This is Giza and the great Old Kingdom necropolis, the first place on any list of Egypt, and a hard one to write about without sounding like a postcard. Memphis was the capital of the early pharaohs, on the Nile just south of modern Cairo, and the pyramid fields stretch along the desert edge from Giza down through Saqqara and Dahshur. The Great Pyramid was built for Khufu around 2560 BC and was the tallest man-made structure on earth for several thousand years. The sheer age is the thing that gets you: when the Greeks and Romans visited as tourists, these were already ancient.
The landscape is a limestone plateau on the western bank, with the green strip of the Nile valley to the east and the open Sahara beyond. Light is best at dawn, when the plateau is cool and the pyramids glow, or at sunset, when the haze softens them. In summer the heat is fierce by mid-morning, and shade is scarce, so carry plenty of water and a hat.
Riding here is a different game. Cairo's traffic is dense and fast, with little respect for lanes, and the road to the plateau is lined with touts, horses and camel drivers who will approach you the moment you stop. A firm, friendly no works. Check with the ticket office about where bikes may be parked, and keep valuables locked. If you are bringing your own bike to Egypt, customs paperwork and a carnet need careful planning well in advance.
Fuel is easy in the Cairo area, which has several million people, and the city around the pyramids offers plenty of cafes. The older Islamic necropoles of Cairo, like the ones named for Imam al-Shafi'i and Sayyida Nafisa, form a vast City of the Dead where people really live among the tombs, and they make a fascinating and very different contrast to the pyramids.