After a couple riding seasons that didn’t pan out as I hoped, 2023 marked possibly my favorite year of riding since I got into motorcycling in 2007. I came up just short of the mileage goal I’ve set for myself every year since 2016 – but finally got to go on a trip I’d been waiting more than a decade to take, rode for charity for the first time, did my first Tour of Honor, attended my first FJR1300 rally, rode in the Pacific Time Zone for the first time and made one last visit to a now-defunct motorcycle museum.

Since I recorded my previous personal mileage record – 18,112 miles in 2016 – I’ve wanted to log more than 20,000 miles in a calendar year. Every year since 2016, something has kept me from getting there – from finances to injuries to Covid. 

I started 2023 with a raise and a job that allows for some flexibility with getting time off, which gave me the best shot I’ve had at achieving that goal. I also had a nine-day tour planned (more on that below), which I figured would be a big boost to getting 20,000 miles. 

My riding season got started in mid-April, and by the end of October I was less than 600 miles from logging 20,000 miles. But Mother Nature cut my riding season short. I cannot recall having winter arrive early enough to keep me from riding at all in November, but a light snowstorm on Halloween – and the road salt that went down in anticipation of it – marked the premature end of my riding season 577 miles short of my goal. I still set a new personal record for miles ridden in a calendar year with 19,423.

The highlight of my 2023 riding season is a trip that I’d waited 11 years to take. My nine-day, 4,900-mile trip took place Sept. 30 – Oct. 8 and included riding in four time zones, 13 states – including four that I hadn’t ridden in before – and stops in Monument Valley, the Four Corners Monument, the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Natural Bridges National Monument. I also completed two stops for my Johnny Cash riding project – Kansas City, Kan., and Grand Lake, Colo.

While that tour is its own story – and it didn’t exactly go to plan – simply completing the tour by itself made 2023 the most meaningful riding season I’ve had in a long time.

My other significant motorcycle trip of 2023 was to visit the National Motorcycle Museum one last time before it closed in Sept. 2023. I’d originally planned to visit the Barber Museum in Birmingham, Ala., in 2023, but postponed that trip by a year when I learned the National Motorcycle Museum was closing its doors for good. I’d waited half a decade to make my first visit to the national museum and, while I enjoyed my second visit, a bunch of the museum’s exhibits and artifacts that were on loan during my first visit had been returned to their owners by the time I was there in mid-July.

Some of my other overnight motorcycle trips included watching my Marino Communications MotoAmerica clients race at the rounds at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., and New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J., as well as rides to visit my buddy John in Albany, N.Y., and a family get-together at my Aunt Beth’s homestead in upstate New York.

I attended three small rallies in 2023. It was my first time at the FJR1300-oriented Southeast Ohio Ramble in Marietta, Ohio, in early May, and I enjoyed getting to know fellow FJR riders who came to the rally from all across the eastern United States.

My experience at the rally was dampened — figurately and literally — by two flat tires. I hit something when I rode over a bridge on Ohio State Route 78 near Caldwell that punctured my rear tire. I patched it on the shoulder of I-77 south, but had the plug come out the next day on I-77 north after about 15 miles of riding home in the rain. The second plug held and I made it the rest of the way home without incident.

I also was at two Motorcycle Sport Touring Association rallies in August – the Red River Gorge Rally that was based in Mount Sterling, Ky., and the last three days of the Fly-By Week that, like the Southeast Ohio Ramble, was held at the Comfort Suites in Marietta.

2023 marked the first year I rode for charity, as I participated in the annual Tour of Honor and Longhaulpaul’s MS 5000. I completed all seven Ohio stops for the Tour of Honor and was a silver finisher in the MS 5000 after rising more than $200 and logging more than 8,000 miles from Sept. 1 to Oct. 20.

As the riding season drew to a close, I decided to add some scenic, fall colors rides to my schedule. The first of those was U.S. Route 62 from Canton, Ohio, to New Albany, Ohio. Unfortunately, I mistimed the ride and missed seeing peak colors along the route by about a week. 

The second ride was through New York’s southern tier region on Interstate 86. The portions of the route that had reached peak colors were gorgeous. But other areas hadn’t reached peak yet – and the cold, wet conditions didn’t make for ideal scenic riding. There were parts of the route where the fog was so dense I couldn’t see the hillsides. I did make a stop along the way at the small motorcycle museum on the upper level of the Arkport Cycles dealership in Arkport, N.Y. The collection has only gotten better since my last visit there years ago.

The last of the routes was a jaunt on I-79 south in Pennsylvania to I-68 in West Virginia to U.S. Route 220/I-99 north to I-80 west. While the first leg of the ride to the Pittsburgh area was cold and damp, conditions improved greatly as I headed south toward West Virginia. I hadn’t ridden I-68 in years and the fun (for interstate riding) was only surpassed by the peak colors all the way to Cumberland, Md. I hadn’t ridden the section of U.S. Route 220 from Cumberland to Bedford, Pa., before, and I’d wrongly assumed the route was a four-lane highway. Slow traffic and limited passing opportunities – given the precipitation that grew worse as I headed north – delayed me a bit. 

When I got to Bedford, I realized I was going to have to take a shortcut home. I’d planned to take I-99 all the way to I-80, but it was cold and wet and the sun was setting quickly. After warming up with a quick lunch at Sheetz, I got back on I-99 and then took U.S. Route 322 west en route to I-80 west. 

The ride from Bedford to I-80 was some of the most treacherous riding I’ve done. The low-to-mid 40s temperatures were made far worse by fog that was very thick on I-99 and somehow got even worse on U.S. 322. The fog was so bad in stretches that I couldn’t see more than about 10 feet in front of me. That was made even worse by a different brand of anti-fog treatment I was trying on my face shields – which was causing the moisture in the air to collect on my shield instead of dissipating.

I got most of my annual rides in, including my Ohio State Routes 83 / 339 loop and Gio’s ride (to Gio’s BBQ in Woodland, Pa.).

Last year I also added some new farkles and riding gear that improved my riding experience. The most significant of those were a new Arai helmet and using a helmet Bluetooth comm system for the first time. The new lid is an Arai Quantum-X (the round oval mid-tier Arai model) that I swapped an intermediate/long head liner into. It’s the best fitting helmet I’ve ever had, and I love Arai’s new VAS-V shield system — especially the Pro-Shade two-shield system for day-into-night riding. The helmet has had some issues with water getting in, but I think staying on top of silicone treatments on the rubber face shield gasket will fix that in the long-term.

Since I haven’t used a comm system before, I went cheap and get a Cardo Spirit — the Ukrainian brand’s entry-level unit. I had a few hiccups memorizing how to use the button combinations, but, aside from some issues with outgoing calls, it’s been a blessing to be able to hear directions from the Garmin Zumo 396 for the first time.

I also switched back to a Sargent front seat from another aftermarket brand I’d been using since 2019. The combination of the Sargent seat plus an Alaskan sheepskin buttpad has made the for most comfortable saddle I’ve ever had.

My riding boots that I’d owned since 2017 started leaking a little at the end of the 2022 riding season, so I bought a pair of Bilt Pro Tourer boots from my local Cycle Gear. I was trying to find the same brand I’d worn previously, but the wide sizes weren’t’ available anywhere. The Bilt boots aren’t listed as wide but fit my very wide foot quite well.

During the winter, I decided I’d switch my top case from the factory FJR case to an old Givi E45 that I’d used on my 1998 Bandit 1200. The Givi case is about six liters larger than the Yamaha case, which I figured would come in handy on my nine-day Out West Adventure. I sold the Yamaha case to a gentleman from Detroit who rode his FJR to Cleveland to pick it up. We installed the mounting plate in my driveway and off he went back to Detroit.

I also upgraded my tank bag mid-season. I still really like the old Dowco bag I’d been using for years, but it was starting to show some wear and I wanted to try a tank ring-mounted bag. After doing a bit of research, I picked an Oxford tank bag — in large part because it had a built-in waterproof lining instead of just a rain cover. It’s about the same size as my old Dowco bag, but it sits up taller since it’s mounted on the fuel tank ring. I had to relocate my GPS mount, as the new bag position interfered with turning the handlebars fully to the left.

For 2024, the plan is to do the Tour of Honor again, as well as get a tour in for my Johnny Cash, attend a couple rallies I haven’t been to before, complete an Iron Butt Association Ride Around Ohio and Bun Burner 1500, visit the Barber Museum in Birmingham, Ala., ride across the Mackinac Bridge and hopefully get to ride the Back of the Dragon and Skyline drive (both in western Virginia) for the first time.