The Biker Blog

If you are heading to Vandervest Harley-Davidson for Vander-Fest on August 21, take the fun way to get there...

1. Hop on 41/141 North and exit Sunset Beach Road and go right.

2. Take a left on Lakeview, which is Cty HWY J

3. Take a right on Cty Rd S which will track you right up along the bay

4. Stay on S until you get to Oconto.

5. Once you hit Oconto, take a right on Main St. / Cty HWY Y

6. Cty HWY Y snakes you back over to the bay and you'll end up in Peshtigo.

7. If you've got some time, treat your self to a bonus run:

8. Cty HWY Y turns into 41, which is French St.

9. Go across the water and stay on French St. / E. Front St.

10. Stay to the right and take Cty Rd BB

11. You'll run along the river and come around Shore Dr. all along the bay.

12. Go left on Cty HWY B and take it all the way back to Peshtigo.

If you want some more info on Vander-Fest, go HERE

If you've got a ride that you'd like to share, email it to me and I'll post on the Biker Blog.

jason.hillery@wozz.com

One of the greatest roads ro ride, especially in the Fall, is the Great River Road. The portion I reccommend is the 80 mile strectch from La Crosse, WI to Guttenberg, IA.

1. Head south from La Crosse on HWY 35 (Great River Road)

2. The ride is right along the river with AMAZING views and lots of sweeping turns

3. Prairie Du Chien is a great place to stop for a bite and strecth your legs with a stroll through Cabela's.

4. From Prairie Du Chien head West across the river on HWY 18

5. Here's the important part: right after you cross the bridge, make sure you take a left on 1st St. and then take a right on HWY 76 which is the Great River Road.

6. Stay on Great River Road until you get to HWY 52. head south into Guttenberg. There are great bluffs and awesome views of the Mississippi River in the Guttenberg area.

If you've got a ride you'd like to share, send it to me and I'll post it here. jason.hillery@wozz.com

Day 3: It's off to ride the ferry in Muskegon

We originally wanted to ride the ferry out of Ludington, but it was a 4-hour ride, versus the 2-hour speed ferry in Muskegon.

There are some cool shops and sights to see along this leg. We stopped in Ludington for some food and headed south to Muskegon. They had their big bike week going on, which always a good time:

http://www.muskegonbiketime.com/

The ferry was an interesting ride. Since it stormed for the last 2 days of our ride, we had 10-foot swells on the Lake. I spent the entire 2 hours tossing my cookies over the side. Money well spent :)

Grab a 3-day weekend and take the ride... rain or shine, it was a GREAT ride. That's why Harley makes rain gear. Here we are... biker trash:

Share your ride with me, and I'll post it here.

jason.hillery@wozz.com

Day 2: It's off to Traverse City

After Mackinaw City, head southwest and stop in Cross Village... and when you do, make sure you're hungry because a stop at the Legs Inn is must.. http://www.legsinn.com/

After lunch, and some AMAZING scenery, it's kickstands up for the second leg.

You'll want to make a run through the Tunnel Of Trees. It was hands-down, the best part of the entire ride. It's about 20 miles of nothing but tight turns through a maze of forest, and it's right along the shore. Here's a pic:

Here's a link with details about the road and a map: http://www.nwm.org/m119.asp

There are some alternate roads you can take to get to Traverse City. I recommend hopping on Google maps to find some backroads. We took the highway straight down because it poured rain from the time we got out of the Tunnel of Trees all the way back to Green Bay... 2 days later. We got soaked.

In Traverse City, we picked a hotel strategically... the one right next to Hooters :)

Thankfully, Traverse City had a cycle store so we could stock up on some new rain gear.

I'll post Day 3 next... in the meantime, if you have a great ride you'd like to share, send it to me and I'll post it here on your behalf.

jason.hillery@wozz.com

This is a great ride if you can get a 3-day weekend this summer... and aren't afraid of crazy bridges :)

The whole ride is 3 days, and I'll do one post for each day of the ride.

Day 1: Head to Escanaba

Take Hwy 2 all along the southern coast of the U.P. There are some great views, and the traffic is fairly easy. It's a great stretch to open 'er up :)

I have numbers on the points along the way where we stopped for a quick break.

Make sure you take the last possible exit before you hit the Mackinac Bridge, for a couple of reasons:

A) There is a cool rest area with lots of places to take pictures of the bridge.

B) It's a good place to have one last cigar... just in case you don't make it across :)

We heard a bunch of stories about cars getting blown off of the bridge in the wind. When we rolled across it was windy and it's grated, which is always fun.

Here's the bridge:

Share your ride and I'll post it here, on The Biker Blog:

jason.hillery@wozz.com

I've been buying a bunch of 60's biker movies lately... I guess I've been in the mood for good acting, bad plots, and killer bikes...

I just picked up 'Wild Angels' with Peter Fonda... classic!

Send me your recommendations... I'm running out of movies to watch :)

jason.hillery@wozz.com

This may be my favorite one-day ride... Door County is always a blast and there are tons of roads with tight, slow-going turns through the woods. Here is one of the routes we typically take:

• Once you get to Sturgeon Bay (On HWY 57), watch for the Green Bay Rd. Exit (it will be on your right and curl over the highway).
• Take that across the water and take a left on 4 th st. (it’s one way)
• Take a left on Jefferson (it’s a block down and it’s a one way as well.)
• Take a right on 3 rd Ave. (This is CTY Rd. B / Bay Shore Dr.)
• You’ll stay on B until you get to Murphy County Park
• You’re going to stay left on CTY Rd. G and get back on HWY 4
• Take 42 into Fish Creek.
• As a bonus, you can stay on 42 and go through Sister Bay (I recommend Sister Bay café for food)
• As a double bonus, you can cruise up to the ferry at the end of 42. Or, you can hit 57 S out of Sister Bay and come down the other side of Door County.
• If you do that, stay on 57 S until you get to a little town called Valmy. Take a left on T (which is also Whitefish Bay Rd.) Take a right on Glidden Rd (which is still T)
• T goes all the way back to Sturgeon Bay and dumps you out on 57 S
• Go south across the bridge and hop on U
• Stay on U until you get to S and go left
• Take S to 42 go left Go right on HWY 54 and it’ll bring you right back to Green Bay.

If you have a ride you'd like to share, email it to me and I'll post here so others can enjoy it!

jason.hillery@wozz.com

Get out and ride!

I had to share this picture... my buddy Tony and I were up north at the ferry and ran into a group of French tourists... they had to get pictures and videos of us starting the bikes.

It turns out, they LOVE Harleys overseas and they were all going on-and-on about the history of the bikes... it was a bit odd because we couldn't relly understand what they were saying :)

Check out my buddy getting filmed:

This is a cool 1-day ride... it's a couple of hundred miles, round-trip. A little more if you get off the beaten-path.

It's always great to start from Shawano and take a spin around the lake.

1. Head north on 55 along the Wolf River to the Nicolet National Forest.

2. Once you hit Lily, hop on 52 and head into the forest.

3. You have a couple of options, but I like hoping on 32 South then taking Cty Rd. C for some curves. From there you can hop on National Forest Rd and go south on Cty Hwy F.

4. From there, it's fun to take 32 North to Cty. Rd. T. You end up zig-zagging through the forest, but Cty. Rd. T has curves and some lake views.

5. Take 64 West and get back on 32 South and cruise back through Pulaski to 29.

6. If you don't have that much time, just skip Cty. Rd. C and head south on 32 through the forest.

Pretty simple ride, but always a fun day.

Share you ride, and I'll post it here.

jason.hillery@wozz.com 

That's the day I bought I my Harley... as you can see from the picture, Eric at Vandervest had to help me turn it on.. haha.

Ok, so I wasn't that inept, but it was a new experience for me, given I previously rode a BMW.

I'm starting this new Biker Blog for a couple of reasons:

A - I like motor bikes. All of 'em. I road enduro and off-road, sport bikes, and even a 50cc mini-bike at one point (but, who hasn't).

B - I wanted to start a sharing network where I share rides, you share rides, we all share rides. Like you, I'm always trying to find new day-trips, and I wanted to create a place find them.

I'm looking forward to sharing... I hope you'll participate in the fun. Summer is short. Get out and ride.