Motorcycle Features
In this section you’ll find motorcycle-related feature articles including biographies, technical endeavors, historical spotlights and other articles that focus on interesting aspects of motorcycling culture. If it’s not a road test, motorcycle spotlight, news, gear, rally, blog or tour article, you’ll find it here!
Motorcycle Tour of Connecticut: A Taste of Nutmeg
Alan Paulsen
May 10, 2013
Connecticut is a compact state, some 60 miles wide by 100 miles across. When I studied a map of this coastal New England state, I began to notice that practically every road around its borders is marked a scenic route. So I considered that a perimeter run was in order to taste the spice of the Nutmeg... Read more »
Wild Texas: A Winter Ride to Big Bend
Don Mills
May 6, 2013
When winter drifts into North Texas, those of us who ride year-round seek more agreeable climates, yet never have to leave the state. Big Bend National Park, where the Rio Grande does a U-turn on the border between Mexico and Texas, is very attractive between November and April. During the summer months,... Read more »
Great Roads: South Dakota
Alan Paulsen
May 3, 2013
The following is an excerpt from the article Connecting the Dakotas: The Long Way Around North and South, originally printed in the August 2009 issue. As a motorcyclist who enjoys vacant, isolated roads, I stared longingly at the Dakotas on my National Geographic wall map while planning my next excursion.... Read more »
Rising From the Ashes
Heather Reinhart
May 2, 2013
Motorcycling is everything to Jim Key. He got his first motorcycle at age 10 and makes a living doing what he loves, running a videography business filming motorcycle trips and races. Jim met his wife, Jeannie, at a motorcycle rally and they both love to ride. Jeannie has done some work for Honda’s... Read more »
Great Roads: North Carolina
By Scott A. Williams, Edited by Heather Reinhart
April 4, 2013
The following is an excerpt from the article Of Ribs and Roads: Barbecue and Byways in the Carolina Mountains printed in the June 2004 issue. Franklin, North Carolina (population 3,800) is the self-described Gem Capital of the World, owing to the rubies and sapphires found in the area’s mountainside... Read more »
BMW in the Americas, Interview: Hans Blesse
Mark Tuttle
April 4, 2013
In conjunction with the introduction of the new liquid-cooled BMW R 1200 GS, Rider Editor-in-Chief Mark Tuttle sat down for an interview with Hans Blesse, who was recently appointed to the position of Vice President BMW Motorrad USA to succeed the retiring Pieter de Waal. The 51-year-old Blesse started... Read more »
El Tanque: A Russian Conquest of Latin America
Tyler Keys
April 4, 2013
I looked at the steep slope in front of me, littered with large boulders, deep ruts and debris, and wondered how I’d gotten myself into such a mess. I had already walked up the trail to check if my big Ural would make it around one particularly large boulder in the center of the narrow path. It was... Read more »
Riding The Santa Fe Trail: A Journey Back in Time From Missouri to New Mexico
Bob Jacobs
April 2, 2013
In 1821, everything south of the Arkansas River was Mexico. Newly free from Spain, the Mexican government took new resources north to the provincial capital of Santa Fe and welcomed trade with America—we just had to get there. For centuries, Indian tribes like the Pawnee, Cheyenne and Comanche and... Read more »
Riding Sardinia and Corsica with IMTBike
Clement Salvadori
March 8, 2013
It was our second morning in Sardinia. After a bountiful breakfast we were riding along 30 miles of coast road that could cause California’s Big Sur Highway 1 to look a bit boring. A couple of hours later found us in the Gennargentu Mountains, where the well-paved byways, twisting and turning like... Read more »
Motor Maids Matriarch: Gloria Struck
Thad Wolff
March 8, 2013
Lots of female motorcyclists rode in from around the country to attend this year’s Vintage Rally, and at one point I discovered more than a dozen Motor Maids club members gathered around the Women in Motorcycling display. The Motor Maids club was established in 1940. Its membership includes Gloria... Read more »
