Well, since I don't own a car, if I have to go anywhere I go on the bike. I don't have the option to feel 'motivated' to ride my bike to point B, and I haven't had any other option for the last 9 years.
And don't want one.

 

I never tire of riding but this year I wanted to try something different. I pulled out an Atlas of Louisiana and decided to do an alphabet of towns and cities. We have every letter except X here. Finished that back in March and then decided to ride through every town and city in the state. Back when I started, I would pass through many with the same first letter and would check them off also. Looks like I almost hit the majority of them and should be complete by November.

Next year I have something else in mind. Louisiana has a couple of festivals every weekend somewhere. Weather permitting and nothing else planned, my wife and I are going to attend as many as possible. Hopefully we will see close to a hundred festivals by years end 2015. I will document them and show where we have been here on the forums.

Too many rides ...too little time.

 

I'm one of those solo riders, with my wife on the back.

When when we're going on a ride, we pick out a place and I'll get on my iPad and map out a way there and a different way back. Once when we went to Shreveport from Dallas, we went through Arkansas to Texarkana, then back to Dallas. She got me doing that, when she said she hates going and coming back the same way. We did that when we went to Amarillo. We just made a big "circle".

Since then, we've made it the way we ride. It's more fun, you don't see the same thing and you see stuff you might not ever has seen.

 

Just like with woman, I traded my bike in every 1 - 2 years. I've owned everything. Well, just about. In 30 years of riding, I've owned 17 new bikes. I couldn't imagine a life of riding the same bike all the time, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year..........the same bike...........the same...........over and over.

To some, riding bikes is merely a means to drink and hang out. You know the type: they have a nice bike in the parking lot of some bar, and it's so clean because they never ride it. Partying and hanging out in bars is their true love, so they can ride the same bike for long periods of time.

But for those of us who actually ride bikes because we really like the actual act of operating them, we need some variety man!

How about trading in the giant monster Harley for something more nimble. Ever have the urge to ride your local race track? Take a track day? How about trying a Ducati Multistrada?

Mix it up a little

 

Road quality sure has a lot to do with it. I recently relocated to a boring area with dangerous overcrowded roads. Seems it takes superhuman effort to get motivated to take day trips now.

Since moving to central Jersey I am faced with driving on a completely torn up super highway (the GSP) as my escape route. Whoever is "fixing" this road has begun by simply tearing up fifty miles of it until it resembles rubble.

My option is I can drive along the beaches at the Jersey Shore and dodge impatient cagers who seemed to be determined to T-bone me at every intersection. No fun.

I used to live much closer to the Catskill and Shawangunk Mountains and some years ago began to set up my Deuce as a cruiser-touring bike. It morphed from a bar hopper into a trusty companion on three hundred mile days. That was a great start and now I am taking it to the next level.

I find that with enough time and road---I can get to some real eye popping touring areas. They just aren't around my backyard anymore is all...

So I have decided it is OK to cool it on the bike and just use this new base to plan much longer trips instead of short hikes.

At this point my upgrade plans are chugging along with no distractions and plenty of time to finish research and implementation.

I have also decided to modify my "little bike" (a Triumph Bonneville T100) into a smaller cruiser-touring package with shield, better shocks and forks and a seat that works ten times better than stock. Simply having TWO bikes with different weights but similar handling helps keep me from getting stale, I find.

Just got back from a week out on the road on the Deuce. Having a longer reach on the drive sure helped get me to some more scenic roads.

So what I am saying is I guess I will be switching over to much longer "week long" rides now that I have retired.

It just takes patience and some planning to deal with what new roads life sends your way. In my case I was already interested in long distance touring. Now it is a "must."

I would switch to a big touring rig but the Deuce is a lot lighter and more fun to ride solo. I had to make my own windshield for it as all the factory made touring stuff I can find looks real fugly. Oh well.

Let's ride.

 

Take a little break here in the Midwest and the next thing you'll see is snow.

 

Well said TB.That should work for most a lifetime.

 

Very good advice.

 

Not for everyone...I prefer to ride alone. I rode with the same crew of 13 or 14 guys for 20 years and rarely ever rode alone.


A few years ago I separated from those guys started riding by myself, It's great!


I live in the country outside Nashville, TN and there are literally thousands of miles of 2 lanes that I can run on that start at the end of my gravel driveway.


I ride year round....That's what jackets and gloves are for.

 

Riding alone is nice if you are on your own schedule. it gets old trying to coordinate with other people. I find that I am waiting on people or trying to motivate them to go further than 40 miles out.