Motorcycle Adventure Tours

ABOUT THE 2024 TDBA TRAINING TOURS

TDBA is thrilled to be leading a series of guided off-road motorcycle training tours in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic US during the 2024 riding season.  Read on for more info.

Why do we call our trips “training tours”?  It’s because each tour goes beyond just a typical guided off-road trip: our tours add first class off-road riding instruction to the experience.  Enjoy the thrill of riding through beautiful countryside in some famous off-road spots, while using selected areas along the way to level up your skills with instruction from your tour leader: a TDBA Motorcycle Safety Foundation certified riding coach.

What’s Included? In 2024, we’re offering four adventure training tours plus one dirt bike training tour. Except for our Hatfield-McCoy trip (see below), the fee listed for each trip is the fee associated with the ride.  It does not include meals or lodging / camping fees.  For lodging / camping,  our approach is to recommend one hotel and one campsite at each night’s location.  Riders make their own arrangements from there.  Most people choose to stay with the group at either the recommended hotel or campsite, but that’s not a requirement.  Our approach to meals is similar: we typically decide as a group where to eat, but people are free to make other arrangements.  Riding with a great group of people is a big part of what moto touring is all about.  Most nights, you’ll want to chill with the gang at the end of a long day, but our approach also lets you take a break from the group if there are nights when that feels right for you.

What Skills Do I Need?  Below we describe the minimum skill level required for each trip.  Please note, though, that since we tailor our teaching and guiding approach to the individual members of the group, the level noted really is just the minimum.  Riders who are more advanced than the minimum will also get a lot of benefit — and fun — from our trips. 

What’s the schedule?  The dates for each trip are shown below.  Depending on where you’re coming from, of course, you may need to plan additional days before or after for travel to or from the ride location. If you’re interested in joining us for any of these events, please complete the form at the bottom of the page to let us know!

TDBA 2024 TRAINING TRIP SCHEDULE:

Saturday, April 27 – Sunday, April 28, 2024
ADV Training on The PA Wilds Advanced Sections
Get some early season ADV training in with the TDBA coaches.  We’ll spend most of our time on the more advanced sections of the PA Wilds BDR-X route.  Specifically, we’ll be starting and staying in New Columbia, PA, at the start of Section 1.  On Saturday, we’ll train on the advanced sections in and around Section 4, and come back to New Columbia to stay on Saturday night.  On Sunday, we’ll train on the advanced sections in and around Section 1, and again return back to New Columbia at the end of the day.  Minimum Skill Level: If you’ve been on these advanced sections, you know that calling them “expert” sections exaggerates the challenge.  If you’ve got some fundamentals on an ADV bike, meaning you’ve got at least a year or two of street experience and some actual ADV off-roading under your belt (~15 hours, or fewer if you’ve taken an ADV class like the TDBA Adventure Riding Foundations course) you’re ready to join us on this trip.  Fee: $500.

Friday, May 24 – Sunday, May 26, 2024
Stay and Play Ride at Hunter Mountain
Enjoy some great adventure riding on the beautiful trails around Hunter Mountain, New York.  A “stay and play” trip is different from a typical adventure ride, where you ride from point to point, staying in a different spot each night.  Stay and play means you come back to the same location each night.  The benefit is that you don’t have to take time every day to pack up your stuff and load your bike.  That also means you ride lighter with no gear weighing you down.  On this trip, we’ll be riding in the beautiful Catskill Mountains on great trails with great scenery.  With, of course, spots we’ve picked out that are perfect for training on a ton of adventure riding techniques. Minimum Skill Level: Beginner.  Fee: $750.

Wednesday, June 26 – Saturday, June 29, 2024
Sections 1-4 of the Northeast Backcountry Discovery Route
Ride the awesome NEBDR with TDBA!  To keep the time off from work more manageable, we’ve decided to keep this trip to section 1 through 4 of the NEBDR.  The trip starts on Wednesday, 6/26 in Hancock, New York, and ends on Saturday, 6/29 in Barnard, Vermont.  We’ve left Sunday open so that people can travel back home and be ready for work (sorry) on Monday. Of course, if you’re interested you can continue on to the end of the NEBDR by completing sections 5 through 8 (possibly with others from the TDBA trip), but that would be without TDBA assistance.  As always with TDBA, your trip includes training on lots of adventure riding techniques to help advance your skills. Minimum Skill Level: Beginner. Fee: $1,000.

Wednesday, September 18 – Saturday, September 21, 2024
Dirt Bike Training Trip to Hatfield-McCoy, West Virgina
Join us for a unique dirt bike experience, with both first class training and expert guide services, at the legendary Hatfield-McCoy riding trail system in West Virginia.  If you’ve heard about Hatfield-McCoy (the place, not the feud), you know that it’s an East Coast dirt bike mecca.  Hatfield-McCoy manages over 1 million acres (you read that right) of land across 12 different trail systems.  The great dirt bike riding is endless.  The TDBA trip, like all our trips, combines a guided tour with skills training on the trails each day — the instruction doesn’t get more real world than this.   For this trip, you’ll be staying with the group at a great AirBnB specifically built out for moto vacationing.  Your fee includes lodging, but not meals (you have the choice to go out with the group, bring something back, whip something up yourself at the AirBnB . . . ).  Note that this is a dirt bike trip, so no ADV bikes allowed on this one. Minimum Skill Level: This trip is appropriate for people who are at or beyond what we call the “experienced beginner” level.  An experienced beginner is someone who has  been riding less than two years but has done at least 25 hours of dirt riding over the 12 months prior to the trip (if you took our Foundations dirt riding course without any prior experience but don’t have 25 hours in, talk to us about how you can level up your skills with additional TDBA training so that you can join us on the Hatfield-McCoy trip). Fee: $1,750 (includes 5 nights stay).

Friday, October 11 – Sunday, October 13, 2024
Women’s Only ADV Training Tour at Hunter Mountain
TDBA coaches are excited to be putting together an exciting new ADV riding event with a leading women’s riding organization.  Stay tuned for details, but for now we can tell you that this will be in the Hunter Mountain area of the Castkill Mountains in New York, on beautiful riding trails.  We’re scouting out some great spots for terrific ADV riding, and we’ve picked out areas along the way with terrain that is perfect for teaching a wide variety of adventure riding techniques.  Minimum Skill Level: Beginner. Fee: TBD.