With the arrival of May flowers rather than April showers, you may be getting your motorcycle back on the road for another season. Whether you ride or drive we have go-to resources to help you plan for getting back on the road or just ride virtually.

Dreaming of riding and need to practice for your license?

Use the practice tests resource we have here.

Tuning it up for the season? :

  • Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Zimmerman – “Popular motorcycle journalist and author Mark Zimmerman brings a comfortable, conversational tone to his easy-to-understand explanations of how motorcycles work and how to maintain them and fix them when they don't. This practical tutorial covers all brands and styles of bikes, making it a perfect companion to the owner's service manual whether you need to use the step-by-step instructions for basic maintenance techniques to wrench on your bike yourself or just want to learn enough to become an informed customer at your local motorcycle service department. This book includes more than 500 color photos and a thorough index to make it an especially user-friendly reference for home motorcycle mechanics of all skill levels.”  (Motorbooks)
  • How to Tune and Modify Motorcycle Engine Management Systems by Tracy Martin -- "From electronic ignition to electronic fuel injection, slipper clutches to traction control, today's motorcycles are made up of much more than an engine, frame, and two wheels. And, just as the bikes themselves have changed, so have the tools with which we tune them. How to Tune and Modify Motorcycle Engine Management Systems addresses all of a modern motorcycle's engine-control systems and tells you how to get the most out of today's bikes."
  • Four-stroke Motocross and Off-road Performance Handbook by Eric Gorr -- "This thorough how-to manual helps the off-road motorcycle enthusiast get the most out of their machine. This one-stop reference covers everything from basic maintenance to performance modifications."

“In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.”  Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Hitting the highways for a drive?

  • Motorcycle Touring Bible by Fred Rau –“Touring on a motorcycle has never been more popular than it is today, but with more and more people hitting the open road, a growing number are doing so without the proper skills and information they need to survive the ordeal. Far too often the trip of a lifetime turns into an unmitigated disaster, leading to expensive breakdowns, arrests, lost wages, broken limbs, death, and even, on more than one occasion, divorce. Most people who travel aboard motorcycles have learned these lessons the hard way, if they've survived long enough, but now readers of the Motorcycle Touring Bible can learn an easier way; they can learn from author Fred Rau's mistakes rather than through the school of hard knocks.”  (Motorbooks)
  • Use our local resources for a tour of Lennox and Addington here  -- Take a smooth ride along well-maintained roads and over rolling hills with all the twisties you can handle. Stretching north from Lake Ontario, our 6 themed motorcycle routes take you on an unforgettable tour. You'll experience the natural beauty, unique history and rural charm that Lennox & Addington County has to offer.” (County of L&A)

Perhaps rain means you would rather read than ride today?

  • Motorcycle Meanderings by Johnny Winterer - "Good riders are thinking riders,” said moto-racing champ Reg Pridmore. We’re also poets and mystics and rebels and lovers and revivalist preachers, sometimes. We find our religion, our sense of beauty, as much on the serpentine road as in the roar of a well-tuned machine. Ours is a tribe of wanderers, seekers and finders, and two-wheeled pilgrims that occasionally—or often—like to go fast. Ironically, this means slowing down and taking a detour from the rat race, to discover where the real juicy marrow of life resides. These short “inspirational” (for lack of a better word) essays are offered as nuggets of the riding life to chew on and enjoy. This is a book for all you moto-bums and moto-nutters that dare to think, dare to love (and lust), but most of all, dare to ride.”  (Road Books)
  • Best of Peter Egan – “For some forty years, Peter Egan’s columns and feature articles have been among Cycle World's most anticipated monthly content. Egan's legions of fans know they will gain a fresh perspective on motorcycling from each of his articles. Drawings from motoring artist Hector Cademartori beautifully illustrate Egan’s musings. This is an unforgettable collection from a master writer whose simple adventures of two-wheeled life remind us why we love to ride.” (Motorbooks)

Enjoy your solo commute or your “ride with five.”