No catchy title on some random post-ride musings from the road.
Geezer Glide Confidence
Is it confidence or a lack of self-awareness that enables a boomer on a Street Glide, sporting no riding gear but a t-shirt from their local Harley dealership, cargo shorts, and white sneakers to blast Bro Country while trundling around a gas station parking lot?
Both?
Pick Up the Pace (or Get Out of the Way)
If you’re driving a car down a winding country road and there’s a motorcyclist behind you, please either speed up or move toward the shoulder a bit to let us around you.
Continuing to drive 10mph under the posted speed limit is not a viable alternative option.
Brand Loyalty
I really dig Roland Sands Design gear. It’s probably about as close to perfect as riding gear can get. Sometimes I contemplate a seasonal refresh, and there’s certainly some cool stuff out there from other brands, but my RSD stuff just gets the job done so well, that those moments of contemplation are brief and fleeting.
Apple Music > Spotify
Especially for using with a Bluetooth headset. I dumped Spotify Premium in favor of Apple Music when Spotify raised their prices, and couldn’t be happier. Apple Music has significantly better audio quality, handles cellular streaming in rural areas better, has better randomization and suggestion algorithms, and the output volume level is much higher, and leveled out across songs better. Sometimes with Spotify, even with my Cardo headset volume turned up all the way, music would be faint or drowned out by wind & road noise. This hasn’t been the case with Apple Music, and most of the time, I have to turn the headset volume down a few clicks or it’s too loud.
Bike Diversity
I’ve been at this motorcycle riding thing for over a decade, and am seeing the most diverse array of motorcycles on the road these days. The road used to be dominated by Harleys, particularly full dressers, but that’s is definitely shifting. Today I saw a group of riders on Indian motorcycles (a Chief, Springfield, and FTR), a Kawasaki Versys, a couple other ADV bikes that I couldn’t quite make out as I went past the gas station (probably BMWs, though), and only one Harley (looked like an old Dyna).
That said, I’m seeing fewer overall bikes on the road lately. Maybe riders are just fried from this insanely hot and long summer we’ve had here in Texas, and aren’t getting out even when the weather is decent’ish (it was in the upper 70’s-low 80’s this morning), or maybe there legitimately are fewer riders out there. Another thing I’m seeing less and less of is vintage bikes, café racers, choppers, and the like. Maybe the scene is getting a bit played out?
That’s all for today. I’ll be making these post-ride musings micro-posts a regular thing. Let me know what you think, and send your feedback and thoughts on any of these random thoughts below.
