motorcycle Archives - Ride with Me

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, Seattle

September 30, 2018October 1, 2018

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is a global-scale charity motorcycle ride that takes place around the world each September. Benefiting men’s mental health and prostate cancer research, it involves over 112,000 riders in 600 cities and 92 countries. The ride raises about $6,000,000 for important charities.

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Yosemite, Death Valley, Tahoe, and Lassen Volcanic

September 16, 2017September 16, 2018

Three National Parks and several National Forests in one amazing ride through 115° heat in Death Valley, and penny-sized hail at Lake Tahoe. Wildfire smoke hazed the view, but the parks are still incredible places to ride.

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September Loop in the Pacific Northwest

September 24, 2016September 10, 2018

You know you’re not in Seattle when the motel provides complementary gun-cleaning rags. This trip around the Northwest taught me that the fuel range goes below zero. When you see “-” you need to get petrol quickly.

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Europe Ride, 2016

August 1, 2016September 11, 2018

We’ve talked about riding abroad on an adventure, with Europe near the top of our list. In July 2016, we spent two weeks riding through some of the most amazing countryside, villages, town, and cities of seven European countries. One of the unique aspects of this trip was that it was totally unplanned. We had no pre-set route, no agenda. Each day we would decide where we wanted to ride over breakfast and where we wanted to sleep over afternoon coffee.

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The One Motorcycle Show 2016

February 13, 2016September 11, 2018

For seven years, The One Motorcycle Show has been going on in Portland, Oregon. It’s a fitting show for Portlandia, being a collection of eclectic bikes from a variety of builders. Many are rat-bikes and vintage rides, all out on display in vacant industrial warehouses each year.

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The Proper Way to Break In a New Motorcycle

December 27, 2015September 16, 2018

…idea was to purhase the bike roughly the same distance away as the break-in interval, and choose a route home that was inherently diverse in its speed and riding style to make it easier to follow break-in guidelines. Caldwell, Idaho is about 500 miles from Seattle if you ride directly via the interstates. Nothing could have been further from our plan.

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Oregon Coast, Giant Redwoods, and Crater Lake

December 25, 2015September 16, 2018

I grew up in Oregon, but never did see Crater Lake or the California’s Redwoods as a child. They’re two natural wonders that fascinated me all my life. In 2013, I decided that seeing these two natural treasures would make an excellent motorcycle ride.

…and did it ever.

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Riding the Icefields

July 26, 2015September 14, 2018

On July 19, four friends disappeared from work to ride Alberta’s Icefields Parkway. The Parkway, technically Highway 93 North, parallels the continental divide and snakes through the Canadian Rockies along a route that passes by glaciers, ice-blue lakes, and soaring peaks.

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Dear Harley-Davidson, it’s us again.

June 20, 2015September 16, 2018

Dear Harley-Davidson,

It’s us again. We’re that generation of riders that you got genuinely excited about Project LiveWire when you announced it a year ago. In fact, today marks exactly one year since you detailed your ambitious plan to create an innovative electric motorcycle to help take the motor company boldly into the future.

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Supervolcano from the Saddle

September 14, 2014September 16, 2018

On Saturday, September 6th 2014, I set off for a weeklong motorcycle ride to see Yellowstone National Park and a bit of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. I had never been to Yellowstone before, and planned to meet up with a riding buddy who rode out a few days earlier to spend time with his family in Montana. We didn’t have specific plans to meet up, so I rode out solo with no agenda other than to see Yellowstone and spend a week riding in new places.

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Dear Harley-Davidson

June 24, 2014September 16, 2018

Dear Harley-Davidson,

June 19, 2014 was a big day for you. It may have been one of the biggest days in the motor company’s history since rolling the first production motorcycle of out a small shed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1903.

You announced a new generation of motorcycles powered solely by electricity: “Project Livewire.”

In doing so, you took on enormous risk…

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“Two-wheel and Three-wheeled motorcycle”

March 12, 2011September 13, 2018

…since my Dad is having double knee replacement surgery. I figured he might need to either ride in a sidecar or perhaps switch from two to three wheels for a while — like one of those Harley trikes. When I went into the dealership to look at them, I learned that I couldn’t even take one out on a test ride because they require a completely different driver’s license endorsement than a two-wheeled motorcycle. I don’t think that I’d ever own a trike, but the fact that I couldn’t even ride one if I wanted to was… unacceptable.