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[2k]

I don't care how you get there. Why anyone thinks "Hey, I paint mine red....you are a dumb, lazy, rich, stupid, etc azz if you don't paint yours red". I ride when I want to and trailer when I don't.......and don't have to make excuses for either.

[FLSTFI Dave]

I will say this....I've never known a truck and trailer to "get there quicker" than I on a bike, if time is an issue.  I was 64 yrs. old when I rode from Matthews, NC to Coronado, Ca. in two and a half days.     Having said that, I know that not everybody (including a lot of those a lot younger) can ride 1,100 miles a day, two days in a row.  Not judging.....jusayinzall.   

I fully agree.  The club I ride with did the Redwoods and then the 101 up to Cape Flattery last summer.  Two of us rode from TN and met up with everyone where they left their trucks and trailers in Salt Lake City.  We left for SLC a day after they did and got there four hours after they did.  We beat them home too.  6880 miles in 16 days.

[4fun]

I don't care how you get there. Why anyone thinks "Hey, I paint mine red....you are a dumb, lazy, rich, stupid, etc azz if you don't paint yours red". I ride when I want to and trailer when I don't.......and don't have to make excuses for either.

That's the right attitude,  same thing I think when people question me about wearing a full face helmet

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[FLSTFI Dave]

I am not saying trailering is wrong. Some people have no choice, snow, or Arthritis or such.

What I can not fathom in new Ultra Classics on a trailer for 100 miles or 200 miles to Daytona.  Those are lunch ride distances.  Those are bikes made to eat up the miles. 

I have also found many times I can make just as good time on back roads as interstate.  My trip to MI to visit my dad is 580 miles and the only interstate I run is Lexington to Cincinnati, the rest of the trip is US 27.  Its actually on a bike quicker than all interstate.

My observations is over the past 15 years the bikes have got better and more comfortable.  More touring bikes than ever, however its less and less bikes ridden to bike events every year.

[charles05663]

My observations is over the past 15 years the bikes have got better and more comfortable.  More touring bikes than ever, however its less and less bikes ridden to bike events every year.

Could it be due to the age of the riders?  If you look at the average age of the Harley rider it is pegging past double-nickles so that the aches and pains mentioned in previous posts are coming into play.

Did you only count the Harley riders or the rice burners too?  How about the NAH's (Not-A-Harley) big touring bikes like Victory, Indians, or Polaris?

It is called bike week so all bikes should count.

 

[HighOnHD]

Rode down to bike we on Wednesday March 9th, a beautiful day.  We went down I-75 from east TN.  In the 628 miles I saw 11 motorcycles on the road headed south.  I did not count after Saint Augustine.  Yet I saw 54 trailers I know for sure were hauling bikes.

Riding home Sunday the 13th, we left at 0600.  We saw several bikes headed north on the way to Jacksonville, but it was still three trailers per every bike.  Did have a MC of 12 bikes pass us like we were parked, and we were running 80mph.

On on I-75 north we saw exactly one bike riding north and over 80 trailers hauling bikes.

Seems every year there are more and more Baggers at Dayton, while at the same time every year there are less and less actually riding to and from Daytona.  So now that we have more comfortable bikes built for touring they trailer them.  Makes no sense.

Yes I understand people North of KY or VA may need to trailer due to weather.  But 28 trailers on Sunday had GA tags, which is less than a 550 mile ride at the farthest point.  6 Trailers with FL takes, two of which were Duval County, a 95 mile ride.

Hi Dave, don't get me wrong because like most are saying "to each their own", but I don't get it. How can you possibly be enjoying "the ride" while scanning every single trailer and counting every one of them while also counting how many are from each state and county, while also complaining about your GPS sending you in the wrong direction all the time? Just saying.

[kiro]

One distinct advantage of trailering at any age is it allows you to bring things along for activities that you couldn’t when riding distance. And time away from work/home is always an issue, besides the expense. Many wives/significant others will put up with our riding habit, but not necessarily embrace being a part of it. One year in Sturgis we trailered three bikes and drove in shifts, about 45-hours road time with stops only for food/gas, so we could spend more time in the Black Hills once we arrived. It still took two weeks of difficult to come by vacation time round trip, which was about the longest I could be away from my office at one time then. On another Sturgis trip I spent a few days in the Badlands with a telescope system under dark sky, which was well worth the effort – certainly couldn’t do that on two wheels. I like riding distance, just getting on the road and going, but my BSR is no fan of hours riding the interstate system, so I go it alone these days if riding out. I’d rather not trailer but sometimes that’s the only way to make it work if the destination is several thousand miles distant.

[Dan_Lockwood]

There was a time when I would ride several hundreds of miles one way just to ride and spend the night out, but those days are pretty much gone.

I've been to Sturgis three times and all three have been with a trailered bike.  There is no way that I could get my wife's half dozen pairs of shoes, 40 tops etc.  Now she cannot ride for more than a couple hours without having some major leg and hip pain, so trailering for something like Sturgis is the only way we go.

We will be riding down to the National Meet In The Middle in Eureka next June, so we'll see how well that works out.

I was into streetrods for the past 30 years and there were always the trailer queens, but I can see it the way some of these streetrods have been built and painted.  I would not want to damage anything.  They are actually show cars that run when they get to shows.  On the other hand when I built my Willys coupe, I built it to drive and if it showed well, then icing on the cake...  I put 16k miles on my Willys in just two cruising seasons in MI.  Short summers etc.

Now I just like to go out on the bike for  lazy day of slow touring and cruising back roads etc while listening to my tunes.

As long as we're riding, I don't care how one gets to the destination.  I average between 1200k and 1500k miles each year once I get to Sturgis.  And on the old '76 FL, that's a lot of butt bouncing miles.

[Ironhorse]

Here in California we have to cross the Mojave desert just to get out. I'm not too sure I'd force my wife to bake on the back of my bike as we cross the desert in 118 degree heat. She can and has ridden in rain with a rain suit, and cold with heated gear, but desert heat is much too abusive. In this regard a trailer might be a good option for her. And if momma ain't happy, nobody is happy.

[kiro]

And if momma ain't happy, nobody is happy.

You sure got that right Ironhorse... 

[mark]

It doesn't concern me how others, that I don't even know, arrive at a bike rally.  Why do you seem to see more trailers: the main customer base of HD is the Baby Boomer Generation and those riders are aging away, have health concerns, can't ride long distances, etc. 

[CVODON]

I could care less what anyone else thinks. I have ridden to destinations and trailered to the same one at one time or another. Been to Sturgis twice in the last 6 years, i am not going to bike 4200 miles round trip in 100 degree heat at my age. I have a top-of-the-line trailer that I am very proud of and a SUV with 400hp to pull it so I use it when I want and don't when I want to ride. But once again, I have no value of anyone else's opinion on this matter.

[Road Dad]

Love the comments that people don't care about other people's opinions but the have to state thier opinion, why is that?

Interesting to me is the people that dress / behaive / talk / walk like a biker but don't ride more than a few thousand miles in a year. 

There are bikers and there are "people traveling with their bikes" and they are not to be confused.

[JCZ]

It was a few years ago now.....at one of the GTGs I walked up on a conversation where I heard a guy say "it's like these people that post that they rode 800 or 1000 miles in a day.  You know that's a bunch of BS.....nobody rides that far in a day".  I've done it more times than I can count and a number of times in the past 12-13 yrs with other members of this forum.  When I heard that conversation I just thought to myself "oh yee of little experience".....but I didn't say anything.

Hell, many times Andy and I have rolled out at 5 am and burned through a tank of gas before we even stop for breakfast.

I don't have to prove my riding experiences to another......just let them keep up, if they can.

Having said that....I've talked with a couple of these same members that I ride with often about the possability of trailering across the Mojave desert (the triple digit temps for 10-12 hours) next year for the MITM.  It's probably the only way I'll be able to make it cuz I'm no longer willing to get heat sick just because I want to go somewhere.  I'll still ride in the rain (when I have to), the cold (down around freezing....or even below, down in the teens), etc. but not the blistering heat.

[Ironhorse]

I've talked with a couple of these same members that I ride with often about the possability of trailering across the Mojave desert (the triple digit temps for 10-12 hours) next year for the MITM.  It's probably the only way I'll be able to make it cuz I'm no longer willing to get heat sick just because I want to go somewhere.  I'll still ride in the rain (when I have to), the cold (down around freezing....or even below, down in the teens), etc. but not the blistering heat.

Agreed. Like I said earlier, rain and cold I can take if properly dressed, but that Mojave desert gets harder on me every year. Last year John, Greg, Alan and I Came through Las Vegas with those Aqua Hydo vests. They made it bearable at 106 degrees. Not too sure if they would help in that damn Mojave. For me it's just not worth getting heat sick and passing out. I tried running at night or early in the morning and all I have to say is 118 degrees is 118 degrees, day or night. Only difference is that you don't have the sun beating down on you.