Steel Pony Express
Our Inspiration
Long before highways cut across the plains and GPS told us where to turn, there were riders who carried America forward on horseback.
Young riders, often barely more than boys, crossed thousands of miles of open frontier through mountains, deserts, and untamed wilderness. They rode in every kind of weather. They faced isolation, uncertainty, and real danger. What drove them wasn't luxury or applause. It was spirit. It was fearlessness. It was the love of the ride into the unknown.
That same spirit lives in the American motorcycle rider today, and it is our inspiration at Steel Pony Express.
When you roll onto a long stretch of open road, throttle steady, horizon wide, you're tapping into something older than chrome and gasoline. You're connecting to the same restless drive that pushed riders across the frontier, trusting their instincts, navigating raw terrain, and chasing distance not because it was easy, but because it was there.
Motorcyclists crave something most people don't in the same way: a sense of freedom. They've learned it isn't found in comfort. It's found in motion and adventure.
The horse became an engine. The trail became a road. But the American rider's spirit never changed.
Des Moines, IA
My Story
Des Moines, IA
My Story
I'm Ross Naylor. I carry a restlessness and a curiosity about life that keeps me searching for brand-new days, days I've never lived before. As I've gotten older, I've found those days are harder to come by. I've learned that finding one takes some freedom and a willingness to look into the unknown, and travel has always been the surest way I know to get there. That search has taken me through 28 states and 23 countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands; Australia; Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand; Mexico and Central America from Guatemala to Panama; and Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Most of it has been solo motorcycle travel, and I've put more than 100,000 miles on my adventures.
My day job is Renomads LLC, the construction company my brother and I started in 2015. I started riding motorcycles in 2014, began planning Steel Pony Express in 2024, and have been building routes ever since.
Motorcycle travel is something different. You're a visceral, transient part of the country you're crossing. You feel the air cool as you drop into a valley. You smell ripe apples riding across Washington. You lean into a 45-degree crosswind and hold it for miles. You ride through a storm on a hot day and the rain feels good. And at every stop, someone wants to know where you've come from and where you're going. I feel alive when I travel by moto.
I love history, too: standing where past generations stood and understanding what they endured to build the country I'm enjoying on my bike. Those places are on every route I plan.
Steel Pony Express is my way of bringing that together for other riders: adventure, history, curvy roads, good food, and the local stops and experiences you'd never find on your own. I want to bring together people who love riding adventures as much as I do. I love building things, including awesome moto routes. I know how to teach, and I know how to fix a bike on the shoulder. I'm friendly and warm, and I have an interesting story I'm happy to share.
I know from experience what these trips do. Riders who have joined me tend to say the shared experience changed their life for the better, gave them a new perspective, and was one of those once-in-a-lifetime trips. My goal is that riders who join a Steel Pony Express tour go home and help others learn how wonderful it is to get outside your comfort zone, see our country or the world, and find out how different it all is from the seat of a motorcycle. I'd be glad to be your guide on your next one.
Ross Naylor, Cambridge, Iowa
Contact
Let's Ride
Questions about a tour, a date, or your bike? Send us a note and we'll get back to you.
Or call (515) 805-7225 or email nayloross@gmail.com. We reply within 36 hours.