How to Plan a Motorcycle Tour—A Letter from Florian

Planning a motorcycle tour has never been easier—or more complicated. Back in the good old days, all we needed was a paper map and a halfway decent reason to ride. We’d then figured the rest of it out as the odometer ticked by. It was as simple as it was beautiful. Heading out into the unknown meant that everything we saw was a surprise. The level of adventure measured high.

Nowadays, we’re inundated with endless information on where to ride and what to see. Don’t get me wrong, though. Some resources are great (like the magazine you’re holding, obviously), while some are average at best, and then some are just flat-out bad. 

My personal pet peeves are the “curated” routes plenty of navigation apps promise. Over the years, I have used and studied most of these apps and found that they’re fun ways to keep track of a current ride, along with interesting stats like elevation change. It’s useful to record your ride in case you want to share it or save it for another go-around. 

It’s the “curated” part that always gets me. The majority of these routes are from app users. Zooming in, I often find that the routes start at someone’s home and lead 30 miles to their favorite restaurant. Not that there’s anything wrong with sharing a curvy route to a good eatery, but I can’t help asking myself how “curated” these routes really are.

RoadRUNNER has published almost 1,500 travel articles with GPS files in the past 25 years. That’s an insane number of tours that we’ve planned, ridden, and chronicled for you. We don’t like to spoil the ride, though, and we always leave plenty for you to explore when following our routes. We don’t dare give it all away. You have to earn those badges. 

But how do you find and use RoadRUNNER’s ride recommendations? We recently published an easy-to-follow guide on how to navigate through our online editorial to find just what you’re looking for.

This issue brings you stories from the Southwest to the banks of the Ohio River, and all the way to Portugal for some dual sport fun. We tested Yamaha’s new WR125R and the updated Road Glide Limited. There’s something for everyone. And if you want even more, now you know where to find it.

Have fun planning your 2026 rides!

Florian Neuhauser
Publisher