In 2004, the year I returned to riding, I scoured the web for information about Pacific Northwest motorcycle roads. I found some road sites but none had an extensive list of roads for the region. So that winter I set out to develop my own list of roads to explore. I obtained road atlases, county maps, National Forest maps and studied them all. I also bought a copy of Delorme’s Topo USA mapping software to create maps highlighting motorcycle roads.

A while into the project I decided to share the results of my efforts and created some web pages of the maps on my site. But I soon became disenchanted with those pages. They just were not very good or easy to use. So a few months ago while revamping the layout and style of the site, I scrapped those pages and set out to create a better and more useful series of road pages.

Today I am publishing the first parts of those pages—the western Oregon road map and the northeast and northwest road listings of that region. Go to NW Roads to view the road pages.

Although there are other northwest road pages, notably Motorcycle Roads Northwest and Oregon Motorcyclist, I believe my pages compliment them rather than compete with them. Their orientation is providing in-depth reviews and description of selected roads. My pages are oriented to answering the question “what roads might I possibly ride if I go to a given area.” To accomplish this I am identifying all roads that may be of interest to motorcyclists then marking them on a map and listing them with brief comments and links to more information. If another site has a detailed review of a road I include the link in the road’s listing.

I am now working on completing the road listings for the other sections of western Oregon. Following that will be maps and listings for Washington and the remaining Oregon regions. Then Idaho and western Montana. It is a large project and to keep from throwing up my hands in despair, I take it one little section at a time.

If you are a northwest rider I would like to receive your comments about the road pages. And I hope you can find the time to help me fill in the blanks in the completed sections, correct any mistakes I have made and provide information about roads for the sections to come (the further away from Portland, the less personal knowledge of roads I have).

Happy riding and may all your rides be enjoyable and safe.