Top 5 Best Motorcycle Rides in New York (2021 Riding Season Year-End Review)

We looked at a full collection of 2021 motorcycle riding season data when millions of riders visited MotorcycleRoads.com to find the best motorcycles rides and routes in the USA, Canada, and abroad.  For over 20 years now, MotorcycleRoads.com has been documenting the best/most-popular motorcycle roads, routes, and rides and for about a decade, we have published annual reports after diving into the website's statistics (which routes are riders researching the most, which routes are getting the most photo/video/comment uploads, etc., etc.) to determine which of the motorcycle routes have risen to the top in motorcycle rider popularity.  We look at a complex set of factors (see Note 2 below) to determine which of the motorcycle rides in each of the states and US regions are the most popular and rated to be the best by motorcycle riders just like you.  Our very popular annual "Top Motorcycle Rides per Region" guides cover the best rides for each of the four official riding regions of the USA: the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West.  This year we took things a step further and decided to gone one level deeper and develop guides outlining the Top 5 Best Motorcycle Rides in for the US states and so you are seeing one of those such guides on this page.   

New York state offers riders great scenery options such as mountain rides in the northern portion of the state, pristine lakes, historic towns and boroughs, historical and cultural points of interest and some coastal scenery.  So, starting from #5 and working our way down to the #1 best motorcycle ride in New York.

After reviewing an entire year of activity of New York motorcycle riders, here are the results:

Top 5 Most Popular Motorcycle Rides in New York!

#5 RT 10 - Walton to Deposit

The RT 10 is an easy route between Walton and Deposit. It is a scenic road where you can travel to the Cannonsville Reservoir. The background consists of the Catskill mountains.

#4 Seven Lakes Drive

From the mid-town of New York City, this road is about 25 miles long. Thanks to the re-constructions, the road has become very smooth. There are not a lot of curves on this road but the scenery is fantastic!

#3 Delaware River - NY-97 (Sparrow Bush to Roebling Bridge)

The 20-mile scenic road crosses the Delaware River and ascends to Hawk’s Nest. You will mostly see the most beautiful sections of the river on this road. At the back, you will see the Pocono Mountains.

#2 Catskill Preserve

The scenery at the Catskill Preserve is spectacular.  If you are a motorcycle rider in NY and haven’t been through the Catskills, you really need to fix that error. You will find tons of charming villages and towns along the route. The quality of the road is great without any heavy traffic.

#1 Long Island's North Shore Tour

The Long Island’s North Shore Tour is a motorcycle route that will take you along a part of Long Island, which is full of bayside views and history. The scenery of this route is very beautiful and features a few twists on the well-paved roads.  For a route that travels through an area with plenty of development and urban scenery, this is a welcome and refreshing break from the hustle and bustle of NY city metro area

Note 1:  All facts and figures below were gathered in Dec of 2021 and will change over time as new motorcycle roads are added to the collection.  For an update listing, you can go to MotorcycleRoads.com at any time, search on a state of your choosing, and you'll be presented with a list of the best motorcycle roads in that state.  You can also search on the newest motorcycle routes to be registered in that state as well as sift through the routes based on other filters.  Some examples of filtered searches you can do is to filter results based on - only the routes in your state that have 5-star scenery ratings, or only routes with a 5-star driving excitement rating and at least a 3-star rating for scenery, etc. etc.

Note 2:  How were these popularity ratings calculated? 
A motorcycle road’s popularity can be based on a wide variety of factors.  Our analysis considered some obvious indicators of motorcycle road popularity such each roads’ “Rider Rating” scores (star ratings) and which motorcycle road description pages were visited the most.  But, the analysis dug deeper and looked at some less obvious yet valuable indicators of a motorcycle road’s popularity such as how often a given motorcycle road was added to riders’ “To Ride” lists, how often a given motorcycle road was added to riders’ “Rode it” lists and enthusiasm indicators such how often photos and/or videos were uploaded for a given road and which roads are attracting the most buzz among motorcycle roads indicated by those roads that are receiving the most number of new/recent comments.  For the sake of being consistent and as objective as possible we use a popularity algorithm that “crunches those number” and allows us to develop a ranking of the popularity of each of the motorcycle roads used as a basis for this guide.