COVID = More Motorcyling?

[WingAdmin]

I was talking to Gary at Cyclemax last week, and he says that this year has been an absolute record in terms of sales. They are working almost every day of the week, crazy hours, filling orders and trying their best to keep up.

GoldwingDocs is seeing the same - record amount of activity on the site, and record sales of parts.

Motorcycle dealers are seeing record sales as well.

It would appear that people faced with not being able to go on vacation, visit friends, etc...are instead getting on their bikes and going for a ride.

Is this true for you? Here's a poll for you. Add your comments on your COVID year biking!

[AZgl1800]

we had a lousy wet spring, and I don't ride when it is wet before I leave.

then it just went from brrrr to yikes too hot....

I think I have ridden my bike twice in 2020

[tamathumper]

Being COVID-unemployed, I have not ridden much this year at all. Nor have I bought much in the way of parts. In fact, I'm in the process of selling off much of what I have collected over the years.

[Viking]

I have put about the same amount of miles on the bike that I normally do, however, it is all single day riding in my local area. There has been only one multi day trip. I have, however, ridden all the roads around my home that there are to the point that I can almost ride them with my eyes closed. Lotta wind meditation, but not going anywhere, LOL. Also, all of my riding has been alone.

[blupupher]

I answered riding more, but that is because I got the Goldwing in June.
I still ride the bike to work every day it is not raining, still go for hour long rides here and there with the kids, but now that I have the Goldwing, I can do multi hour rides also and even multi-day rides in other cities.
I put 1200 miles on the bike in 4 days last month, prior to getting the Wing, I was riding about 2,500 miles a year.

On my old 1100 Shadow, after an hour, I was done. My rear was numb, legs aching and just ready to get off the bike.
Now with the Wing, I have ridden 7 hours at a time and was fine.

[OldguyGlen]

Riding about the same. I'm 79 yrs old (vulnerable age group for Covid....) HaHa I laugh at that because I'm healthy and active, not on any medications for anything. Too many people my age live in their lazyboy chairs in front of the TV, taking naps. Also, I live in the deep suburbs.... not much covid around... most people are pretty casual about covid (I give strangers a bit more space, but friends and family operate about normal...) no one getting sick. But bike riding is the ultimate "social distancing" activity anyway.
P.S. "Social Distance" => I size up the social situation first, then decide what "distance" is appropriate. In some cases that distance is zero !
But everyone must make their own decisions... I'm not telling you how to live your life.

[kwthom]

I took the opportunity to have a couple of small surgeries done (during COVID? Sure...recommended to me by my doctor!), recovery is complete, so a week-long adventure to the left coast starts soon!

That's baked-in with a couple of quick family visits on either side. We've done a couple of small, cage-only trips to the northern part of the state - escaping into the cool of 90° highs, rather than 110° highs.

Regionally, with things slowly normalizing, it shouldn't be bad.

[DenverWinger]

Historically 2/3 of my riding has been commuting to work. Since I'm working remote these days that mileage is gone. And no major trips this year, either. Still get out on the weekends for an afternoon ride though.

[mterraci]

I'm riding about the same amount this year. I typically ride by myself, making it easy to find a country road and "socially distance" from others. Would like to ride to work more but it's been pouring down late in the day this summer, making the trip home wet almost every day.

I typically ride single-day trips. Would love to take multi-day trips, but something called work gets in the way (I'm very thankful for my job; I recognize many are unemployed at present and hope all will be back at work soon). Also, I'm not travelling much these days, like so many others. Look forward to the day I can hop on a flight or a cruise ship again (not gonna happen any time soon).

Central Florida provides a lot of nice areas to ride in, along with warm weather most of the year. I rode up A1A on the east coast a few days ago; love to see and smell the ocean as I head up the road. Nice to stop and eat lunch at the beach too. Thankful to be able to do it.

[C-dub]

About the same.

We would have taken a trip to the Grand Canyon and Phoenix that was cancelled. We both work in hospital laboratories and things were slow, then crazy, then slow, now crazy again. Neither lab can schedule more than a couple of weeks in advance. Bean counters! Argh!!!

We have other stuff going on since we became grandparents back in January.

We've done a couple more one day rides trying to stretch our legs to do that GC trip, so we're still getting the miles, but they're different. Hopefully, our trip up the Natchez Trace and back through Arkansas in 6 weeks will happen and not too much will be closed along the way.

[minimac]

I'm riding much more, especially more late afternoon/early evenings. There has been so little traffic on the roads, I find it much more relaxing than usual. I'm able to ride at whatever pace I want, enjoy the scenery much more, and the places I visit aren't crowded. I guess that's one of the few upsides.

[Ironbuck]

Riding way more than last year but I've only had my GL1500 for a little over a year. I ride to and from work everyday unless it is raining too hard. Ordered several things for the bike...the missus says "too much". I am not looking forward to putting her away for the winter.

[johnny42]

Just did one multi day trip. Day 1 - South to Route 6 in PA, then east along Route 6 to Scranton. Day 2 - Route 30 North to Tupper Lake in the Daks. Day 3 - touring the Daks ending up in Watertown. Day 4 - Home. I rode about 1000 miles. First time in the Daks on a motorbike!

Other than that, just running errands and a some fun rides on my 2 bikes.

[dtrider]

I marked riding less, but that is because I've been working from home since early March so almost all of my commute miles are gone. My wife and I did do a 3K trip through Colorado in late June / early July, and another trip to the Oregon coast last month, so at least we have still been able to get our multi-day trips in.

We're also down on our day trips for the year. But that one is because of all the smoke from the fires in the coastal states blowing into our area. Can't really enjoy riding for distance when we can't see the scenery.
/dwight

[GoldWingRev]

This one is tough, but you had the right selection for
Me. I’m riding more than other years because I moved and now my motorcycle is my daily and my only vehicle....but no long trips, which is where I would get most of my mileage. So Covid-19 hasn’t changed my riding habits whatsoever, but 2020 has.

[Soupcat 1920]

Unfortunately I haven’t ridden an in and it’s not because of covid. I have been struck down with an autoimmune disease that has left hospitalized twice , six and a half weeks at Mayo , currently occupying a room in my home town,and in a wheelchair since March. Hard to ride if you have almost no leg strength and can’t pull in the clutch.
It is treatable but nerves heal very slowly, about a mm a day, and then everyone is different so nobody knows how much I will recover. It could be 100% or anything less. Time and lots of hard work at PT and OT will tell. I’m told to expect one to two years for a recovery period. Nerves heal slowly.

[Hondadoc]

Haven't worked since middle of March. I haven't ridden as much as I could have but more then I have in the past. Problem was there was no where to go and no bathroom stops for the wife. Being off of work it did give me time to but together a bike I've been sitting on since 2014 so I spent more money on bikes this year then in the past. I have had very few calls about service (turning down all work due to Covid-19 and isolation orders) and heard that bike prices are way down. Guess I could just kind of skip this year!

Deano

[minimac]

......................Ordered several things for the bike...the missus says "too much". I am not looking forward to putting her away for the winter.

The wife or the bike?

[tbeiler]

Usually put 3500 kms per season, this year already over 10000kms. Wa, way more, and loving it.

[Sharon2665]

We love to take off and go for longer trips on our bikes and that has not been possible this year with some states being closed down and hot spots all over the place. So for safety have just stayed home.
So far as driving locally for some reason we haven’t done that either as much. Around our area it seems that since COVID everyone drives like they are the only ones on the road and no laws or rules exist anymore. Makes it seem more dangerous for us bikers. We have had a lot more motorcycle deaths in this area this summer and it is probably for that reason.

[jimm4]

try to ride every week and daylong rides just no trips, staying close to home .

[rachester67]

Would probably say less. Still driving to and from work but that is about it. Took one weekend trip but wife insisted we go in the cage due to the heat. Kinda of glad we did as all restaurants in the area were drive thru only and that is tough on a bike.

[marsman]

Just posted to the survey (riding less than other years). I haven't felt like risking motels, don't do the primitive camping thing, so short rides are all we've done. Now we have so much smoke, it's not healthy to be outside. In addition, a lot of the places that would otherwise be good destinations are now on fire. The only regular thing I do is run my '86 Yamaha Fazer at the bracket drags on Wednesday nights. Maybe this winter, when you Easterners are waiting out winter, you can think about us in California losing most of the riding season. If we're lucky, we'll lose the winter, too, because it'll rain so much we'll finally be out of the drought.

[AZgl1800]

I'm in Northeastern Oklahoma,
the evening skies are red now with the smoke from the west coast.

[imsbreezy]

Covid really didn't affect our riding this year. We rode a little less due to weather. I try not to ride when its over 90 out there and we had a lot of that with humidity besides.