(Editor’s Note: Due to all of the submissions we have received, we have created a new page on The Bikers’ Den blog dedicated to listing Biker Friendly Establishments.)
It never fails – you get an idea for a great ride and you pick up the phone to call some riding buddies. You know the ones – the names in your phone are all “Spider” and “Wolfman” and “Jarhead” instead of the moniker their parents hung on them. For “Company Name” you have what kind of bike they’ve got.
Anyhow, you call them to see what they’ve got planned for the weekend and when you say you might do a little riding, the question is always, “Where ya goin’?”
Where, indeed? More importantly, where are you spending time and money along the way? (In other words, keep reading!)
Down here in the South, we usually have the chance to ride nearly year-round, although this last month, we actually had a super-rare snow fall that kept most everyone off the roads (no plows, salt, or sand this far down in Dixie), so I suddenly got the chance to feel how some of you guys feel. When the mercury dipped down below freezing for nearly a week.
Same problem.
No ride. No wrench. No fun.
That, however, got me to thinking about where we all like to ride. What makes a road trip worth riding?
Sure, it’s the scenery in many cases. Other times, like with the Dragon’s Tail, it’s the chance to stretch out a bike to the performance limits it can exert with you at the helm. On the other hand, in every situation, a big part of the ride has to do with places we feel welcomed.
Every one of us has come in from some iron-butted ride in poor weather and just wanted to stretch our legs, get some gas, and slake out thirst and gotten crummy looks from folks because of what they “think” they know about us. I’ve even written about some of the dirtbags here in these pages – the punk in his Prius on my way to Sturgis a couple years ago comes immediately to mind. Along the way, though, you and I have met some great folks – my old friend J. L. Vines out in the west part of the state pops up, even though he hasn’t ridden since Johnson was president.
That’s what this is all about – the team and I at The Bikers’ Den are trying to log in all the great places and people that enjoy our business even if we “look” like bikers.
They have good food, good prices, cold beer, hot coffee, whatever.
We want to know who and where they are. I’m going to start it off by saying that we all know that Hooter’s is a great destination and I think they serve food, but I can’t remember. I know they don’t wear too many pieces of clothing there.
But what about those great watering holes off the beaten path? Places like Bob’s Place in Pickens, South Carolina? Somewhere up in those Appalachian hollows is another bar I have taken a drink or two at – Scatterbrains, but I’ve heard various stories about how it is and isn’t still around. Then again, I’d be wrong to not mention the Snake River KOA and damn near every business in Hoback Junction, Wyoming, too. Those folks were too great to forget and their prices were half of what they wanted for the same stuff right up the road in Jackson Hole.
Just as importantly, if you don’t have anyone chasing your poker run in a van to fix what’s broken, then we also want to know where, in North America, you’ve found folks that can fix you up or get you back on the road when you’re far from home. I don’t care if you’re in the Prairie Provinces or south Texas, let us know.
Just leave a comment below or post it on any one of our social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). We don’t care where you do it, we just want to start building a list of biker-friendly establishments so we can all benefit.
The way I see it, most of us have the chance to be back on the road in just a few weeks without fear of frostbite, so let’s log where the good folks are. We don’t need any help finding the bastards in the world, but think about how powerful a list like this could be next time you try to plan a week’s ride through the uncrowded places?
Keep the shiny side up and Spring is coming…