Harley-Davidson Museum Motorcycle Tour

A short pilgrimage. Three days out of Chicago, two nights and around 515 miles, built around the Harley-Davidson factory at Wauwatosa and the Wisconsin countryside behind Milwaukee.

Day one is a gentle 95 miles up the shore of Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, which leaves the bulk of the day free for the factory, the museum and the city itself. This is where Harley-Davidson has been built since 1903, and the plant and the museum between them hold a good deal more than the brochure would suggest.

The middle day heads inland, 140 miles through the Kettle Moraine state forest and past Fond du Lac to Madison, which is a pleasant lakeside university town and makes for an easy evening. The final day is the long one at 280 miles, running south-west through the old lead-mining settlements of Mineral Point and Belmont and on to Galena, a hillside town of 1850s brick storefronts that has barely been altered since, before the last run back into Chicago.

EAGLERIDER provides the bike and books both nights, with Harley-Davidson touring models alongside Triumph and BMW sport machines. Fuel, meals and insurance are separate. The roads here are rolling farmland rather than mountain passes, which makes for relaxed riding, light traffic and good average speeds. For anyone with a long weekend in Chicago and an interest in where the machines actually come from, this is the trip that goes to the source, and it manages a decent ride on either side of the factory visit.