Restaurants are often a destination when looking for an excuse to ride. Chris suggested the Heidelberg Haus, a German cafe, grocery, bakery and gift shop in Indianapolis. It’s a perfect place for a kaffeeklatsch, but on this sommer day, we’d take the old BMW motorcycles on a thematic ride to try their knockwurst and homemade potato salad. How was it? Read on…
Tulip Trestle is the world’s third-longest railroad viaduct and the longest rail trestle in the USA. We discovered it by accident when looking for good riding roads on Google Maps. Looking down from the sky, we saw its huge shadow cast out over one section of railroad. Once we looked into its history, we had to take the 100-mile trip to go see it; here’s our ride report…
When motorcyclists talk of The Dragon or Deals Gap, they describe a knee-draggin’ sportbike playground or a cruiser destination to get the I-was-here T-shirt. While both descriptions have truth, people should know it’s a place of beauty with a far wider reach than the 318 turns in 11 miles. It’s where motorcyclists like us seek fun, introspection, escape and adventure…no matter what kind of bike we’re on. Read on to see how our recent trip may tempt you to ride the Smokies…
The concept of motorcycling is plenty enticing in its most stripped-down, basic form. But these dudes found ways to take it further, going in the direction of rugged, hunks of metal with the intent of being unstoppable. We tip our helmets to ’em. Imagine a convoy of these contraptions headed toward you.
Soaking in a torrential downpour, we rode the Ural sidecar and BMW cafe racer toward a vintage motorcycle event about 45 minutes north. We were thinking the attendance may suffer due to the blackening sky and big fat drops of rain pooling in the low spots. But, we were committed to the ride, had donned the mostly-effective rain gear and set off…not knowing the event had been cancelled.
Driving slowly in the dark at 4:45am, Casey and I spotted a glowing iPhone waving at us. We pulled along the curb and our buddy, Chris, hopped in. It would be the beginning of a 2-hour conversation about motorcycles as we drove south. None of us are early birds, but we were wide-awake that morning.
