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 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 »
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 »
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 to Daytona: A Woman’s Solo Journey from Ohio to Florida
Vivian Wagner
April 3, 2013
Deep in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, I pulled my 2011 Harley-Davidson SuperLow 883 Sportster over to the edge of a back road. I took off my helmet, listening to the wind whispering through the branches of the tall, slender pines. It was just my motorcycle and me, and I couldn’t have been happier. This... 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 »
The Joys of Not Roughing It
Greg Drevenstedt
March 12, 2013
As much as I like camping, as much as I enjoy the back-to-basics delight of cooking over an open fire and the novelty of stumbling out of my tent in the wee hours to relieve myself, really and truthfully, I’m a sucker for a hot shower and a soft bed. Particularly after a long day on a motorcycle. In... Read more »
