to a friend (and fellow Honda Trail 125 long distance tourer) in Kansas City and decided to meet up with him and hang out a bit, grab lunch, and then plot out a more leisurely route to IL that included seeing some Muffler Men and similar roadside attractions.

Civilization! The Sap Bros truck stop in Junction City had washlet toilet seats. I think these may be the only ones I’ve seen in a public washroom in the USA.


My morning workshop setup


There’s a new fiberglass giant in Kansas City


This space man is the sign for Atlas 9, which wasn’t open yet but as I understand it, it will be a similar immersive art experience to Meow Wolf


Another giant on the other side of the Atlas 9 movie theater


The ideal adventure bike.


The roads in KC are rough, but surprisingly everywhere I encountered tram tracks was a smooth ride and not as sketchy as I expected on two wheels.


Following the yellow brick road...


To a great lunch at Pigwich


As it got dark a medium size dog, perhaps a fox, crossed the road in front of me and that was my cue to find a hotel and call it a night. I rode just a few more minutes to Macon, Missouri and got a motel room.


A neat trick I learned from a friend years ago is to give your helmet visor a spa treatment. Just drape a damp towel or paper towel (though paper is more likely to scratch) on your visor and leave it for a few minutes. Most bugs come right off with it so you hardly need to wipe the guts off the visor.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.08.25
My first stop of the morning was the Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, Missouri. I've done the cave tour a few times over the years and decided to walk through it again. It is a "dry" cave, so not as much beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone as you'll find in wet caves, but it has an interesting history and of course it's the same cave that appears in Mark Twain's writings. My route incorporated a lot of Muffler Man-ish roadside attractions that I mapped out on the Roadside America website, though there were still quite a few I skipped just to save time. Route 66, especially in Illinois, is loaded with roadside attractions.


Hannibal, Missouri has some great murals



Entrances to the Mark Twain Cave


It’s difficult to see, but this crack is the “lifeline” of the cave along its ceiling, and there is a small bat pouched up on the right side of the crack. There used to be thousands of bats in this cave but white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that came over from Europe, has largely wiped them out and they’re down to thirty-something bats in the cave this year.




My Goose with the Mighty Mississippi behind it


To celebrate my return to Illinois, I grabbed a dog dragged tru da garden.



The first real Muffler Man of the trip in Illinois.



A pink elephant and a goose walk into a bar…


This one was a Big John grocery display


A carpet viking turned spartan as a school mascot


And a Uniroyal Gal who moved on from tires and is now a pie lady


In Normal Illinois it’s normal to see a 15ft Carl serving ice cream and a burger







I had missed the bulk of the fiberglass giants along the route, which are in Atlanta, Illinois, but I did get to see the Gemini Giant, recently moved and freshly restored by American Giants.

[GuzziNZ]

👍 Excellent, thanks for sharing.