We asked a handful of throttlers about their favorite motorcycle routes and the bikes they take on them. What they told us started out with directions – but veered into hard-won road wisdom.
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Endpoints: John O’Groats, Scotland, and Gairloch, Scotland
Distance: 210 miles
Estimated Time: 5 hours
Bike: 1971 Moto Guzzi Police Ambassador
Engine: 750cc V-twin (850cc, modified)
In his words: “On a trip with my friend Charley Boorman down to Cape Town in 2007, we had the most extraordinary off-road riding through northern Ethiopia. Still, I think the most beautiful riding anywhere is on the small single-track roads – B routes, and some high-numbered A routes – of the Highlands, in the northwest of Scotland. If you meet someone coming the other way, you could be in trouble, but that adds to the excitement. The scenery is stunning. It’s very often raining, but if you get a good day, there’s nothing like riding in the fresh Scottish air. My everyday bike is a 1971 Moto Guzzi Police Ambassador. If I’m going with my dog, Sid, I’ll take my 2009 desert-colored Ural – the sidecar bike that the Russians have been making since the Second World War.”
McGregor and actor-adventurer Charley Boorman filmed their long-distance motorcycle odysseys for the ‘Long Way Round’ and ‘Long Way Down’ television documentary series. McGregor will star in ‘August: Osage County,’ due out in December.
Endpoints: Salem, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Route: 127N, 133W, 1AN, 1N, 1AN
Distance: 86 miles
Estimated time: 2 hours 40 minutes (one way)
Bike: 2009 Moto Guzzi California Vintage
Engine: 1,064cc V-twin
In his words: “When we go on tour, I bring sometimes half a dozen motorcycles for me and a couple of guys on the crew. We’ve done the West Coast, Napa Valley, British Columbia, the southwest, and Louisiana, and I own a house in Miami, so I ride in Florida. But to me the best riding is in New England. You start in Salem and you go up Route 127 to Gloucester along the Massachusetts coast. Then you go all the way around Cape Ann, which probably has remained close to what it originally was for a couple hundred years now. You come back around the top end of Cape Ann and hit Route 133, which will take you up through Essex and Ipswich. From there you can pick up Route 1A, which you take north to Newburyport near the New Hampshire border. You go north from there on Route 1 for a bit, then jog back to Route 1A and head up the coast again to Portsmouth. I try to do this route once a year in late summer, early fall. There’s not a lot of high-speed riding, but you’re going along the coast for a good amount of time. It’s scenic, with picturesque seaside villages, beautiful countryside, and nice twisty roads. It’s a Zen ride.”
Billy Joel will receive a Life Time Honor from the Kennedy Center in December, 2013.
Endpoints: Richmond, Virginia, and the George Washington National Forest
Route: 711W, 522N, 6W, 29S, 56 to the Blue Ridge Parkway
Distance: 120 miles
Estimated time: 2 hours 15 minutes (one way)
Bike: Honda CB360
In his words: “I like to go out on Route 711, just outside Richmond, Virginia, and from there to Route 56 across the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The curves have just the right rhythm – they connect to each other in just the right way. I don’t do this enough since having kids, but I like to strap on a pack and ride up there – what we call motorcycle backpacking. The Appalachian Trail runs through there, so I’ll leave my bike, a Honda CB360 that I tore down to the frame and rebuilt, at a trailhead and hike up the Priest, a 4,000-foot peak that looms over Route 56. It’s a pretty hard climb – about 3,000 feet of elevation gain. There’s also a waterfall, Crabtree Falls. I’ll hike there, start at another trailhead, climb down that way, and then hitchhike on 56 to get back to my bike.”
Matthew Crawford is a motorcycle mechanic in Richmond, Virginia, and the author of the best-selling book ‘Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work.’
Endpoints: Thermopolis, Wyoming, and Four Corners Monument
Route: South. Just south. Distance: 690 miles
Estimated time: 14 hours (one way)
Bike: 2005 MV Agusta F4-1000S
Engine: 1,078cc inline 4
In his words: “Around Los Angeles I can split traffic, squeeze my way by. Stop signs, stoplights – they don’t bother me at all. If I piss somebody off, they have to catch me to make it count. But my favorite ride is up and down the mountain passes of Colorado. I come down out of Thermopolis, Wyoming, through Rifle, on my way to Four Corners. I always take the roads that are the least traveled by cars. I never want to ride on a freeway – it’s fast, but it’s extraordinarily boring and five times as dangerous. So I take the winding roads and really crank it on. Several of these passes are over 10,000 feet, but as long as you know there are no rocks on the road, you’re cool. I ride till dusk and then just find a motel, or if I have a sleeping bag I’ll just jam it down and crash. In the last couple years, I’ve had my right ankle fused and my left hip replaced, but I’m not going to stop riding. It’s liberating. My secret is: Don’t ride freeways, and don’t use a map. You take chances – the road might be closed or a bridge may be out – but if you just know where you’re riding, everything becomes a new experience.”
Fonda portrayed a Hells Angels president in ‘The Wild Angels‘ and Captain America in ‘Easy Rider.’
Endpoints: Cave Creek, Arizona, and Hollister, California
Route: U.S. 40 to California, to Route 58 over to U.S. 5, and then up to U.S. 152 to Hollister
Distance: 800 miles
Estimated time: 11 hours (one way)
In his words: “I just want to ride – I don’t care where I’m going. But if I had a favorite route, it would be going to Hollister, because that’s where it all started – the lifestyle, I mean. The American Motorcyclist Association put on a gypsy tour in every state, and in 1947 California’s was at Hollister, and they ended up making the movie ‘The Wild One‘ out of it. I wasn’t there – I was nine– but myself and another club member initiated the 50-year anniversary there. On July 4 weekend, the place is like a small Sturgis – but the rest of the year it’s quiet. We rode through 127-degree heat the last time we did this trip; we had to stop every 15 miles to drink water, and we were still dehydrated.”
Barger is a founding member of the Oakland Hells Angels and the author of books including ‘Let’s Ride: Sonny Barger’s Guide to Motorcycling.’
Endpoints: Missoula, Montana, and Banff, Alberta
Route: 93N, Going-to-the-Sun Road (across Glacier National Park), and, in Canada, highways 2N and 1W (Trans-Canada Highway)
Distance: 443 miles
Estimated time: 9.5 hours (one way)
Bike: 1988 Harley-Davidson FXSTS Springer Softail
Engine: 1340cc V-twin
In his words: “A good route is to ride from Missoula to Calgary and then over the top of the mountains at Banff down on the British Columbia side, and go back into Montana on the west side of the mountains. I did it twice with my wife on the back, about 2,000 miles total. Now I know that coolness is a really important part of your equipment as a big-bike rider, but it’s never been a part of mine. When I’m riding, I’m always in one state or other of terror. Out on the plains in central Montana, the wind just blows all the time across the highway, pushing on you from one side, and you’re kind of leaning into it, like a cushion. But then you’re going to hit a pocket in the wind one of these times and off you’re going to go. You see Peter [Fonda] in ‘Easy Rider’ riding down the road as though he was sitting in an easy chair, talking back and forth and making gestures and laughing and doing everything but having a cocktail. Me? No. I’m in a heightened state of fearful awareness the whole time. Of course, to some people, riding a bike is the stupidest thing in the world. But I would always say, Well, you have to have something around in your life that will reliably kill you. And that’s kind of funny, and it’s kind of true.”
Ford is the author of six novels, including ‘Independence Day,’ which won the Pulitzer Prize, and, most recently, ‘The Lay of the Land.’
