Meet the MAD Scouts

Ken Aiken

Residence: Bellows Falls, VT and Montreal, Canada

Ride: Anything street legal (own a BMW and a Ducati)

Years Riding: 30+

Favorite Ride: "Ohio offers some exceptionally fine touring. Historic Ohio offers some extremely fine touring terrain. Scenic roads lace across the state, as if they were designed for motorcycling."

Mary Allison

Residence: Santa Rosa, CA

Ride: 2000 BMW R1200C

Years Riding: 31

Favorite Ride: "California's the best. The state has such diverse scenery and terrain...the coast, mountains, pristine lakes, forests, deserts, wine growing regions, old west towns, national parks, great roads. It's always exciting...never boring."

Rose Atiyeh

Residence: Laurel, MD

Ride: Yamaha V-Star 650; Kawasaki W650

Years Riding: 13

Favorite Ride: "The one I'm on right now."

Tom Barnes (aka "Condor")

Residence: Gadsden, AL

Ride: Varies

Years Riding: 20+

Favorite Ride: "I like the Little River Canyon ride for this area. It is scenic with lots of stops and little traffic. Love the rollercoaster nature of it."

Richard Battles (Owner RKA)

Residence: Windsor, CA

Ride: BMW R1200ST

Years Riding: 45

Favorite Ride: "Skaggs Springs/Stewart Point Road / Highway 128 from 101 to the coast. Sorry, but I can't say just ONE."

Ed Beck

Residence: Olathe, KS

Ride: Chrysler LHS "Quadricycle" (I actually do not ride motor bikes).

Years Riding: 50+

Favorite Ride: "Actually, I do not have a favorite ride. I enjoy uncrowded two-lane roads and small towns. That is why I like scouting loops so much, I get to enjoy my two favorite travel objectives."

Scott & Terry Bennett

Residence: Puyallup, WA

Ride: Scott--2000 Harley Davidson Ultra Classic, 1997 BMW F650; Terry--2003 Harley

Years Riding: S-20,T-10

Favorite Ride: "We enjoy the glacial beauty of Mount Rainier, with its surrounding forests while traveling quality two-lane roads with low-traffic volumes. Within a day's ride you can reach the ocean, the rainforest, an active volcano (Mount Saint Helens), the central desert, the agricultural plateaus, the North Cascades (Washington Alps), the Columbia River Gorge and the pine forests of eastern Washington."

Steve Boyd (aka "Old Road Slut")

Residence: Larkspur, CO

Ride: HD Shovelheads

Years Riding: Forever (45 years)

Favorite Ride: "Durango through Silverton (Highway 550) over Red Mountain Pass to Ouray is the best."

Mike Buchanan

Residence: Indianapolis, IN

Ride: 2004 BMW R1200CLC

Years Riding: 12

Favorite Ride: "My favorite ride is the Chief Joseph Highway in northwest Wyoming. This route has spectacular views and the road is a motorcyclist's dream. A close second would be Colorado's SR14 through the Poudre Canyon. This is non-stop twists and turns with the Poudre River on one side and the canyon walls on the other."

Kevin "Cruisin" Cole

Residence: Fritch, TX

Ride: 2000 BMW R1200C and 1998 BMW R1100RT

Years Riding: 26years (currently at 285,000 accident-free miles and planning to keep it that way).

Favorite Ride: "Locally, I love Highways 94 and 256 in the Clarendon to Matador area of the Texas Panhandle. The Holy Trinity in the Texas Hill Country that includes Highways 335, 336 and 337, in the Medina--Campwood region, is a blast. Or just about anywhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado."

Reverend James "Pappy" Cotten

Residence: Jacksonville, IL

Ride: 2003 BMW R1200CLC

Years Riding: 5 (including 1 saddle sore)

Favorite Ride: "The best thing about riding in Western Illinois is that if, by a long shot, you get tired of riding up and down the beautiful twists and turns of the Great River Road along either side of the might Mississippi, then all you have to do is jump over to the Illinois river and start over."

Penne Ferris

Residence: Ephrata, WA

Ride: Yamaha VStar 1100

Years Riding: 12

Favorite Ride: "I love Highway 503 around Mount Saint Helens. Even today, it is still remarkable to see."

Robert Filla (aka "Gordo")

Residence: Houston, TX

Ride: 1967 Shovelhead, 1974 FXE, 2003 Road King, various dirt bikes

Years Riding: 39

Favorite Ride: "Texas is the greatest planet for motorcycling in the universe. The Gulf Coast area between Louisiana and Corpus Christi is especially interesting due to the blending of cultures, the ethnic food diversity, great nightlife and the varied road terrain. The girls are pretty damn cute, too."

Lori Fye

Residence: Santa Rosa, CA

Ride: 1998 Yamaha Virago 1100

Years Riding: 4

Favorite Ride: "I love riding in California because you can visit so many different landscapes and attractions without ever leaving the state. I also think that California's state highways are unbeatable riding roads."

Lucy Green & Laura Andrews

Residence: Lucy--Antigo, WI; Laura--Duluth, MN

Ride: Lucy--1996 Suzuki Savage, 978 Yamaha XS 400; Laura--996 Yamaha Virago 1100

Years Riding: Lucy-42,Laura-12

Favorite Ride: "We like riding southeast Wisconsin because you can so easily get away from the hectic pace of the city into the quiet calm of the open countryside. No matter what kind of ride you are looking for, you can find it in southeast Wisconsin."

Dan Jasa

Residence: St. Louis, MO

Ride: 2004 sv650s

Years Riding: 7

Favorite Ride: "My favorite ride is the route going south on Highway 123 and then cutting over to Highway 7 in Arkansas, ending up at the Cliffhouse Restaurant just south of Jasper. It's scenic and has some of the best-quality roads, with very little traffic."

Susan Milner

Residence: San Antonio, TX

Ride: 2000 Kawasaki W650 (also known as a Wretro Wrider)

Years Riding: 11

Favorite Ride: "My favorite ride is the Big Bend area of West Texas and the surrounding cities of Alpine, Marathon, Marfa (Marfa Lights) and Fort Davis (including the McDonald Observatory.) There are hundreds of miles of wide-open spaces with fabulous views in each direction. The Chihuahuan High Desert climate is excellent for year-round riding. A dual-purpose motorcycle is a great choice for the back roads and side roads for viewing the desert life."

Jean Mishler

Residence: Austin, Texas

Ride: 2002 Yamaha VStar 1100

Years Riding: 12

Favorite Ride: "I love the byway road to Canyon De Chelly, Arizona. You can see mile after mile of beautiful red mesas in the Navajo Nation. It's breathtaking and grounding."

Denis Petrie

Residence: Schenectady, NY

Ride: RT BMW

Years Riding: 52

Favorite Ride: "If you haven't ridden in Upstate New York, you've missed the most beautiful touring that can be found. Riding through the mountains of the Adirondacks or the rolling hills and farms of the Catskills region offers a history lesson combined with incredible scenery."

Mark Pfenning

Residence: Bend, OR and Snohomish, WA

Ride: Multi-denominational; dual-sport & adventure tour

Years Riding: 35+

Favorite Ride: "The entire northeastern quadrant of Oregon, where there are absolutely spectacular roads (the scenery's pretty damn fine, too), almost non-existent traffic and you can ride for days and always be on a unique stretch of pavement (or unpaved Forest Service roads, for that matter)."

Terry "The Man" Roorda

Residence: Geyserville, CA

Ride: FLHS Electra Glide Sport

Years Riding: 37

Favorite Ride: "My part of California offers it all, from an incredible coastline to rolling hills to mountains. You can't go wrong around here."

Clement Salvadori

Residence: Atascadero, CA

Ride: Honda ST1100

Years Riding: 50

Favorite Ride: "Big Sur, which is one of the reasons I live in Atascadero, at the south end of 'El Sur Grande.' It is simply the best year-round ride I know...in the world."

Mike Savidge

Residence: Tampa, FL

Ride: Old Red Harley Dyna

Years Riding: More than some; fewer than others.

Favorite Ride: "The rolling hills in the area around Dade City, with their twists and turns, offer some of the best back roads for riding in the entire state of Florida."

Discover one of Mike's favorite rides through Everglades National Park

Jay "Muthuh" Schwantes

Residence: Durham, NC

Ride: 1999 H-D Ultra

Years Riding: 39

Favorite Ride: "Besides being my backyard, the Smokies have always been my favorite getaway ride, especially in October for fall colors. It's a recharge badly needed after real life wears ya down. Deal's Gap is a place every rider should check off of their must-do list. But it's always great to stick to the nearby mountains of North Carolina -- the waitresses are cuter, too!"

Frank "Franko" Smode

Residence: Baton Rouge, LA

Ride: Harley-Davidson 2002 FLSTS Heritage Springer (and a proud member of HSOA)

Years Riding: Most of the last 42 years

Favorite Ride: "My favorite ride would be my first for MAD Maps, Rita's Loop. It is a wonderful taste of South Louisiana, from oil fields and pastures to the bayous and wetlands along the Gulf Coast. It was a great day (but then, all ten rides were)!"

Gin "M/C Granny" Williams

Residence: Nampa, ID

Ride: BMW R1200C

Years Riding: 8

Favorite Ride: "Our 'McCall Loop' is a fun little day ride close to home that gets us approximately 330 miles of scenic flatland farms, rolling hills, mountain twisties and canyon river road."

Char Zack

Residence: Jerome/Sedona, AZ

Ride: 1991 Harley Springer and 2007 Harley Ultra Classic Electra Glide

Years Riding: 25

Favorite Ride: "Northern Arizona unfolds into magnificently serene and magical red mountains with twisties galore and cool ponderosa pine relief from the desert heat and city concrete. The landscape changes at every twist on the 'Devil's Ride,' which is comparable to the 'Tail of the Dragon' in the South."