Motorcycle touring is a format of tourism that involves a motorcycle. It has been a subject of note since at least 1915. [1]
Motorcycle touring involves special equipment and techniques. A touring motorcycle optimized for long range travel and luggage carrying capacity may be used. [2] Special preparations involved include route planning for unfamiliar areas, packing tools that might be needed, finding food, making overnight stops, finding fuel in remote areas, [3] [4] and physical care of the rider's body. [5] It may involve camping [6] [7] or attending motorcycle rallies along the way. [3]
Some riders take touring to extremes with rides of thousands to over 100,000 miles or kilometers, and lasting years or decades (see Long-distance motorcycle riding and List of long-distance motorcycle riders). These long-distance riders may also join specialized societies such as the German Globetrotter Club and publish. Some notable works concerning such tours include The Gasoline Tramp or Around the World on a Motorcycle by Carl Stearns Clancy; India: The Shimmering Dream and other works by Max Reisch; The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara; Fastest Man Around the World and other works by Nick Sanders; Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon; Riding the Edge and Riding the Ice book and video by Dave Barr; Motorcycle Touring [8] by Peter Thoeming and Peter Rae; the film Sjaak the World and the book Life on 2 wheels written by Sjaak Lucassen; the Long Way Round and Long Way Down book and television series by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman; and Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart.
Motorcycle touring supports a large amount of commerce, not only the sale of motorcycles but also substantial amounts of equipment. Riding suits alone can cost thousands of dollars. By a 2014 estimate, over 40% of all street motorcycles sold in the United States were touring models. [2] Some companies cater to tourists who need to rent a motorcycle. One mass-market magazine in the US, Roadrunner Motorcycle Touring & Travel is devoted to motorcycle touring as is Australian Motorcyclist Magazine in Australia. Brokers offers "motorcycle cruising", in which they arrange to bring owners with their bikes on board a cruise ship from the United States to the Caribbean Islands, handling the requisite legal paperwork to ride in Bermuda and elsewhere. [9]
Starting in 2018, Chicago-based Twisted Road and Los Angeles–based Riders Share offer peer-to-peer motorcycle rentals, allowing motorcycle self-tours nationally in the U.S. [10]
Motorcycle touring has seen significant growth. This can be attributed to several factors, including:
Motorcycle touring is a rapidly growing segment within the motorcycle industry. Several companies worldwide specialize in organizing motorcycle tours, offering a diverse range of experiences.
Trail riding is riding outdoors on trails, bridle paths, and forest roads, but not on roads regularly used by motorised traffic. A trail ride can be of any length, including a long distance, multi-day trip. It originated with horse riding, and in North America, the equestrian form is usually called "trail riding," or, less often "hacking." In the UK and Europe, the practice is usually called horse or pony trekking.
The six main types of motorcycles are generally recognized as standard, cruiser, touring, sports, off-road, and dual-purpose. Sport touring is sometimes recognized as a seventh category or integrated with the touring category.
Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. For some people, motorcycling may be the only affordable form of individual motorized transportation, and small-displacement motorcycles are the most common motor vehicle in the most populous countries, including India, China and Indonesia.
Motorcycle training teaches motorcycle riders the skills for riding on public roads. It is the equivalent of driver's education for car drivers. Training beyond basic qualification and licensing is available to those whose duty includes motorcycle riding, such as police, and additional rider courses are offered for street riding refreshers, sport riding, off-road techniques, and developing competitive skills for the motorcycle racetrack.
Long-distance riding is the activity of riding motorcycles over long distances, both competitively and as a pastime. A goal of long-distance riding is to explore one's endurance while riding a motorcycle, sometimes across several countries.
Nicholas Mark Sanders is a British bicyclist, motorcyclist and author noted for his long-distance riding and has ridden around the world seven times.
A dual-sport motorcycle is a type of street-legal motorcycle that is designed for both on and off-road use. The terms all-road, on/off-road, and dual-purpose are also used for this class of motorcycles. Dual-sports are equipped with street-legal equipment such as lights, speedometer, mirrors, horn, license plate mounting, and muffler and can, therefore, be registered and licensed.
A motorcycle rally is a gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts. Rallies can be large or small, and one-time or recurring. Some rallies are ride-in events, whereas some like the Iron Butt Rally involve days of riding and an actual gathering only at the end of the ride.
David L. Hough is an American writer on motorcycle rider safety, education and training. He has been a columnist for Motorcycle Consumer News, Sound RIDER! and BMW Owners News magazines. After his first book Proficient Motorcycling was published by Bow Tie Press it became one of the best selling motorcycle books. He currently has four published books and one 2nd ed. He has been recognized twice as a writer by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's (MSF) Excellence in Motorcycle Journalism award.
Kevin Sanders and Julia Sanders are an English motorcyclist husband and wife noted for overland long-distance riding. They hold two Guinness World Records. The first was achieved in June 2002 by circumnavigating the world by motorcycle in 19½ days. The second was completed on 22 September 2003, riding the length of the Americas from Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, United States to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina in 35 days and breaking the previous record by over 12 days. After these Guinness World records, they founded their motorcycle expedition company, GlobeBusters Motorcycle Expeditions in 2004.
Sound RIDER! began as a monthly online magazine about motorcycling in the Pacific Northwest. It was founded by publisher Tom Mehren in 1999. The magazine features editorial about people, places and events associated with motorcycling in the Northwest region. In addition it features used motorcycle listings, and a number of databases specific to dealers, services and clubs in the area. The editorial content is archived for viewing past its initial month of publication.
A motorcycle tyre is the outer part of motorcycle wheel, attached to the rim, providing traction, resisting wear, absorbing surface irregularities, and allowing the motorcycle to turn via countersteering. The two tyres' contact patches are the motorcycle's connection to the ground, and so are fundamental to the motorcycle's suspension behaviour, and critically affect safety, braking, fuel economy, noise, and rider comfort.
The following outline is provided as an overview of motorcycles and motorcycling:
Sjaak Lucassen is a Dutch long-distance motorcycle rider.
Carl Stearns Clancy was an American long-distance motorcycle rider, film director and producer. He is credited with being the first person to circumnavigate the world on a motorcycle.
This is a glossary of motorcycling terms.
Helge Pedersen is a long-distance motorcyclist originally from Kristiansand, Norway, who now resides in Seattle, Washington. He traveled more than 250,000 miles (400,000 km) touring the world on a BMW R80G/S adventure touring motorcycle between 1982 and 1992. This journey is recounted in his book 10 Years on 2 Wheels. The motorcycle he rode on was placed on display at the BMW Museum in Munich.
Allan Karl is an American author, adventurer and speaker. He is most known for travelling around the world on his motorcycle and subsequently writing the book, Forks: A Quest for Culture, Cuisine and Connection.
Joerg Richard Peter Thoeming, sometimes known as The Bear, is an Australian writer and photographer specialising in motorcycle travel and adventure writing. He has edited five motorcycle magazines and written several books on those and other topics. Thoeming has ridden a small motorcycle around the world and ridden well over a million kilometres on six continents. For HEMA maps he wrote four editions of the Australia Motorcycle Atlas, and provided many of the photographs.
Touring motorcycles, which includes some cruisers as well as other types of bikes, are designed for long-distance travel. Touring motorcycle reviews look for typical details like a windshield (and sometimes a fairing) to protect the rider from wind, a comfortable seat and attached luggage, such as hard or soft saddlebags and possibly a trunk.
[T]here's more to motorcycling than smooth, twisty, traffic-free roads. You and your machine need fuel and maintenance. And these can be a hassle to find, especially in more remote parts of the state. Perhaps you're in immediate need of a gas station, grocery store or nearest pub. Maybe you just like to plan ahead for a nice restaurant meal, hotel or campground...[or you need] a bike shop...
This is a book about the physical aspects of motorcycle touring ... how to prepare your body for a long motorcycle trip.
Camping in the wild is the cheapest sleeping while touring.
People continue to make epic journeys on two wheels because ... they want a way to feel fully engaged with and even vulnerable to their surroundings ... [O]n a long trip across continents, you will get bruised, baked and knocked about, and be given plenty of opportunities to challenge your physical and technical wits. The resulting rugged experience ... has much in common with camping (and indeed is often combined with camping)...