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By George! There really are backroads in New Jersey! 

On Sunday August 30th Diana and I hit the road at 9:30am to see if we could get to Bear Mountain in New York by way of backroads through New Jersey and make it home at a decent hour. We didn’t make it to the New York Border, but we were close before we took a wrong turn and inadvertently got lost. We rolled into the garage at 9:00pm and had logged 384 miles. During that 11.5 hour trek we rode Interstates and backroads and some Main Streets. We crossed the Delaware River 4 times. Most of the day was a success but getting home was less than strategic as I made several wrong turns, mistakes and bad decisions… but we felt in control even when we were temporarily lost and we had ourselves an adventure. We explored River Road on both sides of the Delaware River north of Trenton. Passed the George Washington crossing on both sides where the revolutionary war took a positive turn for our side. I couldn’t help but imagine our General and his troops marching on Trenton that cold December evening. We rode through small towns in the hills and mountains of New Jersey and I could swear we were in the Berkshires of New England. We rode Rt 513 up through New Jersey and proved there is a scenic backroad that can take us up to the New York border. We visited the Delaware Water Gap and rode a good protion of scenic Rt 519. On the downside, or the up side depending on how you look at it, we survived going through Camden, NJ by way of Rt 130 and lived to tell about it. I’m glad we didn’t become another murder statistic. We had to pay a toll to get back into Delaware by way of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The best thing is we found a viable route that will take us to Connecticut without using the Turnpike or the Parkway and we did it on our own. We had great weather and a great ride. We had very little down time during the 11.5 hours so we were toast by time we got home. I can’t wait to hit the road again this weekend.

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
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The question is: Does New Jersey have backroads?

To find out I ordered some books from Amazon.com one of which is Backroads New Jersey, Driving At The Speed of Life by Mark Di Ionno which turned out to be a very good book. Mark is a journalist and the book is filled with historical and personal accounts of the state he loves. He is a true Jersey Guy through and through as well as a writer. For my purposes a book with less fluff and more maps and hard facts is probably what I was looking for, but finding out the rich history of the area was interesting. Being from New England I was under the impression we were the center of the revolutionary war, but apparently New Jersey is considered the Cockpit of the Revolution and George Washington and his troops spent a lot of time fighting the British and their allies in New Jersey. The roads that originated in that era are still there and the answer is: Yes, there are scenic backroads in New Jersey.

To truly explore New Jersey, you have to take the secondary roads. Backroads, New Jersey.

The secondary roads - also known as the intercounty roads or “500″ series - are a 6,788-mile network of mostly two-lane highways. These roads, marked by blue-and-yellow five-sided shields bearing county names, makes up over 20 percent of New Jersey’s 33,741 miles of public roads.

The odd-numbered “500″ roads run north-south, the evens east-west.

What the secondary road system provides is a well-maintained network of “backroads.” The “500″ roads are good roads-smoothly paved and clearly marked as they wind through the countryside, connecting New Jersey’s small towns and main streets.

Many of the secondary roads have their roots in colonial times and some go back to Native Amaericans.

These roads are never the fastest or the most direct way to get to anywhere. They meander. They go through residential areas and school zones. They bog down as they become Main Street in many towns. But when you break out of the towns and hit the country, they are a pleasure to drive.

Let the people in a hurry take the Interstates, let the shoppers and the errand runners take the state highways. Leave the secondary roads to the explorers, and the restless, and the wanderers. And therein lies the true beauty of the secondary roads - so much to see, and so few to see it.

For this book Mark identifies and writes about 9 different significant routes or sets of routes. The book is broken up into 9 chapters and each chapter explores one to three of the best of the 500 series roads and represents each corner of the state. For my purposes Chapter 7 was of most interest. Chapter 7 goes over in detail an 85 mile long road from Frenchtown to Upper Greenwood Lake. The route starts on the banks of the Delaware River just north of New Hope, PA and winds its way Northeast ending just shy of the New York state border not far from Harriman State Park. This could work for us! This could be the route that will get us to Connecticut in a decent amount of time utilizing scenic backroads and avoiding the NJ Turnpike and the Gardenstate Parkway.

Chapter 9 is also worth noting. There are three routes in the mountainous northeast corner of the state which are probably the most scenic and travel through the Delaware Water Gap region. They are 517, 519 and 521.

These are driver’s roads. Mostly open, curving, sloping - a gear changing wind through New Jersey’s most dramatic scenery, roads that are challenging and fun even when you keep the speed limit. Roads built for motorcycles and sporty car commercials.

Tags: Books, Movies & Music, Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
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I set out to ride unchartered teritory with the intent to get lost in New Jersey. I wanted to ride without the safety net of riding with someone familiar with New Jersey. The real goal is to find a way to travel from Delaware to Connecticut in a decent amount of time without using the NJ Turnpike or the GardenState Parkway.

On Friday August 28th I took a scheduled day off from work to spend with my wife for the last day of her summer break. We got on the Harleys at noon and crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge into Jersey on Interstate 295. We hauled butt to Bordentown just south of Trenton. We got on Route 206 which goes from Trenton straight up through the middle of the state all the way north. To an idiot like me this looks like a good route on a map. While riding through the city of Trenton… not so good an idea. Diana asks me at a traffic light “Are we going to get shot?”. I reply “I think so.”

We finally get out of Trenton and into Princeton. Just north of Princeton it was getting warm and Diana wanted to stop for a rest, so we pulled into a Taco Bell at about 3:15pm. As we sat drinking a Strawberry Colada and cooling off in the air conditioned fast food joint I noticed the tree’s outside seemed to start blowing a little. I looked up to see dark menacing storm clouds coming our way fast. I wanted to hop on the bikes and stay ahead of the storm. I paced while Diana put her rain gear on.  We got on the road just in time for a major down pour. Once again I prove to be an idiot. We could be sitting in a cozy Taco Bell but instead we are pulling into the closest grocery store parking lot and running under the store canopy to escape torential downpours. Since Diana had her raingear on I sheepishly had to ask her to go out in the storm to my bike and retrieve mine for me. She makes me plead with her. I pull out the map and try to figure out where we are. The map gets soggy and I still don’t have a clue. I look over at Diana and she looks sad as if to say our fun day together has turned into a disaster. I say to myself “this is an adventure, someday we will look back on this ride fondly.”

The rain let up a tad and we remounted and headed west to try to get out from under the storm. I took us in a circle by accident before we ended up back on Route 206 heading south. I randomly took roads that seemed to head west from under the storm cloud. We found some nice backraods and the rain to sun ratio increased the further we went west. We finally found our way out of New Jersey and into New Hope, Pennsylvania… a place we have been before! We weren’t lost anymore, yeah!

We regrouped and grabbed a burger at McDonalds and decided to follow Rt 202 South all the way to Delaware because Diana didn’t want to combine highway with rain. Oh man did that take forever. I felt so inadaquit… I’m sure most everyone we ride with would have known a better way home, but no here I am stuck in traffic hours from home.

We finally got home around 9:00pm from our adventure. We may not have found the route we are looking for but we eliminated two possibilities. We familiarized ourselves with the lay of the land, did some highway, did some expressway, did some backroads, did some muggy hot riding, did some thunderstorms and did some showers and basicly had a day filled with a variety of experiences and spent next to nothing eating at gas stations and fast food places. Was it the romantic last day of summer vacation we planned on? Probably not. Was it a failure? Probably not. I think it was just part one of… The New Jersey Project!

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
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Moto-Maps^® Back-Road Touring Guides are your map to back-road adventures.

Riding season is finally here! It’s time to find some twisty back-roads and see what this country looks like from two wheels. If you’re a transplant like me, you might not know where the good roads are hiding. Or maybe you’re out of fresh ideas and are looking for some new roads to ride. “Where to ride?” is the question and “Moto-Maps^®” is the answer!

Moto-Maps LLC is a company in New Hampshire that makes small 3.5″ x 6″ laminated flip charts of scenic back-roads for motorcyclists. There are twenty five different editions of Moto-Maps^® thoroughly covering the east coast states plus a few in the mid-west and west coast. Each booklet includes six to seven maps with turn by turn directions for 6 or 7 loops. Each ride is a full day trip ranging from 3 to 8 hours to complete. The books are small so that they can fit in pockets and small compartments. They are laminated for durability and bound by ring clips so you can easily remove just the map you want to use that day.

I purchased several of these booklets to help me plan out of state trips and they worked very well. I was so impressed I contacted the president of Moto-Maps^®, Keith Myers, and requested permission to offer these great little motorcycle maps on my website. The maps cost less than $10.00 a piece and are available at www.shop.roadcaptainusa.com

If you are going to Laconia Bike Week later this month, I suggest you purchase at least one of the three New Hampshire editions. One of the New Hampshire editions is a special one that high lights the locations of Harley-Davidson dealerships along the ride routes. Don’t waste too much time at Weirs Beach, ride those mountains! See the back-roads of this great country! That’s what it’s all about!

Click here to see all 25 Moto-Maps

Tags: Product Reviews, Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
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I saw the Captain America! To see the Captain America chopper in person was like meeting Peter Fonda. I was star struck! This is the holy grail of motorcycles, the big daddy chopper of them all! This American icon has been in the movies, on posters, t-shirts, book covers, and magazines since I was two years old! I have an artsy wire model of the Captain America in our living room. It also graces the cover of The Great Book of Harley Davidson, also on display in our living room. So when I walked into the Reading Museum on Sunday November 2nd to find the coolest chopper in history right there at the front door welcoming me, I was in awe!

Of course the Billy Bike was there also. It welcomed us into the exhibit at the head of the stairs on the second floor. The second floor hosted a number of vintage American motorcycles including Harley’s, Indians and ACE motorcycles from Philadelphia. Most of the motorcycles on display were on loan from owners/collectors in Pennsylvania.

At the head of the stairs leading to the third floor we were met by an awesome piece of work by Arlen Ness known as Two Bad 2 which has two S&S V-Twin engines. The exhibit is called Born To be Wild: Adventures In Motorcycle Design. Also on display are motorcycles representing early Brit bikes, race bikes and modern touring bikes like the Victory Vision.

Two of my favorites from the Harley collection are the 1971 FX 1200 Super Glide. The first factory custom from the design genius of Willie G. The red, white and blue paint job rocks and the fact that Diana has a Super Glide makes this bike a favorite for me. The 1983 XR 1000 is also a little kick ass machine. I have never seen one on the road. It’s a cross between dirt tracker and Sportster. According to Dave Nichols author of One Percenter ”this scoot was like a Sportster on steroids.”

There were choppers galore! I loved the bobbers and choppers from the early sixties and seventies. There was a yellow chopper that is a tribute bike to Dave Mann with his autograph on the peanut tank. I also love the custom Japanese bobber from Zero Engineering. The paint on the gas tank is so beyond words! I’m not even sure it is a paint job. It’s probably some kind of special Japanese artwork that I don’t know the name of.

All motorcycle enthusiasts in the area should catch this museum exhibit in Reading, Pa. It’s worth the ride and will be on display until January 4th. This is the way motorcycles should be on display!

Click here to see all the cool pics Diana took.

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
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Diana posted our pictures from last weekends fall motorcycle trip to western Connecticut and the southern Berkshires of Massachusetts. We crossed through New Jersey and New York to get there so of course these pictures illustrate autumn in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and some of Massachusetts. Click here to see the 300 pictures.

Back-Road Touring Guides for all four states are currently available at www.Shop.RoadCaptainUSA.com

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
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