Sport Touring Corner

By Norm Kern

In June, I attended the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association (MSTA) TWISTAR rally in Spring Green Wisconsin, which was revived in 2025 after a ten year hiatus. I was excited to return, as western Wisconsin’s Driftless

area has wonderful roads throughout a lush, rolling countryside where the roads’ gentle hills and endless sweeper curves take you past the many farms in the area.

Rally headquarters was the Round Barn Hotel in Spring Green. Event coordinator Rob Milton was very excited as this was his first time as an event coordinator and he wanted to keep the event simple. He was expecting about thirty attendees and was quite surprised when nearly fifty of us showed up.

TWISTAR has traditionally been a weekend rally where attendees arrive Friday afternoon, ride a route on Saturday and go home Sunday, so Rob offered two route choices that both had their lunch stop at the Great River Roadhouse, located along the Mississippi river on State route 35 near De Soto, WI. Rob named one of the routes “Sane” which was just over 200 miles of sweeper curves. The other route was the “Insanity” version- 300 miles of twisties- 150 in the morning and another 150 in the afternoon. 

I was interested in the Insanity version in the morning and an easier ride after lunch. Since my Ohio friends Tim Mullins and Bill Rusk and I arrived on Thursday and wanted to ride both Friday and Saturday, I created a couple of route variants to run in reverse- part two of the Insane route and part one of the Sane route. We ran the reverse versions on Friday and rode Insanity part one and Sane part two on Saturday, which worked out perfectly! Food at the Roadhouse was excellent both days. 

Friday’s ride started at 9am with a larger group- nine riders total- than I am normally comfortable with. Rob Milton wasn’t going to arrive to start check-in till afternoon. Since there was no one else to lead we just made the larger group work. The open roads, sweeper curves, almost complete lack of other traffic and towns encouraged a faster pace but made it easy to stay together in spite of being a large group. 

TWISTAR was originally held in mid-May when the weather could be cold and rainy. I started attending in 2004, and went almost every year until the original run of the event ended in 2015. There were many familiar roads and intersections on the route that brought back fond memories. I remember one year when the temperature was 35 degrees in the morning and only got to 43 with occasional drizzle. I remember walking into the banquet that evening and thinking, “This is the most heated clothing I have ever seen at one time!” Mid June is a better date for TWISTAR- weather stayed partly sunny in the 60s & 70s both days and was perfect for our rides.

We got back to the hotel around 3:30pm, checked in with Rob and hung out for a while, greeting new arrivals and catching up with many old friends I remembered from previous events. Friday evening we went to dinner at the Shed, in downtown Spring Green- good food and drink and even live music in a large patio area behind the restaurant.

Our group’s Saturday ride also started at 9am, this time with only six riders and we were well-matched, running a spirited but safe space- fast in the twisties, but relaxed on the straights. Faster riders stay near the front of the group. Slower riders in the rear fall behind in the twisties but since we don’t run too fast on the straights, it is easy for them to catch up and we all stay together. 

On Saturday there were multiple other groups from the rally on the route. Likewise the Roadhouse was much more crowded and lunch took a long time. We made it back to the hotel about 4pm, hung out for a while then went to dinner at the Reunion restaurant in Spring Green, which is located in an old bank building downtown. They have a small dining room in the original bank vault, as well as several nice dining rooms. Since it was crowded, we had to sit on the patio, but the weather was nice and the food was delicious.

Sunday morning we got up to light rain, but drove out of it in about 15 minutes as we headed East in Tim Mullins’ truck. Yes, we trailered, but only because there are no fun roads to speak of between Dayton, Ohio and Spring Green. Was it worth the 540 mile trip to get there? Yes, and we look forward to going back next year!

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Connect with local Ohio Motorcycle Sport Touring Association riders at these monthly breakfasts:

Southwest Ohio Breakfast, 9AM, July 21

Village Family Restaurant
144 S. Main St.
Waynesville, OH 45068

Central Ohio Breakfast, 8AM, August 6

Portside Cafe
6515 S High St
Lockbourne, OH 43137