Bucket list rides.

[johnmark101]

Maybe one day before I get too old I would love to fly to Italy in the summer and ride through the Dolomites.  This would be at the very top of my list of places I want to ride.  The views alone would be worth it as I love mountains.

What is your number one riding destination??

 

[duhg]

The Alpine region of Europe would be great.  I would like to ride the roads of the Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, and the Giro d'Italia.  The countryside looks beautiful and varied, at least on TV

 

 

[HGP61]

Looking at planning a tour for next year (covid restrictions dependent) through Germany and the Black forest region into Switzerland to visit My Brother in Basel maybe take in a couple of mountain passes and a potential return to the UK through the Vosges area in France. 

[MightBeSasquatch]

I actually have no clue. Part of me is just happy discovering a way to get somewhere, but there have been times where I go places to specifically ride this road/pass/stretch. I think I am going to watch this list and make a bucket list now though, just in case. 

[HGP61]

1 minute ago, MightBeSasquatch said:

Part of me is just happy discovering a way to get somewhere

So so true, I feel that on a bike the journey is just as important as the destination probably more important if your only out for the run. 

[betoney]

6 minutes ago, MightBeSasquatch said:

Part of me is just happy discovering a way to get somewhere, but there have been times where I go places to specifically ride this road/pass/stretch.

That has been my mantra in the past year, "try to discover a new road on this ride".  Even though I have many favorite destinations or 'regular routes' I have discovered a lot of alternate routes, some destined to become new favorites. 

[MightBeSasquatch]

17 minutes ago, betoney said:

That has been my mantra in the past year, "try to discover a new road on this ride".  Even though I have many favorite destinations or 'regular routes' I have discovered a lot of alternate routes, some destined to become new favorites. 

To be fair, you need alternate routes out there unless sitting still is your thing 😂.

[fddriver2]

Full disclosure. I have a couple drinks in me..

In today's new normal. It is unlikely that I will get to ride anywhere outside the USA. 

Trips on my bucket list. Route 50. It runs from Ocean City MD. to Sacramento CA. The original route ran literally in front of the White House. It also ran in front of my Uncle Ronnie's Mobil station in Grafton WVA. And 2 blocks from a house I lived in then. The west end is also "The loneliest road in America" 

Route 66. Yes it's broken up, sleeping in a teepee hotel in the American Southwest. .... Just saying. "Yeah I rode it"........

PCH. Had a chance a few years ago, then a bridge fell into the ocean.... 

Rides you should take. USA

BRP-Skyline Drive. During the week if you can. Take your time, there is so much to see and take in. 

The Outer Banks. Mom & Pop restaurants and motels. Great seafood and friendly accommodations.

Natchez Trace. 444 uninterrupted miles. Doable in one long day. Don't. So much history. Downside, speeding tickets hurt a lot. Upside, Nashville on one end Natchez on the other. Both cool towns, for different reasons.

Now. The best trip I ever took (it was in a car) 😱 Hermosa Beach CA. to Ft. Lauderdale FL. 21 days. No Interstates. In a 1992 Land Cruiser with hundred's of thousands of miles. No plan. Wake up, breakfast, Drive and look. Lunch, drive and look. Dinner, food and drink, in small towns.

Since then. I don't plan much day to day on any trip.

[betoney]

I don't foresee myself traveling to Europe for a ride but if I did it would be to Bavaria and the Black Forest.

I am slowly hitting some bucket list roads here in the U.S. - Beartooth Pass/Chief Joseph Highway, Million Dollar Highway CO, Continental Divide, Dixie NF/ Staircase UT. 

Tentative plans for 2021 are to ride PCH down to Pismo Beach and Black Hills of South Dakota through Spearfish Canyon, Deadwood, Keystone, Needles Highway and Iron Mountain.

[betoney]

19 minutes ago, fddriver2 said:

Now. The best trip I ever took (it was in a car) 😱 Hermosa Beach CA. to Ft. Lauderdale FL. 21 days. No Interstates. In a 1992 Land Cruiser with hundred's of thousands of miles. No plan. Wake up, breakfast, Drive and look. Lunch, drive and look. Dinner, food and drink, in small towns.

Sounds excellent, just go wherever the road takes you.  😎👍

[WKE002]

i would want to ride for at least a week without a phone, just alone, ride anywhere, stop anywhere, sleep anywhere, no phones = peace. 

[PhotoAl]

Next on my list it to ride to the Bay area of California, visit my son , then back.  Along the way see more of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Northern California, eastern Oregon and Washington.  Switzerland has some fantastic mountain roads.  Have driven several of the passes.  Have been once to the Dolomites and they are beautiful with fantastic roads.  Biggest problem is my wife gets carsick so cant go too fast.  Another beautiful drive is the Amalfi coast in Italy.  I'm ridden it four times on a 125cc scooter with my wife on the back.  LOL very seldom did I need a lot more power!  We also rode all over the island of Capri 1.1 times.  1.1 well the first time was fantastic, had lots of fun chasing a Russian couple around - you can have lots of fun on scooters on tiny twisty roads.  The next time we rented a scooter it was a blast until it came to an abrupt stop at a rock wall!  I was in a hurry to catch up to my wife's parents who didn't wait on us at the meeting place.  Coming out of a hairpin there was a bus swinging wide for the turn, I dodged him but the road came back in and I couldn't get away from the rock wall!  Just clipped the right bar on the wall at 15mph (my wife's estimate).  I woke up in the middle of the road next to the bus, my wife was fine but I had shattered the bottom quarter of my kneecap as well as a concussion and various cuts and scrapes.  My hands were fine as was the new DSLR around my neck and under my left arm!  It didn't have a scratch on it!  That was the end of that trip - we were on our way to Monaco for the F1 Historics!  My wife occasionally brings that up and it was 4 and a half years ago.  We did make it to the Historics 2 years later.  Photo below is one I took then.  Hearing the sound of the 80s F1 cars in the tunnel was fantastic.  They may be vintage cars but they are very serious about racing.

All of my motorcycle trips are solo as my wife doesn't ride on the back - I need to coax her out for a short ride on the Tracer GT though.  She really enjoyed the scooter rides but hasn't gotten over crashing.  She occasionally rides with me on one of my scooters at a big event but is very nervous.  Over the last two and a half years I've taken so really great rides thru some boring county and some exciting places.  Going to the Sun road in Glacier was not that great - too many people and extremely slow.  On the other hand the Snow Mountain road in southern Wyoming was a blast and empty!  made three passes that day in June this year.  Long motorcycle trips do take some time but are not hard or expensive.  Typically I plan my trips around available KOAs, if the weather is hot then I'll try and stay in a cabin but otherwise its my tent.  I don't cook so food is fast food for breakfast and lunch with a better meal at night.  There are cheaper ways to stay but I like having a reservation and a clean place to stay.  I also take a SPOT and a Garmin inReach mini for emergency communications when out of cell phone signal.

EDIT:  added a few pics from the Amalfi coast.

Edited December 9, 2020 by PhotoAl

[wanderer]

So hard to even decide.

1. cross country, with route 66.

2. cross country, Lincoln Highway. #1 and #2 could be combined into one long trip. These also might be better done in a convertible (semi-cage) with the wife (who will neither ride nor pillion).

3. Alaska

4. a two month long aimless meandering through California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.

These all require more time than I'll be able to pull together all at once, not for a while. Hopefully in 2021 I can do San Diego to Seattle to Bozeman and back, but that is not the meander. Maybe compressed into 1.5 weeks or so.

[Dodgy Knees]

7 hours ago, HGP61 said:

So so true, I feel that on a bike the journey is just as important as the destination probably more important if your only out for the run. 

For me, the riding is everything. If it's just about getting somewhere,  I'll go in the car. 👍

[Ride365]

I still have the NW part of the USA to explore, other than that I am so wanting to ride in Switzerland/Austria/France on a tour.