Friday afternoon someone messages the group.
Usually it's a direction, not a plan. "Podgorica?" or "Dubrovnik?" or just "Sunday?" And then people either reply or they don't, and by Sunday morning you have somewhere between six and ten motorcycles lined up and a loose idea of where you're going.
I count bikes, not people. It's just how I think about it.
HARLEY ROCKS Montenegro
We're a small club. Harley-Davidson owners based across Montenegro — Budva, Kotor, Tivat, Herceg Novi, wherever life has landed people. The President is a yacht captain — and his best friend, who rides with us, is also a captain. In summer they're somewhere at sea and we figure out Sundays without them.
It works.
We're not a club that does matching jackets and formation riding. We're a group of people who own Harleys, live in one of the most beautiful countries in Europe, and try to make use of both those facts as often as possible.
Instagram: @mk_harley_rocks — Budva, Montenegro. +382 68 255 550.
When we actually ride
Not July. Not August.
I know that sounds backwards for a Mediterranean country. But peak summer in Montenegro means tourist traffic on the coastal roads, road repairs that leave gravel across lanes, and standing in a queue of rental cars on a heavy cruiser in 35-degree heat. That's not riding — that's suffering.
The good months are May, June, September, October. The roads are clear, the temperatures are right, the restaurants aren't overwhelmed, and the people you want to see are still around before they scatter across Europe for work.
Off-season Montenegro is a different country. Quieter, more itself, completely worth it.
A typical Sunday
The message goes out Friday. By Sunday we meet somewhere — often Volga-Volga in Baošići for coffee before we roll — and then we ride.
A Podgorica day means leaving the coast, climbing through the mountains, lunch in the capital, then back a different way. Usually four to five hours of actual riding, a long lunch in the middle, and home before dark.
A Dubrovnik day means an early start, Croatia for oysters or fish, back through the Bay of Kotor before sunset. That one requires commitment.
Sometimes it's just a loop — up to Lovćen, down through Njeguši, stop for smoked ham and cheese at a roadside place that doesn't have a name on Google Maps but that everyone somehow knows.
The formula is always the same: a road worth riding, food worth stopping for, people worth spending Sunday with.
The roads
Montenegro rewards patience.
The coastal road gets all the attention — Bay of Kotor, Perast, the ferry at Lepetane. It deserves it. But the mountain roads are where riding actually happens. Lovćen. Piva Canyon. The M2 old capital road that nobody uses anymore because there's a faster highway now, which means it's ours.
I have route guides on this site. The Boka Bay one is free. It's a good place to start.
If you're visiting and want to ride
Montenegro is small enough that good roads are never far. Tivat airport is twenty minutes from Kotor, which is the centre of the best coastal riding in the country.
Rent a bike or bring your own. If you bring your own and need service, Alexey at Muscle Moto in Radanovići is the person to call.
If you want to know which road to take, you're already in the right place.
— Natalia, Girl with Harley