No, this isn’t a crafty plan to relieve you of your pride-and-joy at the end of a tour, but a clever way of letting you maximise the great times you have riding your motorcycle.  Many of the tours operated by Harley-Davidson authorised tour provider Tour1 go to Harley-Davidson European rallies, and here is the odd thing, you ride your own bike there, but the tours are one-way.  Since starting these tours a few years ago, they have been sold-out, so we asked Gary France, who runs Tour1, about these one-way tours and why they are so popular. What exactly is a one-way tour on your ow ..read more

With my son Charlie, we flew across the Atlantic so we could ride at Daytona Bike Week. This is our video we made. We wanted to make a record of our trip, not just what happens at Bike Week.  We hope you like the results.  The benefit of videos like this is they help you remember the trip, so I am sure to look at this in years to come. Happy riding everyone ..read more

I recently asked what are the five things riders cannot leave behind when on a long ride.  The answers came in via a number of different social media platforms and here are the results. Many thanks to the people that contributed to this.  We all might learn something from it and maybe this will make us think about what additional thing(s) we might want to carry ourselves. The answers were interesting, with some items being the things many riders like to carry and other things being somewhat more unusual.  I have collated the answers as best as I could into five categories. Th ..read more

All of us have favourite items we like to take with us on long distance motorcycle rides, or tours. Just for fun, I am putting together a list of the top essential items riders take with them.  What are the five things you CANNOT leave behind? Please give one answer for each category below and I will collate the answers into an essential motorcycling items guide...... 1. For your bike.  It could be a particular tool, cable ties, oil, or a puncture repair kit.  What won't you travel without? 2. Something you wear when riding.  A favourite pair of gloves perhaps, a heated ..read more

One of the things I have tried to avoid about riding motorcycles is any form of prejudice for one brand over another. To me, it is important to treat all motorcyclists equally and to treat them all as is they were a brother, no matter what the name badge on the tank says. I have tried to always respect the choice we all have when choosing which brand we each ride and so I really don’t like the “my bike is better than you bike” brigade who are so blind as to not be able to see anything beyond their own handlebars. However, those principles took a bit of a shaking today when I visited a BMW dea ..read more

There are many reasons why a road might be considered as being very good for motorcycling.  It may be because it is twisty, fast, scenic, or with great places to see along its route. Some roads are famous and well less well known.  Some are found by accident, but however you came across your favourite roads, they are likely to remain in your memory for a long time. For me, I can only consider a road to be worthy of ‘best’ if I have personally ridden it.  Here are my top 20 roads, and the reasons why I like them so much.  The lower the number, the more I like it. 20.  ..read more

The doorbell rang and the courier stood there, holding a shoe-box size package with my name on it. I knew what was inside. I carefully opened the box and took out the contents. It was a wooden model of a scooter. Most people would not give it a second glance, but it meant a lot to me. This had been half-way around the world and held by many people who all had one thing in common. We all liked and respected the man this model had come to represent. That man was Bob, who also went by the name of BobScoot. Like many, I first met Bob electronically, when he either found my own blog, or I found h ..read more

I was very fortunate to be able to test-ride the new Harley-Davidson prototype electric motorcycle, called Project Livewire. Along with son Charlie, we had been invited to go to the Millbrook Proving Track to be one of the first to ride this bike in the UK. Son Charlie, on the electric Harley-Davidson First off, I have to say what an amazing experience it was riding this bike. It’s power and acceleration are amazing. 0-60mph on a motorcycle is pretty quick and the 300 volt battery certainly provides enough power to get you up to its restricted top speed of 91mph very quickly. The ..read more

If you are, you might want to consider this law regarding listening to music or communications systems, which includes motorcycle communications systems. Basically, the use of any music or communication system with headphones or earphones is illegal. That means ear-buds for listening to music, or even speakers inside your helmet for talking to pillions or to other riders, is prohibited. You might want to consider this before riding in Spain. This is the relevant part of the law, translated by Google….. 23514 Royal Decree 1428/2003, of November 21, by which approves the General Regulatio ..read more

I met a young artist called Albie Espinola last month and was blown away by his work. He is concentrating on painting riders and their motorcycles and he creates pictures that are very impressive. I chatted with him and learnt how he has turned his dream into reality. Aside from Albie’s artistic abilities – he’s also a dab hand with videography, as he creates time-lapse films of himself painting his works. Here are a couple of his paintings and some of you may recognise the rider and bike in the second video: Born in London, Albie has been painting since he was a child. Now in his e ..read more