Customer Reviews

AMA Ride Guide to America: Favorite Motorcycle Tours in the USA (American Motorcyclist Association Ride Guide S.)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The only tours in the book close to the central US are in Colorado and Texas. There could have been less concentration of tours along the east and west coasts. Buy this book if you ride on the east or west coasts. There are other resources free on the Internet for Texas and Colorado. Arkansas State's web site promotes motorcycle tours with routes and attractions for free. Also this book's tours seem to be from the publisher's collection of the Motorcycle Journeys thought the same regions.

This is a high-quality guide with color pictures and/or color maps on every page and a good balance of great road descriptions with turn-by-turn instructions, commingled with information on the places you may wish to look or stay at along the way. Nearly all of the rides that are described look great. As useful a work as this book is, though, it is severely limited by it's size. A ride book covering France could be this short, but one covering a country the size of the USA should describe much more than 31 rides; possibly coming in several volumes. However, you could still be a bug-toothed rider for several years just riding the great roads they have listed so I still recommend it.

Have just completed reading this book. This book describes some interesting rides, but it was frustrating to read because the so-called maps have almost nothing to do with the rides. Many times you cannot even locate the starting point on the map. I do give the authors points for describing the roads in some detail - how twisty, road surface, etc. I do not want to ride on gravel, so i appreciate the heads-up. The book has a decent amount of pictures to go along with the ride articles.
Overall, a worthwhile read as an aid to planning your own trips.

Let me first say that this book is well done. Detailed and interesting descriptions of the roads and the ride. Some places to check out. It reads a little bit like a Frommer's Guide to London or Paris. It does talk about nice roads for motorcycling, which is a good thing. But I'm just not satisfied with it for a few reasons:

* The maps are nearly useless. They aren't detailed enough to use without buying local maps. There are some descriptions like "go 42.1 miles to Highway 241", but that's not how many of ride now. We want to plug in information into our GPS systems.
* Some of us motorcyclists tour by camping. This has no information on that, so don't bother if you're looking for that.
* The book is written in a touristy kind of way. If I'm on a tour, part of the reason is going is just for the road. It's hard to stop every mile for some interesting curiosity of history. But, if you're into that, this guide is thorough.

I get the distinct impression that this book could have the cover removed, put into some tourist guide, and you wouldn't notice. There are occasional comments like "there is gravel on some parts of the road", but I kind of look for that anyways.

I have this volume and volume II. I have used them to create some side tours, but I have to do a bunch of work finding campgrounds or whatever else I need. If you need a general guide for some cool day rides, this is it. But it is kind of pricey for only one or two rides near your location.

It's hard to recommend this book, but it is such good quality, it has some usefulness. Just don't expect it to give you the "Tour of America".

No matter where you live in the U.S., this book has a couple of rides for you. It is nicely illustrated with rough-maps (not a lot of detail), some pics, and detailed instructions on rides. It even lists the miles between waypoints, and points of interest. Most rides are between 150-200 miles, so they're easily knocked out in a day or weekend if you're planning on stopping to smell the roses. All-in-all, a nice addition to anyone's motorcycle riding library.

Just used it this weekend to navigate around VT....worked great! Can't wait to try even more rides!

this is a good reference book.. lots of information.. would buy again..