Lost In America
Penned by the legendary and entertaining Fred Rau, you never know what he's going to talk about each month in his column 'Lost in America.' This section describes the Lost In America articles from previous issues. If you would like to order the
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June 2008 The Go-Fast Tax
Recently I rode out to the Texas Hill Country to attend the Honda Sport Touring Association's national 'STAR' rally. I talked my riding buddy, Phil, into going along with me, both because I like having a riding companion along on long trips, and because I knew Phil had never ridden in the Hill Country, which has some really great motorcycling roads…
May 2008 GPS and Me
When portable Global Positioning Systems (GPS) first became available for motorcyclists, I scoffed at them and vowed I would never use one. Not only did I feel fairly confident in my own navigational skills, I had always considered that two of the most enjoyable things about riding were the time spent planning and mapping journeys and, believe it or not, the adventure of getting lost. In addition, I have to admit that I feared that if I ever did start using GPS, that my ability to navigate on my own would erode from misuse. I think a good example of that is the current easy access to electronic calculators. Heck, I've even got one in my cell phone! And like everyone else, over the years I began to rely on these cheap and easily accessible devices to do all my multiplication and division for me, until I began to notice a few years ago that I was barely capable of even figuring the tip on a simple dinner bill by myself. Well, anyway, I feared that a GPS would have the same kind of effect, so I simply refused to use one…
April 2008 Ten Touring Essentials
Recently I was giving a presentation on my motorcycle tours to a group of riders at Bob's BMW in Jessup, Maryland. At the end, I had a question-and-answer session, and one of the guys asked me what kind of extra 'things' he should carry along on a week-long tour that he wouldn't normally have on the bike for a day trip…
March 2008 Celebrity Motorcyclists
As motorcyclists, we belong to a relatively small niche in society. And yet, it is probably safe to say that it is also a relatively high-profile niche. If an 'average' person (if there really is such an animal) works in an office with, say, a few dozen other 'average' people, it is unlikely he or she would notice if any of their co-workers were golfers, tennis players, swimmers, hikers, or whatever. On the other hand, if one of them is a motorcyclist, the others are probably very cognizant of that fact. Don't ask me why—it just seems to work that way…
February 2008 The Road Less Traveled
I suppose it goes without saying that, as motorcyclists, we tend to favor traveling on the kinds of roads that about 95 percent of the population would prefer to avoid. In some ways, that works to our favor, as it gets us away from the bulk of traffic. In other ways it often works against us, as such roads often tend not to lead to anywhere that we might actually be headed…
January 2008 Flying Low
Several years ago, I got my first opportunity to ride in a sailplane. It was a huge (to me, at least) Swedish-built trainer, with dual controls, that reminded me a lot of those newspaper photos of the famous U2 flown by Francis Gary Powers…
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