We love riding, especially in the USA. There's so many epic places to ride, but what do we feel are our favorites? In the 14th episode of The Motorcyclist Podcast we discuss motorcycle riding destinations in the USA. What are your favorites places to ride? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00:00Hey, welcome back to the Motorcyclist Podcast. This is where we talk about motorcycles and what makes them great.
00:00:05Topics on this show are constantly changing, but the one thing that remains the same is two-wheeled fun.
00:00:12Today, we're gonna talk about the best places in the United States to ride.
00:00:16Now, these are places we have personal experience with and places that we like and this is not a complete and
00:00:24concrete list.
00:00:25But we're gonna talk about our favorite destinations, why we like them, and then we're gonna cover some places that we haven't traveled to yet.
00:00:31And we're also going to talk about some places that we think aren't the greatest for riding.
00:00:36So before we get into all that, as always, please like, subscribe, put your comments down below.
00:00:42Tell us where you're from, where you like to ride, where you'll want to go riding,
00:00:46because we'd love to hear that.
00:00:49Time for introductions, as always. So we've got editor Adam Waheed. We've got photographer Jeff Allen. You got myself, Justin Dawes, executive editor.
00:00:58So we always start with what we've been riding this week.
00:01:01Jeff, let's start with you today. Where have you been riding on what?
00:01:06I've been riding locally here in Southern California, and I'm on the, this week, I'm on the, or actually, yeah, about a week,
00:01:12I've been on the Triumph Speed 400, the little,
00:01:16you know, kind of naked bike, 400.
00:01:18I love that little bike. Yeah, it's really great. It's great to look at. I mean, it's, it's a nice bike,
00:01:24but it's really, for, for, I think, what, it's $5,200 bucks, really fit and finish is great. It's very nicely styled.
00:01:31Mm-hmm. I just, I like naked bikes. I like, you know, standard. Standard, yeah. You know, sitting position. Yeah, I
00:01:39rode it in
00:01:412024 at the press launch in Spain, and I was like, this is one of the best bikes of 2024, for sure.
00:01:48Like you said, the fit and finish is good. The engine is fast enough. It's not, it doesn't, on the highways, it's kind of,
00:01:56you know, it's reaching its, its limit. You're not gonna. Yeah, you know that when you, when you throw a leg over a 400,
00:02:02you know that. Yeah, you're not gonna be passing cars that are going 85. You're not gonna pass them.
00:02:07You just, it's the way it is, right? So,
00:02:10but I like the seating position. I love the handling on it.
00:02:14There's a lot to like, and it's,
00:02:16like, just around $5,000 bucks. Yeah, yeah, it's great.
00:02:19The one that I'm on is, is the black colorway, but the red one looks really nice. Yeah, that burgundy red or whatever. Mm-hmm.
00:02:27Nice. Jeff Burgundy. Yeah, I
00:02:30like it.
00:02:32Why, it's wine colored. Oh, oh, yeah, like your burgundy shirt.
00:02:36Yeah, where's your burgundy shirt today? I'll break it out for a future podcast. Right, yeah.
00:02:43Right on. Stay classy.
00:02:46So, Adam, what about you?
00:02:48I've been riding the
00:02:502024 Yamaha YZF-R1 super bike. So, the last of the R1s before they update it for the
00:02:572025 model year. And yeah, that bike's always fun, you know, super old in architecture,
00:03:03but still a blast to ride, and still whopping fast, and all the good stuff.
00:03:09Yeah, I think we, we forget because, you know, the super bike
00:03:14thing, he just keeps, the bar keeps getting raised, and raised, and raised, and the lever gets raised, and you go, like, old R1.
00:03:23But, like, it's still an insane motorcycle. And, like, for anyone that would get on it,
00:03:28you'd be blown away. There's no one that gets off that bike and goes, that thing's lame. Yeah, you know what I mean?
00:03:36Yeah, they're just awesome bikes. You know, it's just crazy, though, how old it is. You know, it's, like, 10 years old at this point,
00:03:42and it's just, like,
00:03:44it's just mind-boggling how some things in motors, or some things in
00:03:48technology progress so fast, and some things don't, and even though they're older,
00:03:52they're still somehow able to be kind of modern. I mean, you know,
00:03:57it's just, I mean, like, look at that Yamaha still sells the TW 200, you know,
00:04:02which is from the 90s, or the 80s even. The 80s. You still see those things cruising around, and yeah,
00:04:08they're old, but, like, they don't, they're not, they don't look that crazy out of place,
00:04:13especially in the new modern world where that old styling is kind of in again a little bit, you know?
00:04:18Yeah, they just kept it around long enough that the style came back. Mm-hmm.
00:04:22Well said. Yeah, so, yeah,
00:04:26you know, there's a lot of examples of bikes that are long in the tooth that were still great. I mean, like
00:04:33GSX-R1000, the K5, like, it had a long, long run on that engine, and
00:04:38everyone loved it because it worked, and everyone knew it, you know? So,
00:04:43you know, XR650L. I was gonna say the XR650, yep.
00:04:48You know, that's like... Yeah, and the new colorway, it has that red, white, and black colorway.
00:04:53You put, like, a Baja Designs LED headlight in there, and it looks new to me, you know? Yeah, for sure.
00:04:59Yeah, for sure. Yeah, when they threw the black wheels on it, it really, it gave it an updated look. Yeah.
00:05:04I think, yeah, I think they need to just upgrade the cockpit a little bit, change the handlebars, make them a little bit wider, a
00:05:09little bit taller, and then it would feel a lot more modern.
00:05:14That would be my steel comment. Yeah, those old-school 80s steel bars.
00:05:18Yeah, they're, they're, they're barely as wide as your hips, it feels like, you know?
00:05:22Yeah, yeah. So, anyway, I rode something that is not available in the United States this week.
00:05:30I've been shopping for a grocery getter here in Costa Rica, and I want something that
00:05:35I can go on some
00:05:38light adventure bike trips with my neighbor who's got a
00:05:42CRF300L, and I don't want to spend
00:05:45CRF300L money, so I went down and checked out
00:05:50the Hero
00:05:52X-Pulse 200. So, Hero is a huge Indian manufacturer
00:05:58that sells, you know, millions and millions and millions of bikes every year in India, and this is their
00:06:05biggish, I should say medium-sized
00:06:10dual sport adventure bike, but it's only 200 CCs, and it's a, it's a fun little bike.
00:06:15Not super high-quality fit, fit and finish, but good enough for what I want to do with it, and
00:06:22I think it's got like 18 and a half horsepower, so it's not a,
00:06:26it's definitely not a screamer, but
00:06:28it gets the job done. And, you know, if I want to go on a long ride with my neighbor, he's a beginner rider,
00:06:34so he's not, you know, I'm not going to be
00:06:37falling behind.
00:06:40So, it's, it's on my list of maybe, maybe to buy, and it's about 3,000 bucks here,
00:06:45which is, just to put that in perspective, a
00:06:49300 Raleigh
00:06:52Honda here is almost $10,000. Oh, wow. That's because of the import tax on it? Because of the import taxes. So,
00:07:00you know, if you were buying it in a country that didn't have import taxes, it's a $1,500 motorcycle, probably.
00:07:06You know, $2,000 motorcycle, and at that point, you're like, that's a, that's a pretty solid deal. So,
00:07:13we'll see. We'll see if I buy that or do something else. So,
00:07:17but,
00:07:19segue from my foreign country,
00:07:22we, last week, we talked about riding in foreign countries, and what bike, what places we liked, and if you want to
00:07:30see our list, go back and
00:07:32check it out.
00:07:34Yeah, it was a fun discussion. I like talking about that stuff.
00:07:36It really was, and there was a, there was a few people that were like, oh, you, what about this place or that place? And every
00:07:42suggestion that someone put in the comments, we're like, yep, that sounds awesome. You know, we just had to narrow it down to what we
00:07:48personally felt was,
00:07:49was awesome and what we liked, but, you know, there was so many good suggestions, like New Zealand is one of them,
00:07:56Nepal, but Jeff's been to Nepal.
00:07:58Mm-hmm.
00:08:00I mean, we had to make a list. I had to narrow it down. I, I, I enjoyed Nepal. It was awesome. Yeah, so,
00:08:07so, there's a lot of other places in the world, obviously, that we have been to, we enjoyed, and there's more places we want to go to.
00:08:14So, but we're gonna stick close to home. We're gonna talk about places to ride in the U.S., and
00:08:22we ride a lot in the U.S. We've been to many states. I have clicked off,
00:08:2749 states. I only have one state left to go. I don't know about you guys. So,
00:08:33and I've ridden, I've ridden in a lot of them. I would say probably two-thirds of those I've ridden. So,
00:08:40we've got a pretty good idea, but we're gonna talk about, you know, our, I wouldn't say
00:08:46favorites, but places that we think are great places to ride. So, we're gonna,
00:08:51we're gonna do this kind of the way we did last week, and we're gonna start with Adam. Give us your first spot.
00:08:59The first spot I really like riding in is obviously a spot that we know and like is Southern California. You know,
00:09:06the diversity of the terrain here, the different landscapes you can see, the roads, the weather. It's just,
00:09:13it's really conducive to riding motorcycles, and all types of motorcycles, whether you like to ride dirt bikes, street bikes, scooters,
00:09:22V-twin cruisers, sport bikes. I mean, there is really good riding for you
00:09:27anywhere and everywhere in Southern California. It really never ceases to amaze me. You know, we've,
00:09:33just when we think we've seen it all, we definitely
00:09:36have a long notebook full of cool rides and destinations. Every now and then, you'll go somewhere where it's totally new, and you're like, wow, I never knew this place even existed, and just another reason why
00:09:45Southern California is such a nice place to ride motorcycles. Yeah, I kind of knew you would pick Southern California. Where you, where you live, you're so close to
00:09:53so many good roads. Like, you don't even have to get on a freeway to get to Southern California.
00:09:58It just, it's just, it's endless. I mean, it's endless and just all kinds of bikes. Like, you can literally go on a scooter ride,
00:10:06like, down PCH, and have a great time, and then at the same time, you can, you know,
00:10:12load your dirt bike up, and go to Fox Raceway, and, you know, kick up some dust, and it's all right there.
00:10:18You live in, in, all right, you're, it's Northern San Diego County, right? It's not Southern Orange County. Correct. You're, like, riding the line. Yeah, Northern San Diego County. So, you've got, like,
00:10:29Colomar Mountain right there. You've got, like, all that rad road going, and, you know, it's all right there for you to do, basically, any time of the year.
00:10:38It's awesome. It's really good. Yeah, and there's, you know, there's, there's hills not too far away. There's mountains getting to the desert. You know, our favorite, not, not our favorite, but one of our favorite riding spots, Anza Borrego, you know, Ocotillo Wells. It's all, it's all right there for you to do, basically, any time of the year, and, you know, it's all right there for you to do, basically, any time of the year, and, you know, it's all right there for you to do, basically, any time of the year, and, you know, it's all right there for you to do, basically, any time of the year, and, you know, it's all right there for you to do, basically, any time of the year, and, you know, it's all right there for you to do, basically, any time of the year, and, you know, it's all right there for
00:11:08you to do, basically, any time of the year, and, you know, it's all right there for you to do, basically, any time of the year, and what is really, really fun is getting out there, and actually treading through the duty free parking lot. Right there, you know, it's just,
00:11:21it's, it's just incredible because you go to other parts of the country, or other parts of the United States. And it's just it's not like that. You don't have that type of terrain versus versus diversity, you know,
00:11:35course of 20 to 30 miles in Southern California, you know. And I think that's the reason why that,
00:11:40you know, Cycleworld is based out of there and a lot of other motorcycle
00:11:44magazines are based out there. And a lot of manufacturers used to be based out of
00:11:48the area as well because of the, you know, ability, one, I mean, accessibility to the ports
00:11:56and all that kind of stuff. But also, you know, the riding culture, you're tapped in,
00:12:01like, you can ride year-round. Yeah, Adam's uniquely situated where that's, it's so convenient
00:12:08because in the summer months, you can get, you can get up on a mountain where the temperatures are
00:12:13cooler. And then in the winter months, you can head down there, like you say, down to Borrego,
00:12:17where it's pretty comfortable and warm, even on the coldest days. Yeah, it's a good spot.
00:12:24And then, like, you factor in, you know, the winter, the rainy season, and when it starts
00:12:29raining, that changes things and makes it as a new dimension. Because typically in Southern
00:12:35California, you don't get a lot of moisture. So when there is moisture in the ground,
00:12:39it adds, like, another dimension to the riding and the topography and the landscapes. And it
00:12:44almost makes it like a, just a different world for a short period of time when there's a lot
00:12:50of moisture in the ground. Yep. Yeah, true. Very true. Very true. It's, yeah, it's just a,
00:12:58it's a cornucopia of riding, for sure. So I, I'll go, I'll give mine, then, which is just above,
00:13:08kind of, where Adam is talking about in the area above, I should say, north of San Francisco.
00:13:17There's so much good riding in that area. The roads are awesome. The scenery is variable. You've
00:13:25got the coast, you've got the mountains, you've got some, some drier sides of the mountains,
00:13:29you've got amazing views. And you can get to Redwoods. The Redwoods, yeah, you can get up to
00:13:35the Redwoods. You know, so it's, it's varied as well. But once you get north of San Francisco,
00:13:44you know, there's not as much traffic. There's not as many people on the road. The,
00:13:48the motorcycle culture in San Francisco is big time. Like, people, they live it there. There's
00:13:54a lot of riders that, like, when you're a rider there, you're like, you're a rider. Like, you're
00:14:00into it, you know. And it's because they have such, such good riding there. So there's all
00:14:07kinds of cool places. You know, I know Adam's been up there a bunch for press launches. I'm
00:14:13sure Jeff shot buckets full of photos up there. Yeah. And, and personal trips. Like, I,
00:14:19when I'm not working, I still like to be on a motorcycle. I've done a lot of personal trips
00:14:23up there too. Yep. So, you know, like you can make it, you can make a short trip out of San
00:14:29Francisco and just go up Mount Tanim or Mount Tama. I don't know how to exactly say it. T-A-M-A-P-A-L-A-I-S.
00:14:38Everyone just calls it Mount Tam because no one knows how to say it. So, and that takes you onto
00:14:43like the panoramic, the panoramic highway. And there's like so many car commercials that have
00:14:47been shot up there and motorcycle, you know, advertisements. And because the road is just
00:14:53stunningly beautiful and it looks out over the ocean and you can see San Francisco and, you know,
00:14:58it's a nice short, easy ride, but it's beautiful and it's satisfying and it's awesome. You know,
00:15:02and you can take that around to like, you know, over by Skywalker Ranch where George Lucas's
00:15:09spot is on Lucas Valley Road and all that over there, you know, and then you're like,
00:15:14instead of being up on top, you've dropped back down and then now you're underneath the tree
00:15:18canopy and it's dark and it's kind of woody and, you know, you need your headlights on during the
00:15:23daytime sometimes and that's super fun. And then, you know, you can do really long, rad,
00:15:28you know, beautiful loops. Like, you know, my favorite ride I think I've done is actually
00:15:35starting in Santa Rosa and there's a road called Skag Springs Road and that goes out towards Stewart
00:15:41Point which is on the coast on Highway 1. And the road starts out and it is
00:15:49perfect. It is racetrack smooth. Every corner is cambered the right way. All the radiuses are like
00:15:57pretty much continuous radiuses. There's no closing, you know, like it's just a really,
00:16:03really nice road to go really quick on and enjoy. And then you get to like the county line
00:16:08and it turns into almost like an adventure bike road. It gets bumpy and like just kind of gnarly
00:16:18but still fun on a street bike because now you're like dodging potholes and there's spots where the
00:16:24road like you'll hit like a bump and you'll get airborne, you know. So, it's really fun.
00:16:29And then you get to the coast and it's beautiful and depending on the time of the year, you know,
00:16:34you might have it sunny and beautiful. Usually, it's cool and kind of foggy. So, it's just that
00:16:39it's a huge change in a short, short distance. So, you know, and then you can go from there
00:16:46and you can go down to, you know, over to Point Reyes and then down to like Bodega Bay, you know,
00:16:53Baydega Bay and then Point Reyes and then back into San Francisco and have a beautiful ride
00:16:57along the coast. Just super good, super good. Yeah, there's a lot of good riding up in that
00:17:03northern California, even a little further north than you're talking about. I've ridden that road
00:17:06out to Stewart's Point, which is fantastic. But there's another road a little more north. I don't
00:17:12know if you guys have ridden it from Red Bluff, which is north of like Sacramento and all that.
00:17:20Yeah, by Redding. Yeah, to Ferndale. It's a road, I don't know, I want to say, I think it's about,
00:17:28I think it's 150 or 200 miles across there with like two stop signs, no stop lights.
00:17:35Yeah, it's a really, really great road. Yeah, that is a really good road as well. And then if
00:17:40you go further north, there's another road that goes across to Crescent City that you go through
00:17:44the redwoods. There's a lot of sneaky roads up there, like there's a lot of sneaky just roads
00:17:49that are just, you can take places and get kind of lost and just see stuff. It's, I mean, it's
00:17:56kind of similar to Southern California in that where if you go far enough, there's these endless
00:18:01loops that connect and take you to these different places where like, wow, I've never seen this
00:18:06before. And I haven't seen a car in a while, you know? Yeah, I think that's kind of fun because,
00:18:10you know, with, well, as long as you have service, you know, you have your phone for GPS and you can,
00:18:16you can just go get lost and then find your way home eventually, right? Yeah. So
00:18:23anyway, that's, that's my, so I think we've covered all of California at this point.
00:18:29No, we didn't. I'm going to split the difference. Oh, okay.
00:18:34The Siena Nevadas, like, oh, okay. You know, like we've all ridden together up around,
00:18:41you know, Oakhurst and, you know, up to Huntington Lake and that area right there,
00:18:48right there, it's, it's similar to Adam's area where it has everything. I mean, you literally
00:18:55have every kind of riding, lots of really good adventure riding, both like off-road, but then
00:19:03like those sort of like, I call them like lost highways, those like back roads that are
00:19:07not well maintained. So there's little traffic and it's, they're a little bit dirty. So they're
00:19:12perfect on adventure bikes. And, and then there's, there's enough like single track trail,
00:19:19like if you're just want to go ride your dirt bike or dual sport stuff, we've all been dual
00:19:24sporting up there. It's really, really great. And then of course, just outside of Oakhurst is,
00:19:31or right in Oakhurst, I should say is the, the beginning of Highway 49, which is one of the great,
00:19:38you know, sporty roads in California. Highway 49 is among the, you know, the top on my list.
00:19:47Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's really good up there, you know, and, you know, you've got like
00:19:52Mammoth up there and you've got, you know, all kinds of places that you cross,
00:19:57Crescent Cross. And it's, it's really good riding up there, like you said, and it,
00:20:02and it varies a lot too. So it's another great place to get lost on those endless roads that
00:20:09just take you to wherever, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, Adam, how you just,
00:20:14you know, the places you just discover, I've ridden up there maybe 25 years and even more
00:20:22recently just ended up on roads. I was like, I didn't know this was here. I didn't know this,
00:20:27this other road, you know, so you just, you can make the loop, you can make your loop bigger or,
00:20:33or in many cases, there's less traffic. So. Yeah. Really good stuff.
00:20:38It's funny too, because like, you know, while we're talking about it, you know, we're talking
00:20:41about Southern California, huge population base, you know, Northern California, huge population
00:20:47base. And, you know, that's for sure. But as soon as you get out of these big, you know, cities and,
00:20:54and Sperbium sprawl areas, there's no people, there's no people out in those regions. And it's,
00:21:00it's kind of a, you know, a misnomer where people, Oh, there's so many people, you know,
00:21:04the state of California has, you know, you know, one 10th of the population of the United States,
00:21:09but then like you get out in the, I don't know if that's correct or not, but like a good majority
00:21:13of the population, but then you get out in the middle of nowhere. And it's just like, if you
00:21:16were in Hobunk Alabama, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's towns you roll through
00:21:21up there and you, you swear you hear a banjo playing, right? You know, it's, it's definitely
00:21:27not the same, same vibe as, as being down by the coast or being by a big city. Like it, it feels
00:21:34like you're in an old, like a mountain town where the town is small and everybody knows everybody.
00:21:39And you go, how does this exist in California? I thought California doesn't have thing places
00:21:46like this, you know, and it's awesome. It's such a good change of pace.
00:21:50I had a moment like that on that, on that road from red, uh, red blood to Ferndale. I think
00:21:55it's like highway 36. I was riding that road on 4th of July weekend. And like I said, I think
00:22:02it's 200 miles. I saw three cars on 4th of July weekend. And it was good weather. It was just,
00:22:10it was just fantastic. And it was one of those moments I'm like, wow, there's literally nobody
00:22:14up here, but there's no one on 4th of July. Yeah. I always trip out, you know, when we ride
00:22:20the Laguna to WeatherTech Raceway, Laguna Seca in the summer months, you know, and go through,
00:22:25you know, Paso Robles, more towards Lake Nacimiento. And you'll be up there near Lake
00:22:32Nacimiento on a Friday afternoon at, you know, 2 PM. And it's a beautiful, gorgeous day. And
00:22:38there are some people, but not a lot, you know? Yeah, for sure. Where if that was like in
00:22:44Carlsbad, California, there'd be like 50 billion people. Oh yeah. Almost gridlock. Yeah. Gridlock.
00:22:51So super cool. Well, okay. That's our commercial for California.
00:22:57We are biased. Just, we're going to say it right now. We're biased and you can yell at us and say
00:23:02we're biased and we'll agree with you. We are biased. California top to bottom is great for
00:23:07riding motorcycles. So let's get out of California and go somewhere else. So Adam,
00:23:13how about you hit me with something else? Yeah. Well now with exiting the Golden State, you know,
00:23:21on the East Coast, there's a lot of East Coast riding to be had. But one of my favorites is,
00:23:27you know, cruising through, you know, the Smoky Mountains. And not even the Smoky Mountains,
00:23:33but even a little bit farther South, the Smoky Mountain foothills, I guess you could call them.
00:23:38In North Carolina, a little bit in that part of the country, you know, there's some really good
00:23:44motorcycle riding out there. We recently did the Tail of the Dragon loop this summer,
00:23:50which I guess would be like the Southern part of that area. And geez, it's been so long since I've
00:23:57been there. I forgot just how awesome it is. And talk about no traffic and no people. It's just
00:24:03it's just tens and tens and tens, if not hundreds of miles of just never ending slow to medium
00:24:09speed corners, you know, that are really well taken care of. The roads there are very smooth,
00:24:16very well maintained, don't have a lot of traffic. There is a good amount of gas stations to fill up
00:24:23and service places. Everyone's super nice and polite. And it's just a great place to ride a
00:24:28street bike, you know, whether you're riding a sport bike or a Honda Goldwing or anything,
00:24:33just any kind of street bike. It's just awesome to ride those roads.
00:24:37Yeah, those roads are cool because they're, they're, they're tighter than some other roads.
00:24:43So like, even if you're not, you don't have to be like, hauling, hauling to feel like you're
00:24:49going fast and you're getting your thrills because everything is so tight. And, you know,
00:24:53you'd be going around a corner. Some of the corners are like 30 mile an hour corners and
00:24:57you feel like you're ripping. Yeah, totally. Yeah. You know, and, and that's the kind of
00:25:03the thing, like you said, the speeds, I mean, there definitely are some faster stretches of
00:25:07road, like that short chair or all a Skyway where it's, you know, kind of fast, but those are a
00:25:11little bit more few and far between. It's more like, you know, second, third, fourth, lower speed
00:25:16stuff where you're just kind of cruising. And, and I don't know, I think it's fun. And it kind
00:25:21of reduced the risk a little bit. Just you feel a little bit safer at those lower speeds. At least
00:25:26I do for sure. Yeah. It's good. It's good stuff in that area. I, I would ride near that area when
00:25:33we were years ago, going to the Honda Hoot and we went down to Maggie's Valley and stuff like that.
00:25:38And it's really good stuff. Yeah. That Knoxville, Tennessee area has got really good riding and
00:25:44not super populated and weather's fairly temperate sort of for East coast, you know,
00:25:51and yeah, a lot of good riding out there. I would love to spend more time on the East coast and just
00:25:57find more roads and just ride more stuff out there.
00:26:00Yeah. There's a, there's a, a little bit of a hack for that area of the world. If the word,
00:26:06if the road name has gap at the end of it, it's probably going to be a good motorcycle road.
00:26:14So look for, look for any named road that has gap at the end and it's going to be twisty.
00:26:20Yeah. So that's pretty rad. I'm going to go with
00:26:29another place outside of California. Obviously we're going to go, we're going to go back to
00:26:32the West a little bit and Texas Hill country, a little bit different type of writing. It's still
00:26:38got curves and it's got all that kind of stuff, but it's, it's a more laid back ride for the
00:26:44most part. There are some twisting, turning roads and stuff, but it's just a really beautiful
00:26:50area between basically like West of Austin and Southwest or sorry, Northwest of San Antonio.
00:26:59It's Texas Hill country and it's, it's got elevation up and down and it's got some corners,
00:27:05but it's, you know, in the springtime there's all these wild flowers that bloom, you know,
00:27:10and it gets a little busy then because tourists come from all over the world to see the Texas,
00:27:18I don't know if it's the blue bonnet or the blue bell. Sorry, Texans. I know you're watching,
00:27:23correct me. It's one of those two and I don't know which one, but I've been there and it's
00:27:27beautiful. You know, the sides of the roads and the Hills are just covered in blue. It's
00:27:31super beautiful, but there's a lot of really nice rides in that area.
00:27:37It depends on where you start from. You can go start from San Antonio, you can start from Austin,
00:27:41anywhere in between. And I've really enjoyed riding from Austin to Travis Lake. It's kind
00:27:49of like a Northwest kind of ride up to a big lake and it's nice and twisty, but it's not
00:27:55hectic. It's just kind of relaxed and a beautiful road for cruisers and sport tours and, you know,
00:28:01sport bikes, you're going to maybe feel a little bit bored, but for everything else, man, the
00:28:07scenery, it's just a fun cruisy road, you know, and then there's, they have some fairly famous
00:28:15named roads as well. There's one called the Twisted Sisters and it's three roads and they're
00:28:21all twisty roads and they kind of connect and it's got lots of turns, good pavement.
00:28:27It's about 120 mile loop. So, you know, if you ride the 40 or 50 miles from San Antonio and then,
00:28:34you know, you could have a good solid day of riding out there for sure, you know.
00:28:40Yeah. And bring your appetite because there's some good barbecue in there.
00:28:43Oh, yeah, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's my favorite place, which may not be the best and
00:28:50we're going to get corrected on this too. I'm going to get corrected on my Texas barbecue and
00:28:54I'm going to be told. Yeah. Well, as soon as you start talking about barbecue,
00:28:56somebody's going to disagree. Yeah. Yeah. Disagree. But there's a place in
00:29:02Lano or Yano, it's double L-A-N-O, Texas, kind of also west of Austin, Cooper's. And dude,
00:29:13best barbecue I've ever had. Insane. So good. You know, so throw your hate at me, tell me that I'm
00:29:20wrong and tell me which one is your favorite because I'll go try them all. You put the list,
00:29:25I'll make a riding trip just to go eat barbecue. So, you know, and there's other kind of cool
00:29:31stuff. There's a little loop called the Willow City Loop near Fredericksburg, which is like this
00:29:38German styled thing. So it's kind of like solving for California. You know what I mean? It's all
00:29:44German styled. But there's a loop out there that has no center line. It's very twisty. It's kind
00:29:49of slower speed, but it's really fun. It's got a lot of elevation change. You go up on some like
00:29:55beautiful looking bluffs and cliffs and then you're down like in the ravines and you like
00:30:00actually cross water on the street. And, you know, there's like little rivers running across
00:30:04the road and stuff. It's really fun, you know, and then from there you can kind of take a side
00:30:09trip to a place called Lukenbach. And they say everybody's somebody in Lukenbach. It's a pretty
00:30:18famous spot for being a dance hall slash small music venue. You know, people like Willie Nelson
00:30:27and Loud Lovett and Waylon Jennings are all like huge fans of that place and have played there.
00:30:32And Willie Nelson actually has a song about it. It's got a little food spot, but it's a really
00:30:38fun place to stop, get some music history, have a okay-ish burger. I would say like the food's not
00:30:46the greatest, but it's bar food, but that's fine. You're not there for that. You're there to
00:30:52see the history of this place and it's super cool. So you can't go wrong with Hill Country
00:31:01unless you're looking to be like just ripping on sport bikes. Everything else it's beautiful for.
00:31:07Like, you know, ride a cruiser out of Austin or San Antonio and you will be super satisfied
00:31:15with that ride. Yeah. So how about you, Jeff? Well, I have a favorite in Southern Utah. I know
00:31:29you're going to pick something in Southern Utah, but I have a favorite that's not the same.
00:31:35The St. George Hurricane. Hurricane or hurrican. Hurricane. If you're from Southern Utah,
00:31:42you say hurricane. Yeah. And that area, like the Sierra Nevadas, has everything. And you have,
00:31:51you know, nearby, there's plenty of good, like top-notch off-road riding at Sand Hollow.
00:31:59I know you've ridden there, probably all have ridden there, and really, really good stuff there.
00:32:04But, you know, you can get in, you can get to, pretty quickly, you can get to like the north
00:32:09rim of the Grand Canyon from there. It's not too far. You can get up into the mountains in the
00:32:15summertime. You can get to up near Duck Creek and Brian Head, like on both on adventure bikes,
00:32:27because there's a lot of good paved road. There's a lot of good dirt road that, you know, like
00:32:33quality dirt road. There's, it's really, really diverse. You can have, it can be another one of
00:32:39those places, like the Sierra Nevada, where you, you could bring one of every type of motorcycle
00:32:45and ride them all. Yeah, for sure. It's, all three of us have done those rides together,
00:32:50and yeah, they're up there. It's awesome up there. Wow. It's just, yeah, I mean, I can't,
00:32:55I totally agree. I can't say enough of that area. Honestly, if you had to pick a place to live,
00:33:01I think that would be a cool place to live. I agree. I agree. I think it's very cool. They
00:33:06even have some, you know, you have the lake there from the hot months. You can get your, well, I
00:33:10know, Adam, you have your jet skis. Yeah. Spend time on the water. Yeah. I was talking to that,
00:33:17that the guy, Skyler, Skyler House, he actually lives in Huracan, and he has PWCs and jet skis,
00:33:25and he was saying that there's a group of those guys that go to that lake right by the sand dunes
00:33:30and ride their jet skis there and stuff like that. Yeah. That lake is cool because it's,
00:33:35like, the sand is, like, all the way down to the one side of the lake, and you can drive your
00:33:42RV or whatever right to the water's edge. So you can park, if you can, if you have four-wheel
00:33:47drive and you're not worried about sinking, you could park on the water's edge and camp
00:33:51right there, and then unload your jet skis and throw them right in the water, and then take your
00:33:54dirt bike up the hill into the sand dunes. Go to the sand dunes. Or if you're in your UTV,
00:34:00you can do the sand dunes and all that, and then roll down and jump in the water. Yeah,
00:34:04exactly. Oh, for sure. Yeah. You know, and you missed the fact that, like, you see,
00:34:09you go to the North Rim, but there's also Zion National Park right there. Yeah. Yeah,
00:34:14there's a lot. You can get to Bryce Canyon National Park really quick there. Like, there's
00:34:20a lot of beautiful, natural beauty that's easily accessible. Yeah, and I know we're going to talk
00:34:28about it later in the podcast about, like, fly in and ride, and that area is not far from Las Vegas.
00:34:35So you have a big international airport a few hours away. You can fly in from anywhere in the
00:34:40world, head to St. George, and rent something. Yeah, well, there's a new airport that they built
00:34:49there. Oh, it's probably five, six years old now at this point that has direct lights from some
00:34:57very large cities. So, I mean, you know, there's also a chance you could just fly straight into
00:35:01St. George. Yeah, yeah, and they probably don't have international, but I know it is. It is. Oh,
00:35:07they do. It's an international spot. There's a lot of tourists that come from Europe and stuff to
00:35:12go to Zion and the other national parks. Yeah, it's a great area. That little corner of southeast
00:35:20or southwest Utah is fantastic. Yeah, I love that area. Oh, I really love that area. I grew
00:35:27up around that area going there in the summertime when I was a kid, and I try to get back there once
00:35:31a year. So I love that place very much. So, well, let's keep our commercial going for Utah as well.
00:35:39And mine is a place that is all about off-road riding, and that's Moab. It is the mecca for
00:35:50off-road. It's just, if you haven't been there, it's even hard to describe how amazing it is.
00:35:59You have these sandstone rocks and cliffs, and you can ride all over them, and you can go
00:36:06find sand dunes, and you can go up to the mountains, and you can get into the snow,
00:36:09you can get into the pine trees, and you can do all this stuff. But it's such an amazing
00:36:16little town that has built itself around off-road recreation almost more than anything.
00:36:23I mean, there's mountain biking, there's hiking, there's horseback riding, there's all that kind
00:36:26of stuff. But a lot of the tourism comes from off-roading, and everyone gets along for the
00:36:33most part. I would say like, you know, you could run into someone on a mountain bike,
00:36:38and you're on a dirt bike, and then there'll be someone on a horse, and a jeep person,
00:36:42and everyone's happy to be there because it's so amazing. No one's been out of shape that you're
00:36:47on their trail, or in their way, or making noise, or not making noise, or whatever.
00:36:53Yeah. Well, I think people up there like to do more than one thing. If you come across a cyclist
00:37:00on a trail, it's likely he has a dirt bike in his garage. It's just on a bicycle today.
00:37:05Exactly. I mean, we went, what was it, four or five years ago, Jeff? Probably four years ago?
00:37:13Yeah. I don't remember. We went for my birthday. Jeff and I, we loaded up a van, and we put
00:37:19two enduro bikes, we put two trials bikes, we put two mountain bikes all in the back of this van.
00:37:27We went there for four or five days, five, six days, I remember, and did all the things.
00:37:35It was epic, except for the first day when my electric mountain bike ran out of battery,
00:37:40and I bumped super hard and got cramps. I thought I was going to die.
00:37:44The other less epic moment was when we were on our e-bikes, and those two girls passed us on
00:37:48their analog bikes uphill. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. It was hilarious.
00:37:54They were sitting there. We went by them. I was like, oh, we'll never see them again.
00:38:0020 minutes later, they passed us on their analog bikes up a hill.
00:38:04Dude, like Olympic level mountain bikers. Those two smoked us.
00:38:10They shamed us. Yeah.
00:38:12Totally shamed us. Not that I have any shame. I'm fine riding an electric mountain bike, and
00:38:17you can make fun of me all you want, but I don't care.
00:38:22Yeah. I always say if you don't like e-mountain bikes, you haven't ridden an e-mountain bike.
00:38:29This is true. This is very true. Then we rode trials bikes, and we did some of the harder trails
00:38:36on trials bikes, and it made them almost too easy. There was a lot of stuff that was almost too easy.
00:38:44We enjoyed the time. Just creeping up stuff.
00:38:46Oh, yeah. Then we got out the enduro bikes and did a couple days on the enduro bikes,
00:38:52and we did part of the same loop on the enduro bikes. You're like, okay, now it's more difficult.
00:38:59Yeah. The trials bike was a nice prologue because you could easily find the right line
00:39:08to go up on some of the hills or some of the technical stuff. It was nice to do it first on
00:39:15that. Yeah, for sure. Then I just remember there was that one big ... I think the trail's called
00:39:23Where Eagles Dare, and you go up around the side of this big dome of sandstone, and it was super
00:39:31windy. Remember that, Jeff? Oh, yeah. It was terrifying. Yeah.
00:39:36Yeah. It's just the wind is blowing you to the downhill side of this gigantic-
00:39:42And it's off-camber.
00:39:43... dome, and it's off-camber, and you're riding up it, and you get to the top, and the wind was
00:39:47going like ... It felt like it was going 60 miles an hour, and you're just like ...
00:39:50It was blowing hard. I forget. It blew ... I think it blew your ... You had your bike on this side
00:39:54stand, and it blew it off the side stand, but on the side stand side, it went to the low side.
00:40:01Yeah, it blew it over the side stand. It lifted the thing up on the side stand and then fell over.
00:40:06Yeah, I kind of forgot about that. That was a terrifying few minutes there. Yeah.
00:40:10Yeah. Yep, for sure. But yeah, it's a beautiful, wonderful place to ride camping. You can camp
00:40:19in some of the campgrounds that are right in the middle of the trails, which is super,
00:40:25super awesome, or there's every level of hotel. The food's great. Overall,
00:40:33I just really like it for the riding, but also for the vibes.
00:40:37Yeah. Yeah. And close to other good riding, like Green Valley, and then if you really
00:40:43want to challenge yourself, there's Five Miles of Hell. Oh, yeah. That's right. You did Five
00:40:47Miles of Hell with the old RN crew. It's pretty challenging. Yeah.
00:40:52Moab's like a ... It's a gateway. It's an off-road gateway, so you could totally stay in Moab,
00:40:57but it's a gateway to other places too, and you can cruise through, and it's just so neat.
00:41:04Yeah. Oh, there's the ride. You could go over the top of the mountain from Moab and end up in
00:41:09Gateway, which is like this resort area that the owner of the Discovery Channel, or former owner
00:41:17of the Discovery Channel built. It's super beautiful, but it's got a helipad with helicopter
00:41:23tourists. It's got a racetrack for off-road stadium trucks. It's got ... You can rent and
00:41:29drive. It's got a shooting range. It's got an amazing car museum inside, so there's all kinds
00:41:36of cool stuff there too, and it's a beautiful adventure bike ride over the top of the mountain
00:41:40to get there. Let's do one more from Jeff. We're getting a little long here, so let's give Jeff
00:41:49one, and then we'll talk about some of our least favorite places.
00:41:52Okay, so this isn't exactly like a specific location. This is a specific route or
00:42:01ride, and it's Mexico to Canada, but off-road. There's a route that I did a few years ago,
00:42:10and it's about 2,400 miles, and it's almost exclusively in the dirt. You start at Tecate,
00:42:19and depending on your pace, it'll take you anywhere from ... I think we did it in nine
00:42:25days. I forget why we were in a hurry, but it's anywhere from 10 to 13 days, and it finishes at
00:42:33Coeur d'Alene up at the Canadian border in Idaho, and you see everything. When we started, we went
00:42:45in ... I want to say we started in late September, so it was pretty warm down at Tecate going through
00:42:50the desert the first few days. You go through Barstow and all that stuff, and it was pretty
00:42:55warm at times, and then by the end, we were worried about snow. When we got up into Montana and into
00:43:03Idaho, it was pretty cold, and we were worried that we were going to get snowed on or even snowed
00:43:09out. Is that called the Great Western Trail? I don't know. I don't know if it has a specific
00:43:20name. We got a route from a company called Countdown. They run off-road tours, if they're
00:43:30still around. We didn't run their tour. They were nice enough to just share the route with us.
00:43:37It was for a story for Cycworld, and it was really, really a cool thing. For riding in
00:43:47America, I just thought it was one of my favorite spots. Yeah, that's cool. Destination
00:43:52riding. Well, let's talk about ... Sorry, I was just going to say, to ride that long,
00:43:59you really need to plan even maintenance. We had a support truck meet us from time to time
00:44:04would bring us tires. We would change tires every three or four days.
00:44:10Very cool. How hard is the riding? Is it mainly just dirt roads, or is there single track?
00:44:16There's some single track, and there is some dirt road, but a lot of it is two-track stuff,
00:44:23so not basic, not basic road. There was some of that. There was some what I like to call
00:44:30a dirt freeway where you're just pinned in top gear. There was some of that, but
00:44:37there's thought given to the route to keep it interesting. It's not just an iron button kind
00:44:42of thing where you're just trying to put in the most miles as quickly as you can. It wasn't like
00:44:46that. Gotcha. Okay. Well, let's go with some places that we feel ... Now, we're going to get
00:44:57someone from one of those places mad at us and understood, but we'll give some reasons why we
00:45:03feel that they're not the greatest places to go riding. Let's start with Adam. I want to hear what
00:45:08you think about your kind of least favorite place you like to ride in the US. Well, anytime you're
00:45:14riding a motorcycle is a good time to me, but if I had to pick a place that is my least favorite
00:45:19or a place where I don't really want to go to ride, it'd probably be one of the Midwest states
00:45:24like Iowa or Nebraska. Basically anywhere where you just have long, straight, featureless roads
00:45:31that go on forever. I guess it's better than sitting in traffic, so I will give Iowa and
00:45:36Nebraska that, but just the featureless roads, that's the thing. Just the flat, featureless
00:45:42thing. That's where you just kind of lose concentration, you're bored, you need some
00:45:48mental stimulation. That's where you feel the miles, right? Yes. You look at your odometer and
00:45:55you're like, okay. Then you feel like it's been a half hour and you look and it's only been 10
00:46:00miles or 15 miles. You're like, am I even going anywhere? What's happening right now? Yeah,
00:46:06exactly. You feel like you're swimming upstream the whole time. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Now,
00:46:11if you're on a Honda Goldwing or a K1600 GTL, that miles and miles of featureless
00:46:18pavement can quickly change from bad to acceptable. Imagine riding
00:46:25a Ninja 1000 naked bike or something like that. Oh, geez Louise. Brutal. Yeah, brutal for sure.
00:46:33No, I get that. There's lots of people that do ride motorcycles there, but
00:46:38yeah, we feel a little sad for you. Yeah, maybe there's some curvy roads in Iowa or Nebraska
00:46:49that we're just not familiar with. Maybe I'm wrong. I just haven't ridden the right spot.
00:46:55Maybe someone's willing to share it down in the comments. Well, when I worked for Kawasaki, I used
00:46:59to test ride in a place called the Los Hills. It is between Nebraska and Iowa, south of Sioux City.
00:47:11It was a place where there was ancient sand dunes that then got rain and grew trees and all that
00:47:17stuff. I wouldn't say there's twisty, but there's some roads with turns up there. There's lots of
00:47:24good off-road riding there. We would test off-road units in those areas, but
00:47:31it's few and far between. I've spent a lot of time
00:47:34driving those highways, and it's few and far between. What about you, Jeff?
00:47:41The single place I at least like being on a motorcycle is on the freeway.
00:47:48So just like you were saying, feeling the miles, and it's those getting there miles. I enjoy
00:47:54just about anywhere on a motorcycle, especially if you happen to be on something well-suited for
00:48:00where you are. If it's super tight and twisty, maybe you don't want a big dresser, like a Harley
00:48:06or Indian. But then if it's some of those long sweeping roads with scenery, maybe that's the
00:48:13perfect thing. Mostly, if you're on the freeway, you're just slogging miles. It's not the other
00:48:23traffic or anything around me. It's a weird thing. I have a tendency to kind of doze off
00:48:31on the freeway. It's not a good tendency. You might want to talk to your doctor about that.
00:48:38Well, there you go. That's my least fun place to be where I barely keep myself awake.
00:48:44Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I get that. Same reason. I think that there's a common thread here,
00:48:52because I'm going to add mine. It's a lot of straight roads as well.
00:48:57They're going to be up in arms about this one. But I'm going to preface it and say that it's still
00:49:03really fun to go to this place, but it's not because of the riding. And that's Daytona,
00:49:08especially Daytona Bike Week. It is a circus. It's crazy. There's so much to see. There's
00:49:15plenty of things to do. But riding is so far down on the list of the motorcycle things to do when
00:49:23you're at Daytona. You ride from spot to spot, to hang out to hang out, and that's it. You know
00:49:31what I mean? There's no corners. There's no good riding. Even if you get out away from town and
00:49:38away from the crowds, it's still pretty much just all straight roads. So scenery can be nice in some
00:49:45spots, and you can go along the coast and stuff. But still, pretty boring riding, but not boring
00:49:53in terms of festival atmosphere. Can you still ride on the beach in Daytona?
00:50:03Maybe you could check that off your list. If you don't live near the coast, maybe get down there.
00:50:08Yeah, you can do that. You can do that. Check that off your list.
00:50:10You can't rip or haul butt, but you can putt down the sand. You can do the same thing at Pismo
00:50:17though, too. I took a Goldwing on the beach at Pismo in California.
00:50:21Is it still there?
00:50:23Yeah, yeah. No, it was fine. It was totally fine. I just had to make it across the soft stuff to
00:50:29get to where the sand was wet, and then it was snowy. But I had my wife on the back, too. She
00:50:35was on the back of the Goldwing. It was just like... It'll be fine, honey.
00:50:39Hold on, dear. Don't jump. We'll be fine. We'll get there. Anyway,
00:50:47let's go to what's next on the list for everybody.
00:50:54Who do you want to go first?
00:50:55I don't care.
00:50:57Okay. I have one that's been on my list for a while. I know we're going to talk about it,
00:51:02but I'm a member of Eagle Rider. I've joined the Eagle Rider club because even when I'm not
00:51:10working, I like vacations on motorcycles. It's nice to be able to fly in somewhere and get a
00:51:16bike. But I have the idea. My brother lives in New York, so sometime I want to fly into my brother's
00:51:23place and then pick up a bike from Eagle Rider and head up through New England up to the coast
00:51:30of Maine. I'm kind of a sucker for those images of lighthouses along the coastline and stuff.
00:51:40Sure. I'm a sucker for crab cakes.
00:51:43Yeah, me too. That's on my list. I definitely want to do the upper part of New England and
00:51:51into Maine and all that. I want to go in the summertime where the days are real long.
00:51:57Cool. Adam?
00:51:58I feel like Jeff's stealing my idea. Maybe I should go with you, Jeff. The part of the
00:52:06Northeast United States, I haven't really done a lot of motorcycling up there. Like Jeff said,
00:52:15the hunt for red October pulling into New England past the lighthouse. I think that would be a cool
00:52:25place to visit and spend some miles cruising through Vermont, just seeing some stuff that
00:52:30we don't normally get to see a lot in the American Southwest. Again, I think the summer months are
00:52:38pretty much the ideal time, July, August probably. I think probably June is still probably going to
00:52:44be too cold and September will be snowing by then. I think July and August are your months.
00:52:50Yeah, perfect. Go ahead.
00:52:54I was going to say, be careful in Vermont. I drove through Vermont. I wasn't riding and I
00:52:59got pulled over three times in one day. In my short drive across Vermont, I got pulled over
00:53:05three times. I got three tickets. They did not let me go. They did not give me warnings. I was
00:53:11not hauling. I was just barely over the speed limit. Yeah, I was thinking a good motorcycle
00:53:16for that would be like an Indian motorcycle or just some type of touring bike, I think,
00:53:21would be a good option for that. Something that you can still get in trouble, but a little bit
00:53:27less likely to get in trouble. Exactly, yeah. Just take your time through there.
00:53:32Yeah, I agree with you. That's my idea as well, Adam, is a Harley Ultra or an Indian
00:53:38Roadmaster or something like that. Yeah, that'd be sweet.
00:53:42Those are like perfect sightseeing machines.
00:53:48They encourage you to slow down. Some of the stuff we do, we do it because it's sporty,
00:53:53but you don't see the scenery as much as you do on a bagger.
00:53:59There's definitely a time and a place for cruiser style motorcycles, especially when you want to
00:54:04take in the sights and the sounds. His face is locked up. He's in cruiser mode. We'll go with
00:54:13mine while he's locked up. Mine is the other northern side of the world, but further north,
00:54:21and that's Alaska. It's the last state I need to check off my list. I'd really like to ride
00:54:27the Dalton Highway on an adventure bike, obviously. I just want to see Alaska in the
00:54:40summertime. I really like arctic areas in the summertime. That's what I really want to go with.
00:54:49Yeah, I almost put that on my list of favorite places because I've done that Dalton Highway.
00:54:53I've ridden in Alaska, and it is fantastic up there. It really is. It's great. Going through
00:55:01Denali and all of that. Yeah, super rad. What about some tips
00:55:09for riding in the US? Let's not go over the obvious things, like bring your paperwork and
00:55:17insurance and bring enough water and pack some tools. We can assume everybody already knows that.
00:55:24You should know that. Don't be that rider in your group that doesn't have those things.
00:55:32Let's talk about ways to make riding better or how to achieve that.
00:55:40Anyone got any suggestions? For me, some of the riding we're
00:55:43talking about, like the touring stuff on a bagger, for me, the best way to make the ride
00:55:52more interesting is to bring a passenger. I think touring with two up, especially when you slow it
00:55:59down a little bit and you're really there to sightsee and to make all the stops, I think
00:56:07two up is my preferred way. That's a good idea. Definitely well said.
00:56:15My wife doesn't get on the back of a motorcycle very often, probably because when she met me,
00:56:20the day after she met me, I crashed a bike into a tree on Ortega Highway. Even though I'm a good
00:56:27rider, she still just doesn't trust me. She's like, this guy's a crasher.
00:56:31Yeah, this guy's a crasher. Her first memory of motorcycles with me is crashing. I've crashed a
00:56:36lot since then. She really enjoyed the ride through Central California on a Goldwing.
00:56:46She really, really enjoyed it. It's an enjoyable experience for both of you if you bring a
00:56:53passenger. I would say a cool way to figure out where you want to go and what you want to do
00:56:59is Butler Maps and BDR, Backcountry Discovery Routes. Those two things, they're combined
00:57:06together at this point, but get their maps, do their laid out ideas for some of their routes,
00:57:15and you're going to have a great time. BDR is obviously for adventure bikes, and so it'll take
00:57:22you through dirt and street and all that good stuff. If you have just Butler Maps subscription,
00:57:27they still have folding paper maps that are super high quality, and they won't fall apart
00:57:33when you fold and unfold them. They're waterproof and super high quality maps. You can buy a set
00:57:42for the entire United States that's in a milk crate with a top on it, and you can pull out
00:57:48the different states, and they have all the routes and roads picked out for you that are good. They
00:57:53have them in green and yellow and red, and they're all color-coded, and they tell you what the road's
00:58:00about. You mean not just the BDR roads, but all the roads on the map? All the roads. They have
00:58:06street routes. They rank them, and it's a really, really nice system. Court Butler is the owner of
00:58:14Butler Maps, and he's really done a great job with a high quality product that is tactile with the
00:58:21maps, but you can also get it on your phone. If you have, I think, Rever, you can
00:58:29upcharge, and you can get all the BDR info on Rever. Yeah, and I think they're
00:58:36affiliated still with Rever and Butler Map, with each other, and even other Butler Map routes
00:58:43are accessible through the Rever app. Yeah, exactly. A good way to experience
00:58:51riding another place is go to a rally. Yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah, doing the rallies.
00:58:57I've done a few. I haven't done many, but it's always... We've done them together. We've done
00:59:04a couple together, and I like those, especially the tour tech or the giant loop, which for us
00:59:12means traveling, getting to another state or something. That just adds to it, because that
00:59:19can be part of the trip. You plan out good roads there and back, and then you have a rally.
00:59:29And then there's fly-in, fly-out. Adam, you just did some fly-in, fly-out on an island.
00:59:36Yeah, for Michael Gilbert's wedding, I got to... Bradley Adams and I went there, and we got to
00:59:44rent some motorcycles and cruise around the island of Maui. It was... I mean, talk about...
00:59:50You're going to an island of Maui, and it's super beautiful. There's tons of things to do.
00:59:54But just like everything, when you add a motorcycle to it, especially as a means of
00:59:58transportation, wow, it just totally heightens the experience. And like you say, Jeff, you like
01:00:04to go places and ride. I mean, when I like going places, I like to not have a car. I don't like
01:00:10to have a car. I want to have a motorcycle. It's just a way more effective way of transportation
01:00:16and of just sightseeing, you know? Yeah, and you get... We all know this already
01:00:21as motorcyclists, but you get the sights, the smells, the temperature changes, all that kind
01:00:27of stuff, the salt air, being on an island, all that kind of stuff. The chance of weather,
01:00:31the chance of moisture, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And just the freedom. I mean,
01:00:35it's kind of the reason why everyone kind of... Not everyone, but most people get into
01:00:39motorcycling. It's just the freedom of transportation, being able to come and go
01:00:43as you please and just navigate. And you're just unencumbered by the roadblocks of a car,
01:00:51you know what I'm saying? For sure, for sure. And just to sum it up,
01:00:56there's ways to do it, right? Like Eagle Rider, you both have mentioned Eagle Rider. Adam,
01:01:02you didn't know why. Jeff, you're a member. They have a huge network, not only just across
01:01:08the United States, but internationally, where you can rent bikes. So that's a good thing.
01:01:12But then there's also... You can rent the... I call it like the Turo of motorcycles,
01:01:17which is rider's share, right? You can rent someone's personal bike in an area if you go
01:01:23on rider's share and find whatever type of bike you want and rent it from somebody that
01:01:29has that type of bike, exactly what you're looking for in that area. So super rad.
01:01:34Yeah, I've not done the rider's share thing, but I would like to at some point,
01:01:38you know, flying somewhere. I've heard, you know, the good experiences doing that.
01:01:44Yeah, that's probably a good option if you want a more obscure motorcycle,
01:01:49you know, something that's not more mainstream. You're probably finding it on rider's share,
01:01:53I bet. Exactly.
01:01:54Or maybe even like a smaller destination where there might not be an Eagle Rider
01:02:01a location. Exactly.
01:02:05It's all over the United States in all areas. So, you know, small town where there's not an
01:02:10Eagle Rider or a rental place, you could do that and find the thing. But we are at the end
01:02:17of this podcast. So the takeaways from this thing are there are so many great places in the US to
01:02:24ride all through the calendar year. We didn't even come close to touching a small bit of them.
01:02:32You know, and there's a reason that a lot of people haven't left the United States to do
01:02:38any motorcycle adventures. It's because there's so much to do and so much to see in the United
01:02:43States. You don't have to go somewhere else. You know, we have it all here for the most part,
01:02:50right? So there's no shame in not going outside of the United States for your motorcycle
01:02:58adventures. You can absolutely stay in the United States and get epic, epic rides, right?
01:03:04So again, fill us in. Let us know where you ride, where you'd like to ride,
01:03:10where you think we should ride. And we really appreciate you guys listening.
01:03:15We love your comments. We'd love to hear what you think.
01:03:18Thanks again for listening and watching. We'll see you next time.