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Arizona Motorcycle Rides

A Scenic (and History-Laden) Southern Utah and Arizona Loop | Favorite Ride

Living at 6,000 feet in Cedar City, Utah, most of my winter riding involves heading south, which offers a quick drop in elevation and...

A Flagstaff to Albuquerque Motorcycle Ride on a Less Obvious Route

If you blindly follow your GPS, a Flagstaff to Albuquerque motorcycle ride is a 320‑­mile drone on Interstate 40. That’s fine if Point A...

Backcountry Discovery Routes: Two Buddies on Yamaha Ténéré 700s in Utah and Arizona

During the long, dark winter in Minnesota, when the ground is covered in snow and ice and our motorcycles are mothballed for months, dreaming...

Spring Trifecta: A Return to Riding, Concerts, and Baseball

I am not one to repeat most motorcycle rides, and I am certainly not one to revisit my old articles. However, there is a...

Favorite Ride: Jerome to Oatman, Arizona

Historic towns are a lot like vintage motorcycles. Both are more beautiful wearing the rich patina of years and experience. Yes, towns can be...

Riding a Thousand Miles of Arizona Highways

April in the Southwest means perfect temperatures and sunny days, riding in a mesh jacket and Kevlar-lined jeans. With a new (to me) Honda...

Gila County Loop: A Nice Place to Ride in Winter

I’ve been thinking about writing this story for a few months, but the inspiration for it goes back every winter for 20 years. About...

The Old Way: Historic U.S. 80 and the Wood Plank Road

Picture a scene in which hearty travelers traverse barren and windswept sand dunes on roads of rough-hewn timbers. I am not talking about some...

Expanding Your Horizons: Northern Arizona Loop Ride

Miles of hairpins, 4,000 feet of elevation change, historic towns, monolithic red rocks and vast pine forests all in the span of a 180-mile...

Renaissance Riding: Local Roads and Shakespeare Out West

I was pleasantly surprised a couple of years back when I wrote a travel piece for Rider  called “Chasing Shakespeare: An Elizabethan Tour of...

Southwest Express: Winter Touring on Can-Am Spyders

So...do we fly? Or do we ride? Kurt and I were staring at a map of the Southwest, planning a visit to his family in...

Favorite Ride: Arizona-New Mexico Loop

Let me tell you about a perspective-changing, paradigm-shifting roll through a spectacular region spanning two great southwestern states. Before you accuse me of hyperbole,...

Riding in the Shadow of Giants: Monument Valley by Motorcycle

There I was—three hours into a wonderful ride that I had made many times over the years. The quickest route from my home near...

Favorite Ride: Southeast Arizona’s Wild West

Cowboys and Indians. Miners and ranchers. Army troops and outlaws. Southeast Arizona was overrun with all of these types, and more, in the latter...

Buy & Fly: Boise to Tucson on a Kawasaki KLR650

As a long-time admirer of the popular and versatile Kawasaki KLR650, I bought one last year, but I didn’t follow the normal procedure—I used the...

Adventure in Southern Arizona: Fine Roads in the Old West

Most motorists cross southern Arizona in cruise-controlled oblivion via the super slabs known as Interstates 8 and 10. However, sandwiched between the freeways and...

Follow the Rivers: Tracing the Headwaters of the Colorado River

Having just retired from a wildfire management position with the Forest Service the previous year, and thus off the hook for working fire pre-suppression...

Tour Test: Riding the Devil’s Highway on a V-Strom 650XT

The road is turning and twisting in an almost violent way, with 10-mph hairpins and 25-mph curves in endless succession. We (V-Strom and I)...

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