Motorcycle Rides, Roads and Self-Guided Travel
This section focuses on local and international motorcycle rides, roads and self-guided travel experiences from the editors of Rider magazine. Some of the articles you will recognize from print, and others are web exclusive. Click on any of the images to see the sites in a larger format. Planning a trip of your own? Check out RiderDiaries.com to see over 100 tour articles from the editors of Rider complete with large-scale ride maps, and dealership, accommodation and biker-friendly locators.
Motorcycle Riding Along the Natchez Trace Parkway
Stacy V. Bearse
June 7, 2013
Rod Serling’s words ran through my mind as I turned off Highway 61 to enter the southern portal of the Natchez Trace Parkway: Next stop, the Twilight Zone. Well, the Trace isn’t quite that odd, but it is a world unto itself. This 440-mile strip of Mother Nature is devoid of commercial traffic and... Read more »
Great Roads: Motorcycle Riding in Montana
SHERRY JONES AND TODD MOWBRAY
June 7, 2013
Yellowstone National Park, on the south end of Montana, is a veritable three-ring safari and special-effects razzle-dazzle where, no matter what you’re taking in, there’s something else you’re missing. Glacier National Park, on the north end of Montana, is the same way. A bevy of bison graze near... Read more »
Iowa’s Unique Scenic Byway
Susan Benton
June 6, 2013
What landform is found only in a small part of Iowa and in China? If you answered, “Huh?” you need to ride the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway on Iowa’s western border. You will enjoy a peaceful ride through hills up to 200 feet high. Loess (pronounced luss) is fine-grained, loosely compacted... Read more »
4 Corners 4 Kids: Traveling to the Four Corners of the U.S. For Charity
Laura Melvin
June 5, 2013
I have made some road trips in my nine years of riding, but I’ve never managed to stay gone long enough to want the trip to end. I’m 64 years old and have begun to age like my dog—seven years on the body for one year on the calendar. So I began to think about a long trip before my body declared... Read more »
Southern Loop: Eldorado by Eldorado
Andy Saunders
June 4, 2013
Would you set out for South America on a bike you bought last week, from someone in another country? We’re pretty sure what the answer to that one would be…for most people. Bruce Baillie isn’t most people. Bruce has covered much of the globe in his freewheeling blue-collar career, and has taken... Read more »
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 »
Short Motorcycle Ride through West Virginia and Maryland
Mark T. Domenick
May 7, 2013
Done. Finally! The lawn is mowed, trimming completed, garage swept, and I even got the car washed. The Honey-Do List completed, I venture inside the house to suggest to my wife that since it is a glorious day and only mid-afternoon, a motorcycle ride would be in order and I will not be late for dinner. My... 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 »
High Sierra Adventure Weekend
Greg Drevenstedt
May 3, 2013
“I want to come back here after the thaw.” Thus I remarked to my brother as we stared at the expanse of snow spreading out before us on Sherman Pass Road (Forest Route 22S05), the southern-most paved road over the crest of California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range. We were there in March of last... Read more »
