MarcFJ60
Adventurer
I just got back from a week out west (Bay Area and Tahoe). I grew up in the Bay Area and still miss the wide open spaces and great weather. Living out East, I also long for rust-free cars (I saw countless Mustangs, Beetles, and other 40+ year old cars).
But I also realized there's yet another reason to miss the Western U.S. - Taste in Motorcycles! Out here, close to 90% of the bikes are cruisers or crotch rockets. I have nothing against either, but they aren't my taste. Most of the other 10% is UJMs and Dual Sports.
I was shocked that I probably saw 50% of the bikes were DS/Adventure bikes with a good measure of standards and sport tourer thrown in. Sure, lots of cruisers and sportbikes, but the ratios were totally different. My number may be skewed a bit since most of the time was spent in the Santa Cruz Mountains/South Bay and Tahoe areas, but I saw countless thumpers, several KTMs, an NX250 and more BMW GS's than I would see in a year here in Virginia. Traveling through the Central Valley to Tahoe I saw more Harleys.
But another shocking thing was that the TOTAL number of bikes was smaller than I expected. The weather was awesome all week - I'd kill to ride in that kind of weather, much less that kind of terrain.
Alas, I remember when I could take the great weather and topography for granted . . .
(on the plus side, I was lucky to be sleeping in a safe area called "Loma Prieta" where we didn't have to worry about earthquakes like they have in the Washington, DC area)
But I also realized there's yet another reason to miss the Western U.S. - Taste in Motorcycles! Out here, close to 90% of the bikes are cruisers or crotch rockets. I have nothing against either, but they aren't my taste. Most of the other 10% is UJMs and Dual Sports.
I was shocked that I probably saw 50% of the bikes were DS/Adventure bikes with a good measure of standards and sport tourer thrown in. Sure, lots of cruisers and sportbikes, but the ratios were totally different. My number may be skewed a bit since most of the time was spent in the Santa Cruz Mountains/South Bay and Tahoe areas, but I saw countless thumpers, several KTMs, an NX250 and more BMW GS's than I would see in a year here in Virginia. Traveling through the Central Valley to Tahoe I saw more Harleys.
But another shocking thing was that the TOTAL number of bikes was smaller than I expected. The weather was awesome all week - I'd kill to ride in that kind of weather, much less that kind of terrain.
Alas, I remember when I could take the great weather and topography for granted . . .
(on the plus side, I was lucky to be sleeping in a safe area called "Loma Prieta" where we didn't have to worry about earthquakes like they have in the Washington, DC area
)
