America is a country of wide-open spaces, dense cities, tall mountains, lush forests, expansive deserts, and all points in between. I recommend that every American leave home and explore the great lands of this nation at least once in their life to see the kind of beauty that no photo on the internet can replicate. There are many methods to get you out there from aircraft and ships to the trusty car. But if you’re adventuring on your own, there’s no better way to go than on two wheels.
Every year, popular resorts and cruise ships fill to the brim with people seeking relaxation, entertainment, and a getaway from the stresses of daily life. Some hop in a plane and fly across the country. I propose an alternative. Instead of your normal vacation destinations and forms of travel, take the long way around. In fact, just toss out that whole destination thing. Start at home, point in whatever the opposite direction is, and just go.
The concept of traveling without a true destination seemed completely foreign to me for most of my life. My family is full of lifelong RVers. We pick a campground and the extent of the journey was hauling our camper there. The idea of a campground just being a stop on a grander adventure escaped us. Then the pandemic hit and it changed everything. I discovered a part of myself I never knew I had.
You Have The Power
One of the greatest life-changing moments I’ve experienced thus far was the realization that I have more power than I thought. I spent my childhood and the very beginning years of my adult life too afraid to crack out of my shell. Constant negative thoughts permeated my brain, doubting if I could actually achieve what I wanted to do. Other thoughts told me I would be shunned for following my own path rather than the ones prescribed for me in the past.
At some point in 2018, it hit me. I already achieved so much in my life. I bought my teenage dream car and I navigated creating an entire new life for myself. Coming out as trans in late 2014 changed the trajectory of my life. I lost nearly all of my childhood friends and then lost my family for years. Yet, I emerged from the darkness triumphant. I beat the odds and found happiness in my new life. I looked forward to the future.
It was almost like a lightswitch had been flipped in my head. If I can essentially recreate a new person from the ashes of my old self, what else am I capable of?
I sought to find those answers. Later that year, I found myself off-roading my beloved Smart Fortwo through a forest. That weekend liberated me from the shell that contained the rest of my dreams and personality. But that wasn’t the only event. Back in May of that year, I decided to finally follow my longtime desire to ride a motorcycle. I always thought that maybe, bikes weren’t for me. They were for other, more skilled people.
Oh I was so wrong. My steed for my Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic RiderCourse was an electric blue Honda Rebel 250. Its tank had a dent and its bars weren’t perfectly straight. Nobody else in my class dared go for the cruiser. Instead, they went for Yamaha TW200 farm bikes and Honda Nighthawk standards. I happily took the Rebel, and quickly learned that this whole motorcycle thing came naturally to me. It wasn’t long before I was taking the corners and slaloms like I was an old-timey racer.
On the test, I scored the shortest emergency braking distance the examiner had ever seen in over three decades of teaching the class. It took pulling in a second instructor to make sure I really did stop on a dime, impossibly close to the beginning of the score line. He then took my Rebel from me just to see if he could get anywhere close.
From that weekend forward, two wheels have always been a form of liberation I’ve yet to be able to replicate in a car. It’s hard to put my finger on why. I can theorize that part of it has to do with the fact that being on a motorcycle exposes you to the outside world. There’s no safety cage to contain and protect you; no windows to block out the weather or smells. Further, most motorcycles still involve the use of every one of your senses that isn’t taste.
Are both of your hands and feet critical to maintaining safe forward momentum and your safety systems? Unless you own a relatively new motorcycle, almost all of those are contained in the squishy thing inside of your skull. But even a new bike isn’t anything like a new car. Having proper reactions to your environment are essential to your survival.
Motorcycles connect humans and machines in ways most cars do not. Despite all of this, I’m still not quite sure if this is why motorcycling feels so much different than just piloting a car. Speaking of piloting, riding a motorcycle feels a lot closer to taking command of a Cessna than it does a Toyota Corolla.
Pair a rider with the perfect motorcycle for them and the result is a sort of symphony. Like an orchestra, the rider and the bike work together in perfect harmony. The euphoria from this alone can make a whole month. But there is a way to make it even better.
Travel Of Any Kind Is Great
In 2020, I took the journey of a lifetime. I had cash in the bank, gas in the tank of a $500 Ford Ranger, and my girlfriend at the time as my first officer. We took that four-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive, manual truck out west. But for the first time in our entire lives neither of us had a real destination. Yes, our overall goal was to visit the main Gambler 500 event out in Oregon that summer, but that was more of a pit stop, not our final destination. My girlfriend (now wife) thought we’d just get back home when we got back home. So we pointed that truck west and drove with our friends in a convoy. There was no GPS, no timetables, and we didn’t even find accommodations until we figured we needed them.
On this trip, I saw sights that I never thought I’d ever reach in my life. I saw a massive buffalo statue in North Dakota. I got to tour Yellowstone National Park and watch Old Faithful. I got to experience four seasons in the same week as I drove through a searing hot desert in Washington state, bisected rows of towering trees in Oregon, and drove through a full-blown snowstorm on my way to Crater Lake. I never knew any of this was possible. I never knew I’d ever visit Yellowstone, let alone learn that Washington had a desert! I never thought anything that I did on that trip was possible.
That trip also had what I still consider to be the holy grail of camping spots. Somewhere in Montana, we put our stakes down in the middle of absolute nowhere at the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. That night, I got to see a starry night unhindered by pollution on one end of the sky while dry lightning cracked around a nearby mountain. It was perfect.
It was during that trip when I discovered another part of me. I didn’t know I had this sense of travel and adventure in me. I swam in a crystal clear Oregon mountain lake that couldn’t have been warmer than 45 degrees. I sped along the iconic Bonneville Salt Flats, and drove on the infamous loneliest road through Nevada. In the span of two weeks I lived a life I never thought I would and all of it happened behind the wheel of a junky 1997 Ford Ranger. The last time I talked about this story was my last-ever post for Jalopnik.
I sort of ended it like this:
I’m always thinking about what’s the next silly or great thing on the horizon. The world definitely has a whole lot of suck in it right now. And it sometimes drags me down with it. But when I swing a leg over a motorcycle or sit in that pilot or driver’s seat, it all melts away. I may not be able to control what happens in this world, but I can control this vehicle and the adventures that it will take me on.
If you can swing it, take a road trip without a destination. Do it for as long as you can and don’t be afraid to just go where your heart tells you to. When you come home, you might be a different person. That’s ok. Just remember to be true to yourself and don’t let anything or anyone stop you from being you.
But Doing It On A Bike Is Better
So then, after a life-defining trip like that, you’d think I’d be all-in on cars as the best way to travel. Technically, I believe the coolest way to travel is slowly inside of a train. However, for how romantic trains are, they do have their limitations. You are stuck with the timetable of the train, and comfortable accommodations on a cross-country train tend to be substantially more expensive than just driving or flying. You also can’t really just change your direction on a whim since you’re going wherever the train is.
As I just wrote above, a car is also an excellent, grand way to travel. But over the years I’ve been learning that there’s one step higher than a car.
Back when I was a bit earlier into my motorcycling experience, it was common for me to spend a day riding over 300 miles. I never had anywhere to go, but I experienced the world through the visor on my helmet and on two wheels. I would stop by my favorite beach, ride into the skyscraper canyons of Chicago, and watch the fireworks display of a small town nestled between endless rows of corn. Riding to these places made me feel more alive than driving to them ever could have.
My motorcycle was the vehicle that took me to state parks, Pride events, and to countless first dates. If you were at Chicago’s Pride parade in 2019, chances are you saw me in six-inch heels commanding a 1982 Suzuki GS850G with plenty of patina. All of these connections were made infinitesimally more memorable with the subtraction of a roof and two wheels.
I have yet to take a cross-country motorcycle trip, but I’ve tried. In 2019, I took a Honda Elite 150D on an off-road adventure in the Gambler 500. Those 205 miles the scooter lasted before grenading its engine were some of the most fun I’ve ever had on the Gambler 500 circuit. Back in 2020, I tried to ride a Suzuki Burgman 650 some 700 miles home from the East Coast. But I blew the scooter’s rear tire in Dubois, Pennsylvania, and had to drive the remaining 500 miles home in a U-Haul. It was nice being safe and warm in the truck, but there was nothing quite like seeing the rolling hills through my visor.
Riding somewhere opens up new ways to experience the world. Instead of just looking at a forest passing by your car’s windshield, you will smell the pine in the air, feel the cool breeze rush around your body, and have a nearly completely unobstructed view of the world around you.
A few weeks ago, I was reminded of this glorious truth when Indian Motorcycle (IMC) invited me out to Las Vegas to try out its new PowerPlus 112 platform. IMC’s organizers charted a 200-mile course that had influencers and journalists carving mile after mile of scenic byway that cut around Lake Mead and through the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.
(Full Disclosure: Indian Motorcycle paid for my travel, lodging, and delicious food. This post is not really related to the bikes I rode out there or the press event. But the event did provide some inspiration. A review of these motorcycles is coming.)
Once again, out here I was reminded that motorcycles were the better way to experience America. During that trip, I had my music, breathtaking views, and 126 HP of American V-twin muscle between my legs. I didn’t need anything else. Anything else would have been too much extra.
As I rode through the Valley of Fire, the only thing separating me from those beautiful rock formations was some safety gear. I wasn’t surrounded by a cage and there was nothing impeding my view of the stunning environment. If you wanted to stop to really get a look at something, you just pull off, lean on the bike, and drink in the scenery. Being on the bike was travel with just the bare necessities.
As we rode through Lake Mead I got to get whiffs of the local flora and came to a stop to watch animals cross the road. We got to feel up close and personal with nature on that day and the motorcycles got us there. I imagine the feeling of riding a motorcycle is not much different than how some folks feel about traveling long distance by horse. You and your mode of transportation are one.
In my travels I’ve learned I’m not the only one who feels this way. Last year, my wife and I did our dream road trip, a drive down Route 66. One stop during our trip was the Meteor Crater in Arizona. While there, I saw a highly modified Triumph Rocket III with a custom front fork and a sidecar. I met the owner and his wife inside. They told me that the two of them had covered pretty much the entirety of the United States on that motorcycle, stretching from as far north as Alaska to the Southernmost Point in Florida.
Sure, they could have taken a car, they told me, but doing it on the Triumph made it feel so much more of an adventure. I’m so with them.
Of course, doing trips like these on just any motorcycle isn’t going to work. You’re going to hate traveling cross-country on that super cheap motorcycle I wrote about. You probably won’t have a ton of fun on a sportbike with a washboard seat, either. Most of the time, I see folks going the distance on hefty cruisers, touring bikes like the Honda Gold Wings, or modified hacks like that Triumph Rocket III.
The bike you choose for your journey should have enough power to cruise easily on the highway while also being comfortable for a full day of riding in the saddle. However many luxuries you want are up to you. Nowadays you can get sacks filled with whatever you want to drink and full-body electric heat for those cold rides.
Whatever you ride, wherever you ride, and however you ride, I recommend taking your time. Ride without a destination. Just point those forks in a destination and go. Who cares when you get home. But when you do, I think you will have found travel by bike to be one of the best ways to embark on an adventure.
I’ve done multiple multi-day trips by motorcycle and one by Miata. It’s not even close… the Miata is far more enjoyable.
I think everybody should drive motorcycle sometimes. It just makes a better driver on 4 wheels too. With bikes there’s much less margin for error, so you really need to pay attention and play by the rules. And the experience itself is so much more than just driving car.
What about a Miata?
Always the answer.
When I moved back home to Perth from Sydney in early ’15, I rode my ’06 Triumph Bonnie across. Loved it, through the rain storms and the searing heat and all of it. I don’t ride that bike near enough anymore but I still have it and I will head off on it again.
Convertibles are still better than motorcycles for travel because a few major things:
I still feel like I have more in common with motorcyclists when driving with the roof down than I do with people in their SUVs and
Rolling Family RoomsMinivans.Especially when I’m bundled up in my coat, hat and gloves driving with the roof down and all the heaters maxed in winter. Or just wearing shorts, a ball cap and SPF 50 with the AC on in the summer.
Did both for years, bike and cage, and honestly I agree with all of your points in favor of a convertible. It definitely provides more convenience and the view is good (that’s why I did both). But having basically nothing in your visual field of how you’re moving other than a bit of bike, is not the same experience in a convertible. They compliment each other, just different ways to experience a wide open view.
Easy, pack lighter. My wife refuses to pack lighter and thus misses out on motorcycle trips. I take them solo. I can pack a weeks worth of clothing, camping gear, and freeze dried food all on the back of a Street Triple for a solo trip. If I were staying in hotels (and having them do a bit of laundry) it would be easy to fit enough luggage for two people on my bike, as well as a second rider. Now, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to go on a week long trip 2-up on my bike. It’d be miserable.
But my bike is pretty far away from the other end of the spectrum where those bikes are better built for touring.
Motorcycles and camping on the same trip! Boy you are blessed. The only thing I can think of better is, maybe, herpes. Tuberculosis. Being on fire…
honestly the biggest negative for riding a bike is when your buddy is riding behind you, and his gun starts digging into your hip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miSfF_82WYo
For some of us – That’s a plus.
😉
This is the way to travel America. A comfortable seat and cruise control make this wonderful. Add a map with decent food you want to taste along the way, and you have all that you need in a trip.
Have you read any of Neil Peart’s motorcycling book? This.
Melissa Holbrook Peterson and Robert Pirsig both describe how a motorcycle makes you part of the place you ride in, not just a spectator looking through a window. You feel every change in temperature and humidity, you smell every little brook you cross, your sense of touch extends to the bike’s tires on the road.
I don’t much care for long rides because my butt gets sore and the busy little gremlin in my head gets bored and starts chewing on things, but getting out on a bike is a lovely way to let a land’s sensations flow through you.
Pirsig is quite well-known and deserves the accolades received, but I’m utterly stoked to see a mention of the often-overlooked MHP – The Perfect Vehicle is a fantastic companion piece to Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Her other works are equally sublime, and worth seeking out. (If you have any interest in simply reading about hardcore long-distance riding, start with her book on the late John Ryan.)
I loved reading her book on horses to my horse-girl spouse.
If you really can’t go down to two wheels, three wheelers and convertibles are still cooler than regular cars.
I’m a rider but I’d argue that you can get that a similar, and potentially better open air experience could be had in an old roadster like an MG or a Trimuph. Drop the top and the only thing above your chest is a small windscreen. You wont have the power and you can’t lean into corners but they are fun-handling and you can ride without a helmet or other protective clothing, so it brings you even closer to the elements. You can also bring a passenger. You can do that on a bike, but without some form of coms there isn’t really any conversation so the passenger really is just more luggage until you stop.
The first page of the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance says that man has five senses to perceive his world. On a motorcycle your sight is unrestricted, you can smell the roses, you can feel the wind and temperature, you can hear the wildlife and sometimes you can even taste the bugs!! When you cruise down the road in your climate controlled car the only sense you’re using is your sight and you’re looking through tinted windows at that!!
I remember riding a 550 Honda from LA to Chicago on mostly two lane roads in 1975 and somewhere in Kansas the road was rising and falling and I started to sense something different in the lower areas. It took me awhile to figure out that it was the humidity beginning to show itself
There is something that seems so less limiting and free about just being able to throw a leg over a bike with full visibility and greater range of movement instead of getting behind a door and strapping into an ever-more-bunker-like fixed position (and shutting off 85 stupid electronic harassment features) before moving.
My uncle rode across the country in the early ’70s to get rear-ended at a light in CA. He spent months in traction and became a creature of habit, pretty much only traveling to the same few local restaurants and places he would drive to like everywhere was a school zone for the rest of his life. I love the idea of a motorcycle, but the drivers are worse now and there are so many more of them. If the risk was only to be killed outright, that would be fine, but possible permanent limiting damage and large medical bills, no way. Then there’s the weather in New England that restricts enjoyable use to far too few days and is difficult to predict even within the span of a day. The summers have also gotten a lot hotter and humid, so I can’t imagine riding in that, especially with all that safety wear. I’d probably be more likely to die of heat stroke than other road users.
In theory, I absolutely agree with you. I have ridden dirt bikes, motorcycles are great fun. They are relatively cheap, and they take up way less space to store than even a tiny car.
But in the reality of a 21st century populated by texting morons driving 3-ton Canyoneros filled with distracting infotainment they can’t see out of even if they bother to look, er, nope to riding on the road. Plus the fact that to be even as minimally “safe” as you can be on a bike you basically need to suit up like a medieval knight rather takes the “wind in the hair” and communing with nature out of it. I can drive my convertibles in shorts and a t-shirt and still be roughly 1000x safer than on a bike while being 1000x more comfortable. Despite having ATGATT, my best friend broke his collarbone to the tune of two surgeries just due to an unfortunately placed bit of sand in the road. As much of a deathtrap as my ’74 Spitfire is, a little bit of sand is not going to put me in the hospital with copays costing more than the bike cost new.
But definitely get out there and see the country. I have been to 49 states in the course of work and personal travel, there are literally infinite sights to see between our borders.
Well written. I look at older convertibles as slightly safer and more water resistant motorcycles. I did ride my motorcycle a lot less after getting my Wrangler with the removable roof panels and doors.
I used to say that my FFR Cobra was essentially a harley that doesn’t fall over. It doesn’t have a top at all.
Still, after 10 years motorcycle-less (and 20 since I rode regularly), I bought a Ducati 848 in late ’21. Now I have 6 bikes, 2 of them track only. 🙂
If I ever get a bike again it will be a trail bike as there are less people to hit you with a car on a dirt path.
A few years ago, I sold my last bike too many close calls with idiots in cars. I belong to get a motorcycle again, but it will be probably something that I can trail ride motorcycling is intoxicating I would love the rural roads around the country but at almost 60. It’s getting a little dangerous. I don’t like I used to, but I miss being on a motorcycle, but I don’t miss the near death experiences from idiots in cars.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/robert-pirsig-zen-art-motorcycle-maintenance-resonates-today-180975768/
highly recommend reading “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig
You beat me by 1/2 hr. well done.
I’m 50 and a life-long motorcyclist: I’ve never done a long trip on one since it’s just never worked out as of yet. I currently built up a 2nd gen SV650 from twice crashed out race bike. I hate straight, busy roads and this bike is perfect to explore the northeast backroads while (always) avoiding highways. When I think of motorcycling I think of quiet, sparsley populated winding rural roads with beautiful views. Funny, how I work with two Harley guys who look at me with confusion when we discuss this, as they just ride highways…
I’ve been very inspired by RTWPaul’s “utter ridiculousness” trip around the lower 48 on a Honda CT125. If I was to see the USA on a bike, that’s how I’d do it…
Leaving on April 22nd from Georgia on a Goldwing bagger to do just this. Only time limit, have to be back before July 1st. I have some basic points I would like to go see, and have a basic loop planned, but nothing is set and everything is open.
It is going to be epic,
Be safe and enjoy the ride!
Haven’t decided if I am willing to take pictures and share with friends and family. It’s one of those “You really had to be there to understand” if kind of trips.
and thanks Mechjaz, I am throughly going to enjoy it.
p.s. I have 100k plus miles on moto’s, but this will be the first trip with no plan, and for this much time, by a lot.
Hell yea it is. Took a 91 goldwing from Pittsburgh back to cali over 3 months and its the perfect bike for a great journey. keep that rubber side down and that grin up.
Nice…and holy cow, is it that long ago you did that motorcycle safety course?! I’m feeling a bit old…
I’m a wuss. On a bike it’s either too cold, too hot, too wet, or I’m just plain too scared. But props to all you people who enjoy the two wheel life.
Can’t believe it’s been over three years already, but you’ve convinced me it’s time to dust off the Ducati and get it sorted back out for riding season this year.
This was such a great article…enjoy the journey and the moment right now, not thinking about the past/future, otherwise when are you going to enjoy it? Get out there, enjoy beautiful nature, and make some great memories. Road trips are awesome!
This makes me miss my Harley.
Back when I was single, I rode as much as I could. I would get up early on a weekend day and not come back until evening, frequently by myself. I almost always booked 2-300 miles in a day, going to various parts of the region I lived in and buzzing around just for fun. My favorite was a forest a couple hours from where I lived – lots of twisties and very few other vehicles. I would spend hours down there. One day, just for the heck of it, I went to visit a Harley dealer a couple states over and came back the scenic way . . . I booked 660 miles that day and enjoyed every one of them. Unfortunately my dog kept me tethered to the house – I would have had to arrange care for him if I wanted to make an overnight trip and it just never happened.
Then, as tends to happen, I met a girl, got married, and just didn’t have time to ride the way I liked to anymore (she didn’t mind the bike but she didn’t want to spend all day on it either). I planned to keep the bike to commute with and putt around on, but one day while coming home from work, our first kid a few short months away, I almost got hit three times in 1/2 a mile by drivers who weren’t paying attention. That was enough for me to decide to hang it up.
It was the right decision but I still miss it. Cars may be safer but there’s nothing quite like being out there in the wind.
Awwww. A GS850G was my second bike, after a GS550. I have also had a V-Strom 1000 and a GL1800 Gold Wing. The V-Strom was too top heavy for any serious offroad riding. My then-wife and I did a roughly 900 mile trip down into Oregon on the GW. I only bought it because she didn’t want to ride on the V-Strom. Despite counseling her to lean with me in corners, she didn’t. Which made windy bits coming back along the Oregon coast harder for me and upsetting to her. I sold it shortly after we got back.
You’re right about motorcycling being more akin to flying a small plane than motoring around in a cage. Banking into turns, the mental alertness and concentration required. The mundane stuff in your head takes a back seat to enjoying the ride and managing risk.
I now putt around town on an ADV160 and it’s a fun and economical way to run errands and explore.
That is a great story and I admire your courage. However, I would like to point out a study done by experts that 100% disagree with you. I think we can all agree that Jeremy, James, and Richard are if not the Pinnacle of automotive knowledge at least on the top level. They once tested a Steam Locomotive, a Jaguar E, and a Vincent Black Shadow Motorcycle. Now the Jag being a car won, Jeremy in the train, where he needed to shovel the coal, came in second, and Hamster riding the premier motorcycle of the age not only came in last but needed two repair calls, got soaked in the rain and cramped up so bad he was crying. So I say on a short trip maybe motorcycle but after the car and the train even if I have to shovel the coal.
I’m not sure if you’re legitimately calling an episode of Top Gear a study or you’re being sarcastic . . . but either way LOL
The Vincent Black Shadow, next to a Kawasaki KZ1000, Boss Hoss Big Stud Hoss, Harley-Davidson Fat Boy, Neander Turbo Diesel, Hayes M1030, Bill Dube’s “Killacycle”, and a Suzuki Hayabusa, are my “bucket-list” motorcycles.
Broke my heart when the Egli-Vincent workshop shut down.
For some reason the ‘Busa terrifies me, but since half-accidentally ending up with a 900cc sport bike, I’ve realized I can just use less throttle.
My bucket list started a little more recently, but I’ve got it bad for a Rocket 3.