Great American Motorcycle Tours: Amazon.ca: Gary Mckechnie: Books

Product Description

Book Description

Great American Motorcycle Tours is the first travel book written exclusively for motorcycle riders -- and it's the only book they'll need. It features 20 regional motorcycle trips throughout the United States -- through Maine and Miami, Montana and Monterey -- with tips on the best places to pull over and enjoy the view or spend the night.

Great American Motorcycle Tours provides descriptions of the scenery, interesting side routes, length of time needed, restaurant and lodging information, and specific tips on how to handle each road. Plus, each chapter includes photos and hand-drawn maps. There's also an appendix listing motorcycle Web sites, national rental companies, road rallies, motorcycle organizations, riding clubs, and more. Author Gary McKechnie has ridden each of these 20 tours, and his descriptions are accurate, observant, and often very funny.

From the Author

In May, 2001, Gary McKechnie received one of highest honors a travel writer can receive: a silver medal in the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism competition for his guidebook, Great American Motorcycle Tours -- often called 'The Pulitzer Prize for travel journalists'.

Awarded by the Society of American Travel Writers, SATW vice president Larry Keller told the first-time author: "Congratulations -- you hit a home run in your first time at bat!"

To build on the success of Great American Motorcycle Tours, which has been profiled on CNN, in USA Today and newspapers and radio stations around the country, McKechnie is planning a series of other American adventure guides which blend a keen sense of humor with an appreciation of his country.

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.

First Sentence
From the mountains to oceans white foam, this summer run is a relatively short one, but with distinct changes in landscape and cultures. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A wide variety of suggested motorcycle tours, Dec 10 2002

By

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great American Motorcycle Tours (Paperback)

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Great American Motorcycle Tours by Gary McKechnie offers the reader a wide variety of suggested motorcycle tours ideal for vacationers and cyclists looking for history, excitement, and the joy of the open road. Different tours appeal to different tastes, such an Amish Country Run stretching from New Hope to Intercourse, Pennsylvania, or a Wild West Run from Livingston, Montana to Jackson, Wyoming. Each individual tour has numerous historic stops, and any attraction can be easily looked up in the index for "user friendly" cross-referencing. Overall, Great American Motorcycle Tours is an enjoyable, practical, and very highly recommended guide.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Beginnings, Oct 25 2002

By

Paul M. Covert (Massillion, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great American Motorcycle Tours (Paperback)

I recently purchased Gary's book in the Spring of '02 for my trips to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Sturgis. It provided an excellent primer for stopping points of interest and quality local eateries. I wasn't hung up on his allowing four days to cover 200 miles, however, I looked at is a buffet in which you can pick and choose the events of interest to you. His advice on packing warmer clothing in the dead of Summer for the elevation changes was dead on. Some may call it 'common sense', but if you see reported temperatures in Asheville at 90 degrees, you may not realize you'll need a jacket and light gloves by the time you hit Mt. Mitchell. I appreciated his advice and considered it money well spent.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Ways to Avoid Motorcycling, April 13 2002

By

zar1969 (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great American Motorcycle Tours (Paperback)

The foreword of the book is written by Peter Fonda. I personally fail to make the connection why the endorsement of a Hollywood actor who happened to shoot a motorcycling movie should prove the value of a touring guide. But as I tried out some of the journeys, I started to see how the whole experience, which these suggested trips cater to, is concentrated around the image of motorcycling rather than the actual experience of riding. I wasted a couple of weekends diligently following directions through Pennsylvania and up the Hudson. The book led me through numerous towns and it reserved a lot of pages for information on all the things, which you could do to avoid riding your bike - you could find listings on every thrift store, restaurant, rafting company, and even bicycle tour! available on your way. Another interesting (and related) point was the fact that the author estimated coverage of about 50 miles per day i.e. if the suggested trip was 200 miles total, you were supposed to need 4 to 5 days to cover the distance. While very concentrated on all the entertainment that could be bought along the trip, the book was not especially concerned with the quality of the selected riding. Gorgeous scenic ways were followed by long stretches of banal suburban motifs and while stuck in the stop-and-go traffic I was wondering what part of the motorcycling experience I was supposed to be exercising at the time.

This is my rendering of the qualities, which the reader needs to possess in order to enjoy the recommendations in the book: 1. Your name must be Peter Fonda 2. You must be independently wealthy since you can't both hold a job and go to all these 4-5 days trips. 3. You must be versatile in the outdoors' activities to take full advantage of all the fun that awaits you out there. 4. You need friends who would like to hear about stuff like " When I flew in that helicopter over the Grand Canyon...", and "Here is a picture of me next to an Amish farmer..." 5. You only need basic riding skills and moderate motorcycling enthusiasm.

My advice is - get a map, look for the small roads, use your common sense, and explore. Good luck out there, maybe we'll meet on the road.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 16 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 24 reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars cross-country
This is a fantastic book! I wanted to take a cross-country tour and this was the only book I found that covered more than one region. Read more

Published on July 17 2001

1.0 out of 5 stars Ivan
The foreword of the book is written by Peter Fonda. I personally fail to make the connection why the endorsement of a Hollywood actor who happened to shoot a motorcycling movie... Read more