We recently received a press release from the AMA about their August hill climb races. The sight of stretched swingarms, crazy knobby tires digging and slinging rooster tails of dirt, and the steep hills these bikes and riders were attempting to ascend as fast as possible, just arrested our attention. Motorcycle hill climbing is as wild as it looks.
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I’m developing a serious problem with this new Triumph Tracker 400 motorcycle.
Only a few weeks in, and I’m already addicted to this bike. When I first got it back to the shop, before anything else, I threw my gear on and took it for a spin. What was only supposed to be a 15 minute check ride turned into a bit over an hour. Then the next morning after the wife left for work, I hurriedly scarfed down some breakfast, threw the gear back on and lit out again. “Research,” I told myself.
It happens so often with this motorcycle, it’s become predictable. I’m in a parking lot with the Royal Enfield Classic 650, when this elder gent pulls up beside me in a late 80s Cadillac Eldorado. No apologies, no introductions, no initial acknowledgments of my presence, he just pulls up, stares agape at the bike, and declares, “That has to be about the prettiest motorcycle I’ve seen in years. What is it?” I give my reply, and when he learns it’s not an antique but in fact is a 2026 model, his look of astonishment and admiration only grows. He then regales me with tales of old motorbikes from his bygone years of riding, everything from Hondas to Harleys, Triumph Thunderbirds to Kawasaki KZs. Over and over he chimes, “I can’t get over how pretty that bike is. Just beautiful.” Phil arrives for a day ride we had planned, so my new old friend says goodbye and bids us safe riding.
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The year was 2005, and my aging father had caught the biker bug again. Having ridden motorcycles since he was about 14, through my own childhood years, it had been a few decades since Dad had owned a street bike himself. He had always wanted to own a Harley, so he visited a nearby dealership. He rode out with a beautiful 2005 candy apple red Dyna Super Glide that day.
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I briefly spoke with motorcycle racer Kayla Yaakov last year, in the Rahal Ducati Racing paddock area at Road Atlanta. She was cheerful, chatty, smiling ear to ear, diminutive in stature, but 10 feet tall in passion and drive. If you didn’t know she was a professional motorcycle racer, and a very successful one at that, you would be forgiven for merely mistaking her for an enthusiastic teenager. Her wide-eyed wonder, combined with her laser-focused skills on a race bike, have propelled her to stardom in the MotoAmerica road racing series, and she deservedly has become the talk of the track.
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As a kid, I loved watching the coverage of the annual Bonneville Speed Trials, whenever one of the networks would feature it. The sight of all kinds of speed machines, from motorcycles to rocket cars, going flat out as fast as possible down the miles of flat salt, just captured my imagination. I dreamed of pinning the throttle on a long, low, two-wheeled, fire breathing beast, roaring through the speed traps, head down, tucked in behind a small fairing, the finish line faint in the distance ahead, breaking 200+ mph while hanging on for dear life.
Yeah, Bonneville captured my imagination.
“Oh yeah, I remember this well.”
Such was my reaction upon taking the 2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide out for a check ride, once I got it back home. On loan from our friends at EAGLERIDER, the 2025 Street Glide would be my steed for our trip to the spring Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally in Panama City Beach, Florida. Having ridden the 2024 model down at Daytona Bike Week back in 2024, I felt instantly familiar with Harley’s popular touring motorcycle.
Good thing too, evidenced by how our trip began the following morning.
Celebrating its 26th year, the Thunder Beach rally has been held annually since 1999. Originally called the “Bike & Beach Bash”, the event was first organized by the HOG chapter of Macon, Georgia, along with local PCB organizers. By year two, the name was changed to Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally, and has since become a twice yearly event, in April-May and the fall rally in October. The week-long event has grown into one of the largest free motorcycle rallies in America, with its own flavor of vendors, stunt shows, custom bike contests, concerts and scenic day rides.
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You hear them before you see them.
I am down by the wall on the front straight at Road Atlanta, as the King of the Baggers riders approach the hill and bridge after turn 10B. The bikes haven’t come into view yet, but their growl is already wafting through the paddock and down pit lane. Suddenly they are visible, one by one diving under the bridge then plunging down the hill and throttling hard right onto the front straight. I set the pit board over the fence, displaying Harley-Davidson Factory Racing team rider Bradley Smith’s position, gap to the rider behind him, and laps left. He’s holding off Indian’s Troy Herfoss for 3rd, as the whole field of bikes roar past at over 160 mph, then lean right up the hill at turn 1.
I feel them in my chest, as they blast past me at speeds these bikes shouldn’t be capable of.
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