Advice needed - motorcycling in the USA

[imagedude]

I fancy spending a few months stateside riding around on a bike. What are the best areas to ride in and which areas are best avoided?

[dablacksmith]

avoid real big citys (chicago, new york..... ect) and you should be ok... arizona has some wonderful places to ride but this is starting to get into the hot time (it is better to ride in the winter here at least in the phoenix valley) ive not traveled to the deep soulth but havnt heard of any real bad places anywhere except in big citys because of traffic mostly... have fun!

[bigjohn]

I would recommend Maine,West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. If you are not used to being blazing hot, don't ride in the Southern United States during summer. If you happen to get near Memphis, I can point you on some killer BBQ.

[HWooldridge]

Texas is very nice for bikers - except in July and August due to the temps. We've had a mild winter and as I write this, it's 65 F at 2300 hours. Days are in the 80's but I'm sure she'll get warm as we move into May. The Texas Hill Country is very popular with Harley clubs and has a multitude of sights to see.

[mike-hr]

Hwy 50 in Nevada is my favorite scooter road.. Utah, Montana, Idaho, Oregon(east side) have all been real good to us.. except for getting caught too many times in fierce thunderstorms with strikes every 15 seconds for several hours, but hey, that's where good memories come from. We rode from Calgary to Banff in a thunderstorm on our honeymoon, I had to go 70 mph to keep the rain rolling off my visor so I could see, my cheap plastic rain gear was ripped to shreds after 3 hrs. If you get to southern Oregon, we'll feed you and forge for a day if you want..

[Don A]

CHeck this out:

Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap and Cherohala Skyway, Graham Co, NC

dealsgap.com, Deal's Gap, North Carolina information guide, The Dragon, US Hwy 129, Great Smoky Mountains


You can do some YouTube searches for "Deals Gap", "129", Dragon", etc. There's a lot of those guys that mount cameras to their handle bars and film their ride. You can find footage of some very interesting wrecks, as well.

Don

[ThomasPowers]

First where are you arriving at? Some places might be several thousand kilometers from where you'll be. Most folks from over the pond have trouble emotionally grasping how huge the USA actually is.

Next what do you like? Green shaded hills? Majestic mountains, Ocean beaches, night life, lots of people, vast stretches of nothing, no people?

[Ice Czar]

if the objective is turn and burn
Ride The Continental Divide by Karl Zuercher
Ride the Divide, 15 Passes in 1 Day, 1000 Miles - by Randy Bishop (partial)

every paved pass over the continental divide in Colorado, in order from north to south or vice versa
can be done in 4 days but a slower pace will be far more scenic



if you have issues with attitude sickness, nevermind
probably a good idea to have your bike tuned up locally as well for altitude riding

[ThomasPowers]

Highway 60 from around Phoenix AZ to Socorro NM is nice; old mining towns, rock formations, Salt River Canyon, Continental Divide around Pie Town---don't forget to stop and eat pie there!, the Very Large Array radio astronomy observatory, Magdalena---old mines you can rockhound the spoil dumps for minerals at, and Socorro with a nice mineral museum (free!) at the University and some good eats---wood fired pizza oven at the local micro brewery brew pub or "cafe mexican" at a restaurant run by a family that doesn't serve dinner only lunch---except for Fridays.

You can even stop by and see my shop about 5 miles out of Socorro.

You can do it in a day unless you spend a lot of time stopped doing stuff.

Thomas Powers

[jimmy seale]

wel- let's see, the texas hill country is a good ride- watch out for the wild life though, in colorado i drive hiway 24 and some times 50/550 is passes up there-this is about all i know- as all my traveling is on bussness, have fun, keep the rubber side down, jimmy