Motorcycle touring is a format of

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

that involves a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...

. It has been a subject of note since at least 1915. Motorcycle touring involves special equipment and techniques. A touring motorcycle optimized for long range travel and luggage carrying capacity may be used. Special preparations involved include route planning for unfamiliar areas, packing tools that might be needed, finding food, making overnight stops, finding fuel in remote areas, and physical care of the rider's body. It may involve

camping Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more nat ...

or attending

motorcycle rallies A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruisin ...

along the way. Some riders take touring to extremes with rides of thousands to over 100,000 miles or kilometers, and lasting years or decades (see

Long-distance motorcycle riding Long-distance riding is the activity of riding motorcycles over long distances, both competitively and as a pastime. A goal of long-distance riding is to explore one's endurance while riding a motorcycle, sometimes across several countries. Non- ...

and

List of long-distance motorcycle riders Long-distance motorcyclists with Wikipedia articles, with tours in chronological order. List of motorcycle riders and tours References Further reading {{Motorcycles Long-distance motorcycle riders, * Long-distance motorcycle riders Long ...

). These long-distance riders may also join specialized societies such as the German Globetrotter Club and publish. Some notable works concerning such tours include ''The Gasoline Tramp or Around the World on a Motorcycle'' by

Carl Stearns Clancy Carl Stearns Clancy (8 August 1890 – January 1971) was an American long-distance motorcycle rider, film director and producer. He is credited with being the first person to circumnavigate the world on a motorcycle. Life Clancy was born in New ...

; ''India: The Shimmering Dream'' and other works by

Max Reisch Max Reisch (1912–1985) was an Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something assoc ...

; '' The Motorcycle Diaries'' by

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...

; ''Fastest Man Around the World'' and other works by

Nick Sanders Nicholas Mark Sanders (born 1958) is a British bicyclist, motorcyclist and author noted for his long-distance riding and has ridden around the world seven times. In 1992 he rode around the world on a Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle. On 9 June ...

; ''

Jupiter's Travels ''Jupiter's Travels'' is a book by Ted Simon which narrates his four-year journey through 126,000 km across 45 countries on a Triumph Tiger 100 The Tiger 100 (T100) was a standard motorcycle first made by the British motorcycle compan ...

'' by

Ted Simon Ted Simon (born 1931) is British travel writer noted for circumnavigating the world twice by motorcycle. He was raised in London by a German mother and a Romanian father. Early career After studying chemical engineering at Imperial College he ...

; ''Riding the Edge'' and ''Riding the Ice'' book and video by Dave Barr; ''Motorcycle Touring'' by Peter Thoeming and Peter Rae; the film ''Sjaak the World'' and the book ''Life on 2 wheels'' written by

Sjaak Lucassen Sjaak Lucassen (born October 2, 1961) is a Dutch long-distance motorcycle rider. Travels Between 1995 and 1998 he traveled on a Honda Fireblade and then between 2001 and 2006 he traveled around the world on a Yamaha YZF-R1, nicknamed Florentin ...

; the ''

Long Way Round ''Long Way Round'' (''LWR'') is a British television series and book documenting the journey of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from London to New York City on motorcycles. They travelled eastwards through Europe and Asia, flew to Alaska, ...

'' and ''

Long Way Down ''Long Way Down'' is a television series and book documenting a motorcycle journey undertaken in 2007 by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, from John o' Groats in Scotland through eighteen countries in Europe and Africa to Cape Town in South ...

'' book and television series by

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...

and

Charley Boorman Charley Boorman (born 23 August 1966) is a British TV presenter, travel writer and actor. A motorbike enthusiast, Boorman has made three long-distance motorcycle rides with his friend Ewan McGregor, documented in ''Long Way Round'' (2004), ''Lo ...

; and '' Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road'' by

Neil Peart Neil Ellwood Peart OC (; September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian-American musician, best known as the drummer and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an ...

. Motorcycle touring supports a large amount of commerce, not only the sale of motorcycles but also substantial amounts of equipment. Riding suits alone can cost thousands of dollars. By a 2014 estimate, over 40% of all street motorcycles sold in the United States were touring models. Some companies cater to tourists who need to rent a motorcycle. One mass-market magazine in the US, '' Roadrunner Motorcycle Touring & Travel'' is devoted to motorcycle touring as is ''Australian Motorcyclist Magazine'' in Australia. Brokers offers "motorcycle cruising", in which they arrange to bring owners with their bikes on board a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

from the United States to the Caribbean Islands, handling the requisite legal paperwork to ride in Bermuda and elsewhere. Starting in 2018,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

-based Twisted Road and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

-based

Riders Share Riders Share (RidersShare, Inc.) is a peer-to-peer motorcycle sharing community based in Austin, Texas. The company matches underused motorcycles with vetted riders that want to rent them. Riders Share uses machine learning to screen riders, su ...

offer

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...

rentals, allowing motorcycle self-tours nationally in the U.S.

References

External links

Motorcycle Touring Holidays
* * {{Motorcycles Types of tourism ja:ツーリング (オートバイ)