Just finished a whirl-wind trip to CA to visit some Distributors, and I'm exhausted. It's not the amount of miles we went, but the "type" of miles.
I have no idea how people live and work in LA. The roads are a mess, the traffic is enough to push the Pope into committing a road-rage crime, and then there are the drivers that "think" they can multi-task. At one point it took us 40 minutes to travel 5 miles. On top of that, CA allows motorcycles to split lanes... Every bike we saw did it. Talk about taking your life into your own hands.... While CA is a helmet law State, no helmet is going to help if you go down in heavy traffic. I say I wouldn't do it, but I'm sure with time my attitude would change. Maybe...
I wonder how many crashes take place because of splitting lanes? I was amazed how close side mirrors came to these guys. I can say with confidence that hitting a few must be common place. Then you have the riders that aren't happy with just splitting lanes, but they also add a few quick lane changes. Zipping between vehicles, then all of a sudden yanking it across three lanes of traffic, only to split more lanes. I was scared just watching the show. While I was at the distributors I asked how many people crash doing this stuff. They all had stories, and all said it was pretty common.
With this being said, you would think gear would be worn by everyone, right? WRONG. Of course everyone had on a helmet (helmet law State), but I was amazed how many riders didn't have on jackets, pants, or even gloves. I see riders here in AZ without gear, but we can't split traffic. Add that, and I was amazed riders still felt comfortable wearing shorts and tee-shirts... I would think the armour in a jacket would come in handy taking out all those side mirrors..lol.
Anyway, I have a new appreciation for our freeways downtown....
