Archive for the 'Trip Planning' Category

RoadRunner offers motorcycle travel DVD

Published
by
Sojourn Chronicles
on June 10, 2008
in Destinations, Reviews and Trip Planning
. 1 Comment

re you a subscriber to RoadRunner Motorcycle Touring & Travel magazine? It is perhaps the best motorcycle travel magazine available. It’s not about what you do to your motorcycle. It’s about what you do with your motorcycle no matter what brand or size. The magazine even offers touring stories on scooters and vintage motorcycles.

The magazine, published bi-monthly, features one special tour in each issue. Called the Shamrock Tour, it bases in one location and circles out like a four-leaf clover on four, one-day rides. The November/December 2007 issue featured the Great Smokey Mountains and Helen, Georgia for the Shamrock. The article like all others features good writing and fantastic photography. In fact, it is the photography that makes RoadRunner stand out–big photos and plenty of them.

With the Helen Shamrock Tour, RoadRunner started something new: producing a travel DVD of the tour. The DVD offers plenty of additional visual information, especially the riding, with commentary from the riders about the roads and those unique road-side places to stop. Publisher Christa Neuhauser, Senior Editor Chris Myers, and contributing Editor Neale Bayly take you on the Shamrock tour around Helen. But, there is much more here than a ride in Georgia, and North and South Carolina.

DVDcover2007

RoadRunner Travel DVD
“Smokey Mountains Shamrock Tour”

$14.95
Approx. running time: 1 hour

Starring:
Publisher Christa Neuhauser
riding a Honda ST1300
Senior Editor Chris Myers
riding a HD VRSC Night Rod
Contributing Editor Neale Bayly
riding a BMW K1200R

The DVD offers riding and travel tips that help you find an adventurous travel whether it is a duplication of this ride, or a tour of your own at your favorite destination. Subscribers know, and new readers are amazed at the magazine’s efforts to produce route maps for all of the tour stories published. There is also tear-out tank bag maps for each featured Shamrock Tour. And, just like the magazine, the DVD offers a video version of the route maps for planning your Shamrock Tour in the Great Smokey Mountains.

The magazine is a great source for your motorcycle travel reading, and the DVD offers a new perspective on a tour. Hopefully, there will be more DVDs coming.–DBrent

(Note: D. Brent Miller has been a contributing editor to RoadRunner. His last tour story was published in the May/June 2008 issue: Northern Indiana, Blast to the Past.)

Motorcycle Travel DVDs: a great planning tool

Published
by
Sojourn Chronicles
on April 24, 2008
in Trip Planning
. 0 Comments

A Conversation with Michael Murray, Producer

You’ve decided you’re going to ride to Alaska, Moab, or Baja or maybe ride the 5,000-mile Trans American Trail. What do you do? You start collecting maps, reading ride reports online and contacting riders who have done it before.

Now, there is a new resource to help you with your planning and maybe speed up the planning process.

Motorcycle Travel DVDsMotorcycle Travel DVDs currently offers six titles with more coming. The DVDs provide interviews with experienced riders, travel details for your destinations, and an insight that might take months to gather on your own. Not pictured in the image to the right is New Zealand, the latest title.

Professionally produced, the information on the DVDs get to the meat of the information you need to plan a ride and prepare for safety. Then, you’re pleasantly surprised when it offers more travel information about the destination, such as accommodations and restaurants.

michael-murray Producer Michael Murray talks about the DVDs, and the efforts to produce them in this latest installment of Conversations. He also talks about future travel DVD destinations and some of his other projects. Michael is the founder and CEO of Motorrad Media, located in Boulder, Colorado.

Reference Links:

And now, a Conversation with Michael Murray:

 
 Motorcycle Travel DVDs: a great planning tool [19:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (63)

Arizona beckons; I’m hitting the road

Published
by
Sojourn Chronicles
on April 1, 2008
in Scribblings and Trip Planning
. 1 Comment

Planning started about six months ago when my wife said, “What are you going to do for your mom’s 80th birthday in April.”

“Well, I don’t know, but we’ve (my brothers and I) got do something.”

That’s how the planning started.

Have you ever tried to coordinate a celebration event with two siblings miles apart. We each had ideas, and planned to surprise our mother. That idea fell apart when one decided to talk to mom about renting an apartment in Phoenix for the month of April. So, all of a sudden, the surprise gathering was busted, and we revealed our intentions to celebrate the big day, April 7.

My brothers and I are traveling to and gathering in Arizona. Number 2 is already there with his wife. Number 3 will be flying out with his brood and arriving on Saturday. Being the oldest (number 1), my trip–solo because my wife cannot get away from work–starts tomorrow with a two-day, 1,900-mile drive in my Honda Accord with 160,000 miles on it! I wanted to ride the new motorcycle out, but the weather did not accommodate its breaking-in period, and I did not want to break in the bike on a long distance ride.

I’ll try to post stories and photos over the next eight days.–DBrent

Sunday AM coffee; Making plans for the IMS

Published
by
Sojourn Chronicles
on January 20, 2008
in Ride-Eat-Ride, Scribblings and Trip Planning
. 0 Comments

Winter in the Midwest puts motorcycling on hold, so you do the next best thing. You read about motorcycling and you go to the largest gathering of motorcycle manufacturers on display in the world–the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show.

When I lived in South Bend, it was just a two-hour drive to the show in Chicago. Every year, it seemed to get bigger and bigger, and more crowded. But it was always fun to go, and I usually went with my brother or a friend. One year, I went the opposite direction to see how different a show it would be in Detroit (actually, it was in Novi, Michigan). Much different.

Now that I live in Cincinnati, the Chicago show is six hours away–too far for a day trip. The closest IMS show is in Cleveland, still about four hours away, but doable in one day.

International Motorcycle Show

Several of us have been talking about driving to Cleveland for one long day. Today, at the usual Sunday morning coffee gathering that has replaced the breakfast rides during the winter, three of us made our final arrangements to gather and transport ourselves to the show. So, at 6 a.m. next Saturday, the three of us (and maybe a fourth) will collect ourselves and head off to motorcycle heaven … well the next best thing to motorcycle heaven, ’cause we can’t ride ‘em when we get there. You can only look, touch and maybe sit on those shiny new, two-wheeled adventure machines.

Here’s what I hope to do: In the tradition of a road trip report, I am going to produce an audio diary of our adventure. Here’s where it gets a little tricky. In all of my journalistic years, I have never pulled someone into the limelight of news or feature stories without their participation. There is way too much of that on the Internet, and some of it borders on invasion of privacy. That’s not my style. If my travel companions are up to the task, we just might be able to produce The Motorcycle Show Road Trip Diaries for your listening and viewing enjoyment.

Solo or group effort, you can expect a motorcycle show report, hopefully with a cast of characters.–DBrent

P.S. My brother and I plan to attend the Chicago show, two weeks later. Will there be a continuation of the Motorcycle Show Road Trip Diaries? Will B2 continue to talk about buying a motorcycle, something he has done for the past five years of attending motorcycle shows? Is he buying the tickets this year? Stay tuned.

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Headed to the BMW MOA Rally in Wisconsin

Published
by
Sojourn Chronicles
on July 10, 2007
in Events, Notes to Readers and Trip Planning
. 2 Comments

by D. Brent Miller

Wednesday, I will be on the road, headed towards West Bend, Wisconsin, and the 2007 BMW MOA International Rally, July 12-15. If you plan to attend this Midwestern motorcycle event, please stop by and introduce yourself. I will be manning the Road Runner Motorcycle and Touring Magazine display–booth 30 in building 34, the Pavilion.

I will try to make a few appropriate posts here, but keep in mind, I am going to the rally for Road Runner, where I will be representing their interests. Stop by and say, “Hi.” I’ll be happy to pass along your messages to the magazine’s editorial staff. I may also take your picture!

If you live in southeastern USA, and can’t make it to Wisconsin, consider joining the rest of the Road Runner staff at the Christian Neuhauser Memorial Ride in Clemmons, NC, Saturday, July 14th. Christian Neuhauser, the founder and publisher of Road Runner, died in 2005. His wife, children, and the staff of RR have continued his work publishing the highest quality motorcycle travel magazine possible, and have taken it to new heights. Christian would be pleased.

See you on the highway.–DBrent