Tours

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Norway: Wild, Scenic Fjord Country

Want to explore Europe's wild North? Then traveling western Norway between the historic city of Bergen and Geiranger, along the secluded coast and over the central mountains with its demanding rides around Dalsnibba and Trollstigen, is your best bet. When the Fjordlines ferry Bergen opens its jaw-like flap,

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Eastern Ohio

Why did the black snake cross the road? I don't know either. Maybe he's fleeing to higher ground from the floodwaters that have recently plagued the Eastern Ohio countryside. Maybe the critters on his menu are just a bit more succulent on the other side. Either

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Missouri Rhineland

Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet left the first written account of the land that became Missouri after descending the Mississippi River in 1673. Today, Father Christian Neuhauser, his wife Christa, and their sons Manuel and Florian are on the road with Aprilias and Piaggios to follow their trail. Fathers

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

In search of Washington's Coastal Mountains

At a Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group meeting the president looks over and says, "Robert's just back from an interesting trip."And perhaps a bit too smugly I begin to sketch the details of my recent tour of Washington's Olympic Peninsula; 700 miles in three

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Williamsburg, Kentucky

Two-lane asphalt snakes its way through steep mountain gorges sculpted over millions of years by rushing streams. Lush vegetation presses in from all sides, often overarching the road and blotting out the sun. My feet and hands move with practiced precision, downshifting, tapping the brakes, leaning deeply into the curves,

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Appalachian Trails

Most riders and drivers prefer to wait for autumn's cavalcade of color for scenic tours along the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway. In the summer, these outrageous roads are packed full when loads of city slickers escape the lowland humidity for picnics and maybe some napping in

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Florida Keys

While other parts of the country have mountains with impressive, winding roads, the vertically challenged state of Florida has its share of gorgeous curves, too  -  all courtesy of its renowned beaches, resorts and beauties baking in the year-round sun. Add great fishing, diving, seafood, and all manner of water

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Montenegro: Land of the Black Mountains

Although only the size of Connecticut, the breakaway republic of Montenegro has it all for tourism  -  beaches and mountains, lakes and canyons. Thankfully, most of the tourists haven't caught on yet. Mount Lovcen There's a saying in Montenegro: "To be able to understand the

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Rutland, Vermont

No longer summer, not quite autumn  -  on impulse I stopped by Vermont's newest motorcycle dealership, Lucky's Motorsports. With the Beemer more than a little ragged-looking after my crash in the Berkshires, I was hoping to acquire a photogenic factory ride for Shamrock use. And as

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

A Short Ride the Long Way

It's 6:30 on a July Saturday night in The Dalles, Oregon, a tidy lumber town on the Columbia River. Snagged in a street festival, we crawl the stop-start traffic, boiling inside our leathers, engines pinging, clutches slipping. I spy an outdoor time and temperature display: 102 degrees!

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Southeast Oregon

It was my fourth visit to Oregon in a year. After taking in the tall-treed majesty of the Cascades, the rambling golden grasslands of the northeast and the soaring ridges of the Wallowa Mountains, I was expecting my meander around the high desert of southeast Oregon to send me to

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

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

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

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

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

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

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

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Northeast Oregon

During my saunter around Northeast Oregon, I realize John Day is a big deal in these parts. There's John Day River, the John Day Fossil Beds and John Day City. Not bad for an ordinary member of John Jacob Astor's 1810 fur trading expedition on its

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Chattanooga, Tennessee

Three days, three states, a Triumph Thunderbird Sport and Moto Guzzi Café Sport sound like a recipe for adventure to me. So, when the phone call came through to ask if I wanted to come along, it certainly didn't take much more than a split second to sign

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Western Massachusetts

Adventure is going into the unknown. Even on familiar roads, I can never anticipate what will be seen or experienced. Nor can I predict how it will all end. As my bike dove into an impossibly green canyon, these thoughts arose superimposed on beautiful images of the landscape and analysis

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Mexico: Copper Canyon, A Ride Back in Time

Most people visit Copper Canyon by rail, a spectacular ride on the Chihuahua Pacifico Railroad, crossing 39 bridges and 86 tunnels along a rift bigger than the Grand Canyon! Quite an adventure if you're partial to traveling in boxes, but the rugged scenery and cultural gems of the

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Northern Pennsylvania

Gliding silently around the sweeping curves of Route 287 on our second day, we venture deeper into the north woods of Pennsylvania. Riding in the cold half-light of an overcast fall morning, we suddenly throttle back for road construction up ahead. The flagman, surprised to see three apparently lost souls

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Hot Springs California

The hot springs of Paraiso, Esalen, and Tassajara are known as the 'Ah Spas.' Line them up for an afternoon ride, and you're in for some serious Central California soaking. Pick the right day and you may meet actor Branscombe Richmond and his wife Lei. As

Jan/Feb '04 Premium Content

Northern Colorado

Riding northern Colorado means climbing through the Rockies and cruising past wide-open cattle country. The roaming up and down near the Wyoming border encompasses some of the most thrilling areas for motorcycling we've experienced. It's a perfect day for motorcycling. Fresh pine-scented air blows by and

Jan/Feb '04 Premium Content

Italy: Sella Ronda - Demonic Curves in the Dolomites

After two years absence from good old Europe, Christa and I are back to refresh our memories of the twisties in Austria and Italy. Great weather and an unusual heat wave welcome us when we arrive at the Munich Airport. Daniel, my brother, picks us up, and immediately he starts