Nation. Looking at my future plans I know I do not want to stay where I'm at now forever. I currently live in the NW corner of Iowa.....middle of nowhere....only a few miles from the Minnesota border. The midwest just isn't my cup of tea. Too long of winter, and too cold of winter are the primary reasons I want to leave.

We have the flattest ground of the entire continent I think. Well, maybe besides NE. No mountains, no real curvy roads besides a select few short local ones. Looking down at our state while flying over, it's like a sheet of graph paper has been laid out flat. All straight roads and 90º corners around our corn and bean fields. Yuck. I want a warmer climate and some real beautiful scenery!! I want to smell grass and clean air rather than cow and pig manure. Another biggie for me is to be closer to a racetrack so I can do track days at will, instead of planning months in advance and hauling it 6-10 hours to get to the nearest place (SUPER expensive hobby currently. Wont ever be the cheapest but currently I can't even justify it).

Help me find a motorcycle riders dream state or city to live in. A riders oasis. I hear the Southeast looks great. Tail of the dragon is just one of the nearly infinite 'drivers roads' so to speak. NC, TN, KY, GA, etc? I can't take any more of the 8-month long bitter cold worthless crap here...

You could do worse than Asheville, NC. Miles and miles and miles of curvy mountain roads within 2 - 3 hours. And Asheville has a bunch of craft beer pubs.

California. Ride all year. Twisties everywhere. Motorcycle paradise.

Northern Georgia is an awesome scenic area for motorcycle enthusiasts - curves & elevation. And there are a couple of great road race tracks in the area - Road Atlanta, Barber Motorsports, Roebling Road.

South East Queensland, Australia.

Weather like California. Some great roads.

Arkansas. It's an awesome place to ride. No joke.

Not So. CA. a-holes everywhere, even during the weekdays, northern CA. YES !

As much as I'd love California I could never handle their abysmal gun laws, high cost of living and taxes, emissions regulation on all vehicles, vehicle registration/ownership/import laws, and special laws specifically for that state and it's residents. It's like a whole separate country that just happens to be attached to America lol. I don't hate it there, but I don't think I could live there..

ZXrider11 - that's what I'm talking about! I have heard much about the area and I love Road Atlantas track and hopefully there are LOTS more road courses in the SE area!

You can really live cheap in the Northern, GA area.

Gas is inexpensive, and the higher elevation provides a nice climate for riding all year.

If you have some skills, work is easy to find. And land is cheap.

It is a laid-back lifestyle where local people seem to mind their own business.

I really like the Suches, Helen, Blue Ridge and Clayton areas. Larger cities like Atlanta, GA and Greenville, SC and Chattanooga are less than 100 miles away.

So the general census is:

Northern Georgia area - tracks nearby, cheap living, beautiful area, gun friendly, etc. I like what you're describing zxrider.. dreaming of that.
Arkansas - what part do you live in jimmymac? I've been there when I was younger to a small place called Flippin. Don't remember enough to make judgement tho.
Asheville North Carolina - I have a buddy there and he can't get enough of the place. Curvy mountain roads, awesome food, plenty to see and do, gun friendly.

I'm okay with winter in general, so long as it's reasonable and less than 2-4 months of the year. Where I'm at currently it lasts like 6 months MINIMUM. And it's bitter cold, miserable conditions. Cars don't start, diesel fuel gels up, hard to breathe outside with some of our wind chills, YUCK!! And crap roads, and no tracks nearby???! You can see why I'm fed up!

Yeah, I don't know how you could go wrong in the NE GA / W NC area.

The Great Smoky Mountains caused some nice curvy roads(!) ... Here in FL we have very little that must be gone around.

I live in KC Mo, but ride down there for awesome weekend rides. It's twisty with light traffic, just like I want it.And as long as you're outside city limits, the cops leave you alone. The only problem I can see, is finding a good paying job down there.

+1. I almost had a job in Knoxville, TN but would have been a 15k pay cut... at the time. 2 year later it would now be a 30k cut :(

Still almost did it tho. I love it down in that area.

I would say that most places that have roads we would like to ride are not business conducive... generally.

I'm big into the manufacturing industry up here, working at Polaris Industries. I literally get to work with and around motorcycles for a living, sort of.... (Not ZX14's but rather Victory and Indian motorcycles). When I started with the company I began as a vehicle assembler, however that didn't last long before I was moving onward and upward. I'm working on climbing the proverbial ladder to advance my career as far as possible right now, but the money isn't anything to write home about. I wouldn't mind finding another manufacturing job down south at like a Kawasaki, Yamaha, or Honda plant, any motorcycle or even automotive industry is interesting to me. If the job and location is right, I'd be ready to move in less than 6 months. Easy.

The problem I have is HOW THE HECK WOULD I KNOW WHERE TO GO?! I've spent so little time down there...do I just take a giant road trip with a tent and try to visit as many places as possible? I just don't know how to really make this decision

Bradley - Lots of people all throughout the world love where they live, even though lots of those places would not be on very many people's list of great places to live. So, none of us can really tell you where you "should" live, but here's a thought:

In my experience, it's easy to visit a place and just love it the first time ... like love at first sight with a girl. But then find later that it wasn't as great as you originally thought. So it probably makes sense to try to visit a bunch of places once, as many as you can, maybe just breeze thru kinda quickly, then mark off the ones you didn't like so you're left with a list of ones to re-visit. Re-visiting 2 or 3 times should help you narrow it down, help you figure out which one(s) where you could really see yourself living.

Of course, you can always move again if you decide you made a mistake.

Good luck!

There's a big BMW plant in SC not far from Asheville NC.

Great points there ZX14R. I don't know where I'm going, but I know how I'll get there.. bike or car! I want to take a few weeks vacation and just go tour the entire region. Check out all the cool sights and areas, maybe even meet up with some fellow Ninja riders on my way! That would be awesome!

I just looked up some background on the Great Smoky Mountains and it looks incredible down there. Redwood and oak trees, 187,000 acres of forest and rivers, wildlife, etc. I enjoy that type of thing and getting to live peacefully with mother earth. I'd love to have a few acres of my own away from all the hustle and bustle of inner city Atlanta, Knoxville, or Chattanooga. Although being close to a big city is still important for a variety of other reasons.