May/Jun '04 - RoadRUNNER

Indiana: Hoosier National Forest

Hoosier National Forest is an amazing sight any time of the year, but when autumn's frost comes to visit, the hills and valleys come alive with a show to overwhelm the senses.When the folks at RoadRUNNER asked me, a Hoosier born and bred, to ride the roads of southern

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Australia: Tassie-Mania!

Complacency can kill. I'm accelerating away from a gas station near Wynyard on Tasmania's A2 north coast road when I see a "ute" - an Aussie pickup - heading straight for me on my side of the road. For a second I'm stunned. Then just as the ute swerves violently

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

High Country Roads

On a cool October morning as I leave my home in Mayodan, the place where the Mayo and the Dan rivers converge, my hometown in the northern Piedmont of North Carolina seems a long way from the Carolina high country. I'm excited though because I know that in a few

May/Jun '04

Yamaha FJR 1300

Voted by many magazines last year as the sport-tourer of the year, Yamaha's potent, high-speed touring missile is back for 2004 and, with a host of improvements, looks set to keep its hard-earned crown.Concept & TransformationHard to believe it has been 20 years since Yamaha introduced the FJ 1100

May/Jun '04

Honda Super Hawk

Although the Super Hawk hasn't enjoyed a lot of sales success overseas, the bike has sold in big numbers in the United States - primarily because its performance characteristics are perfectly matched to US highways and canyon roads, and the needs of many American customers.Concept & TransformationThe range of

May/Jun '04

BMW K1200GT & Kawasaki ZZR1200

BMW and Kawasaki have been active in the sport-touring market for quite a while. The German brand started out with the K series in the mid-eighties, and looking to produce a successor to the powerful ZX-10, the Japanese came up with the ZZR theme in 1990. Here, we've tested their

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Canada: Prince Edward Island

The topography of Canada's smallest province reminds me of the old joke about a carpenter's dream being "flat as a board." Having ridden my 1995 Honda Shadow along the perimeter of this 135-mile-wide island, I now know a bigger joke: the condition of its highways and byways. Unpleasant surprises, disappearing

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Northwest Wyoming

Yellowstone, the world's oldest national park, is one of the five most endangered in the country. A study in contrasts, the 3,400 square miles (2.2 million acres) of parkland are protected from development yet overrun by smog-spewing RVs and snowmobiles; it's wild and dangerous terrain though amply supplied

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Kalispell, Montana

Sprawled just north of Flathead Lake in northwest Montana, Kalispell is a terrific spot for a shamrock base. To the east, you have the magnificent Rockies and Glacier National Park; north and west, the rambling peaks of the Salish and Cabinet Ranges; and then the 28-by-15-mile lake and the Mission