RoadRUNNER July/August 2004
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Shamrock Tour
Shamrock Tour®: Rutland, Vermont
No longer summer, not quite autumn – on impulse I stopped by Vermont's newest motorcycle dealership, Lucky's Motorsports. With the Beemer more than a little ragged-looking after my crash in the Berkshires, I was hoping to acquire a photogenic factory ride for Shamrock use. And as luck would have it, Ken Hall graciously offered me the use of not...
National Tours
Appalachian Trails
Most riders and drivers prefer to wait for autumn's cavalcade of color for scenic tours along the Skyline Drive and Parkway. In summer, these outrageous roads are covered up when loads of city slickers escape the lowland humidity for picnics and maybe some napping in the shade of high country trees. Me? I usually like to travel there during the quieter...
Florida Keys
While other parts of the country have mountains with impressive, winding roads, the vertically challenged state of Florida has its share of gorgeous curves, too – all courtesy of its renowned beaches, resorts and beauties baking in the year-round sun. Add great fishing, diving, seafood, and all manner of water sports to the many enticements of...
Southeast Oregon
It was my fourth visit to Oregon in a year. After taking in the tall-treed majesty of the Cascades, the rambling golden grasslands of the northeast and the soaring ridges of the Wallowa Mountains, I was expecting my meander around the high desert of southeast Oregon to send me to sleep. I didn't realize I'd saved the best for last....
A Short Ride the Long Way
It's 6:30 on a July Saturday night in The Dalles, Oregon, a tidy lumber town on the Columbia River. Snagged in a street festival, we crawl the stop-start traffic, boiling inside our leathers, engines pinging, clutches slipping. I spy an outdoor time and temperature display: 102 degrees! We've committed to camping, but the air-conditioned Budget Motel...
International Destinations
Montenegro: Land of the Black Mountains
Although only the size of Connecticut, the breakaway republic of Montenegro has it all for tourism – beaches and mountains, lakes and canyons. Thankfully, most of the tourists haven't caught on yet....
Riding Impressions
Kawasaki Vulcan 2000
In the country that invented "super-sized" servings, the Kawasaki Vulcan is King and boldly going where no Kawasaki has gone before – over 2,000cc. Computer controlled and fuel-injected, this mega-cruiser puts out 116 horses and a mind-blowing 141 ft/lbs of torque. Simply stated, this is the world's biggest, most powerful production V-twin cruiser,...
V-Strom 650
That simple sentence once summed up the philosophy of the English economist, Sir Carl Popper. Today, it's an ethos that certainly appeals to the motorcycle makers at Suzuki. And even in the US – a country where it often seems everything has to be big – it's a sweet little concept made real that's more than ready for the road....
2004 Yamaha Royal Star Midnight Venture
It's big. It's black. It gleams with lacquered paint and brilliant chrome. The Midnight Venture muscles its way past the large displacement metric cruisers to sit atop the heap as the undisputed champion in the tourer class....
1978 Triumph Bonneville T140V
For years I've known I would someday get around to buying a classic bike. My heart told me it would be a British bike. And since finding one is no longer a problem – what with so many auctions going on and sites like cycletrader.com now commonplace – I didn't really have any excuse for not looking around at least. So, I decided to follow...
Chronicles
Little Sister in the South
The slow-moving Ohio River flows by on the right and the traffic before us barely crawls through Bellevue and Newport. Eight million people live within a 100-mile radius, and it seems like almost everyone has come out at the same time to attend a major celebration. More likely, the amount of time lost on the roads here is the simple workaday cost of...
Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum
As the largest city in Ohio, Columbus is a superb riding destination with its friendly people, clean air and incredible range of activities. Adding to the attraction is the nearby Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Pickerington, just a short ride south and east of the city at the junction of Interstates 70 and 71. Quietly standing beneath big, shady trees,...
Tour Planning Nuts & Bolts
Planning a tour isn't something I've had to do for a while. Christian tells me where he wants me to go, and I always do as I'm told! Joking aside, where to go and what kind of tour you're looking for are the two most important decisions you'll make. Everything else pretty much follows.What kind of tour?1. Road trip or sightseeing? Most often, a tour...
The 66 Diner
Along American roadways there is probably no more appealing example of cultural iconography than the simple chrome-plated diner. Defining the "fast" food concept of the time, they were everywhere in the fifties; and Route 66, the nation's first cross-country highway, supported its fair share of them. The heyday for both has long passed, but nostalgia...
