Let’s say there’s something you want to photograph—a mountain, a motorcycle, a bacon cheeseburger, whatever. Most of the time in this situation we behave like Pavlov’s dog: the instant the idea “I want to take a photo” enters our mind, we whip out the camera and begin shooting right then and there. This is especially […]

As the official home base of Ohio’s Windy 9, Athens marks the beginning and end of every route on the list. It’s sizeable enough to offer plenty of lodgings, and urban enough to serve up the region’s largest collection of dining, shopping, and nightlife options. During our stay we took advantage of its great local […]

A few years ago I wrote a column titled Four Legs, Two Wheels and a Grateful Heart (July/Aug ’15), in which I spoke of a new motorcycle and a new housemate (my dog Spud) that both came to me during a time when I was broken, physically and emotionally. Each served to help get me […]

Adventure motorcycling mixed with the kind of feel-good stories the world needs more of is the domain of Neale Bayly, a longtime journalist and photographer who is using his skills as a storyteller in video form. “As a motorcycle journalist, I liked the idea of showing motorcycling in a positive light,” explains Bayly. “My idea […]

The 4th annual Flying Piston Benefit Builders Breakfast hit its stride on Sunday, August 5th welcoming a first-ever presenting sponsor, Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys, and unveiling the Strider Custom program. Custom builders and industry celebs joined with fans and influencers for the event, held to benefit technical education scholarships and Motorcycle Missions, a 501(c) 3 […]

Regardless of whether I call it irony or karmic comeuppance, Murphy hit me while I was writing about him. Part 3 in this series included an embarrassing error. I wrote SOS in Morse code as OSO. Reflecting on how this happened and realizing it wasn’t a knowledge problem since I know the Morse code quite […]

I have a closet full of camera gear and used to carry a camera with me wherever I went, but like so many others I now rely on my phone for capturing imagines of day-to-day life. Judging by the photography workshops I’ve given, I’m not alone. Many of you are using your phones to document […]

“So, raise a glass to 
turnings of the season
 and watch it as it arcs 
towards the sun” —Don’t Carry It All, 
The Decemberists   It’s the beginning of February as I write this. February in eastern Pennsylvania is usually a bitter month for me and this is always the most difficult chronicle to write […]

We’ve all (hopefully) been there, out on a mountain ride and feeling absolutely gobsmacked by the scenery. So, you stop and snap a photo, hoping to capture the power and grandeur of the mountains. But when you look at your picture the mountains look tiny (like hills at a flea circus), the blue sky has […]

Ouray, CO, “Little Switzerland.” Vehicles roll through town packed with overlanding gear, and dual-sport motorcycles parade the streets with their colorful jockeys aboard. Smack in the middle of this melee rides a group of Space Rangers on loaded, knobby-tired beasts, some with cylinders protruding from the sides like proud iron rhinos. The riders are standing […]

Previous articles focused on tools and technologies that can help us get out of trouble or at least reduce risk and damage after the fact. All of them are generic and reactive fixes. Generic, because off-the-shelf solutions are not specific to motorcycle usage; and reactive, because it is assumed the rider will actively respond to […]

It was a rough ride down Interstate 78. Old ladies slowly drifting too far beyond the road surface markings. Big, V8-powered trucks switching lanes to lodge their tailgates a breath from Justin’s handlebars. His father, “The Captain,” would growl into his Sena headset, forgetting he had an audience on the other end of his microphone, […]

    Halfway between the Northern California coastal towns of Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay, at the nexus of some of the best motorcycle roads on the planet, lies the somnolent town of Pescadero. It just might be the coolest coastal burg that no one has heard of. So please, don’t go there. But […]

A sleeping giant lies on the valley floor between the Temblor Range and the Caliente Range. That is where this story begins. In 1857, the strongest earthquake in California’s recorded history ripped through the San Andreas Fault, wrenching the western side of the Carrizo Plain National Monument 31 feet northward. But today the giant quietly […]

    At 125 horsepower and 125 Nm of torque, the BMW R 1200 GS can sling mud from its Shinko knobby like a snow blower in a Louisiana swamp. My pal Jay Rothstein sits unaware atop his clutch-less KLR 650, 12 miles north of Gypsum, CO. Afternoon rains have turned this section of the […]