Here’s an idea: Develop a top-notch adventure bike tour that takes you through some of the most scenic country in the Southwest. Next produce a video about it with a detailed ride plan, points of interest, interactive maps, GPS tracks and preparation tips so that others can easily replicate the journey themselves. Then give it all away for FREE.

That, in a nutshell, is what Rocky Mountain ATV/MC did with “Hooked on Phoenix,” a 900-mile, four-night dual sport adventure between Mesquite, Nev., and Phoenix, Ariz., timed to coincide with the Phoenix supercross round in February.

The ride itself is pretty stunning. It includes everything from easy dirt to technical, rocky sections, with a moderate amount of slab thrown in. It crosses rivers, tops mesas, skirts Lake Mead, passes through mining towns, and even features a tour of an abandoned mansion that once housed gold prospectors.

The Rocky Mountain crew spent two nights camping under the stars on the way to Phoenix, one night in a hotel after the supercross event, and then another night out in the open on the way back to Mesquite. They rode a variety of bikes, from a Yamaha WR250R all the way to a KTM 1190 Adventure R. This year’s ride was their fifth time making the trip, and they’ve fine tuned the route over the years.

What’s really cool is how much detail they’ve put into documenting the trip. Each day is broken down into sections on the RM Rider Exchange website, where you can download a GPS file for the entire trip. They also provide detailed descriptions of each section including Google maps, gas stops, drop-down menus with info on points of interest, and a link to the relevant section of the 29-minute video of the overall ride. It’s like one of your detail-oriented buddies laying out a great route, times 10.

“Hooked on Phoenix” is the first in a series of videos dubbed RM Rides. If subsequent rides are as interesting and well documented, RM Rides will be a go-to site for planning a new ride.

Check out the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC website for more details on the Hooked on Phoenix ride (ride plan, GPS tracks, route descriptions, maps, preparation tips, etc).

Author: Bob Whitby

Bob has been riding motorcycles since age 19 and working as a journalist since he was 24, which was a long time ago, let’s put it that way. He quit for the better part of a decade to raise a family, then rediscovered adventure, dual sport and enduro riding in the early 2000s. He lives in Arkansas, America’s best-kept secret when it comes to riding destinations, and travels far and wide in search of dirt roads and trails.