13 Bars You Should Never Visit on a Motorcycle

Unless you enjoy strange history, questionable legends, unforgettable characters, and places that make you forget where you were headed.

They say thirteen is an unlucky number. After visiting some of these places, you might agree.

We found thirteen bars that can seriously interfere with a perfectly good motorcycle trip. One has ties to a notorious serial killer. Another comes with pirate legends. There’s a ghost town, a genuine Manhattan dive, and a Florida biker campground where the stage is also a memorial to departed friends.

Not all of them are biker bars. All of them are worth a curious rider’s attention. Consider yourself warned.

1. Scooter Haven Country Club — Inglis, Florida

The biker campground where even the departed get a front-row seat.

There’s a story floating around that Scooter Haven began as a hippie-biker commune. We haven’t confirmed it, but the rumor certainly fits the place’s independent spirit. What we can tell you is that Scooter Haven has something extraordinary: the Ship of Memories. This boat-shaped structure is the outdoor music stage, and it’s also a memorial bearing the names of departed members of the Scooter Haven family. Ashes of departed members are interred within it. When a band plays, the musicians are standing on a tribute to the people who helped build the community. Flowers and memorial decorations line the hull. Most bars hang photographs of lost friends on a wall. At Scooter Haven, they built them a stage. Whether the commune story is true or not, one thing is clear: once you’re family here, you’re never really gone.

2. Last Resort Bar — Port Orange, Florida

The bar where a serial killer’s story came to an end.

Police arrested Aileen Wuornos at the Last Resort in January 1991. Wuornos was later convicted of multiple murders, and her story inspired the film Monster. That is a distinction no bar owner would wish for. The Last Resort also had a less sinister, distinctly biker kind of notoriety: Japanese motorcycles displayed up in trees around the property. One of the famous displays came down when its supporting tree fell in a hurricane. Between the true-crime history and the old motorcycle lore, it’s a Florida roadside stop with more stories than most bars could tell in a lifetime.

3. Aladdin General Store & Bar — Aladdin, Wyoming

The bar in a town you could almost buy.

Aladdin is barely a dot on the map, just across the South Dakota line from the Black Hills. Its general store dates to 1896, and the creaking old building feels as though it missed several centuries of renovations. The entire tiny town has even been offered for sale. During Sturgis, riders make the trip out to see a place that still looks like a scene from an old Western. Ask the locals about the Hurricane drink and its unusual serving tradition; the details vary depending on who tells the story. This is not the place to ask for a modern cocktail menu and a dozen televisions. That’s precisely the appeal.

4. Bucknuckles — Praag, Wisconsin

The bar that never got around to becoming respectable.

You don't accidentally stumble into Bucknuckles unless you're seriously lost. In the little Wisconsin community of Praag, the bar has worn different names over the years, including the Praag Frog and John and Mary’s. Today it has a dollar-bill-covered table, a downstairs pool room and the sort of atmosphere that no interior designer could convincingly reproduce. It feels like a place where everyone knows everyone, and a stranger is only a stranger until somebody pulls up a chair. Some establishments spend fortunes trying to look authentic. Bucknuckles apparently decided to let the years do the work.

5. Timeline Saloon & BBQ — Bonduel, Wisconsin

The bar with a 24½-foot motorcycle, because a normal Harley wasn’t long enough.

Doc’s Harley-Davidson didn't stop at selling motorcycles. Its Bonduel property includes Timeline Saloon & BBQ, a museum and enough oddball machinery to derail a quick lunch stop. The star is the Timeline Motorcycle: a 24½-foot-long creation built to seat ten people, incorporating seven Harley-Davidson engines representing different generations. Ten people. One motorcycle. Imagine explaining that to your insurance agent. Then there’s an enormous ceiling fan, described as spanning about 40 feet and using Harley motorcycle components. Add the vintage motorcycles, memorabilia and exhibits, and a twenty-minute visit can become an afternoon. If you love motorcycle history—or simply enjoy seeing what happens when somebody refuses to think small—this is your stop.

6. Swallows Inn — San Juan Capistrano, California

The Old West never quite left.

Cowboy hats and motorcycle boots are equally at home at Swallows Inn. The old-school San Juan Capistrano saloon has long attracted ranchers, Marines, bikers and music lovers. Tales of horses entering the bar are part of its lore, though not every colorful story can be independently verified. What is obvious is the atmosphere: live music, dancing, well-worn surroundings and a crowd that isn't terribly interested in the latest cocktail trend. California has plenty of fashionable bars. Swallows Inn has something harder to buy: character.

7. Shack Up Inn — Clarksdale, Mississippi

A bar at a former cotton plantation where you can sleep in a grain bin.

At the Shack Up Inn on the former Hopson Plantation, the accommodations include restored old cabins and converted grain bins. Yes, grain bins. The bar, Rust, occupies part of the old cotton-gin complex, surrounded by the machinery, music and complicated history of the Mississippi Delta. The property's famous slogan says it best: The Ritz We Ain't. This isn't a conventional biker bar, but for riders following the blues trail through Clarksdale, it's a stop you won't soon forget. The buildings preserve a piece of Delta agricultural history, including a past that shouldn't be romanticized or glossed over.

8. Under-the-Hill Saloon — Natchez, Mississippi

The riverfront where respectable people once feared to go.

The grand houses of Natchez stood above the Mississippi River. Down below the bluffs, the waterfront district known as Under-the-Hill developed a reputation for gamblers, riverboat crews, drinking and crime. The modern Under-the-Hill Saloon occupies a historic building in that notorious riverfront neighborhood. The history of the district goes back much farther than the current bar; don't confuse the two. Still, sit near the river and imagine the steamboats arriving with travelers, fortunes and trouble. Today's welcome is considerably friendlier than the neighborhood's nineteenth-century reputation.

9. Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar — New Orleans, Louisiana

The bar where a pirate may—or may not—have done business.

The French Quarter building is old. The stories are older, stranger and much harder to prove. Legend links Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar to Jean Lafitte and his brother, who supposedly used the property in their smuggling operations. Historians dispute how much of that can be documented. Ghost stories have attached themselves to the place, too. None of that diminishes the appeal of its shadowy brick interior and unmistakable New Orleans atmosphere. A centuries-old building with pirate legends and a dark barroom? That's a detour waiting to happen.

10. Oatman Hotel Saloon — Oatman, Arizona

The walls have money and the streets have donkeys.

Oatman is a former Arizona mining town along old Route 66, where wild burros wander through the streets like they own the place. Inside the historic Oatman Hotel building, dollar bills cover the saloon walls. The town also repeats a famous tale about Clark Gable and Carole Lombard staying at the hotel on their honeymoon, though the details are disputed. Between the weathered buildings, gold-mining history, winding mountain road and burros blocking traffic, Oatman makes a memorable motorcycle stop. The donkeys, incidentally, appear to believe they have the right of way.

11. Spirit Room — Jerome, Arizona

The bar in a ghost town that may have ghosts.

Jerome was once a booming copper-mining town clinging to an Arizona mountainside. When the mines declined, the town nearly disappeared. Today it attracts artists, visitors and riders who enjoy a twisty road and a little history. The Spirit Room occupies part of the historic Connor Hotel and is known for its music and lively bar scene. Jerome has also collected a remarkable number of ghost stories. Believe them or not, the old buildings and steep streets provide plenty of atmosphere after dark. The spirits are debatable. The bar is real.

12. Iron Horse Social Club & Museum — Savanna, Illinois

The bar where the motorcycles steal the show.

Some bars hang a motorcycle picture on the wall. The Iron Horse Social Club in Savanna built an entire experience around motorcycle history. Vintage machines, memorabilia and museum displays make it part bar, part pilgrimage for riders. The establishment has also featured a wedding chapel, in case a motorcycle trip takes an unexpectedly romantic turn. Savanna's Mississippi River setting makes the ride part of the fun. Come for the motorcycles, stay for the stories—and maybe leave with more than you expected.

13. Rudy’s Bar & Grill — New York City, New York

Cheap drinks, free hot dogs and bouncers with four legs.

In Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, Rudy's has a giant pig outside and old booths patched with duct tape. It's been pouring drinks since 1933. Local lore puts it in the speakeasy business even earlier, supposedly with Al Capone as a customer, but that part isn't established history. A more entertaining story involves Helen Rudy, who reportedly enlisted two German Shepherds to discourage troublemakers. The old mahogany bar, jukebox, inexpensive drinks and free hot dogs have kept this dive refreshingly unpolished. If you want a sleek Manhattan cocktail lounge, walk on by. If you want a real dive, you've found it.

Gone But Not Forgotten: Gilly’s Pub 44 — New Smyrna Beach, Florida

The Daytona-area biker hangout that riders still talk about.

For years, Gilly’s Pub 44 was a familiar name during Daytona Bike Week and Biketoberfest. Its Bike Bash gatherings brought motorcycles, music, vendors and the kind of stories that grow with every retelling. The bar is gone now, but mention Gilly’s to longtime Daytona riders and you’re likely to hear about the days when the rally scene was a little less polished and a lot more unpredictable. Some tales—particularly about what happened to Japanese motorcycles at old events—still need verification. The affection riders have for the place does not.

We Know We Left Somebody Out

Somewhere in America, there’s a bar down a gravel road with a crooked sign, a bartender who’s heard everything, and a story worth telling. Maybe it has a notorious outlaw in its past. Maybe it closed twenty years ago and you still miss it.

What’s the strangest, most unforgettable bar you’ve ever visited on a motorcycle? Tell us the name, the location and what makes it special. Share a photograph if you have one. We might feature your favorite in Part Two.

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