A friend from Europe once commented several years back when driving through Los Angeles that he was surprised how few motorcycles he saw on the road. With such a huge population and relatively mild year-round weather, he was expecting to see a much larger concentration of bikes similar to what you'd find in many European cities. I offered a few lame excuses, but the real reason was simply that motorcycles are considered more as a toy than a legitimate form of transportation in America.
With gas prices soaring well above the $4.00/gallon mark in many parts of the country, it seems that perception might be changing somewhat. It's been pretty easy to notice the increased number of motorcycles on the road, which is undoubtedly the result of more people looking to decrease their overall fuel expenses by avoiding car usage in any way possible. Unfortunately, many of these people don't realize the precarious situation they're putting themselves in.
While I love the fact that more people are getting out and riding, that feeling is becoming tempered by the increasing number of bikes I've observed that obviously were hastily pulled out of deep storage in some garage. Some of the people riding them looked like they might have been hibernating for several decades as well, with old and ill-fitting riding gear making them look like a rolling 1970s garage sale.
A perfect example was the 80s-era Honda Nighthawk 750 that I pulled up behind on the way to work the other day. The bike had a layer of dust and dirt so thick that you could barely see what color it was, and many of the aluminum parts displayed the telltale corrosion of being exposed to the elements for a long period of time. The tires looked as if they were still the original OEM-spec items, with the rear tire's sidewall showing age cracks along its perimeter. What was really alarming, however, was that the rear tire was obviously underinflated, a potentially dangerous situation that I thought warranted notifying the rider of.
Of course, the rider was suitably dressed for the occasion, with an original 80s-model Bell Moto off-road helmet with scratched paint and no visor, tank-top T-shirt, and loafers with no socks. He was wearing hand protection, though: a pair of crusty off-road gloves of similar 80s-vintage era to his helmet.
When I rolled up next to him and told him that his rear tire was low on air pressure, he initially expressed thanks; but after eyeing the sportbike I was riding and my riding gear, he quickly developed an air of haughtiness that promptly ended any further dialogue. Whatever the reasons were for his display of conceit, it was pretty obvious that any more offers of advice/help would fall on deaf ears, so I left him alone. Taking off from the stoplight, he dragged his feet for almost a whole block before pulling them up onto the pegs; I was tempted to warn him about drastically shortened life for his loafers, but thought the better of it.
While the Nighthawk rider could easily be considered an extreme example, there are surely thousands of similar situations occurring throughout the country. The increase in bikes and riders being "dusted off" and returned to service has me cringing at the thought of a similar jump in accident statistics due to the lack of preparedness on the part of both bike and rider. I can only hope that at least some of these riders finally understand the requirements necessary to survive in the unforgiving and hazardous environment of public pavement before it's too late.
The increase in gasoline prices has also led to a wholesale consumer run on small displacement motorcycles in nearly every manufacturer's lineup. Bikes like Kawasaki's Ninja 250R and 650R, and Suzuki's SV650, GSX650F, and even the V-Strom 650 have been cleaned out of warehouses and are completely back-ordered, with a waiting list at many dealerships for any small-displacement machine. It's even affected the availability of test units, with many bikes of that ilk simply non-existent in manufacturer press test fleets at this point in time.
I'm more optimistic of a new-bike purchaser being steered toward proper training and safety gear than the burgeoning army of recalled-from-mothballs riders, so there's less of a concern there. But regardless of which group they belong to, let's hope that all parties derive enough enjoyment from their motorcycling experience to stay involved in the sport for the long term.