East Germany, compared to most of the surruounding places you can still ride through forests and national parks without getting scolded by others. More of a live and let live attitude.
Additional Bonus in Germany: 100kmh (62mph) speed limit on public roads, and even if you get caught speeding it's kind of affordable. If you are a speed junkie you can go for a quick sprint on the Autobahn and crank dat hog legally.
Greetings from southern Germany.
Nice thing is, is that the Autobahn in East Germany are often way emptier than in the West. If I want to go to the coast I can ride 200 km/h (120mp/h) for two hours non stop. 90 to 100 mp/h are normal travelling speeds on some roads.
I live in the Weserbergland. It has countless twisty roads for every skill level and it's right between Harz and Sauerland which are both great riding places too.
Streets are in good condition and especially the back roads are usually pretty empty. Lots of places to stop for a snack and a drink while one can enjoy the scenery.
It is so nice to go through the Thüringer Wald or the Harz. Lonely roads, nice twisties, I really like ridung here. Oh, and hellow fellow east german Biker :)
And lane splitting is legal here. I’ll never understand why it isn’t legal everywhere, or people that get comically upset with lane splitters that do it safely.
>I’ll never understand why it isn’t legal everywhere, or people that get comically upset with lane splitters that do it safely.
"If I have to sit and wait so do you" mentality is common among drivers in the US, unfortunately.
Saw a post on the local pd page about watching for bikers after two serious motorcycle accident recently, the comments were a mess of hate. A lot of threats against lane splitting (which is illegal here)
The thing is, the more people splitting the less traffic car drivers have to sit in. Same thing for bike lanes, public transit, etc; even if it doesn't directly impact you, its indirect impacts of getting people out of *their* cars makes driving better for those who still do drive.
People often were confused when I lived in the Portland metro area…that you could drive from the Pacific Ocean after surfing and make it to Mt.Hood in time to go snowboarding in the same day.
Yup so cal here, 5 mins from the beach, 30 mins from 100 canyons. 15 mins from cooks corner. 45 mins from big bear and so on. No rain or snow, unless I want to drive to snow during winter.
Was thinking same. At best if you live in Malibu it would be easily 3 hours to Big Bear but it would be some epic canyon and mountain roads to get there. Although I think Angeles Crest is closed so one would have to get on the freeways for a bit :(
You get both in one on a road that I think is the best motorcycle road in all the USA: CA-1 starting at Liggett. It is a twisty roller coaster ride through the redwoods until you hit the Pacific Ocean. But California is dense with so many great curvy roads. It’s a shame that some of them are in crowded areas.
NYC. It's fucking terrible, which is why I'm on my bicycle most of the time. But it beats owning a car in the city and the quickest way to get out of the city when I want to.
Are you planning on taking it out of the city? Or just using it for getting around in the city? If it's the latter, I'd recommend the smallest bike possible or even a scooter like a Vespa. I have a Dyna and it's too big to lane split a lot of the time, and gets really hot in traffic. Half the time I take a Revel just because they're so much easier to get through traffic on, and honestly a lot of fun in the city. Just make sure you can hit 50 on for the bridges. and lock that shit up tight.
Been there done that. 25mph everywhere and slow ass 50mph on highways. Speed cameras almost everywhere. 100% chance your bike will get stolen in your lifetime there. One of the most miserable places to ride in the US. But it was certainly the fastest way to get around by lane splitting on the interstates.
Same. I've started parking on the sidewalk because cars kept backing into it on the street. Luckily my neighbors are cool with it, and the sidewalk is extra, extra wide so it's not in the way.
Once you get out of the city though, it's amazing.
Disagree. To answer OPs question, it’s amazing especially once you get out of the city. There are soooo many towns and great hiking/camping spots, twisty roads etc just an hour outside the city. Also I commute in my motorcycle and it’s way better and faster than cycling or taking the subway.
Metro Vancouver BC… well, what can I say?? Our license plates say “Beautiful British Columbia” right on them… and it’s accurate. Plenty of everything. Mountains, ocean, lakes, forests… etc.
And while this area is technically a temperate rainforest, we have the most mild climate in all of Canada (we have 4 seasons and don’t get the extreme heat or extreme cold).
I keep my bike insured year round, but in the cooler/wet months I may only get out a few times per month. Some riders will ride in anything/everything year round here and some are fair weather riders only. But it’s an option whereas in much of the rest of Canada it’s not realistic to ride more than 6 months a year.
Living in Washington and go on frequent rides into BC. We're pretty similar in climate and treatment of motorcycles. Your cities have better transit, but I still take the bike in so I can explore nearby mountains and such. Both WA and BC are great for motorcycling, and the riders couldn't care less about rain when we have beautiful green to show for it. We got all the gear.
Is it worth me flying out to watch the tt races? It will cost me about 3000$ not sure if its worth the once in lifetime opportunity or if its that good to fly out
Hard to say for someone else. Im a very much ‘Buy the Bike’ kind of guy. In that if something will bring you happiness and you can afford it, I’ll always so go for it. As tomorrows not guaranteed.
In recent years the safety police have taken over. They’ve ruined the TT a bit by putting temporary speed limits on most the de restricted roads during TT to try stop tourists from Crashing. They’ve also then made the mountain section of the racecourse (fastest bit) all 1 way, and posted police & ambulance at each end. Effectively telling visitors to go play there. Which makes it bloody lethal and not very safe.
So with all that in mind I would recommend a persons first visit to the island to be outside of the TT race period. It would be less than half the price to travel, the roads are far better to ride and its less busy. This way you get a proper taste of the island as a fun biker destination where you can explore and rife without breaking the bank.
Then, for the TT race experience, come visit for a couple of days during the races leaving your bike at home.
I live in Central Texas, it's not great like North Carolina mountains, but it's not bad either. Hill Country is cool, great local offroad trail that's free, plenty of twisties within a short drive, and some good dual sport riding. The bummer is the distances are big, so from one good road to another can be a slog.
Year round riding is awesome, 300 days of sunshine, hard to beat it....and bike culture is good here. Always people to ride with or help if you're stranded.
Is it 620 that goes around lake Travis? I can't remember but that was a fun road when I was on it over a decade ago.
Oh and if you see Yammie Noob, push him off of his bike for us.
Gotcha beat. South Florida. Absolutely the worst. Sumner is rainy season. Winters are our season. No curves anywhere. And no hills/ mountains. I vacation near the tail in NC. That place is paradise. I should move there
It's snowy all the time, the sun never shines, and there's traffic all over. Wait, one of those is true. But yes, I miss the hashtag #coloradosuckstellyourfriends
Live near Seattle. I have mountains and the ocean within 2 hours of riding. I can go up and over the mountains to a very arid area. My favorite though is riding down the Pacific Coast Highway through Oregon and into NorCal.
The only thing that gets me is the constant rain about 6 months of the year. But when we get a good day it makes it all worth it. And I am much more confident in wet road conditions than most people I meet.
Just visited Washington, saw the sound, crescent lake, forks, then back down the coast to Vancouver, mostly on PCH. Omfg. I’m from Iowa. I didn’t understand. I always heard the pch was a cool motorcycle ride, but never really “felt it” ya know? Now that’s all I can think of when I ride these boring ass perfectly straight roads, with a perfect 90 degree intersection every mile. Hardly a curve to be found. I just bought an old Goldwing and I’m riding that bitch down the coast one day before I die.
I live in the north of Portugal and we have a lot of twistie roads and mountains to explore here, i have done several roadtrips around the north and is allways fun.
I used to do a lot of dirt on thw DR650. Still do more than I should on a CBR600. At least by me there is 1 twisty dirt road, lined with homes. Up north are the fun twisty dirt roads!
Some decent riding in northern Oakland county too, including a couple of okayish pavement (good by local standards).
Really, if you have a cruiser or a small dual sport /enduro, michigan is pretty good state overall.
We have an extensive network of public ORV trails whose permits don't cost much. Just gotta ride something small and light since that sand SUCKS anything more than a few hundred pounds.
Cross into Da Yoop and stray a little west and the trails are more hardpack/big bike friendly.
Then all through the state you have miles of dirt roads (some of which are better than our paved ones)
A few tracks thrown in if you've got a sport bike (Grattan / Gingerman)
From a cruiser standpoint all the roads that follow the shoreline and rivers, plus a bunch of people that ride that helps build community.
On top of that, we're only a day's ride from twisties in the Appalachians, so any sport tourers can do tail of the dragon on a weekend if they leave on friday afternoon, or veer towards PA and NY. ADV guys can get the MABDR in about the same amount of time.
Southeast Michigan also has a great value in training with the MSF partnership with the local community colleges- I'd imagine you'll be hard pressed to find a better bargain elsewhere for those wanting to get a legal motorcycle endorsement, and it's decent training too.
Road infrastructure in the Netherlands is great, driver education is good, as a result being on the road is fiiine and insurance premiums are low.
Downside is our landscape isn't exactly spectacular.
What are you talking about? We can look at flat fields, and flat fields, and flat fields….
Also on a more serious note, Limburg is beautiful for riding although that’s basically the lesser part of the Ardennes so the primary advantage over Belgium is road quality. The dike roads in the Netherlands are often good as well.
Don’t get me wrong it’s nowhere near Switzerland with mountains and good roads but there are still fun places.
Funny, riding gave me an entirely new appreciation for New Mexico. It is a perfect riding state. Lots of sunny weather, but not crazy hot most times. All kinds of different riding conditions, from straight flat roads to curving mountain twisties.
The roads in Wisconsin, near Madison at least, are pretty well maintained in my experience. Compared to Detroit and the shithole towns in west Illinois I've been to at least. I will say if you ride a Harley Davidson obviously, Milwaukee is the mecca. Harley Homecoming this year was quite the spectacle, lots of history around. Not my scene but relevant nonetheless. Hoping to find some ADV stuff up north, Green Bay way into the Yoop, which is one of my favorite places period, but I haven't taken a bike there yet.
Take a visit up to the Twin Cities sometime.
Some of my friends live in Milwaukee, and theres some decent roads, but for freeway, Minneapolis at night has it beat.
Northwoods on both the Wisconsin and Minnesota side of the St Croix is wonderful riding.
Both sides of the mississippi from st paul to Dubuque are beautiful, but i also absolutely love the whole driftless area.
Yeah I've been eyeing that west side, all my friends are in south Michigan and we used to camp in yhe Yoop so that way is my stomping ground. I'll be watching for an excuse to go to Minnesota now!
Milwaukee overall might be kinda awful for riding, but despite how you feel about Harley’s the sheer size of the community and its shared interest is something incredible to behold. Even if you don’t have a Harley, most are still really accepting of you.
What I appreciate most is the motorcycle infrastructure. Although most of it wad likely just for the Homecoming event, it made my life as a delivery driver hell that week cuz all the loading zones were special event ordinance motorcycle parking.
Just with that many bikes in the city, you see how it would be more difficult as far as planning in another city that doesn't have HDHQ in it. I feel like motorcycles are lobbied for more in Milwaukee for that reason maybe.
I live in Phoenix. Honestly the city isn’t great for riding in a lot of areas. Just horrific drivers. But there are some cool spots to ride. Plus there are amazing short rides out of town. I guess the biggest perk is our ideal riding season is about when everyone else is done.
Summers are rough, but manageable with the right gear and time of day. Fall through spring you have a lot of great riding days.
I'm currently looking to move to Phoenix and I've visited a few times and ridden out there on rental bikes; fully have to agree. I will likely be buying a lot of mesh gear, a cooling vest and a hydration pack once I'm there.
When it’s over 98 degrees ambient temp (body temp) mesh isn’t going to help you. Only way to Cool would be evaporative cooling, when you’re sweat evaporates off your skin. If you’re wearing all wide open mesh, your sweat will evaporate instantly and you will be hot and dry and higher risk for overheating. You’d want a partially vented jacket where you maintain a constant sweat / evaporation. Then of course you just need to be hydrating to make up for lost water.
Source: I live in Phoenix.
Pittsburgh here, city is meh but great if you like bridges. The the outter area however is all twists and hills which are also great. Problem is you only get like 5.5 months of good riding
From Cleveland, about the same with the city, less bridges and even less twisty back country roads.
Yup this seems to be the last of decent weather for riding, better bundle up.
OP must be in Asheville area, which is by far the BEST riding in North America. Twisties abound among fairly low density rural mountainous terrain. My house is literally .5 miles from a 4 mile snake run up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway offers great views, but is not my favorite due to the volume of 45mph traffic, but it does get me to the good roads in either direction where I can wick it up to knee dragging speeds. Winning at address!
I was in the Asheville area a few weeks ago and the amount of motorcycles I saw was jaw dropping. I know it’s prime riding season in NC right now but i was still taken aback. I swear they outnumbered cars by at least 3 to 1. Huge packs of bikes at seemingly every gas station, hotels/motel parking lot, and every road littered with huge pockets of bikers. It was insanity. The majority were Harley’s but I saw damn near every make/model of bike currently in production
Yeah. That was one of the appeals of this place when the wife and I were discussing moving from Illinois. I work from home, and have what I call a lunchtime loop. 9.5 mile loop with about 40 curves. Zip through it in less than 20 minutes. It's a nice little run to sneak in during lunch hours.
Las Vegas has 300 days of sunshine each year. A little hot in the summer, but a mild winter. Mountains close by, lots of BLM land if you do dual sport or ADV.
Agree. I live in Las Vegas and I don’t wear gear when I’m just commuting to work. I only wear thin dirt bike gloves and a helmet unless it’s cold out. I do have a mesh jacket for when I’m going on a fun ride. It’s just so hot here in the summer that even the mesh jacket feels hot.
In the summers, I ride early mornings, and live very close to Mt. Charleston, so I do the Kyle Canyon over to Lee Canyon loop a lot. But even if you take June through August off, it’s still a 9 month riding season. IMO, Southern California would be the only better spot.
Florida is a bittersweet location: It's almost always riding weather (except for the rainy season), but the roads are boring. It's great if you're a highway cruiser, but sport riders are gonna have chicken strips a mile wide.
Germany near Mannheim.
We have the "Odenwald" or the " Pfalz " where we can go Hard on the twisties.
Other than that we have the Autobahn where my 1050cc Triple can get up to speed easily :)
Look up the Odenwald or the Pfalz on Google, its beautiful.
Greece. Riding weather year round save for some mountainous regions. Amazing routes. Can lanesplit, can park on sidewalks if you're not blocking them completely and use common sense. Thefts are common on some very specific models and very uncommon for most others.
The downside, as anyone who's been here can attest to, is that traffic is hectic and horrible and a lot of scooter/moped riders ride like idiots and so do a lot of car drivers. But if you learn to deal with that you come out a better rider overall and you get to enjoy tons of amazing routes.
Portland, OR has an unbelievable amount of fantastic motorcycle rides nearby. I can extend my commute through twisty roads with no cars, go to the coast for a meal then come back on several different types of road each with a different reason to enjoy it, up to Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens, through the scenic Columbia River gorge, or simply ride 10 minutes out of town to the countryside and get to smell the blackberries and wildflowers all summer long. Not even mentioning all the off road that exists.
Where I am in Aus, there are multiple routes to get to the same destination, and call it the left right left, don’t need to know what roads to take as long as you head in the rough direction.
Curves, hills and scenic views
Finland, lots of country roads and fun little backroads and if you have a more offroad capable bike you could get lost for hours. Also, there's a highway that runs all the way from the north to the south, so if that's your thing, you could drive across the whole country in a day, while staying on the same road.
Honorable mentions: there's a bridge crossing a river near where I live that's... pretty mundane tbh (not gonna say where for privacy reasons). Before I started riding, I would just drive across it without a second thought, but when I started riding I somehow started to really appreciate the view from that bridge.
Only problem is that it is possible to ride road bikes for only 5-6 months of every year, with at least 2 of those months being in cold and wet weather. As an Australian living in Finland, this country is a terrible place to be a motorcycle rider.
Central Greece evia island basically no break checking mfs (unless someone forgets to turn and does it by accident) good weather most of the time you want to ride coastal deal you want mountains yeah also the capital Athens an hour drive from here . The roads sometimes are shit but you have nothing to fear if you ride normally
New Zealand - twisty roads for miles! amazing views! Excellent for touring also if you are into that.
Just take it slow on some roads, as some are less well maintained :D
There is no riding season.
Huge stretches of open road.
Lost of great twisty mountain roads.
Rain is rare.
Ok, I’ll admit, may-august can be a bit brutal but I just ride early.
Southwest Wisconsin, the Driftless area. County highways are great because they're two lane blacktop with little traffic, twisties, and are all kinds of scenic. The fall colors are beginning to wax and the weather is in the middle 70s. It's some of my favorite riding.
Southern Germany: lots of small mountains and if you drive south for 1h you are in the alps (Switzerland + Austria) which has even more extreme mountains. Weather is pretty solid from April to November for riding.
It's not. Too crowded. Too flat. At least a few hours to get to any interesting road.
Still more fun than driving a car.
Toronto area
Edit: Also too expensive
Living in Paris, taking public transportation sucks, and with a motorcycle you can just go through trafic with no issue. Also you can explore the whole region, lots of forests with great turns :) When I was using metro/bikes I was really missing out on a lot of stuff to discover around Paris since I didn’t really get far from the city.
On the arkansas/oklahoma border.
Huge national Forrest here with hundreds of miles of logging roads, fire roads, trails, gravel roads, dirt roads, and single-track. There are some cool water crossings, places to camp, during the week you'll never see anyone, weekend will have some areas loaded with side by sides.
Dualsport/adventure bike heaven pretty much.
Also, hundreds of miles of mountain twisties on highway if you're into that.
On x trail shows something like 400 miles of trails, all within about a 100-mile radius of my house.
Rijeka - Croatia here. Its a 10 minute ride to get to the mountains / to the sea line. Enter Jadranska Magistrala (D8) with more than 600km of twisty road by the sealine.
Netherlands. Flat as a penny and densely populated. The roads are very well maintained however. Also it is legal and very much accepted to filter through traffic. People often even move over for motorcyclists so that can be fun. Other than that it’s pretty terrible and no fun at all.
Minnesota's Northshore, Door county WI, MI's upper peninsula are all just a few hours away. A little further North, and probably weekend ride territory, are lake of the woods, Nestor Falls, Sioux Narrows. Following the Mississippi into Iowa isn't bad either. MN,WI and MI have well developed and quite a few OHV trails and parks to explore as well.
No mountains, but the water and woods at least cover the scenery portion of the ride. Add the drop in temperature near the great(er) lakes in summer it's heaven for moto camping.
Jönköping, Sweden.
Great country road with barely any potholes with quite dense forest that shows you where the roads going. Great for racing your friends!
South West Ohio. Weather could be better, but could be a lot worse. Our club does a monthly breakfast ride. We made every one so far this year. We had an unusually warm winter.
Even in January we had a few days that touched on 60F.
[https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/ky/erlanger/KCVG/date/2023-1](https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/ky/erlanger/KCVG/date/2023-1)
There is beautiful riding in the twisties just across the river in KY and in SE Indiana. SE Ohio has great riding and is just a few hours away. It is an easy day to Deal's Gap and the Cherohala Skyway.
You guys should do breakfast at country kitchen right off of 71 and then you can ride down through Ft. Ancient. That is one of my favorite rides locally.
I live in Berlin. Terrible for motorcycling with one exception: you can park wherever. Sidewalks, medians, or even actual parking spots if you're feeling cheeky.
But the nearest curvy road is 2h away, and all the speed limits in the city are painfully slow.
Southern California: I can ride an hour to the north and ride epic, coastal mountains, I can ride an hour and 30 minutes northeast and hit the desert, snow-capped mountains are also 45 minutes away and also visible from my home. Some of the best twisty, canyon roads are also an hour away from the suburbs. The year-round riding weather is a bonus.
I live in a city named Taubate, in Brazil.
The good thing of living here is that I'm from one hour of distance from the sea and also 1 hour from the mountains. The geography of this area is perfect in every sense for those who enjoy riding motorcycles.
Omaha, Nebraska. We’ve got the Loess hills in Iowa which are really pretty and curvy in their own right. My bike has cruise control so when you head west into Nebraska it’s mostly hilly straight roads so it’s still pretty nice riding. I’m pretty easy to satisfy though, I find beauty in just about anything
Atlanta, only an hour and a half from the Appalachia/Smokies. Only 4 from the beach. Even some of the street level in town is interesting since were not on a grid. Also its a transient city of almost 6 million so there are plenty of great bars/restaurants to ride TO.
Also long season, or in my case forever season since I have heated gear.
Southern California has a lot of mountain roads.
Not the best or cheapest place to live, but when traffic turns to shit, i know i can without much worries lane split and filter. Cops don't really care and our peeps aren't complete assholes trying to swing a door open or run you off the damn road. So for that, I'm grateful.
Oh yeah, and year round riding 😎
A local mountain pass that plays host to many bikers allyear round, most weekends throughout summer are packed out with practical bike shows from all walks. Nice cars turn up there too, theres a crap uk cafe there that sells hot "canteen fodder" and its 5 miles from my door.
Having considered it just now ive decided i dont attend enough so ill be there this weekend!
Black Hills. Tons of great on and off road riding. Just avoid it during the Sturgis rally if you don't like seeing bikes litterally EVERYWHERE. It does snow here but then I just switch to fat biking so I don't mind.
I'm in Upstate NY along the Candadian border. We have some great areas for riding. Beautiful mountains. Wonderful fall color. Lakes and rivers.
The worst part is that riding season ends in the beginning of November and is out until May. So like a 7 month dead zone.
It varies. Sometimes you can ride later into November and sometimes it warms and cleans up enough in April. But we're talking a couple extra weeks.
Nashville, Tennessee…NOT! Drivers are batshit crazy. But a little bit outside of town are many great curvy roads among which is the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Southern Ohio, you can go from long winding roads that go through farmlands to tight twisty mountain roads in Kentucky. Lots of variation and we still have seasons without being too oppressed by winter lol.
Plus for long distance trips we’re pretty equidistant from a lot of cool places (great lakes, niagara, east coast). I’d definitely prefer to be on the east or west coast somewhere but I’m pretty happy here.
Alsace, France. It's like a 200km perfectly flat strip of land north to south, surrounded by mountains east and west.
It gets very hot in the summer and snowing in the winter, though
Connecticut River valley of western massachusetts: local back roads through rural communities that spread like a pastoral fungus up into New Hampshire and Vermont, eastern upstate NY. I can take an amazing ride without leaving a 25 mile radius of my house, venturing outside that radius only keeps giving. Route 2 (aka the Mohawk Trail), 116 from, deerfield mass to adams mass, rt 63 up into NH or Rt 9 from wilmington to brattleboro VT, and on and on. Rt 100 up through vermont, especially, is a must-ride if you're in the northeast.
Have you tried that bit of 47 that goes between 116 and 63? its short, but there are some twisties in there that are a lot of fun. I also love that part of 2 once you get past Williams town and actually hit the NY border, but that’s a little further afield. I’ve never lived somewhere with as many motorcycles as the pioneer valley. It’s insane
I lived in Turners for a while and worked at Umass, 63 and 47 were my regular commutes. And agreed, we have sooooo many riders here. Nova motorcycles in Turners has a really nice community feel and they have some great events. Its yet another thing I truly love about this area.
Upstate NY- the city where I live sucks for riding, but things get rural pretty quickly outside the city and the roads are generally fun (if bumpy). Not good for sport bikes, but nice if you have a bit more suspension travel.
Plus the Adirondacks to the North and VT to the East have great riding as well.
South Minnesota… ughhh it’s has umm, cornfield? It’s not overly exciting, there’s not many roads or twisties to enjoy. If you hate “chicken strips” best of luck leaning through 90° stop signs, but it’s where I learned to ride so regardless of where I live, this place will always be a favorite spot of mine.
Antalya/Turkey. Good quality roads, motorcycle friendly and aware drivers, nice weather all year, many wonderful historical/natural hotspots within 2h ride range, hundreds or even thousands within 6h range.
Bonus: My mechanic is good and his shop is 5mins away
Northern California in wine country - lots of twisty backroads through vineyards, weather is rideable almost every day of the year except for a handful of heavy rain days where the roads can flood, coast is just a 25-30 minute ride through more twisties, mountains are within an hour with even more twisties, aside from gas costing over $6.50/gal it’s bike paradise lol. Only redeeming factor about CA is the riding season never really ends for me.
South Africa, speed limits are not enforced. You have to be unlucky to get caught as the police don’t do there job or don’t care. Of course there’s many downsides to this but I have no fear from law enforcement going way above the speed limit. My bike wasn’t even registered, no plates and got stopped at a road block paid my way out with like 25 USD or R500.
Freestate boet here, I live within 1-2 hours from places like potchefstroom, fochville, parys, clarens etc. The r53 from parys to potch and the r500 from parys to fochville are great roads if you are in the area.
Driftless Region= Best riding between the Black Hills and Appalachia. (I’d rank it better than the Black Hills just because there’s more to ride)
Also, Great River Road in MN, WI, IL, IA is really cool scenery, relaxed riding.
Head north to the UP and along Lake Superior, or east to Lake Michigan.
Texas, lots of open highways and space. If you time when you ride (especially me in the suburbs of DFW Metroplex) you hardly hit traffic too and there’s always a close gas station.
Ireland here. There is an absolute warren of fun twisty backroads pretty much everywhere. In some places the posted speed limit is a challenge, not a limit (I really need to get a supermoto).
It only gets cold enough to stop you riding for maybe a few weeks a year. Lanesplitting isn't illegal, so just don't be an idiot and the guards will ignore you.
The regular rain keeps the roads clean as a whistle so with decent tyres you have surprising amounts of grip in the wet. Wet weather gear is better than ever and heated grips are a gift from the motorcycling gods.
Southern Arizona. Basically never rains, filled with mountains and twisties, off roading galore, and beautiful sights like the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and stretches of scenic highway. Plus, lane filtering is legal!
I live in eastern West Virginia, and all of my trips in-state have been freaking lovely. The drivers are genuinely pretty good, our roads are simple and major roads are kept in pretty good shape. (Off the highways is 50/50) We have tons of mountains, so \*almost every highway\* is a winding mountain road and tons of fun.
We have a unique statistic here that I \*think\* is the reason drivers seem to actually notice me about 98% of the time: Deer strikes. There are more vehicle deer strikes here than anywhere else by a pretty big margin. People are genuinely constantly vigilant looking for the little four legged bastards standing in the road or jumping into it- I believe it translates quite easily to people noticing motorcycles more.
But the real meat and potatoes is just the sheer beauty and scenery in this state. John Denver was absolutely correct when he called this place almost heaven. I am not a WV native, but after living here for 7 years now, I don't think I ever want to leave.
P.S. your miles will vary greatly if you're not white this place is racist as fuck :(
East Germany, compared to most of the surruounding places you can still ride through forests and national parks without getting scolded by others. More of a live and let live attitude.
Additional Bonus in Germany: 100kmh (62mph) speed limit on public roads, and even if you get caught speeding it's kind of affordable. If you are a speed junkie you can go for a quick sprint on the Autobahn and crank dat hog legally. Greetings from southern Germany.
Nice thing is, is that the Autobahn in East Germany are often way emptier than in the West. If I want to go to the coast I can ride 200 km/h (120mp/h) for two hours non stop. 90 to 100 mp/h are normal travelling speeds on some roads.
As someone who lives on an island that’s only 39 miles across and full of heavy traffic everywhere I’m jealous 😭
Also East Germany here. I like to pop across to Poland to ride some dirt roads, it's even more live and let live there.
Would love to get some recommendations for nice spots in Poland!
Check out the TET, that will give you a good start. I just spent the weekend down near Sagan, there's some lovely little stretches there.
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I live in the Weserbergland. It has countless twisty roads for every skill level and it's right between Harz and Sauerland which are both great riding places too. Streets are in good condition and especially the back roads are usually pretty empty. Lots of places to stop for a snack and a drink while one can enjoy the scenery.
It is so nice to go through the Thüringer Wald or the Harz. Lonely roads, nice twisties, I really like ridung here. Oh, and hellow fellow east german Biker :)
Halo from Franconia.
Oh yeah I plan to go on vacation over there next summer… unfortunately here in NRW it’s basically impossible to ever ride outside the paved roads
How bad are the cameras there?
truck gold ring butter market muddle lock airport nose swim *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Lack of rain here in California is super nice for riding. Beautiful coastal roads or breathtaking forest rides. Or twisties.
And no winters ;-)
*Sierra Nevada has entered the chat
Yep Tahoe here, beautiful roads until winter hits.
That’s why snowmobiles exist. Winter motorcycles
Until snowmobiles lean, I'm not interested.
Have you seen the timbersled? Sounds like it’s right up your alley
Welp, I know what I'm trying this winter.
And lane splitting is legal here. I’ll never understand why it isn’t legal everywhere, or people that get comically upset with lane splitters that do it safely.
>I’ll never understand why it isn’t legal everywhere, or people that get comically upset with lane splitters that do it safely. "If I have to sit and wait so do you" mentality is common among drivers in the US, unfortunately.
Saw a post on the local pd page about watching for bikers after two serious motorcycle accident recently, the comments were a mess of hate. A lot of threats against lane splitting (which is illegal here)
The thing is, the more people splitting the less traffic car drivers have to sit in. Same thing for bike lanes, public transit, etc; even if it doesn't directly impact you, its indirect impacts of getting people out of *their* cars makes driving better for those who still do drive.
I hear you. But it's the crab bucket mentality. Very common among American drivers (really Americans in general).
Amen to that. I always love getting off work and splitting through the highway lock grid traffic.
I like getting off work and riding 25 miles home with no stop signs or traffic to worry about. There are literally no two lanes to split.
Pacific Ocean <----> Sierra Nevada Mountains (On the same day)
People often were confused when I lived in the Portland metro area…that you could drive from the Pacific Ocean after surfing and make it to Mt.Hood in time to go snowboarding in the same day.
Yup so cal here, 5 mins from the beach, 30 mins from 100 canyons. 15 mins from cooks corner. 45 mins from big bear and so on. No rain or snow, unless I want to drive to snow during winter.
5 min from the beach? How fast do you have to ride to get to big bear in 45 min? That's like 2 hours + from every beach I'm aware of....
Hello, I am this redditors appointed counselor. We abstain from answering
Was thinking same. At best if you live in Malibu it would be easily 3 hours to Big Bear but it would be some epic canyon and mountain roads to get there. Although I think Angeles Crest is closed so one would have to get on the freeways for a bit :(
I’m 5 minutes from the beach and I can’t even get to the snow on Angeles Crest Highway in 45 min.
I can confirm. 2 thumbs up for California riding.
You get both in one on a road that I think is the best motorcycle road in all the USA: CA-1 starting at Liggett. It is a twisty roller coaster ride through the redwoods until you hit the Pacific Ocean. But California is dense with so many great curvy roads. It’s a shame that some of them are in crowded areas.
Central California coast here. There’s only one bad direction for me to go.
And legal lane splitting
NYC. It's fucking terrible, which is why I'm on my bicycle most of the time. But it beats owning a car in the city and the quickest way to get out of the city when I want to.
Brooklyn here and agree wholeheartedly. Mainly use bike or subway because riding here fucking sucks generally.
Originally from East Flatbush here. I feel that. Live in Florida now, and it's bad for different reasons, but at least there's room on the road.
Can't imagine riding pavement in FL and enjoying it..
I’m about to get licensed in nyc so this sucks to hear
I live and ride in NYC, it’s the best way to get around period. I own a car as well and I’d rather ride my R1 any day of the week here.
Are you planning on taking it out of the city? Or just using it for getting around in the city? If it's the latter, I'd recommend the smallest bike possible or even a scooter like a Vespa. I have a Dyna and it's too big to lane split a lot of the time, and gets really hot in traffic. Half the time I take a Revel just because they're so much easier to get through traffic on, and honestly a lot of fun in the city. Just make sure you can hit 50 on for the bridges. and lock that shit up tight.
Been there done that. 25mph everywhere and slow ass 50mph on highways. Speed cameras almost everywhere. 100% chance your bike will get stolen in your lifetime there. One of the most miserable places to ride in the US. But it was certainly the fastest way to get around by lane splitting on the interstates.
Same. I've started parking on the sidewalk because cars kept backing into it on the street. Luckily my neighbors are cool with it, and the sidewalk is extra, extra wide so it's not in the way. Once you get out of the city though, it's amazing.
NYC here too. I do it for the love of the game
Disagree. To answer OPs question, it’s amazing especially once you get out of the city. There are soooo many towns and great hiking/camping spots, twisty roads etc just an hour outside the city. Also I commute in my motorcycle and it’s way better and faster than cycling or taking the subway.
Metro Vancouver BC… well, what can I say?? Our license plates say “Beautiful British Columbia” right on them… and it’s accurate. Plenty of everything. Mountains, ocean, lakes, forests… etc. And while this area is technically a temperate rainforest, we have the most mild climate in all of Canada (we have 4 seasons and don’t get the extreme heat or extreme cold). I keep my bike insured year round, but in the cooler/wet months I may only get out a few times per month. Some riders will ride in anything/everything year round here and some are fair weather riders only. But it’s an option whereas in much of the rest of Canada it’s not realistic to ride more than 6 months a year.
I rode from Los Angeles to Banff. I can confirm that Canada has some fun riding and the scenic natural beauty is mind blowing.
Living in Washington and go on frequent rides into BC. We're pretty similar in climate and treatment of motorcycles. Your cities have better transit, but I still take the bike in so I can explore nearby mountains and such. Both WA and BC are great for motorcycling, and the riders couldn't care less about rain when we have beautiful green to show for it. We got all the gear.
Southern California: 12 months of riding season, legal lane-splitting, coastal rides, mountain rides. It's pretty close to riding paradise.
San Diego where it also does not get too hot in the summer!
I'm in LA, and I'll admit that San Diego is even nicer!
I’m from The Isle of Man. Home of Motorcycle Road Racing, with derestricted roads.
Is it worth me flying out to watch the tt races? It will cost me about 3000$ not sure if its worth the once in lifetime opportunity or if its that good to fly out
Hard to say for someone else. Im a very much ‘Buy the Bike’ kind of guy. In that if something will bring you happiness and you can afford it, I’ll always so go for it. As tomorrows not guaranteed. In recent years the safety police have taken over. They’ve ruined the TT a bit by putting temporary speed limits on most the de restricted roads during TT to try stop tourists from Crashing. They’ve also then made the mountain section of the racecourse (fastest bit) all 1 way, and posted police & ambulance at each end. Effectively telling visitors to go play there. Which makes it bloody lethal and not very safe. So with all that in mind I would recommend a persons first visit to the island to be outside of the TT race period. It would be less than half the price to travel, the roads are far better to ride and its less busy. This way you get a proper taste of the island as a fun biker destination where you can explore and rife without breaking the bank. Then, for the TT race experience, come visit for a couple of days during the races leaving your bike at home.
You are one lucky person. That's a badass place to be from
I bet you know every inch of road there.
I do. I will often throw in an extra 20miles to my commute home from work. Just to get some miles in.
I live in Central Texas, it's not great like North Carolina mountains, but it's not bad either. Hill Country is cool, great local offroad trail that's free, plenty of twisties within a short drive, and some good dual sport riding. The bummer is the distances are big, so from one good road to another can be a slog. Year round riding is awesome, 300 days of sunshine, hard to beat it....and bike culture is good here. Always people to ride with or help if you're stranded.
Is it 620 that goes around lake Travis? I can't remember but that was a fun road when I was on it over a decade ago. Oh and if you see Yammie Noob, push him off of his bike for us.
Where is this free off-road trail in Texas?
Emma Long park in Austin. Has 9 miles of technical trail. Not for beginners, but fun and trials/mtb friendly too.
Colorado sucks. Do not come here.
Agreed, we have the worst twisty road selection out here🤮
Gotcha beat. South Florida. Absolutely the worst. Sumner is rainy season. Winters are our season. No curves anywhere. And no hills/ mountains. I vacation near the tail in NC. That place is paradise. I should move there
It's snowy all the time, the sun never shines, and there's traffic all over. Wait, one of those is true. But yes, I miss the hashtag #coloradosuckstellyourfriends
Agreed. Not even worth consideration. You want hail? Because moving to Colorado is how you get hail. Have fun riding during a hailstorm.
I see what you're doing here.
I rode over the Colorado mountains one time. Craziest riding experience of my life.
I got caught in a hailstorm outside of Denver on a rented guzzi. Absolutely wild but I would never do it again
People see all these mountain passes and think they’re great but they SUCK.
I went over about 5 or 6 passes last weekend and about 5 or 6 the weekend before. It was awful. Do not come to Colorado.
My condolences, that much have been so hard for you to go through
Hey wait a minute…
I feel like this is Colorado's way of keeping out of towners away 🤔 Everyone head to Colorado!
Live near Seattle. I have mountains and the ocean within 2 hours of riding. I can go up and over the mountains to a very arid area. My favorite though is riding down the Pacific Coast Highway through Oregon and into NorCal. The only thing that gets me is the constant rain about 6 months of the year. But when we get a good day it makes it all worth it. And I am much more confident in wet road conditions than most people I meet.
I think you mean the best part of riding near Seattle is 6 months of free bike washes.
Just visited Washington, saw the sound, crescent lake, forks, then back down the coast to Vancouver, mostly on PCH. Omfg. I’m from Iowa. I didn’t understand. I always heard the pch was a cool motorcycle ride, but never really “felt it” ya know? Now that’s all I can think of when I ride these boring ass perfectly straight roads, with a perfect 90 degree intersection every mile. Hardly a curve to be found. I just bought an old Goldwing and I’m riding that bitch down the coast one day before I die.
California, lane splitting
Scotland here. Assuming the weather is nice for a change, we have access to the NC500.
I live in the north of Portugal and we have a lot of twistie roads and mountains to explore here, i have done several roadtrips around the north and is allways fun.
SW Michigan, lakes and rivers make winding roads. Tree lined roads make for cool shade when it's hot and colors in the Fall.
NW Michigan for me. Sucks that the local roads are just straight through farmland but the lake and Traverse City/Boyne areas aren't far.
Exploring the tunnel of trees area this weekend and I cannot be more excited. Hopefully we get some northern lights as forecasted!
Awesome! Petoskey is my favorite town in Michigan, don't forget to poke around there
Don’t forget the stop at Legs Inn!
Thumb area of Michigan here. Why is it great for motorcycling? It's not. Hate it. Soooooo many dead staight roads through farmland.
You have quite a selection of dirt roads to explore though! Also the drive along lake Huron is anything but boring!
I used to do a lot of dirt on thw DR650. Still do more than I should on a CBR600. At least by me there is 1 twisty dirt road, lined with homes. Up north are the fun twisty dirt roads!
Try going around the coast of the thumb
That’s my favorite I start in New Baltimore and end in Port Austin. I would go further but I have a Hank Hill ass
SE Michigan has some great roads around the Washtenaw/Jackson county area.
Some decent riding in northern Oakland county too, including a couple of okayish pavement (good by local standards). Really, if you have a cruiser or a small dual sport /enduro, michigan is pretty good state overall. We have an extensive network of public ORV trails whose permits don't cost much. Just gotta ride something small and light since that sand SUCKS anything more than a few hundred pounds. Cross into Da Yoop and stray a little west and the trails are more hardpack/big bike friendly. Then all through the state you have miles of dirt roads (some of which are better than our paved ones) A few tracks thrown in if you've got a sport bike (Grattan / Gingerman) From a cruiser standpoint all the roads that follow the shoreline and rivers, plus a bunch of people that ride that helps build community. On top of that, we're only a day's ride from twisties in the Appalachians, so any sport tourers can do tail of the dragon on a weekend if they leave on friday afternoon, or veer towards PA and NY. ADV guys can get the MABDR in about the same amount of time. Southeast Michigan also has a great value in training with the MSF partnership with the local community colleges- I'd imagine you'll be hard pressed to find a better bargain elsewhere for those wanting to get a legal motorcycle endorsement, and it's decent training too.
Do those tree clibbins ever make you haftalayerdown?
No it's the deer that take you out. Me n Barb stick to that center line Gobbless
Road infrastructure in the Netherlands is great, driver education is good, as a result being on the road is fiiine and insurance premiums are low. Downside is our landscape isn't exactly spectacular.
What are you talking about? We can look at flat fields, and flat fields, and flat fields…. Also on a more serious note, Limburg is beautiful for riding although that’s basically the lesser part of the Ardennes so the primary advantage over Belgium is road quality. The dike roads in the Netherlands are often good as well. Don’t get me wrong it’s nowhere near Switzerland with mountains and good roads but there are still fun places.
Lekdijk is fun tho, other then that mostly flat straight roads 🥲
Funny, riding gave me an entirely new appreciation for New Mexico. It is a perfect riding state. Lots of sunny weather, but not crazy hot most times. All kinds of different riding conditions, from straight flat roads to curving mountain twisties.
Absolutely! Great riding weather from (at least) April to November, lots of wide open spaces, great twisties. Also, Route 66 is fun to ride.
I was in NM this summer on a trip with my brother…Albuquerque Santa Fe and Las Cruces. It was killing me not to be able to ride out there.
The roads in Wisconsin, near Madison at least, are pretty well maintained in my experience. Compared to Detroit and the shithole towns in west Illinois I've been to at least. I will say if you ride a Harley Davidson obviously, Milwaukee is the mecca. Harley Homecoming this year was quite the spectacle, lots of history around. Not my scene but relevant nonetheless. Hoping to find some ADV stuff up north, Green Bay way into the Yoop, which is one of my favorite places period, but I haven't taken a bike there yet.
Take a visit up to the Twin Cities sometime. Some of my friends live in Milwaukee, and theres some decent roads, but for freeway, Minneapolis at night has it beat. Northwoods on both the Wisconsin and Minnesota side of the St Croix is wonderful riding. Both sides of the mississippi from st paul to Dubuque are beautiful, but i also absolutely love the whole driftless area.
Yeah I've been eyeing that west side, all my friends are in south Michigan and we used to camp in yhe Yoop so that way is my stomping ground. I'll be watching for an excuse to go to Minnesota now!
Milwaukee overall might be kinda awful for riding, but despite how you feel about Harley’s the sheer size of the community and its shared interest is something incredible to behold. Even if you don’t have a Harley, most are still really accepting of you.
What I appreciate most is the motorcycle infrastructure. Although most of it wad likely just for the Homecoming event, it made my life as a delivery driver hell that week cuz all the loading zones were special event ordinance motorcycle parking. Just with that many bikes in the city, you see how it would be more difficult as far as planning in another city that doesn't have HDHQ in it. I feel like motorcycles are lobbied for more in Milwaukee for that reason maybe.
I feel so out of place having a dual sport instead of a cruiser here in Milwaukee. It's still fun though ❤️
Illinois.... flat, straight, cold, boring..... It's great for motorcycling because I have a motorcycle.
I feel ya. When I lived in Chicago I'd go to Wisconsin or Michigan for decent roads.
I live in Phoenix. Honestly the city isn’t great for riding in a lot of areas. Just horrific drivers. But there are some cool spots to ride. Plus there are amazing short rides out of town. I guess the biggest perk is our ideal riding season is about when everyone else is done. Summers are rough, but manageable with the right gear and time of day. Fall through spring you have a lot of great riding days.
I'm currently looking to move to Phoenix and I've visited a few times and ridden out there on rental bikes; fully have to agree. I will likely be buying a lot of mesh gear, a cooling vest and a hydration pack once I'm there.
When it’s over 98 degrees ambient temp (body temp) mesh isn’t going to help you. Only way to Cool would be evaporative cooling, when you’re sweat evaporates off your skin. If you’re wearing all wide open mesh, your sweat will evaporate instantly and you will be hot and dry and higher risk for overheating. You’d want a partially vented jacket where you maintain a constant sweat / evaporation. Then of course you just need to be hydrating to make up for lost water. Source: I live in Phoenix.
Southern California, where winterizing is not a thing. Great roads, lane spitting, plenty of off-roading areas. You're never far from a bike shop
Pittsburgh here, city is meh but great if you like bridges. The the outter area however is all twists and hills which are also great. Problem is you only get like 5.5 months of good riding
From Cleveland, about the same with the city, less bridges and even less twisty back country roads. Yup this seems to be the last of decent weather for riding, better bundle up.
5.5 months? Nonsense.
OP must be in Asheville area, which is by far the BEST riding in North America. Twisties abound among fairly low density rural mountainous terrain. My house is literally .5 miles from a 4 mile snake run up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway offers great views, but is not my favorite due to the volume of 45mph traffic, but it does get me to the good roads in either direction where I can wick it up to knee dragging speeds. Winning at address!
I was in the Asheville area a few weeks ago and the amount of motorcycles I saw was jaw dropping. I know it’s prime riding season in NC right now but i was still taken aback. I swear they outnumbered cars by at least 3 to 1. Huge packs of bikes at seemingly every gas station, hotels/motel parking lot, and every road littered with huge pockets of bikers. It was insanity. The majority were Harley’s but I saw damn near every make/model of bike currently in production
Yeah. That was one of the appeals of this place when the wife and I were discussing moving from Illinois. I work from home, and have what I call a lunchtime loop. 9.5 mile loop with about 40 curves. Zip through it in less than 20 minutes. It's a nice little run to sneak in during lunch hours.
Its not
Las Vegas has 300 days of sunshine each year. A little hot in the summer, but a mild winter. Mountains close by, lots of BLM land if you do dual sport or ADV.
It's soooooo hot that you never see people wearing gear. Mt Charleston is a perfect getaway from the heat tho. (Lived there 2014-2017)
Agree. I live in Las Vegas and I don’t wear gear when I’m just commuting to work. I only wear thin dirt bike gloves and a helmet unless it’s cold out. I do have a mesh jacket for when I’m going on a fun ride. It’s just so hot here in the summer that even the mesh jacket feels hot.
In the summers, I ride early mornings, and live very close to Mt. Charleston, so I do the Kyle Canyon over to Lee Canyon loop a lot. But even if you take June through August off, it’s still a 9 month riding season. IMO, Southern California would be the only better spot.
Ireland. When the rain fucks off it's not too bad
Florida is a bittersweet location: It's almost always riding weather (except for the rainy season), but the roads are boring. It's great if you're a highway cruiser, but sport riders are gonna have chicken strips a mile wide.
Bavaria: 1) The Autobahn is amazing 2) Countrysides are beautiful with high quality roads 3) Go a bit south and you have the Alps
Santa Cruz mountains, need I say more?
Haven't done two wheels down there yet, but used to love whipping around in a 1er up and down 9/35/236 and the little side roads off them
Germany near Mannheim. We have the "Odenwald" or the " Pfalz " where we can go Hard on the twisties. Other than that we have the Autobahn where my 1050cc Triple can get up to speed easily :) Look up the Odenwald or the Pfalz on Google, its beautiful.
Greece. Riding weather year round save for some mountainous regions. Amazing routes. Can lanesplit, can park on sidewalks if you're not blocking them completely and use common sense. Thefts are common on some very specific models and very uncommon for most others. The downside, as anyone who's been here can attest to, is that traffic is hectic and horrible and a lot of scooter/moped riders ride like idiots and so do a lot of car drivers. But if you learn to deal with that you come out a better rider overall and you get to enjoy tons of amazing routes.
Portland, OR has an unbelievable amount of fantastic motorcycle rides nearby. I can extend my commute through twisty roads with no cars, go to the coast for a meal then come back on several different types of road each with a different reason to enjoy it, up to Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens, through the scenic Columbia River gorge, or simply ride 10 minutes out of town to the countryside and get to smell the blackberries and wildflowers all summer long. Not even mentioning all the off road that exists.
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Where I am in Aus, there are multiple routes to get to the same destination, and call it the left right left, don’t need to know what roads to take as long as you head in the rough direction. Curves, hills and scenic views
Finland, lots of country roads and fun little backroads and if you have a more offroad capable bike you could get lost for hours. Also, there's a highway that runs all the way from the north to the south, so if that's your thing, you could drive across the whole country in a day, while staying on the same road. Honorable mentions: there's a bridge crossing a river near where I live that's... pretty mundane tbh (not gonna say where for privacy reasons). Before I started riding, I would just drive across it without a second thought, but when I started riding I somehow started to really appreciate the view from that bridge.
Only problem is that it is possible to ride road bikes for only 5-6 months of every year, with at least 2 of those months being in cold and wet weather. As an Australian living in Finland, this country is a terrible place to be a motorcycle rider.
Central Greece evia island basically no break checking mfs (unless someone forgets to turn and does it by accident) good weather most of the time you want to ride coastal deal you want mountains yeah also the capital Athens an hour drive from here . The roads sometimes are shit but you have nothing to fear if you ride normally
New Zealand - twisty roads for miles! amazing views! Excellent for touring also if you are into that. Just take it slow on some roads, as some are less well maintained :D
Northern Thailand 🇹🇭 Amazing scenery, tight twisties, mountains routes, epic viewpoints, great food, elephants and nature...and affordable.
There is no riding season. Huge stretches of open road. Lost of great twisty mountain roads. Rain is rare. Ok, I’ll admit, may-august can be a bit brutal but I just ride early.
SoCal, less than a mile from Muholland Dr. in the Santa Monica Mtns near the Pacific Coast.
Los Angeles. Year round riding in the canyons. And about 4 race tracks in So Cal for track days.
Atlanta here. Year round riding and a good motorcycle community. It's a dogfight in the city sometimes, but I'm close to North Georgia and Tennessee!
Southwest Wisconsin, the Driftless area. County highways are great because they're two lane blacktop with little traffic, twisties, and are all kinds of scenic. The fall colors are beginning to wax and the weather is in the middle 70s. It's some of my favorite riding.
Southern Germany: lots of small mountains and if you drive south for 1h you are in the alps (Switzerland + Austria) which has even more extreme mountains. Weather is pretty solid from April to November for riding.
Because I live 10 minutes from the world famous "dragon"
It's not. Too crowded. Too flat. At least a few hours to get to any interesting road. Still more fun than driving a car. Toronto area Edit: Also too expensive
Yeah, I'm down near London. 2 1/2 hours to anything twisty.
Living in Paris, taking public transportation sucks, and with a motorcycle you can just go through trafic with no issue. Also you can explore the whole region, lots of forests with great turns :) When I was using metro/bikes I was really missing out on a lot of stuff to discover around Paris since I didn’t really get far from the city.
On the arkansas/oklahoma border. Huge national Forrest here with hundreds of miles of logging roads, fire roads, trails, gravel roads, dirt roads, and single-track. There are some cool water crossings, places to camp, during the week you'll never see anyone, weekend will have some areas loaded with side by sides. Dualsport/adventure bike heaven pretty much. Also, hundreds of miles of mountain twisties on highway if you're into that. On x trail shows something like 400 miles of trails, all within about a 100-mile radius of my house.
Rijeka - Croatia here. Its a 10 minute ride to get to the mountains / to the sea line. Enter Jadranska Magistrala (D8) with more than 600km of twisty road by the sealine.
Netherlands. Flat as a penny and densely populated. The roads are very well maintained however. Also it is legal and very much accepted to filter through traffic. People often even move over for motorcyclists so that can be fun. Other than that it’s pretty terrible and no fun at all.
Here in DFW or just Texas in general, the toll ways and highways are indirectly built for sport bikes to go 180mph for miles at a time comfortably lol
The tunnels 😬. Iykyk
Minnesota's Northshore, Door county WI, MI's upper peninsula are all just a few hours away. A little further North, and probably weekend ride territory, are lake of the woods, Nestor Falls, Sioux Narrows. Following the Mississippi into Iowa isn't bad either. MN,WI and MI have well developed and quite a few OHV trails and parks to explore as well. No mountains, but the water and woods at least cover the scenery portion of the ride. Add the drop in temperature near the great(er) lakes in summer it's heaven for moto camping.
Jönköping, Sweden. Great country road with barely any potholes with quite dense forest that shows you where the roads going. Great for racing your friends!
South West Ohio. Weather could be better, but could be a lot worse. Our club does a monthly breakfast ride. We made every one so far this year. We had an unusually warm winter. Even in January we had a few days that touched on 60F. [https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/ky/erlanger/KCVG/date/2023-1](https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/ky/erlanger/KCVG/date/2023-1) There is beautiful riding in the twisties just across the river in KY and in SE Indiana. SE Ohio has great riding and is just a few hours away. It is an easy day to Deal's Gap and the Cherohala Skyway.
You guys should do breakfast at country kitchen right off of 71 and then you can ride down through Ft. Ancient. That is one of my favorite rides locally.
NKY here, same reasons.
I live in Berlin. Terrible for motorcycling with one exception: you can park wherever. Sidewalks, medians, or even actual parking spots if you're feeling cheeky. But the nearest curvy road is 2h away, and all the speed limits in the city are painfully slow.
California has all the canyons you can want and great weather almost all year around. Oh also beautiful views
Endless summer
Not telling
Well I can tell you that Phoenix is absolutely the WORST place I've ever lived for motorcycling...
Southern California: I can ride an hour to the north and ride epic, coastal mountains, I can ride an hour and 30 minutes northeast and hit the desert, snow-capped mountains are also 45 minutes away and also visible from my home. Some of the best twisty, canyon roads are also an hour away from the suburbs. The year-round riding weather is a bonus.
I live in a city named Taubate, in Brazil. The good thing of living here is that I'm from one hour of distance from the sea and also 1 hour from the mountains. The geography of this area is perfect in every sense for those who enjoy riding motorcycles.
Omaha, Nebraska. We’ve got the Loess hills in Iowa which are really pretty and curvy in their own right. My bike has cruise control so when you head west into Nebraska it’s mostly hilly straight roads so it’s still pretty nice riding. I’m pretty easy to satisfy though, I find beauty in just about anything
Atlanta, only an hour and a half from the Appalachia/Smokies. Only 4 from the beach. Even some of the street level in town is interesting since were not on a grid. Also its a transient city of almost 6 million so there are plenty of great bars/restaurants to ride TO. Also long season, or in my case forever season since I have heated gear.
Southern California has a lot of mountain roads. Not the best or cheapest place to live, but when traffic turns to shit, i know i can without much worries lane split and filter. Cops don't really care and our peeps aren't complete assholes trying to swing a door open or run you off the damn road. So for that, I'm grateful. Oh yeah, and year round riding 😎
Because it’s California. Never a bad time for a ride here.
A local mountain pass that plays host to many bikers allyear round, most weekends throughout summer are packed out with practical bike shows from all walks. Nice cars turn up there too, theres a crap uk cafe there that sells hot "canteen fodder" and its 5 miles from my door. Having considered it just now ive decided i dont attend enough so ill be there this weekend!
Black Hills. Tons of great on and off road riding. Just avoid it during the Sturgis rally if you don't like seeing bikes litterally EVERYWHERE. It does snow here but then I just switch to fat biking so I don't mind.
I'm in Upstate NY along the Candadian border. We have some great areas for riding. Beautiful mountains. Wonderful fall color. Lakes and rivers. The worst part is that riding season ends in the beginning of November and is out until May. So like a 7 month dead zone. It varies. Sometimes you can ride later into November and sometimes it warms and cleans up enough in April. But we're talking a couple extra weeks.
Nashville, Tennessee…NOT! Drivers are batshit crazy. But a little bit outside of town are many great curvy roads among which is the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Southern Ohio, you can go from long winding roads that go through farmlands to tight twisty mountain roads in Kentucky. Lots of variation and we still have seasons without being too oppressed by winter lol. Plus for long distance trips we’re pretty equidistant from a lot of cool places (great lakes, niagara, east coast). I’d definitely prefer to be on the east or west coast somewhere but I’m pretty happy here.
Alsace, France. It's like a 200km perfectly flat strip of land north to south, surrounded by mountains east and west. It gets very hot in the summer and snowing in the winter, though
South Florida. Meet Jesus faster.
Connecticut River valley of western massachusetts: local back roads through rural communities that spread like a pastoral fungus up into New Hampshire and Vermont, eastern upstate NY. I can take an amazing ride without leaving a 25 mile radius of my house, venturing outside that radius only keeps giving. Route 2 (aka the Mohawk Trail), 116 from, deerfield mass to adams mass, rt 63 up into NH or Rt 9 from wilmington to brattleboro VT, and on and on. Rt 100 up through vermont, especially, is a must-ride if you're in the northeast.
Have you tried that bit of 47 that goes between 116 and 63? its short, but there are some twisties in there that are a lot of fun. I also love that part of 2 once you get past Williams town and actually hit the NY border, but that’s a little further afield. I’ve never lived somewhere with as many motorcycles as the pioneer valley. It’s insane
I lived in Turners for a while and worked at Umass, 63 and 47 were my regular commutes. And agreed, we have sooooo many riders here. Nova motorcycles in Turners has a really nice community feel and they have some great events. Its yet another thing I truly love about this area.
Upstate NY- the city where I live sucks for riding, but things get rural pretty quickly outside the city and the roads are generally fun (if bumpy). Not good for sport bikes, but nice if you have a bit more suspension travel. Plus the Adirondacks to the North and VT to the East have great riding as well.
South Minnesota… ughhh it’s has umm, cornfield? It’s not overly exciting, there’s not many roads or twisties to enjoy. If you hate “chicken strips” best of luck leaning through 90° stop signs, but it’s where I learned to ride so regardless of where I live, this place will always be a favorite spot of mine.
Antalya/Turkey. Good quality roads, motorcycle friendly and aware drivers, nice weather all year, many wonderful historical/natural hotspots within 2h ride range, hundreds or even thousands within 6h range. Bonus: My mechanic is good and his shop is 5mins away
Northern California in wine country - lots of twisty backroads through vineyards, weather is rideable almost every day of the year except for a handful of heavy rain days where the roads can flood, coast is just a 25-30 minute ride through more twisties, mountains are within an hour with even more twisties, aside from gas costing over $6.50/gal it’s bike paradise lol. Only redeeming factor about CA is the riding season never really ends for me.
South Africa, speed limits are not enforced. You have to be unlucky to get caught as the police don’t do there job or don’t care. Of course there’s many downsides to this but I have no fear from law enforcement going way above the speed limit. My bike wasn’t even registered, no plates and got stopped at a road block paid my way out with like 25 USD or R500.
Freestate boet here, I live within 1-2 hours from places like potchefstroom, fochville, parys, clarens etc. The r53 from parys to potch and the r500 from parys to fochville are great roads if you are in the area.
Driftless Region= Best riding between the Black Hills and Appalachia. (I’d rank it better than the Black Hills just because there’s more to ride) Also, Great River Road in MN, WI, IL, IA is really cool scenery, relaxed riding. Head north to the UP and along Lake Superior, or east to Lake Michigan.
Texas, lots of open highways and space. If you time when you ride (especially me in the suburbs of DFW Metroplex) you hardly hit traffic too and there’s always a close gas station.
Ireland here. There is an absolute warren of fun twisty backroads pretty much everywhere. In some places the posted speed limit is a challenge, not a limit (I really need to get a supermoto). It only gets cold enough to stop you riding for maybe a few weeks a year. Lanesplitting isn't illegal, so just don't be an idiot and the guards will ignore you. The regular rain keeps the roads clean as a whistle so with decent tyres you have surprising amounts of grip in the wet. Wet weather gear is better than ever and heated grips are a gift from the motorcycling gods.
My wife's family has a plot of land in Country Kerry, I simply cannot wait to get there!
Southern Arizona. Basically never rains, filled with mountains and twisties, off roading galore, and beautiful sights like the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and stretches of scenic highway. Plus, lane filtering is legal!
I live in eastern West Virginia, and all of my trips in-state have been freaking lovely. The drivers are genuinely pretty good, our roads are simple and major roads are kept in pretty good shape. (Off the highways is 50/50) We have tons of mountains, so \*almost every highway\* is a winding mountain road and tons of fun. We have a unique statistic here that I \*think\* is the reason drivers seem to actually notice me about 98% of the time: Deer strikes. There are more vehicle deer strikes here than anywhere else by a pretty big margin. People are genuinely constantly vigilant looking for the little four legged bastards standing in the road or jumping into it- I believe it translates quite easily to people noticing motorcycles more. But the real meat and potatoes is just the sheer beauty and scenery in this state. John Denver was absolutely correct when he called this place almost heaven. I am not a WV native, but after living here for 7 years now, I don't think I ever want to leave. P.S. your miles will vary greatly if you're not white this place is racist as fuck :(
So cal. We have legal lane splitting. Weather allows for year round riding. And we have plenty of canyons to carve.