Top 5 Best Motorcycle Rides in Pennsylvania (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.   

Pennsylvania, is a state blessed with some great scenery and great motorcycle rides.  For years, Pennsylvania has had one or more of its rides rise into the Top 10 and Top 15 motorcycle rides in the Northeast lists we've put out.  And, the best motorcycle rides in Pennsylvania are spread out all over the state, so no matter what part of the state you may be near, you'll have some great PA roads to ride!  So, starting from #5 and working our way down to the #1 best motorcycle ride in Pennsylvania.

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

Top 5 Most Popular Motorcycle Rides in Pennsylvania!

#5 Wrightsville to Columbia via the Conowingo Dam

This 90-mile motorcycle ride starts at the John Wright Restaurant in the small borough of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and ends at the Turkey Hill Experience amusement park across the Susquehanna River in Columbia. The route has elevation changes, dense woods, lush countryside, small towns, and rolling hills.

#4 Route 666 - One Hell-of-a-Ride!

This 30-mile motorcycle ride is situated in the heart of the Allegheny National Forest begins in E. Hickory, PA, passes through Kingsley and Howe, and ends at Barnes, Pennsylvania. It has small bridges, creek beds, and majestic rock formations.

#3 Lincoln Highway

The Lincoln Highway that was built in the early 20th century connects Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. It is often called Route 30 since the highway runs along Route 30. On this iconic 40-mile ride, you will come across historic sites and great southern PA beautiful scenery.

#2 Gold Mine Road to Route 125

This route starts at Swatara State Park, 20 miles northeast of Harrisburg, PA and heads north into Tower City. The Gold Mine Road is generally called PA’s Tail of the Dragon and is full of elevation changes, sweeping curves, and hairpins.

#1 Grand Army of the Republic Highway - Route 6 (PA)

This tranquil and magical route is called “One of America’s most scenic drives” by National Geographic. The ride that is near 400-miles long so if you plan to take the entire route, make sure you plan appropriately.  It crosses Pennsylvania’s northern tier to lead into the heart of American history and heritage.

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.