What is Bama Rides?

Bama Rides is a motorcycle community and Alabama-based group of motorcycle junkies, sharing information about bikes, roads, rides, trails, and anything to do with motorcycles in and around Alabama.  If you want to find out what is happening in Alabama, check out the forum and sign up for your free membership.  All brands, styles, makes and models of motorcycles are welcome.

Two Alabama boys ride around Cambodia

Two of our own are on an adventure around Cambodia – you know, the typical tourist route, fly over to a scary foreign country, rent a motorcycle and ride around the countryside looking for the Khmer Rouge and unexploded ordinance. A typical vacation.
Report here.

A Fist Full of Cambodia from dredman on Vimeo. 

 

Watermelon 50 Buddy Harescramble – what a BLAST of dirt!!

Buddy Harescramble – What the hell is that? We found out today by riding down to Stanton, Al. – a cow pasture just below Maplesville.  As we show up for the event, we see that Crash and yamahamer were running buddies, and Rattletrap was running in Ironman – by his third lap he was looking whooped.  If you don’t know what a Buddy Harescramble is – Watermelon 50 – read article and video

Doug Wothke – Alabama Motorycling Legend

My guess is that Doug would chuckle, and probably argue about the “legend” title, as he does not really see the scope of his accomplishments on a motorcycle as legendary.  Riding around the world on a 1948 Indian does not seem to be that big of a deal to him – he is prepping the Indian for yet another ride into foreign lands.  Read more

Dual Sport trail ride in Talladega National Forrest

We traveled on down this path until we came to out first of many creek crossing.  The creek was crystal clear, at least it was when I went into it.  This was more of a slight travel down a creek instead of just crossing it.  Everyone was doing fine until Ironslede found the deep end of the creek.  His bike looked like the Titanic and water was all the way up to gas tank.  Read More

Track Day at Talladega Gran Prix

The new Power Commander makes the R6 have sort of a loping reggae rhythm when it first cranks, until it gets up to temperature. Bump the starter…the engine lopes to life. I like the sound of the Yosh RS-3 exhaust. The engine warms up while I put on the rest of my gear. This will literally be the first time I’ve ridden the bike at speed since I did all of the work to it. I have NO idea what to expect. I take the bike off the paddock stand, mount up, snick it into gear and roll towards pit-out, along with 24 of my soon-to-be closest friends. I now LOVE the sound of the Yosh RS-3. It sounds raw and edgy.  Read the Article

Motus, the sport-touring beast unveiled at Barber Museum

The world finally gets to see the first working models of the Motus at Barber museum, as the company unveils the two models for a small group of guests.  Investors, family, media, and buyers attended the celebration to see smell and touch the first American V-4 to be produced.  Discussion

Alabama Ghost-Town Project

The Alabama Ghost Town Project is underway.  If you would like to be involved in this project, sign-in or sign-up and get started.  The only requirements are that you make your adventures and post your pics from the back of a motorcycle.  A great excuse to ride, an interesting subject, and a fun way to spend a day, searching for historical and forgotten places in Alabama.  Details

Ride to Davis Ferry

As the craft landed, Bart rode his Triumph Tiger onto the ramp like a Marine landing on the beach on D-Day.  He was the only traveler, and quickly turned around to board the craft again with us.  On board, we hardly felt movement, but the craft moved us to the other side quite quickly, maybe 200 yards across.  Upon landing on the other side, the operators hustled us off, and we wandered through the park that ran along the side of the river.

This is where our trouble began……….  Read the article

Harley Dogz (sort of)

I went up to Doug Wothke’s (rtwdoug) recently to look at an airplane drop tank he has to see if it might make a good starting point for a sidecar body big enough for both my Goldies. While in one of his buildings we literally tripped over this Harley Davidson sidecar body.  Rest of the story

Harley Davidson racing once again

Last weekend I attended the AMA racing championship at Barber Motorsports in Leeds, and they had an interesting new standard – the XR1200 spec class Harley.   Now this is not a new bike, just the class of racing, with only a few modifications to a factory bike, just about anyone with some racing skills can get out on the track and compete. More

Electric Motorcycles, Less If More When

I experienced an interesting moment as I was leaving the museum at Barber. Flanking the main entrance were two special machines separated by nearly a hundred years of evolution. On my right sat a spanking new Brammo Enertia. The Enertia is an entry level fully electric motorcycle. Range is approximately 30 miles with a top speed of 100 mph. The styling is simple, clean, and noticeably devoid of the proportions and complexity of its gas powered counterparts. To the left was an antique machine from the early nineteen hundreds. I did not recognize the manufacturer but it bore all the signs of its era. Large skinny tires on spoke wheels, a sprung leather seat, and an exposed valve train standing proudly outside its air cooled cylinders. It was no doubt a selling point displaying its technical prowess when new. Read More

Touring the Appalachians by motorcycle

The only plan I had was to go north along the Appalachians, and ride as many cool, twisty roads as I could find, until I ran out of money or got tired.  I had been thinking about this ride for a couple of months, but had wanted to do something like this for several years – take an extended journey (more than a weekend) into some territory that I have never seen, on some really cool roads.  Read More

Mississippi to Georgia – Trans-Alabama Dual-Sport Adventure

It was late. So we had to find a place to set up in the dark. I pulled off of the Natchez Trace parkway at the first “scenic overlook” sign that I saw. It was a Hot and humid night.  There were lots of stars out that night. I took a sleeping pill and was out with a quickness.  Read the story

Alabama’s hidden history, discovered from a motorcycle

Exploring Alabama’s David DeBandi takes us on a tour of an abandoned (and haunted?) state mental institution, with a profound set of images, and a bit of history of the Jemison Mental Institution in Tuscaloosa.  More

Daytona Bike Week – My story, and I am stickin’ to it.

It started as a desire of mine to go to Bike Week.

I soon started making plans for such a desire. First, I enlisted the help of a “local escort” (LE). The compensation for such duties included but were not limited to food and drinks for the entire time we’re together.  The LE had to know just a bit about the area, so naturally the LE had to be of legal drinking age.  It was also a must that the LE be female.  It was not a requirement or restriction that the LE be nice, intelligent, good looking, economical, or prompt (We will cover these as we go).  Read the story

Dual Sport riding in Alabama

A nice day to do some off-roading  in the urban areas of Homewood, we decided to do a tour of the old Sloss mines just off Lakeshore drive.  The mining ruins of the previous iron industry still exist in their rotting forms.  Enough to make an interesting  day of riding and exploring to the area known to THE DIRTY DOZEN as – The Shire          READ MORE

Motorcycle ride to Peru – Machu Picchu

The scenery is just mind blowing. Its hard to keep my eyes on the road. The roads are switch backs,  esses, sweepers and every now and then a mountain stream will cross the road or a landslide will be all over it.  The roads are bad to the bone,  the best I have ever ridden or seen. I can’t describe the views.   Just constantly picture perfect.  Ansel Adams pictures everywhere I point my eyes.  We ride through Urubamba town and start climbing in altitude through the Andes.  Read the rest of the article

Upcoming events

There are quite a few upcoming events in the next few weeks, many we have placed on the calendar and posted details about, and many other that we do not know about. If you have any event, rally, or interesting bike-related activity you would like posted, take the first step and sign up for a free account here , or if you simply want to tell us what is going on, call or email us